Fùpíng

Fuping lies between the Guanzhong plain and the northern loess uplands. Its hills yield a fine dark stone valued for carving and for musical stone chimes. Craftsmen used the material for tomb figures, steles and inscriptions, leaving works from the Tang through the Ming and Qing. Under the Yuan, the master carver Zhao Xin led more than two hundred stoneworkers from the region to the capital, where they worked on temples and inscriptions. The skill of Fuping's artisans thus travelled far beyond their home quarries.