The Forest of Stele Museum, a courtyard-styled structure, is situated on the site of the Confucian Temple on Sanxue Street, Xi’an. It served as the Imperial Ancestral Temple in the Song Dynasty. In 1950, it was extended into the museum. The exhibits of the Forest of Stele Museum can be divided into categories: stone tablets and stone sculptures.

The Forest of Stele Museum was originally set up in 1087. The treasure house comprises a large collection of centuries-old stone tablets. Over 3,000 stone tablets from the Han Dynasty through the Qing Dynasty are preserved. The museum houses numerous stone tablets, which looks like a dense forest, hence its name the “Forest of Stone Tablets.” The Forest of Stone Tablets is not only a treasure house of ancient Chinese calligraphy, but also a rich collection of historical documents and stone carvings of various styles. The tablets bear evidence to the cultural achievements recorded in ancient China and the cultural exchanges between China and other countries. No tourist will take the risk of missing the Forest of Stone Tablets, once they visit Xi’an.

The museum, covering an area of 31,000 square meters, is divided into seven major exhibition halls, which mainly displayed ancient calligraphy, historical records and stone carvings.

The first display room houses the “Kaicheng Stone Classics,” including 12 Chinese classics. These 12 classics were required readings for feudal society intellectuals. The classics were engraved on stones as the standard copy so that they could be well kept and men of letters could avoid errors in coping them.

The second display room mainly houses the stone tablets of calligraphy written by famous calligraphers of the Tang Dynasty. Up to today, these tablets have served as models for learners of calligraphy to follow. The world famous “the Nestorian Tablet” is also displayed in this room.

The third display room houses the stone tablets houses a wide variety of Chinese script forms, including seal script, official script, regular script, running script and cursive script. These stone tablets show the evolution of the Chinese writing system.

The fourth display room houses works of poetry in authentic handwriting of the well-known calligraphers from the Song through the Qing dynasities, tablets of historical significance in Ming and Qing dynasties, and some line engravings from the Song through the Qing dynasties.

The fifth display room houses the stone tablets which record such historical facts as temple repair, canal digging and wall mending during the dynasties of Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing. They provide valuable data of reference for the study of feudal society and local history. The sixth display room mainly houses stone tablets of poetry and verses dating back to the dynasties of Yuan, Ming and Qing. The last display room houses “the Secret Court Copybook of Chunhua” in the Song dynasty.