巧夺天工的明山石雕

Super Craftsmanship Excelling Nature——Introduction of Stone Sculpture of Ming Mountain

地处湘西南的芷江，虽弹丸之地，却因其独具的人文历史和优美的自然景观，成为我国西南地区重要的历史文化名城。在古代，素有“滇黔孔道，全楚咽喉”、“西南锁钥”之称，为历代兵家必争之地。其地名古称沅州，后因楚国大夫屈原流放沅湘，采撷岸芷汀兰，作《湘夫人》，有“沅有芷兮醴有兰”之句，而得名“芷江”。芷江城外青山环绕，名日明山，这里不仅生有极为珍稀的“芷”，而且还出产紫、黄、绿、红、白相间、艳丽多彩的明山石。勤劳而充满智慧的明山人，创造了灿烂辉煌的明山石雕文化。

Zhi Jiang, though a small place located in the southwest of HuNan province, is a famous historic and cultural city for its specialhuman history and beautiful sight. In the ancient time, it was also reputed for the production of the stone sculpture in Ming Mountain.Due to the historic reason, the culture of the stone sculpture is neglected little by little. The author devoted himself to the research ofit through the past ten years and went to there dozen of times for the first-handed material.The geological structure,feature of thematerial, the distribution of the stone cave, the origin of the stone sculpture there and the development and achievement are allintroduced in detail in this article.