Xi'an Beilin Museum.

The Xi'an Beilin Museum was expanded from the "Xi'an Beilin" with a history of more than 900 years. The Beilin was first built in the second year of the Yuan Dynasty of the Northern Song Dynasty (1087) to preserve the Tang Dynasty "Kaicheng Stone Sutra", "Shitai Filial Sutra" and the inscriptions of famous calligraphers such as Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan. This historical origin gives the Xi'an Beilin Museum a unique advantage in the collection of inscriptions. After the maintenance and expansion of the Jin, Yuan, Ming, Qing and the Republic of China, the scale of Xi'an Beilin has continued to expand and the collection of stones has increased. In 1944, the Shaanxi Provincial Government established the Shaanxi Provincial Museum (later renamed the Xi'an Beilin Museum) on this basis, making it an art museum mainly for the collection, research and display of inscriptions, tombstones and stone carvings of the past dynasties. The Xi'an Beilin Museum is not only one of the earliest museums in China, but also the earliest and largest museum in China for the collection of ancient inscriptions. Its collection system is complete, the volume is huge, and the value is extremely high. It is known as the "Treasure House of Chinese Civilization", "The Source of Stone Carvings" and "The Ancestral Court of Calligraphy Art". In 1961, Xi'an Beilin was listed as the first batch of key cultural relics protection units by the State Council; in 2008, it was awarded the "National Patriotism Education Demonstration Base"; in 2008, it was rated as the first batch of "National First-Class Museums"; in 2018, it was rated as a national AAAAA-level tourist attraction. The collections of the Xi'an Beilin Museum are mainly inscriptions, tombstones, stone carvings, precious ancient books, calligraphy and paintings since the Han Dynasty. They are numerous and of high quality. Among them, many inscriptions not only have high artistic value, but also have important historical value, providing valuable historical materials for the study of religious history and ancient Chinese and Western cultural exchanges.