Carved stones in the tombs of Wu family lie
in the forest of Wu family at the north foot of Wuzhai Mountain in Jiaxiang
County, Shandong Province.
Carved stones in the tombs of Wu
family are widely known as Wuliang Ancestral Temple. According to the
inscription on the stele in the temple, the Wu family in Jiaxiang worked as
officials for generations at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220). Their
clansmen began to build this temple in front of the tombs in the first year
(147) of the Jianhe reign under Emperor Huan of the Eastern Han Dynasty but they
didn't complete it until several decades later.
There are various explanations about the
structure of the temple. Some say that the temple is made up of four stone
rooms: the front room is the Wurong Ancestral Temple, the back one is the
Wukaiming Ancestral Temple, the left one is the Wuban Ancestral Temple, while
the middle one is the Wuliang Ancestral Temple. Some others say that the temple
includes 3 rooms, excluding the last one mentioned above. In the temple, carved
stones, including steles, stone lions, gravestones, and portraits, etc. had been
discovered in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). These carved stones could be
testified in Jin Shi Lu (Catalogue of Inscriptions on Stone and Bone) by
epigraphist Zhao Mingcheng and in Ji Gu Lu (the Texts of Ancient
Inscriptions on Bronze) by literati Ouyang Xiu. Later, due to several floods,
the stone rooms were inundated.
In the 51st year of the Qianlong
reign of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), epigraphist Huang Yi went to the village
to look for the stone rooms. He unearthed 3 stone rooms, and steles of the Han
Dynasty (206BC-220AD), etc. Later, he continuously found many carved stones with
portraits on them. At present, except the two of these stones in foreign
countries and two kept in Jining City, there are still one pair of steles, a
pair of stone lions, two tablets, 43 stones with portraits, and about 1,000
characters of inscriptions written in official script.
The portraits on the steles are carved in an
accurate and meticulous way. The subjects are wide-ranging, including historical
figures of distinct characteristics such as Shennongshi (Supernatural Farmer)
plowing the land with a shovel in hand, Xiayu (the Great Yu of the Xia Dynasty)
leading people to construct watercourses, tyrant Emperor Jie of the Xia Dynasty
(21st century - 17th century BC) riding on women with
weapon on his shoulder; popular historical stories such as Cao Mo assassinating
Emperor Huandi, Zhuan Zhu assassinating Wang Liao, Jing Ke assassinating Qin
Emperor Shihuang, and so on; as well as filial stories and other stories of
spirited women, fairy tales, parties, haunting, travels, fighting, etc. With so
many people in the paintings, the portraits are delicately carved, mirroring
abundant historical information about the social condition, local customs, laws
and regulations, and religious beliefs, etc., in the Eastern Han Dynasty. They
are not only a series of marvelous stone carvings, but also important historical
materials for study on the history of the Eastern Han Dynasty. They are praised
by archaeologists and historians as the representative works of carved stones
with portraits in the Han Dynasty.