Antiquities of Inscriptions: Wei Shimen Ming

Author: Wang Yanlin
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-03-01
Features: The full title of "Shimen Ming" is "Taishan Yangzhi Kaifu Shimen Ming," which was carved on the cliff of Shimen in the northern Baoxia Valley, Baocheng County, Shaanxi, in the first month of the Yongping era of Emperor Xuanwu of the Northern Wei Dynasty (509 AD). It was written by Wang Yuan in calligraphy and carved by Wu Aren. The original Han Dynasty's Shimen passageway had been ruined, and the inscriptions on this cliff celebrate the grand event of reopening the Baoxia Pass, which was ordered by Yang Zhi, the governor of Liang and Qin provinces, to send left school master Jia Sande to reopen the pass. The regular script consists of twenty-eight lines, with twenty-two characters per line, and the later inscriptions are seven lines, each with about nine to ten characters. The cliff carving has now been moved and preserved in the Hanzhong Museum in Shaanxi. "Shimen Ming" is a famous Northern Wei stone carving. As it records the reopening of the Baoxia Pass, a beneficial event for the nation and its people, the calligraphy and carving were consciously commissioned by skilled calligraphers and carvers, which is also reflected in the inscriptions. The inscriptions are located on the eastern wall of Shimen in Baocheng, Shaanxi. The calligrapher was Wang Yuan of Taiyuan Commandery, and the carver was Wu Aren of Luoyang County, Henan Commandery, who left their names and inscriptions in the title of the inscriptions. This shows that although the artistic achievements of Wang Yuan and Wu Aren were not recorded in history, their superb works demonstrated that they were recognized as skilled artists at the time. "Shimen Ming" absorbs the vigorous and refined calligraphic techniques of the famous Han Dynasty regular script "Shimen Song" and other inscriptions in the same area. It also incorporates the dynamic and expansive characteristics of the Han Dynasty regular script, such as ups and downs, openness, and uniqueness, developing into the extraordinary and expansive Northern Wei regular script. The best edition of "Shimen Ming" is the old edition where the first character "this" on the cover page is undamaged, which is considered a fine edition.