Stele for Chan Master Xinxing is considered as the benchmark work representing renowned Tang calligrapher Xue Ji’s (649-713) style for a long time. Although the stele is long gone, the seals, the historical records and the Tang idiom, “It’s not a loss to make a purchase mistaking Xue (Ji) for Chu (Suiliang),” all seem to secure the authenticity of the two extant rubbings; however, the chain of evidence lacks the record from the Tang to the Northern Song, i.e., the history of the stele. Furthermore, there are several unreasonable points in the text itself calling for further examination, including the time gap between writing the prose and erecting the stele and the digression of the content from the title. More importantly, the calligraphic style of Stele for Chan Master Xinxing is distinctively different from other genuine works of Xue Ji in the renowned Stele for the Crown Prince Who Ascended as an Immortal and the newly unearthed work Epitaph of Fang Xianzhong.This article, thus, aims to reconstruct the history of this stele, to clarify the issues mentioned above, and to discuss the authenticity of Stele for Chan Master Xinxing.

This article focuses on the reigns of Emperors Zhongzong (r.705-710) and Ruizong (r.710-712), a period of frequent turnover in political power from the Early to High Tang. It argues that the erection of Stele for Chan Master Xinxing was a sophisticated missionary activity, that the Three Levels Sect of Buddhism utilized the renowned Li Zhen (627-688), Prince Yue, as a martyr in fighting against Wu Zetian (624-705) and the status of Xue Ji as a high official in Zhongzong’s court to promote the Three Levels Sect which had just gotten relief from Wu Zetian’s suppression. Unfortunately, the effort of the Three Levels Sect backfired after Zhongzong’s death in 710. Coming into Xuanzong’s reign, Xue Ji was disreputed from a court dignitary to a traitor and was sentenced to death. The Three Levels Sect, likewise, met much stricter suppression during Xuanzong’s reign. It is very possible that this stele was demolished by then.

More than a century after the demolition, as this article proceeds, the stele should have been reerected in the reconstruction project of Huadu Temple, the headquarter of the Three Levels Sect, after the Huichang Persecution of Buddhism in 846. Xue Ji’s calligraphic style was already hard to recognize by then, in spite of his growing reputation as a calligrapher. Moreover, The Tang idiom claiming the stylistic similarity between Xue Ji and Chu Suiliang is actually a ninth-century legend rather than an eighth-century statement of fact, which means that historically using it to justify Xue Ji’s style is actually misleading. The Three Levels Sect, again, tried to use this re-erected stele to promote itself, but Xue Ji’s calligraphy on the original stele was unfortunately lost in the demolition. Therefore, the Three Levels Sect, following this late Tang idiom, replaced Xue Ji’s calligraphy with Chu Suiliang’s, which caused the stylistic similarity between Stele for Chan Master Xinxing and Chu Suiliang’s calligraphic works and the distinctive stylistic difference between Stele for Chan Master Xinxing and the genuine works of Xue Ji, such as Stele for the Crown Prince Who Ascended as an Immortal and Epitaph of Fang Xianzhong. Thus, as an exceptional case in the history of Chinese calligraphy, Stele for Chan Master Xinxing is a genuine Northern Song rubbing but taken from a fake Tang stele. A genuine rubbing from a fake stele as it is, this work should not be treated as a benchmark for Xue Ji’s calligraphy.