Okay, here is the translation following your instructions: Instructions for Practicing the Shi Chen Stele

Author: Lei Zhixiong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: Guidance on Practicing Famous Calligraphic Works of Chinese Dynasties · Seal Script Stele in Qufu Confucius Temple's Tongwen Gate East, 183 cm high, 80 cm wide, without a title. The base of the stele is embedded with a platform, and the last character of the text is cut off, making it difficult to read in old rubbings. In the Qianlong year of Yiyou (1765), He Menghua cleaned the platform where the characters were cut off, revealing the full text. The stele is inscribed on both sides. The stele face facing east is the front stele, and the back face facing west is the back stele. The front stele inscribes "In Memory of Confucius by the Lu Prefect Shi Chen," with a total of 17 lines, each with 36 characters. The back stele inscribes "Shi Chen's Banquet at the Confucius Temple," with a total of 14 lines, each with 36 characters, followed by four lines of regular script inscriptions from the second year of the Dazhou era (689) of the Tang Dynasty. Because the text on the back stele records a year earlier than the front stele, it is often misunderstood. From the front stele's text, "On the first day of the third month of the Jianning second year (169), the third day of the sixth month, Lu Prefect Shi Chen, Chief Secretary Chen Qian, kowtow and confess to death, submit to the," and the back stele's text, "Lu Prefect Shi Chen, styled Bo Shi, was appointed from the Yue cavalry captain and arrived at the post on the eleventh day of the fourth month of the Jianning first year (168), the second day of the sixth month," it can be seen that the Jianning second year on the front stele is the date of the memorial, while the Jianning first year on the back stele is the date of Shi Chen's arrival. Old rubbings of the front stele include a 36-character preserved by He Zizhen, which later belonged to the History Museum, and another preserved by Chen Shutong, now belonging to the Palace Museum. Old rubbings of the back stele are best represented by the copy preserved by Zhang Boying and the preserved by Luo Zhenyu.