Yunnan's ancient inscriptions go digital

An ancient books preservation center in southwest China's Yunnan Province is building an image database of inscription rubbings to preserve cultural resources.

Inscription rubbing is the practice of creating an image based on stone inscriptions on paper. The image records features such as natural textures, inscribed patterns or engraved lettering.

Yunnan has a rich tradition of inscriptions and engraving dating back to China's Jin Dynasty (265-420), which record the social, economic and cultural development such as education, water systems, religion and historic events.

Wang Shuiqiao, head of the ancient books preservation center, said that due to accelerating urbanization in Yunnan in recent years, a large number of ancient inscriptions were disappearing.

In 2016, the center started to collect rubbings of the ancient inscriptions across the province and establish an image database for preservation of cultural resources.

More than 1,500 kinds of inscription rubbings totaling 6,100 images have been collected and half of them have been put online by Yunnan Ancient Books Digital Library for free public access.