Stele on the Back of Stone Tortoise
Visitors to China's mausoleums, temples and parks
will come across many a stone stele standing on a stone
pedestal in the form of a tortoise. Some of these steles
are well shaped out of high-grade smooth stone and bear inscriptions
engraved in elegant calligraphy; the more important
ones are sheltered by pavilions from weathering.
A stele of this type consists of three parts: the crown, the body and
the pedestal. The crown is usually carved with a pattern of
chi, a mythological animal supposed to be one of the
nine sons of Dragon. It has often been taken as a dragon's
head, which it resembles.
The carving of inscriptions on stele has a history extending a long
time back. When a stele bears an inscription written by an emperor,
it invariably has a stone tortoise as the base. Such
inscriptions, whether written personally by emperors or by their ministers
on their behalf, normally extol the emperors' virtues and achievements
so that they might be remembered by posterity. Some steles were erected
for other purposes, too. A huge one standing in front of the hill in
the Summer Palace bears and account of the building
of the Hill of Longevity and Kunming Lake written in
the hand of the Qing Emperor Qianlong. The whole block,
magnificently shaped and exquisitely carved, has an overall height of
9.8 meters with distinctive Chinese features.
Although ancient steles were meant to bear inscriptions,
yet a small number have nothing in writing on them at all. These are
popularly called "wordless stele", and most of those in front
of the Ming Tombs fall into this category, though they
are also named "stele of divine achievements and holy virtues".
The explanation for this can be found in a historical work devoted to
the study of imperial mausoleums. Zhu Yuanzhang, founding
emperor of the Ming, once said, "stele inscriptions at imperial
tombs have always been written by scholars to whitewash the royal dead;
the practice should not be taken as the standard for posterity".
So, the practice was suspended during the Ming, yet it did not prevent
beautiful stele from being carved and erected. For instance, the one
at Dingling, the tomb that has been opened for visitors, is sculpted
in low relief with six chi coiled round one another, so expressive that
they seem to be fighting playfully on water for a big pearl. The huge
stone tortoise at the base is no less a masterpiece of sculpture.
Raising its head, it looks into the distance with almost real attention.
Around the tortoise are carved images of prawns, crabs, fish and turtles,
partly concealed in patterns of waves. All this provides the backdrop
of a surging sea, which helps with its buoyancy to tortoise to bear
the dozens of tons of stone on its back, while still doggedly forging
ahead.
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