Paleography

This rubbing is of an inscription from a stele at a Confucian temple found in Xi'an bei lin, Xi'an Shi, Shaanxi Sheng, China.

It records the Tang Emperor Taizong (reign 627-649) granting a title "Bao sheng ho" to Kong Delun, the 33rd generation of Kongzi's (Confucius) family. The inscription also records the reconstruction of a Confucian Temple.

Original stele dated to 29th day of 12th month of 9th year of Wude, Tang Dynasty (626). Rubbing from reproduction dated to Qiande of Northern Song Dynasty (960-967).

The rubbing currently resides at Asian Rubbings section of the Harvard Fine Arts Library. 

Transcription 

(Gap) táng zhī beī

(Gap) taì zi zhōng shè rén xíng zhe zuò láng jù (gap) nán lè zhuàn shēng shū sī [?] shēng zhoū mù taì zi zuô qiān (gap)

(Gap) dōng guàn yù wén qián shî yoù naî zhī jí qî shén weí ruì zuò shèng xuán miào zhī jìng xī yí bù cè sān wû dié xìng diàn fén sī zhe shén (gap) lü [?] jiân jiào ān beī dà doū hú xiāng huâng dàn shū beī 

(Gap) zhì wén shū [?] jìn ràng hân tóng mí bù baì luò guàn hé yīng fú shoù mìng míng zū yù zhōng zhī dà shoú wò tiān xià zhī tú xiàng leì leì (gap) jí jì ké de yán yēn zì zhaò lì shū [?] chū fēn fù xiàng [?] [?] [?] gông fēng gé xià jiân

(Gap) yù dì huáng zhī [?] yuán jì [?] shî zhī daô ér de [?] fù zaì péng [?] rì yuè daò yì zhēng ér fú xiân lí lè chí ér gēng jiāng (gap) chéng xíng fâ yàng chūn ér liù huì zé rán hoù huà jiān bā fāng mìng xíng sì haí weì yoú yân xī láng 

(Gap) zhī jīng zhông qiān nián zhī shèng gú tiān zòng

Analysis

1. There is, of course, no punctuation found anywhere on the rubbing. The spaces show that the sections are completely unrelated (see number 7).

2. There are two types of situations that I have classified the character as [?]. The first is that the character is illegible or if some of the character is cut off by missing pieces (line 1). The second is if I can clearly see what the character is but the dictionary does not count it as a character (this May be due to the the more ancient nature of the character) (line 3 end).

3. The zhī, usually written as 之, has two points in which it is disconnected. The lower '2'-like figure is usually written as one stroke, and therefore would not be disconnected. The disconnection is caused because of the writers desire to mimic the strokes of a brush on paper. The disconnects correspond to where the brush would have applied more pressure and where it would have almost lifted off the page.

4. The shè character, here written as 舎, is an older form and is now classified as a Japanese variant of the 舍 character. There are quite a few of the characters in this rubbing that are classified as Japanese variants, this could be due to the Japanese borrowing the character at this stage, then as the Chinese character finishes changing into its final shape, the Japanese one stays the same.

5. The 扐 character has, what looks to be, several other strokes on the radical 扌, but I could not find any other character that it could have been besides this one.

6. zhī, jìn, shî, and taì all show the writers desire to use the brush strokes as his way of carving. They all include strokes that start off as thin then as more pressure is applied to the brush the stroke thickens.

7. 書碑額 means that this is the front of the stele.

8. The shèng character is slightly different with a 耳 instead of what almost looks to be a 月. 

9. The yì character 夷, which I have never encountered before, means eastern barbarians, or to raze/pillage.

10. 窅 not only has two extra strokes underneath the 宀, but it is also an obscure variant of 杳. 

11. The difference between 日 and 曰 is the context (day and speak).

12. 㢮 is a more complicated version of the 弛 character, added the 𠂉 part.