Daodejing Stele-Pillar, Longxing Guan, Yixian易县龙兴观道德经幢
- Type
- Steles and Inscriptions
- Location
- China · Hebei · Yixian, Baoding · Youyi Road, county seat; former site of the Longxing Temple
- Coordinates
- 39.3424, 115.4916 Map ↗
- First built
- The tenth month of the twenty-sixth year of the Kaiyuan era of Tang (738) · The text follows Emperor Xuanzong's imperial commentary of the twenty-first year of Kaiyuan (733); the pillar was erected by Tian Renwan, prefect of Yizhou; the calligraphy is traditionally attributed to Su Lingzhi, though unconfirmed.
- Heritage status
- Fourth Batch of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level (1996)Hebei Provincial Cultural Heritage Protection Site (1956)
Overview
The Daodejing Stele-Pillar at the Longxing Temple in Yixian is the most complete and largest surviving Tang-dynasty Daodejing stele-pillar in China. The inscription on the pillar's title panel reads "Daodejing of the Supreme Mysterious-Prime Emperor, Annotated by the Divine and Martial Emperor of the Great Tang Kaiyuan Era," recording the imperially annotated Daodejing of Emperor Xuanzong (Li Longji) of Tang; it was erected in the tenth month of the twenty-sixth year of the Kaiyuan era (738) by Tian Renwan, prefect of Yizhou; the calligraphy is traditionally attributed to Su Lingzhi, though this is not conclusively confirmed. Its erection stemmed directly from Emperor Xuanzong's edict of the twenty-first year of Kaiyuan (733), which ordered every prefecture's major Daoist temple to erect a stone-inscribed Daodejing; it is thus a material relic of the Tang state policy of favoring Daoism, belonging to the same series as the Daodejing stele-pillar at Xingtai. The pillar is octagonal, about six meters in total height; the shaft itself is 4.29 meters tall and 0.9 meters in diameter; the capital is of blue-grey stone, the rest of white marble, with roughly five thousand characters carved on it. It was blown down by wind and rain during the Tongzhi reign of the Qing, and when re-erected the shaft was installed facing the wrong direction; this was corrected during reinforcement work in 2001, when the original Sumeru pedestal was also discovered; during the Cultural Revolution the shaft was damaged by gunfire. It was listed as a first-batch Hebei provincial cultural relic protection unit in 1956, and as a fourth-batch Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level on November 20, 1996 (no. 4-194).
Highlights
- The most complete and largest surviving Tang-dynasty Daodejing stele-pillar
- About five thousand characters carved from Emperor Xuanzong's imperial commentary
- Octagonal white-marble shaft, about 6 meters in total height
- In 2001 the shaft's orientation was corrected and the original Sumeru pedestal was discovered