Provenance: Taiyuan,

1
The Institute of History and Philology,Academia
Sinica Special Collections of Historical
Materials Number 3
Selections of Buddhist Stone Rubbings from the
Northern Dynasties
Edited by Chuan-ying Yen
The publication of Selections of Buddhist Stone
Rubbings from the Northern Dynasties represents
the product of a cooperative endeavor on the part
of the Stone Rubbings Research Group. In 1997 IHP
established the Stone Rubbings Research Group
with the goal of cataloguing and investigating
the Buddhist stone rubbings held in the Fu
Ssu-nien Library. The group, made up of
researchers from Academia Sinicas Institute of
History and Philology as well as outside
scholars, meets once every other week and
researches dated rubbings of Buddhist stone
steles from the Northern Dynasties. The first
publication of the groups findings came in 2002
with their work Dated Stone Rubbings of the
Northern Wei. In order to further publicize the
achievements of the research group, members of
the group selected one hundred Buddhist rubbings
from the Northern Wei to the Northern Zhou as the
best pieces of the collection. These one hundred
rubbings were published in 2008 as Selections of
Buddhist Stone Rubbings from the Northern
Dynasties. An important characteristic of this
work is its transcriptions of dedicatory writing
on these Buddhist stone rubbings. During the
process of reading and transcribing, the research
group discovered a number of variant Chinese
character forms as well as Buddhist terminology,
and this additional information is a major aid to
philology and intellectual history based
research. The fieldwork results of the Stone
Rubbings Research Group have also been collected
in the work, and pictures of original steles and
other information have been provided as well.
Finally, Selections of Buddhist Stone Rubbings
from the Northern Dynasties makes wide reference
to the epigraphic recordings of different
scholars, demonstrating various historical data
and information pertaining to Buddhist rubbings.
At the end of the work, a table of these stele
titles taken from historical records and
publications is also included. This table is a
great aid to any researcher seeking to clarify
his/her understanding of stele names. Selections
of Buddhist Stone Rubbings from the Northern
Dynasties includes important documents and images
related to Buddhist rubbings in a simple and
clear fashion. This represents a major
contribution on the part of research assistants
who have assisted the Stone Rubbings Research
Group in their work over the years. Buddhist
stone rubbings are a type of historical record
that is quite different from the classic history
book. In many instances, Buddhist steles actually
represent the remnants of folk activities of the
past and reading the dedications on these steles
can better enable us to appreciate the religious
beliefs and customs of the common people.
Religious activities, which have typically been
ignored by mainstream history, re-emerge in
Buddhist rubbings. Therefore, Selections of
Buddhist Stone Rubbings from the Northern
Dynasties is an extremely valuable material for
the study of ancient Chinese social history.
Institute of History and Philology
2008
Front Cover
Provenance Taiyuan, Shanxi Province
A variant form of the character dan (as it
appears in dedications on stone stele) and a
re-creation of the character
Inscription Recording the Erection of an Image by
Chen Shen-jiang, et al. Rubbing 547 AD 127.5 x
46cm collected in the Fu Ssu-nien Library of
Academia Sinicas Institute of History and
Philology
A Portion of the Transcriptions