In fact, there is a difference between carved stone and stone tablet. For example, Mr. Ma Heng's "The Story of the Stone" said: "People say that writing articles with stones is called a monument", but it is not. The prosperity of stone carving was in the Han dynasty, which was called stone carving in ancient times. Qin Shihuang talked about the sea, and his ministers talked about it:' The ancient emperors ... still carved stones for their own discipline. ..... Today, the emperor is in a sea ... Ministers read the achievements of the emperor and carved them on stones to show classics. Therefore, the carvings in the eastbound counties are called stone carvings, and they were never called monuments at first. The name of the tablet began in the Zhou Dynasty, and it was designed for practical purposes, not for carving tablets. The Book of Rites Sacrifices says,' You take the lead in offering sacrifices ... and it's beautiful in the temple gate', which is called the temple gate monument. The Book of Rites Tan Gong is regarded as a monument by the public, also known as a tombstone. "
The monument at the temple gate is made of stone and has exquisite sacrifices to measure the scene (shadow) of the sun. The stone tablet in the tomb is made of wood, and the coffin is lowered by rope (see Book of Rites, Bride's Gift, Book of Rites, Tan Gong). "... lettering on stone tablets is something after the Han Dynasty, and it has nothing to do with ancient lettering. But there are also so-called monuments in legends, so we can't ignore the authenticity of ancient sculptures. Liu Xizai's "Interpretation of Names" said: "The tablet is also a quilt, which was erected when this book was buried. Shilulu put a rope on it and led it to the coffin. The courtiers pursue the beauty of your father's merits and write it on it. Because of its ignorance, later generations built it at the head of the road and named it a monument. " "Feng Shiwen Ji Jian" said: "Monument is a pillar of the coffin when princes all over the world are buried. There is a hole in it. They hung the coffin with a fiber rope and took it away for safety. The case was closed because of the coffin. The father of a courtier or scholar was cut on the tablet. Later, I stood at the mouth of the tunnel, so I called it a tombstone, which is also the way of the gods. "
From the above records, we can clearly know that the original intention of erecting a monument is as follows: ① In the ancestral hall of ancient slave owners and nobles, the neutral stone in the courtyard is Xikou, which is called a monument; (2) When the ancients were buried, there were vertical trees in the tomb and holes were punched under the coffin. Later, it was replaced by stone, and the life merits of the deceased were engraved on it, which was the ancestor of the tombstone. (3) Setting a monument to measure the sun's shadow (timing). As can be seen from the inscription on the stone tablet, the ancient feudal emperors carved stones in order to collect Zen and record merits, such as Qin Shihuang's contribution to Yishan. The custom of erecting monuments to the dead developed greatly in the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
The original meaning of the monument is a vertical stone without words, that is, the earliest monument in China, without carving, just as a symbol. For example, in Zhou Palace, you can see the ancestral temple and the lower coffin. Later, it gradually developed into a tablet engraved with words, which was used to engrave the words that made contributions to show virtue. The inscriptions people see now have two meanings: wide and narrow. In a narrow sense, it is just one of many kinds of stone carvings; Broadly speaking, it refers to all kinds of stone carvings. Stone carvings are collectively called monuments, and they have not started recently. Ye once said in Qing Dynasty: "Any stone carving is a monument, and it must start after the Han Dynasty." Therefore, after the extension of the meaning, except the post, it is the floorboard of all stone carvings engraved with words.