The history of the stele forest may be traced back to the end of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and the Five Dynasties Period (907-960). In the Tang Dynasty, there were originally a stone platform with The Classic of Filial Piety carved on it and the Stone Classics of Kaicheng Reign in the Directorate of Imperial Academy in Chang'an City (today's Xi'an), capital of the Tang Dynasty. The former was the whole book of The Classic of Filial Piety annotate and prefaced by Emperor Xuanzong himself, in official script, inscribed on stone; the latter was a set of famous classical books inscribed in the second year (837) of the Kaiyuan reign of the Tang Dynasty, including Zhouyi (changes of Zhou), Shangshu (The Book of History), Shijing (The Book of Odes), etc. containing more than 650,000 characters in 114 steles and 228 sides (inscribed on both sides) in total. In the first year (904) of the Yuanyou reign, Han Jian, an official in charge of protection of state properties, gathered the steles in the Wen Temple, in order to keep important stele stones from being lost. In the fifth year (1090) of the Yuanyou reign of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), people added stele corridors and stele pavilions so as to strengthen their protection, laying a foundation for the formation of the stele forest. Later, through the extensive collection work in all the dynasties from the Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing, the scale of the stele collection gradually expanded, so in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) it got the name of Bei Lin (Stele Forest).

The present stele forest has a collection of more than 2,300 steles from the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD) to the Qing Dynasty. There are seven big exhibition rooms, seven verandas and one stele pavilion, displaying more than 1,000 stele works. There is the large-scale stone book repository containing important ancient literature of China, the Stone Classics of Kaicheng. In them there are the Stele of Stories of Nestorianism in China, which records many important events of Sino-foreign cultural exchange and friendly intercourse, the Stone Pillar Inscribed with Darani Scripture both in Chinese and Foreign Language, the Stele of the Great Monk Sanzang of the Tang Dynasty, and so on. The handwriting of the stele forest covers all schools of scripts, such as zhuan (seal character), cao (cursive script), li (official script), kai (regular script), etc. Works of zhuanshu (seal characters) include Yishan Ming (Inscription on the Yishan Mountain) by Li Si, a prime minister of the Qin Dynasty, re-inscribed in the Song Dynasty, San Fen Ji (Record of the Three Graves) by Li Yangbing of the Tang Dynasty, etc.; works of official script include the Caquan Bei (Stele of Caoquan) inscribed in the second year of the Zhongping reign of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Jiaping Shijing (Stone Scripture of Jiaping) (incomplete), etc.; works of cursive style include Qianzi Wen (1000-character Essay) written by Zhiyong, Zhang Xu and Huaisu, etc.; works of regular script include the Stele of Huanfu Dan by Ouyang Xun, the Stele of Duobaota by Yan Zhenqing, the Stele of Temple of Family Guo, the Stele of Yan Qinli, the Stele of Zang Huaike, the Stele of Temple of Family Yan, the Inscription of Xuanmita by Liu Gongquan, and so on. All the essays on the steles are excellent works that have won universal praise and been spread far and wide. The stele stones stored in the Stele Forest constitute an important part of the treasure house of cultural relics of China, and serve as important material data for the research on Chinese history, chirography and pictorial art.

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