Wordless Memorial Tablet

The inscriptionless stele in Gan County, China is located in the Qianling Mausoleum in Liangshan, 6 kilometers north of Gan County, Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province. It is part of the joint burial mausoleum of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi, and Empress Wu Zetian. This giant stone stele is carved from a whole piece of limestone. There are eight dragons carved on the top of the stele, and the body of the stele is decorated with cloud patterns and rising dragon patterns. There are lion and horse images engraved on the base of the stele. It has a magnificent shape and exquisite craftsmanship, representing the high level of stone carving art in the Tang Dynasty. As an inscription of a female emperor in Chinese history, its “wordless” feature has caused controversy for thousands of years. The mainstream view is that the 3,300 existing square marks on the stele prove that Wu Zetian had prepared the inscription before her death, but refused to engrave it because of the complicated political grievances between her mother and the successor, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, Li Xian. After the Song and Jin Dynasties, the surface of the stele was gradually covered by inscriptions by tourists. There are 42 remaining texts, including the Khitan text “Travels of the Emperor’s Younger Brother, the Commander-in-Chief of the Great Jin Dynasty”, which has become a precious historical material for the study of minority languages. Today, this stone stele, which combines the essence of Tang Dynasty art with historical mysteries, stands opposite the “Shushengji Stele” on the west side that records Emperor Gaozong’s achievements, forming a unique cultural landscape of Qianling Mausoleum.