Ancient Chinese inscribed stone

Object: Chinese stone drum
Stone copy of the first Wu-Chu stone drum, pre-1914
Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Leipzig

Ancient Chinese inscribed stone

Stone copy of the first Wu-Chu stone drum, pre-1914

It was written in stone so that one bequeathed the deeds to a thousand generations, and when breaking out the stone for the drums, not even the steepest mountain was spared.

Han Yu, Shi Gu Ge, 768-824

These ten granite stones, weighing approximately 400 kilograms each, are referred to as “stone drums” due to the similarity to Chinese-style percussion instruments. They carry the oldest known Chinese stone inscriptions and are today housed in Beijing’s Palace Museum. These poetic texts, which describe hunting and fishing practices, are probably around 2,800 years old. Stone copies and dabbings of these scripts were produced soon after the originals. As part of the dabbing process, soaked paper was placed on the stone and then brushed with China ink – the symbols of the script thus stand out in white against a black background.

The stone copy in the possession of the Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum arrived in Leipzig in 1914 to feature in the “Bugra” international exhibition for book craft and graphic art. In 1943, the Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum, which was at that time housed in the Deutsches Buchgewerbehaus, caught fire, which lead to damage and cracking of the stone drum.