File photo of a carved stone rubbings from Shandong Province.
An exhibition of ancient Chinese carved stone rubbings from Shandong Province, eastern China, was held in Washington, the United States on Wednesday.
Describing the carved stone rubbings as "a namecard for Shandong", Guan Guozhi, curator of Shandong Carved-stone Art Museum, which co-sponsored the exhibition with the Art Center of American University, told Xinhua that the ancient carved artworks are China's treasures of cultural heritage that occupy an important place in China's ancient carving art, and have won a high reputation in the academic world both at home and abroad.
According to organizers, 70 carefully selected rubbings were displayed at the exhibition together with relevant photos and videos, for the purpose of introducing, exhibiting and spreading Shandong's ancient stone carving art.
The exhibition will also be staged in Mark Twain House and Museum in the state of Connecticut from May 21 to August 30.
Stone inscriptions were one of the ways to preserve history and culture in ancient time. Later, Chinese used paper and ink to "print" the inscriptions on stone tablets or steles. Stone reliefs were an important building component of palaces, ancestral temples and tombs in the Han Dynasty. So far, more than 10,000 Han Dynasty stone reliefs have been found in China, among which 4,500 were found in Shandong Province.
