Forest of Stone Steles Museum

The Forest of Stone Steles Museum is defined by its massive collection of upright stone tablets, so densely packed together that they resemble a dark, stony thicket. Established in the year ten eighty-seven during the Northern Song Dynasty, it was originally created to house and protect Confucian steles that had been damaged as the Tang Dynasty collapsed. By moving these tablets to the site of a local Confucian temple and school, scholars ensured that their contents—which included the Twelve Classics—would survive as authoritative texts for future generations.