Collection of ancient poems. Stele of Shi Chen

Author: Xu Qinghua (Editor)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-06-01
Features: Beginners in calligraphy must start by copying ancient steles and tablets, striving for strokes, structures, and styles to resemble the originals. Once copying is mastered, the desire to create one's own works often leads to failure. The transition from copying to creation is not easy to cross; some may spend their entire lives failing to do so or may go astray in the process. Selecting characters from the copied steles to form works is an excellent method. However, the characters in the works may not all be found in the copied steles. Even if found, piecing them together may not achieve coherence in terms of size, weight, inclination, or mutual correspondence. For this reason, we decided to invite experienced calligraphers to edit and publish a series of couplets and poetic works composed of characters selected from famous steles and tablets of various dynasties, using computer image processing technology to strive for the most perfect presentation to readers.
The Shichen Stele (《》), also known as the Shichen Front and Rear Steles (), consists of two stones. It was erected in the second year of the Jianning era (169 AD) during the Eastern Han Dynasty and is now located in the Confucius Temple in Qufu, Shandong. The stele is meticulously crafted, with a strict and imposing structure. It exudes a profound and ancient charm, with well-balanced strokes and a harmonious composition, making it a classic example for temple halls. Yang Shoujing once remarked on this stele: "If one were to say that not all Han Dynasty clerical scripts are excellent, then this one possesses an unparalleled ancient and profound quality."
The editor spent several months carefully selecting and comparing characters from each poem, ensuring both faithfulness to the original works and adherence to the original steles, with no strokes substituted. At the same time, computer technology was appropriately used to achieve coordination. Despite being a preliminary attempt, there are still many shortcomings, and the editor hopes for the readers' corrections.