Ancient stone rubbing

The ancient inscriptions on stone monuments provide evidence to corroborate the chronologies of our nation’s nearly forgotten history. Ingenious techniques for making monumental stone rubbings were invented to preserve records of inscriptions carved in stones, which weather and erode over millennia.

Taking surface impressions by rubbing ink on paper is a method of copying ancient sculptured or incised records onto rice paper. Rubbings have been used for centuries by researchers such as epigraphers, calligraphers, archaeologists, historians and artists to reproduce and preserve the designs and inscriptions on stones, bronze and wood.

Since rubbings can replicate letters and designs engraved in a delicate relief or intaglio in their original size and proportions, the method is quite accurate and relatively easy to master. In some respects, it was even better than sketching or early photography.

Rubbing often creates a sharper and a more legible image than the original inscription or carving. The practice of stone rubbing is presumed to have originated in China in ancient times. The goal was to disseminate sacred religious texts widely. Accuracy could be guaranteed by editing them carefully in a softer material like wood and then engraving them onto stone.

In Korea, Buddhist texts may have been replicated by the use of the rubbing technique during the Three Kingdoms (Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla) and Goryeo periods.

One of the first artists in Korea to use rubbings on a wide scale was Kim Chong-hui (1786-1868), a renowned calligrapher of the 1392-1910 Joseon Kingdom. The technique was elaborated in Korea and a new method for reproducing solid objects was invented, in which replicas of such objects as gravestones and monuments were made by rubbing a crayon or pencil on an overlaid sheet of paper. This technique is called dry rubbing. It is employed widely in Western countries, even by schoolchildren.

Although both dry and wet methods are used in Korea today, the wet method is more popular and precise. Wet rubbing is a cleaner and sharper method for reproducing an original engraving or inscription. Many precious ancient inscriptions and items of relief sculpture have been preserved by rubbings, because mountain cliffs, massive monuments and boulders could not be moved. Although these treasures are best appreciated by viewing them at their original site, rubbings have the advantage of portability and ease of reproduction. They can be viewed and studied anywhere at any time.

Many people keep stone rubbings as fine art in their own homes. When properly mounted and displayed, they are objets d’art almost as beautiful as the originals. Indeed, in transferring an image from hard stone to soft rice paper, something that even the original did not have is created. Every rubbing is, in its own way, a distinctive piece of art.