On June 25, 2001, China’s State Council announced the fifth batch of “Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level”, among which was the site of the Dongqian Lake stone carvings. The stone carvings, regarded as the “Terracotta Warriors of Jiangnan [South of the Yangtze River]”. The announcement was the latest cultural relics protection measure for the site. The Yinxian People’s Government first ordered a field survey in 1976 after a large number of stone carvings were found in the Dongqian Lake area. In 1982, the site was made a county-level cultural relics protection site, before the Zhejiang Provincial People’s Government designated it a key cultural relics protection site at the provincial level in 1997.

Why is it that in Dongqian Lake, a not-so-well-known place, were there such important historical relics in such a great quantity? With this question, I set out “treasure hunting” around Dongqian Lake.

Located in the southeast of Ningbo city, Dongqian Lake is about 15 kilometers away from the urban center. It is the largest natural freshwater lake in the province of Zhejiang. Guo Moruo, a leading Chinese author in the 20th century, once praised it as “similar in spirit to the Taihu Lake and as charming as the West Lake”. Indeed, surrounded by plenty of mountains, hills, rivers, dykes and embankments, the Dongqian Lake looks more like a traditional Chinese painting. 

The stone statues found near the Dongqian Lake

The Southern Song Stone Carving Park, as the site is now called, is my destination, situated at the Shangshuixia village on the side of Huangmei Mountain. Standing in the square of the park are the pillars, on which a couplet was engraved: “The North Has Terracotta Warriors; The South Has Southern Song Stone Carvings.”

In early December 1993, a team of experts on Song history, archaeology and arts from all over the province gathered in the Dongqian Lake area, and conducted a thorough and meticulous investigation on the many stone carvings and sculptures found in the ceremonial burial chamber here. After repeated comparison and appraisal, they determined that most of them were stone carvings of the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) dating back nearly 800 years.

Prior to the discovery, it was believed that stone carvings serving for the “sacred way” in the Southern Song tombs were rare, especially so in the Jiangnan region. They are now deemed the largest in scale, the best-preserved and the most exquisite sacred-way stone carvings of the Southern Song period. These relics are not only the physical imprint of the Southern Song culture in Ningbo; they have also filled the research gap on the archeology, art history, clothing history and sculpture history of the period.

The Dongqian Lake stone carvings comprise two categories: stone architecture and stone statues. The stone architecture is composed of stone walls, stone pavilions, stone archways, stone chairs, stalagmites and stone drums, among others. The stone statues include those of scholar-officials, military officers, standing horses, squatting tigers and kneeling sheep. In the Southern Song Stone Carving Park are 100 or so of these stone carvings, half of the total that has been discovered. Two well-preserved tombs — one belonging to Shi Jian (1124-1195) and the other belonging to Shi Juan (1120-1202), both high-ranking officials of the Southern Song dynasty — are also in the park. 

The Southern Song Stone Carving Park

Stone carvings carry the memories of ancient human civilizations. Stone carving culture takes the shaping of stones to reflect the beliefs, artistic perceptions and production technologies of a certain period, which is of reliable historical value. The Southern Song stone carvings are no exception. They are a systematic record of some of its rules and customs, its ideology and artistic style.

The statues, for instance, hold important symbolic meaning. Scholar officials, military officers, standing horses, squatting tigers and kneeling sheep represent loyalty, bravery, righteousness, integrity and filial piety respectively. In the Southern Song, civil officials enjoyed a higher status than their military counterparts, as the imperial court deliberately suppressed the influence of the army. Therefore, statues of scholar-officials were placed in front of those of military officers in the tombs. For the animals, their designated symbolic traits were believed by the Song people to be closely related to their nature. For example, a lamb kneeling to suck its mother’s milk showed respect to one’s mother.

On the other hand, a comparative study on the patterns of the stone carvings has shown their evolution and development throughout the Song dynasty (960-1279). In the Northern Song period (960-1127), China already issued the world’s first set of building standards titled Yingzao Fashi (Treatise on Architectural Methods or State Building Standards). The 10-odd patterns on the Dongqian Lake stone carvings, such as clouds, water ripples, rocks and trees, can all be found in Yingzao Fashi, marked as auspicious patterns. The hat styles of civil officials, the armors, and the weapons of military officers seen on the stone statues are also completely consistent with historical records and paintings, and the carving skills were second to none.

Then again, why did they appear around Dongqian Lake? It is down to a notable local family, the Shi clan. Originally living in places like Jiangsu and Huzhou, they moved to and settled in Mingzhou (present-day Ningbo) during the Northern Song era. One of the second-generation settlers, Shi Cheng, came to Xiashui village around the Dongqian Lake, working hard on farming and fishing, and paying equal attention to family education. Later, Shi Cai (1083-1163) would become the first in the family to take up an office in the Southern Song court. Then, since Shi Hao (1106-1194) was appointed the chancellor of the state, members of the Shi family served in so many prominent government positions that it was said “of all the court officials, half are from the Shi family”.

As the “ancestral place” for the family, it was only natural that the Dongqian Lake area would be where these high-ranking officials would choose to retire and live the rest of their lives — “returning to the root”, as dictated by the Confucian traditions. During the process, they built houses and pavilions. It is no surprise, therefore, that the stone architecture, stone statues as well as some 50 tombs found near Dongqian Lake were mostly connected to members of the Shi family.

Editor: Huang Yan