Stone Drums with Poetry “Horse Presentation” (Majian)

Period: ca. Warring States Period (475–222 BCE)
Medium: granite
Format: set of ten
Dimensions: height: 90 cm; diameter: 60 cm

The ten stone drums are incised with four-character poems in seal script (zhuan shu) that describe activities such as fishing, hunting, and warfare. The inscriptions are the earliest known Chinese texts carved in stone. During the Tang dynasty (618–907), the scholars Wei Yingwu (ca. 737–793) and Han Yu (768–824) both composed their own respective Tribute to the Stone Drums (Shigu ge) to extol the outstanding inscriptions; these widely-circulated poems increased the awareness, and thus the popularity, of the stone drum inscriptions. Named after their round appearance, the stone drums have been dated to various periods from the eleventh century BCE to the fifth century of the Common Era, yet the content, script, and calligraphic style suggest that they were carved in the State of Qin during the Spring and Autumn (770–476 BCE) and Warring States (475–222 BCE) periods. A more precise date has yet to be determined.

The stone drums were discovered at Tianxing (present-day Fengxiang, Shaanxi Province) in the early Tang dynasty. During the Daguan reign (1107–1110) the stones were in the Northern Song (960–1127) capital, Kaifeng. After the Jin (1115–1234) defeated the Song, Jin troops transported the stones back to their capital, Yanjing (present-day Beijing). Song dynasty artisans had filled the incised characters with gold, which was scraped off when the stone drums arrived at Yanjing. The inscriptions are damaged and abraded from the frequent relocation. While some are less damaged than others, the loss is irreparable; one stone drum’s characters have been completely eroded.

The writing style of some characters is identical to a script called zhouwen, also known as the greater seal script, which was said to have been developed by a grand scribe during the reign of Xuan (died ca. 781 BCE), a king of Zhou. The sophisticated greater seal script was prevalent in the State of Qin during the Spring and Autumn period and in the meantime underwent a process of further simplification and delineation. The inscriptions on the stone drums represent an archaic aesthetic and suggest that the template for the engravings was originally written by a vigorous calligrapher’s hand. Greatly admired by Kang Youwei (1858–1927), they provided inspiration for many Qing-dynasty (1644-1911) calligraphers in regard to their accomplishments in seal script.

A set of the stone drums' rubbings copied in the early Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and originally owned by Sun Kehong (1532–1611) is now in the Palace Museum collection. It is one of the most prominent series of rubbings of the ancient stone drums still preserved in China.

The provenance of the rare works spans over a millennium. Various art connoisseurs recorded the set of stone drums in their exhaustive catalogues, such as Yuanhe County Gazetteer (Yuanhe junxian tuzhi) by Li Jifu (758–814) of the Tang dynasty, and, subsequently, Collection of Antiques (Jigu lu) by Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) of the Song dynasty, Collected Works on Epigraphy (Jinshi ji) by Zhao Mingcheng (1081–1129), and Study on Inscriptions on Stone Drums (Shigu wenkao) by Zheng Qiao (1104–1162).

Chinese original by Shi Anchang
English revisions by Adam J. Ensign and Zhuang Ying

This stone drum’s inscription has been completely abraded from the surface, but the Northern Song rubbings contain thirteen characters when not counting the repeated characters. Since the inscription contains the characters for heaven and rainbow, it can be surmised that at the time the territory of the Qin received ample rainfall. The regular appearance of the rainbow would have been evidence for a moist climate that supported lavish vegetation. The text also suggests that the people of that land engaged in a thriving pastoral and agricultural economy.