Attraction in Xian:Forest of Steles

Forest of Steles

Situated in the Shaanxi History Museum and is near the Sanxue Street, which was first built in1087 A.D.

The Forest has collected the oldest and most steles in China. Its eponymy is because there are many steles in this present site. The Forest of Steles comprises 7 large showrooms, 8 verandahs and 8 stele pavilions, and treasures more than 2300 ancient steles and epitaphs of the Han (Western Han and Eastern Han), Wei, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. Now there are over one thousand steles and epitaphs are exhibited, among them, most are chiseled by the chirographers of Tang Dynasty (618-904 A.D.).Here, not only can you appreciate the different calligraphic styles such as the seal characters, square characters, cursive characters and semi-cursive characters etc, you can enjoy the magic penmanship of the great calligraphers such as Ouyang Xun, Yan Zhen-qing, Liu Gong-quan, Wang xi-zhi and Su shi and so on.