The Chibi Cliff No. 8 stone carving, which had been dormant for hundreds of years, was finally brought to light thanks to the collaboration of multidisciplinary forces.Recently, a team from the School of History of Wuhan University, in collaboration with the Chibi Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism and the Chibi Three Kingdoms Ancient Battlefield Management Co., Ltd., successfully deciphered the main content of this long-lost stone carving.
This marks the first time that the group of cliff carvings with the theme of the Three Kingdoms, which has the largest number of existing ones in my country and the longest historical span, has been fully readable.
As a national key cultural relic protection unit, the Chibi Cliff Carvings Group has 10 stone carvings. It was also selected into the list of "China's Famous Monuments and Carvings" in 2023. It is an important support for Hubei to build a world-class Three Kingdoms cultural tourism destination.
Among them, the stone carving No. 8 has been a difficult point in academic research for more than a hundred years due to its age, severe weathering, and blurry handwriting.
Location of stone carving No. 8
In this study, the team innovatively used high-precision three-dimensional scanning and digital image enhancement technology, combined with textual research on handed down documents and comparison of inscription styles, to gradually restore the original appearance of the stone carvings.
It was finally confirmed that this stone carving was the poem "Red Cliff" written by Xu Ke, the right deputy censor of the capital and governor of Huguang in the Ming Dynasty, when he visited Red Cliff in the eighth year of Hongzhi (1495).
I have seen broken halberds and empty trenches, and separatist regimes often cherish war and cut down labor. The sails of the southern country hang over the Xiang River, and the smoke of the northern river rises high into the sky. Longzhong planned to survive in the Han Dynasty, and promised that his clothes and clothes would belong to Cao Cao. I wonder how many times the moon is accompanied by Shitouji and the black magpie scatters in Lingao.
The poem not only depicts the magnificent scene of the ancient battlefield in Chibi, but also expresses its recognition of the orthodoxy of the Han Dynasty, providing precious material for studying the Ming Dynasty scholars' understanding of the history of the Three Kingdoms.
This interpretation of the stone carvings further confirms the documentary records and adds strong evidence to the view that the ancient battlefield of the Three Kingdoms was located in Puqi.