Yishan is located in the southeast of Zoucheng City, Jining, Shandong Province. It is the hometown of Confucius and Mencius. It was famous in the world as early as the Qin and Han Dynasties. Confucius, Mencius, Qin Shihuang, Li Si, Sima Qian and many other historical celebrities have visited Yishan, and left more than 300 famous cliff stone carvings and inscriptions here, adding a unique historical and cultural color to Yishan. Among these stone carvings and stone tablets, the most famous and legendary one is the "Yishan Monument".
Yishan Monument, also known as Qin Yishan Monument, was carved in the 28th year of Qin Shihuang's East Tour (2 19 BC). Yishan tablet is the earliest stone carving in Qin Dynasty, which was written for Li Si in Qin Dynasty. Historical Records of Qin Shihuang's Biography records that Qin Shihuang traveled eastward to various counties and erected a monument on Zou Yi Mountain. He had consulted with Lu about carving stones to praise Qin De, and about collecting Zen and offering sacrifices to mountains. "It can be seen that Qin Shihuang not only climbed Mount Yi, but also set up a stone tablet on the mountain, namely" Mount Yi Monument ".The content on the stone tablet is also very clear: praise the merits of Daqin and discuss the matter of offering sacrifices to the mountain.
Yishan monument stands in a rectangular shape, full of water and stones. The monument is 1.9 m high and 0.48 m wide. The inscription on the stone tablet is ***222-word Xiao Zhuan, which celebrates Qin Shihuang's achievements in unifying the world, abolishing the enfeoffment system and establishing counties. The fame of this monument is closely related to the celebrity effect of Qin Shihuang, but what makes ancient and modern scholars more eager is the small seal script carved on the monument by Qin Xiang Lisi. In the Narrative, Tang Huaiyi called Li Si's seal script a "miracle". Praise: painting is like a stone, and words are like flying. The small seal engraved on Yishan has neat handwriting, even cloth, vigorous brushwork and dignified and beautiful style. The structure of the characters is tight and loose, and the feet are elongated, which makes the viewer feel condescending.
However, it is such a national treasure monument that was destroyed by a move by Cao Cao. Because of the great fame of Yishan stone carvings, Cao Cao, a politician, strategist, writer and calligrapher in the Three Kingdoms period, also came here. It is said that after carefully appreciating the inscription on Yishan Mountain, Cao Cao shouted: I'm glad you came. Seeing that it was getting late, he was still immersed in the atmosphere of stone carving art and had no intention of returning. Seeing Cao Cao so obsessed with touching. At this time, the official who climbed the mountain with him came up with an idea: "It is rare for the Prime Minister to love this monument so much. Why not move to Xudu (Xudu is another name for Xuchang, and Cao Cao moved the capital from Luoyang with Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty) so that the Prime Minister can watch it at any time? "
Men are possessive, especially super men like Cao Cao. At first glance, he hesitated, but he really liked the monument. But Cao Cao is a generation of adulterers, and immediately asked noncommittally: "Is this good?" Thinking that he kowtowed to the right person, the official hurried forward and said, "How bad! The prime minister is the dessert of this country. Without the prime minister, how can there be a big shot? What's more, it's just a stone tablet? " Hearing this, Cao Cao smoothed his beard and left with a happy smile. The official seemed to get the imperial edict, and immediately arranged for someone to knock down the stone tablet overnight and prepare to transport it back to Xudu the next day. Unexpectedly, the next morning, the official was convicted of destroying the national treasure privately and was imprisoned by Cao Cao. What the hell is this?
It turned out that Cao Cao returned to his residence from Yishan that night, and he was all smiles at the thought of the rare treasure Yishan Monument that was about to be included in the bag. When one of his advisers saw this situation, he asked why, and said, Prime Minister, they all say that you are smart and wise, and you never do actual harm in name only. The memorial tablet of Yishan was watched by corporal all day. If you take it for yourself, what do scholars in the world think? "Cao Cao's greatest advantage is that he can listen to the correct opinions, so he quickly ordered and punished the official who proposed to move the stone tablet to Xudu. At this time, although the Yishan stone tablet was knocked down, it became more famous, which led some court officials to come in droves at that time, just to see its elegance or to make rubbings for disciples to copy. However, in this way, it made the local officials and people miserable. You think, when the big officials of the imperial court come, local officials and people will treat them to good food and drink, and they will have to get some local products to take back. Financial resources are stretched. So later, they thought of a way. According to the Tang Dynasty's Records and News, local officials and people were often too impatient to be sent to meet them, so they gathered under the monument and burned them.
It turned out that the real Yishan monument had already been burned. The stone carvings of Yishan, which we see in the "Forest of Steles" in Xi 'an, Shaanxi Province, were actually rewritten by people in the Southern Tang Dynasty. And the original monument, we will never see it again.