Stele of the Numinous Temple of Songgao中岳嵩高灵庙碑
- Type
- Steles and Inscriptions
- Location
- China · Henan · Dengfeng, Zhengzhou · Within the Zhongyue Temple, on the eastern foot of Mount Taishi, Mount Song; the stele pavilion east of the Junji Gate
- Coordinates
- 34.4605, 113.0677 Map ↗
- School
- Northern Celestial Masters
- First built
- One account: 2nd year of the Tai'an era, Northern Wei (456); another: the Taiyan era (435–440) · Traditionally attributed to Kou Qianzhi as composer, or as both composer and calligrapher; this is much disputed among scholars, and the stele itself bears no calligrapher's name. Sun Xingyan and Kang Youwei hold that Kou wrote the calligraphy, while Ouyang Fu and Shao Mingsheng dispute this.
- Heritage status
- Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level, 5th group (2001, Zhongyue Temple)UNESCO World Heritage Site "Historic Monuments of Dengfeng in 'The Centre of Heaven and Earth'" (2010)
Overview
The Stele of the Numinous Temple of Songgao at the Central Marchmount, abbreviated as the "Songgao Lingmiao Stele" or the "Stele of Lord Kou," was erected in the Northern Wei and records the petition of Kou Qianzhi, under Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei, to rebuild the new temple of the Central Marchmount; it is direct material evidence for Daoism's establishment as a state religion under the Northern Wei, and is often called "the ancestor of Chinese Daoist steles." There are two accounts of its date of erection: the mainstream account gives the second year of the Tai'an era (456, the dating adopted in the catalogue of the Palace Museum's rubbing), while another gives the Taiyan era (435–440); both should be noted. The composer and calligrapher are also disputed: Sun Xingyan's Catalogue of Steles Visited within the Realm (Huanyu Fangbei Lu) states that Kou Qianzhi both composed and wrote the text; Kang Youwei directly attributes the calligraphy to Kou without citing a source; Ouyang Fu's Jigu Qiuzhen and Shao Mingsheng both dispute this, and since the stele itself bears no calligrapher's name, the attribution should be phrased as "traditionally attributed" or "according to one account." The stele stands about 2.82 meters tall, 0.99 meters wide, and 0.33 meters thick; the front face has twenty-three columns of fifty characters each, the back has seven columns, and the title panel bears eight characters in raised seal script. The calligraphic style combines clerical and regular script, a typical specimen of the transition between the two, and it holds a very high place in the history of calligraphy. The oldest surviving rubbing is a heavily inked Ming-dynasty rubbing (formerly in the collection of Chen Shutong), now held by the Palace Museum. It was listed, together with the Zhongyue Temple, as a fifth-batch Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (2001), and in 2010 was included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Historic Monuments of Dengfeng in 'The Center of Heaven and Earth.'"
Highlights
- "The ancestor of Chinese Daoist steles"
- Material evidence for Daoism's establishment as a state religion under the Northern Wei
- A specimen of the transitional style between clerical and regular script
- The heavily inked Ming-dynasty rubbing is held by the Palace Museum