The Yuan An Stele is an extremely rare Han Dynasty tombstone written in seal script. The inscription has 10 lines and 15 characters in each line. The content mainly records Yuan An's life. It is basically the same as "Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Biography of Yuan An", but more concise. There is a round stele on the stele between the fifth and sixth rows, right in the stele, which is the only one seen in Han dynasty stele. Because the stele was discovered relatively late, its characters are as sharp as new, its calligraphy is rich and ancient, majestic and colorful, its lines are slender and graceful, its body is strong and smooth, and its elegance and harmony are dignified and upright. It is a masterpiece of the Han Dynasty
A typical representative of seal script. Fei Shengqian, a modern calligrapher, commented on "Yuan An Stele": "The strokes on this stele are thin and strong, slender but thick, the structure is broad and broad, the strokes are round and even, and the characters are clear, which can be used to learn seal script and obtain rare books."
Like other inscriptions at that time, "Yuan An Stele" is an anonymous work without the author's name. Mr. Qi Gong once made an interesting comment on the characteristics of the seal script of this stele: "The font is not rounded, but slightly squared, which increases the steady effect. This writing method actually dates back to the Qin Dynasty. The stone carving has already revealed it, and several good seal script works later have this characteristic."
It can be seen that in order to increase the steady artistic effect, "Yuan An Stele" has its "slightly added". Fang’s personality traits. For example, "Situ Gong Runan" and other characters, except for the "Gong" character, are all square and long, which is not only stable, but also a bit steep. The lines of the seal script advocate "gentle and smooth". From this perspective, no matter which word or stroke on "Yuan An Stele", they all show the beauty of smooth curves and smooth straight lines. It is worth noting that compared with the Qin seal script represented by "Taishan Carved Stone" and "Yishan Carved Stone", the Han seal script has also changed from the rounded and rounded order of Qin seal script to slightly more lifting. The flavor of harmonious folding, such as the slight lifting of the middle stroke next to the word "水" in the stele, which is closer to the middle and upper part, the short horizontal stroke next to the word "扌" in the word "give" and the turning of the "一" next to the word "Receive" The changes are just a few obvious ones.
However, whether it is the structure of the characters or the use of pens, they are two inseparable aspects that are unified in the entire calligraphy text shape. The "slightly squared" glyph combined with graceful and smooth lines makes it appear strong yet graceful. The graceful and smooth lines combined with the "slightly squared" glyphs give it a slightly brighter and more elegant look. Since "Yuan An's Monument" has some lifting and square folding treatments on the lines, in terms of its overall artistic effect, the strokes are round, the lines are smooth, the bones are strong, soft yet rigid, the fonts are square, and the structure is Strict, dignified, graceful, steady and simple, it is a masterpiece of Xiaozhuan calligraphy in the Han Dynasty, ranking first among the Xiaozhuan calligraphy in the Han Dynasty.
There is a certain amount of controversy in academic circles regarding the date when Yuan An’s monument was erected. One view is that Yuan An's stele was erected in the fourth year of Yongyuan (92). The reason for this view is because at the end of the stele there is "Yuan An died in Guichou in the fourth year of Yongyuan (third) and was buried at noon in the leap month." In other words, the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" contains the documentary record that Yuan Anyongyuan "died in the spring of the fourth year; the court regretted it". The cultural relics and documents are consistent. This seems to be in line with the "double evidence method" proposed by Mr. Wang Guowei; another It is believed that the Yuan An stele was not erected in the fourth year of Yongyuan. Questioning the reason why Yuan An's stele was erected in the fourth year of Yongyuan is mainly based on a key word in Yuan An's stele - Emperor Xiaohe. Emperor Xiaohe is the posthumous title of Liu Zhao, the third emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Yuan An's stele says "Emperor Xiaohe" indicates that Emperor Xiaohe had already passed away when this inscription was erected. According to the records of "Book of the Later Han: Chronicles of Emperor Xiaohe and Xiaozhang", Emperor Xiaohe passed away in the first year of Yuanxing (106).