Stele Cluster of Shuojingtai, Louguantai楼观台说经台古碑群
- Type
- Steles and Inscriptions
- Location
- China · Shaanxi · Zhouzhi, Xi'an · Northern foot of the Zhongnan Mountains, about 15 km southeast of the county seat; the Shuojingtai stands at an elevation of 580 meters, and the scenic area covers about 5 square kilometers
- Coordinates
- 34.0463, 108.2647 Map ↗
- School
- Louguan School
- First built
- Accumulated over successive dynasties, mainly Tang-dynasty steles · Seventy-eight ancient steles survive today; the most representative include the Stele Record of the Zongsheng Guan, Louguantai (626) and the Stele of Lord Lao's Manifestation of the Tang (741).
- Heritage status
- Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Heritage Site (1956)National Key Daoist Temple (1983)
Overview
Louguantai, also known as the Zongsheng Guan or "Ancient Louguan," is traditionally said to be the place where Yin Xi wove grass into a tower to observe the stars and where Laozi composed the Daodejing and expounded its teachings; it is the ancestral seat of the Daoist Louguan lineage, and has accumulated a rich body of stele inscriptions over the centuries — seventy-eight ancient steles survive today, forming a stele cluster important for the study of Louguan Daoism and Tang-dynasty policies favoring Daoism. Its most representative pieces include: the Stele Record of the Zongsheng Guan, Louguantai, composed and written in clerical script by Ouyang Xun in the ninth year of the Wude era of Tang (626), 365 centimeters tall and 112 centimeters wide, the surviving stone being a Yuan-dynasty recarving; the Stele of Lord Lao's Manifestation of the Tang, carved in the twenty-ninth year of the Kaiyuan era of Tang (741), with a round top and dragon-shaped base, 290 centimeters tall and 98 centimeters wide, in running script, its title panel a later re-tracing of the characters "Stele of Lord Lao's Manifestation of the Tang" as written by Su Lingzhi, originally erected at the Huiling Hall of the lower courtyard of the Shuojingtai and relocated in 1825 to the Stele Hall west of the Shuojingtai; and also the Kaiyuan Stone Classic stele of the Tang official recension of the Daodejing, among others. Louguantai was listed as a Shaanxi provincial cultural relic protection unit on August 6, 1956, and was designated by the State Council in 1983 as a National Key Daoist Temple. See the entry "Louguantai" for the parent temple.
Highlights
- Seventy-eight ancient steles survive today
- The Stele of Lord Lao's Manifestation of the Tang (741), its title panel a re-tracing of Su Lingzhi's calligraphy
- The Kaiyuan Stone Classic stele of the Tang official recension of the Daodejing
- The stele cluster of the ancestral seat of Louguan Daoism