Suzhou Confucian Temple Inscription

There are many steles in Suzhou Confucian Temple, among which the four Song steles "Heaven, Earth, People and City" such as Pingjiang Map, Astronomical Map, Geographical Map and Shaoyuntu are the most famous. They were originally placed in Dacheng Hall, but now they have been transferred to the wing next to the main hall for special protection.

Pingjiang Monument is 2.76m high and1.48m wide. Carved in Shaoding for two years in the Southern Song Dynasty (1229). The tablet beautifully depicts the layout of Pingjiang House (now Suzhou City) at that time, including various buildings and places of interest such as city walls, yamen, temples, businesses, academies, warehouses, barracks, gardens, rivers, bridges and roads, and is marked with the name of 6 13. There are dozens of rivers and 359 bridges in the picture, with a total length of about 82 kilometers, which fully reflects the style of Jiangnan water town. It also recorded more than 50 temples and Taoist temples, 12 ancient pagodas and 65 street-crossing archways, many of which have been preserved to this day. Due to the age of the inscription, the ambiguity of 19 17 years deepened. This Pingjiang map is the oldest and most complete urban planning map in China, which has important historical value.

The other three Song steles were painted by Huang Shang in Shao Xiyuan (1 190) and carved by Wang Zhiyuan in the seventh year of Chunyou (1247) in the Southern Song Dynasty, all in the above format. The astronomical map is 1.9 m high and 1.08 m wide, which is the oldest existing oriental map in the world. The upper part is engraved with 1440 stars and 280 constellations observed in Yuanfeng of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the lower part is engraved with the annotation of 209 1, which briefly introduces some stars and astronomical phenomena and fully reflects the astronomical level at that time. The geographical map monument is 2m high and 1.07m wide. It describes the mountains, rivers and cities in Song Dynasty in detail. There are 645 words of notes below, which roughly describe the territory changes of China from Yu to Song. It is listed as the three oldest national maps of China, together with the forest of steles in China and Tuzai. Shao Yun Monument is 1 .83m high and1m wide. The upper part lists the lineages of emperors in the past dynasties in the form of charts, and the arrangement is very detailed and clear. The lower part is a brief comment of 550 words.

In addition to these four Song steles, the Confucian Temple also collected more than 3,000 stone carvings and nearly 10,000 rubbings, including the handwriting or poem steles of famous artists such as Lu Ji, Huang Tingjian, Su Xun, Su Shi, Wen Tianxiang, Wen Zhiming, etc., which were displayed with themes such as Confucius, Confucianism, Suzhou economy, and calligraphy of past dynasties. Since 1985, it has been turned into Suzhou Monument Museum.