Inscription on the Sweet Spring in the Jiucheng Palace Image 17

The calligraphy of Inscription on the Sweet Spring in the Jiucheng Palace has been regarded as “the best inscription written (in regular script) under the heaven”. The stele was erected in the sixth year of the Zhenguan reign of the Tang dynasty (632). The inscription was composed by the upright and well-known remonstrant official Wei Zheng, and the standard calligraphy was written by one of the four masters of the early Tang, Ouyang Xun.

The stone stele is currently listed as an important cultural relic of the Shaanxi province. It is stored at the Linyou County Museum in Shaanxi. The rubbing of the Inscription collected by the Art Museum is dated to the Southern Song period. It was treasured by scholars and literati from the Qing to early Republican periods and for instance colophons written by the prominent epigraphist Weng Fanggang are found on the rubbing. From Qing to contemporary times, the piece was collected by Wang Lingwen, Kong Jigan, Huang Yunchao, Luo Yuanjue and Dr. J. S. Lee’s Bei Shan Tang. Lee donated the piece to the Art Museum in 1992.

Since the stele of the Inscription was erected in the Tang dynasty, countless rubbings were produced that seriously damaged the stele surface. In early Ming, some strokes on the stele were thickened by carving. In the Qing dynasty, overall characters have become scrawny and the original calligraphy was no longer attainable from the stone stele. According to the staff of the Linyou County Museum, at least 60 to 70% of the characters on the stele had been retouched by later generations. This further juxtaposes the significance of the rubbing version in the Art Museum collection.

In 2016, the piece was listed in the “National Catalogue of Precious Ancient Books”.