Xi'an Beilin Museum西安碑林博物馆（道教碑刻收藏）
- Type
- Museums
- Location
- China · Shaanxi · Beilin District, Xi'an · No. 15 Sanxue Street; more than 11,000 items in its collection, including nearly 3,000 steles and epitaphs
- Coordinates
- 34.255, 108.9483 Map ↗
- First built
- 1944 (predecessor: Shaanxi Provincial History Museum) · Its collection of steles can be traced back to the Northern Song; it reopened after renovation and expansion on 12 May 2025.
Overview
The Xi'an Beilin Museum has its origins in the Shaanxi Provincial History Museum, established in 1944; its collection of steles can be traced back to the Northern Song, and today holds more than 11,000 items, including nearly 3,000 steles and epitaphs, making it China's most important institution for the collection of stone inscriptions. As for Daoist artifacts, the museum's confirmed representative piece is the Tang-dynasty stone seated statue of Laojun (originally from the Laojun Temple on Mount Li at Lintong, 193 centimeters tall, carved during the Kaiyuan–Tianbao era), alongside other Daoism-related steles, epitaphs and images from successive dynasties. When drawing on the Beilin's materials, one must guard against several common confusions: the Stele of the Classic of Filial Piety on a Stone Platform (fourth year of the Tianbao era, 745; its preface and annotations composed and inscribed by Emperor Xuanzong, its title in seal script by Li Heng — the stele stands 6.2 meters tall, 1.32 meters wide on each of its four sides) is a Confucian stele of the Classic of Filial Piety; the Stele on the Propagation of the Luminous Religion in China (Nestorian Stele) belongs to the Church of the East (Nestorian Christianity); and the Stele Record of the Zongsheng Guan is located at Louguantai in Zhouzhi, not at the Beilin — all three are commonly and mistakenly classified as Daoist steles. It is not clearly recorded whether the Beilin additionally holds a stele-pillar bearing Emperor Xuanzong of Tang's commentary on the Daodejing. It reopened after renovation and expansion on 12 May 2025.
Highlights
- Nearly 3,000 steles and epitaphs
- Tang-dynasty stone seated statue of Laojun
- Its collection of steles can be traced back to the Northern Song
- Reopened after renovation and expansion in 2025