摘要
Stone carvings, as a carrier of Chinese culture, date back to hundreds of years. In the forms of scripts, drawings and symbols, they bear
Stone carvings, as a carrier of Chinese culture, date back to hundreds of years. In the forms of scripts, drawings and symbols, they bear rich information and provide valuable references for the study of history, literature, calligraphy, fine arts and religion of ancient China. They have even more important values than bamboo slips and paper and silk scripts, because of their durability and unchangeability. Different functions have been developed over the evolution course of stone carvings, such as cliff inscriptions, epilogue stones, steles, portrait statues and demarcation steles, etc. Over the sweep of history, stone carving has evolved into a matured art expression that is praised as a ＂stone encyclopedia of Chinese civilization＂. Thanks to its mysterious style, scripts hard to understand, special materials and settings as well as historical records and legends associated to them, odd-form steles add to the brilliance of the art of stone carving,
