The Renovated Ganying Tower Stele of
Huguo Temple (Xixia Stele) was originally in the Huguo Temple of Liangzhou
(today's Wuwei City), but now is in Museum of Wuwei City of Gansu
Province.
The stele was chiseled in the fifth year
(1094) of the Tianyou Min'an reign of the Western Xia Dynasty (1038-1227), being
a rare relic of stele inscriptions in the Xixia (Western Xia) language. The
Xixia Stele is 2.5 m high and 0.9 m wide, with epigraphs on both sides. On one
side is inscribed an epigraph in Xixia language, in the ancient style of script.
The title is "Epigraph of the Imperial Ganying Tower"; the text is in the
regular script of Xixia language, there are 28 lines and each line contains 65
characters. Another side is inscribed with the epigraph in Chinese. The title is
Epigraph of the Renovated Stele of Ganying Tower of Huguo Temple; the main body
is in Chinese regular script, in 26 lines, each line containing 70 characters.
The upper part of both the first line and the second line has been deformed.
Around the epigraph are carved scroll patterns, and on each sides of the title
is a carved musician Bodhisattva, in a dancing pose. On top of the
superscription is a cloud-shaped cover. The line-engraved musician Bodhisattva,
the cloud-shaped cover, the scroll design and so on, are gracefully made,
looking very vivid. It is one of the very rare art treasures of the Western Xia
period.
The content of the text in Xixia language is
basically the same as that in Chinese, but the way of narration in the time
order is quite different. The two versions were not translated from one to
another, but written separately and then inscribed on the stele. The epigraphs
record the leaning of the Buddhist pagoda of the Huguo Temple in Liangzhou City
in the third year (1092) of the Tianyou Min'an reign of the Western Xia caused
by the earthquake, the empress and the emperor of Xixia issuing the imperial
edict to revamp it, and so on. Although the texts in Xixia language and Chinese
are not quite the same in the order of paragraphs and so on, the contents are
basically the same, and you can study by comparing one with another. The
epigraph in Xixia language provides us some precious historical data not seen in
any historical records, and at the same time, it is also very valuable for the
study on Xixia language.