It gained the present name in the 18th century and boasted the largest collection of its kind in China. One of the more striking exhibits is the Forest of Steles, the heaviest collection of books in the world with the earliest of these more than 2,000 large engraved stone tablets dates from the Han dynasty. Most interesting includes an enlargement to the Confucian Classics stone inscriptions in the Tang dynasty. With the successive collections of Steles in the Song, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, it was gradually renovated and expanded like a forest of steles. The Popular Stele of Daiqin Nestorianism, which can be recognizable by the small cross at the tip and engraved in 781 A.D. marks the opening of a Nestorian church.
Collections here are also of high value for exploring Chinese calligraphy history.
Here stand the many tablets engraved with works of many outstanding calligraphers through ages. Through more than 5,000 years of creative work various forms have constituted the abundant treasure and unique traditions of Chinese calligraphy. Some poems of calligraphy are also collected here. The Stone Sculpture Gallery, which was built in 1963, nearby the Forest of Steles has a collection of about 70 scultures and relief carving of unparallel quality. At the end of the gallery are some Buddhist statues, of which the most famous is a very beautiful torso of a bodhisattva, showing strong Indian influence from the Tang period.