Xinchang’s Digital Steles began as a simple effort to prevent the words carved in stone from disappearing. The steles collected here come from my father’s hometown, Xinchang, a small county in Zhejiang that was once at the heart of Wu–Yue culture. These stele inscriptions bear witness to the profound history of local governance, family relationships, and everyday life, all of which are fragments of a society that rarely appears in written history.

I started this project to make those stories visible again. Thanks to modern technology, each stele has been digitised, translated, and carefully verified to build what may be China’s first county-level bilingual epigraphy database, created by and for young researchers, so that this history can be read by anyone, anywhere.

The first stage of the project includes around sixty steles. Future stages will expand to all 200+ steles in Xinchang and, hopefully, to other counties across China, to form a broader network to preserving local heritage. As this is only the first stage of the project, and since every translation and digitisation was completed independently by me, some inaccuracies may remain. If you notice any errors, I would be truly grateful if you could let me know at the email address below. I will certainly continue to edit and improve this site.

I am deeply grateful to Mr Yu Guozhang, independent local researcher and field collector, whose years of documentation — including the photographs used here — made this work possible.

I hope this archive reminds us that even when stone erodes, whispers of memories and history will not fade — as long as someone listens closely enough and chooses to remember.

“新昌数字碑刻”的初衷是想让镌刻在石头上的文字免于湮没。这些碑石来自我父亲的故乡——曾是吴越文化腹地的浙东小城新昌。碑铭中记载的官政民事、家族脉络与市井烟火，都是正史鲜少着墨的碎片。

我启动这个项目，是希望让尘封的故事重见天光。借助现代技术，每一方碑刻都经过数字化处理、译文校勘与反复考证，力图构建中国首个县域双语金石数据库。这是由青年学人自发创建、为青年研究者服务的平台，只为让这段历史能被任何人在任何角落自由读取。

项目首期收录约六十通碑刻，未来将逐步拓展至新昌境内全部二百余通碑刻，并期待能走向华夏更多的县城，织就守护乡土记忆的星火网络。鉴于目前仅是第一阶段成果，且所有译校工作皆由笔者独立完成，疏漏之处在所难免。若您发现任何谬误，恳请通过文末邮箱指正，我会不断完善网站内容。

衷心感谢独立地方文史研究者、田野采集者俞国璋先生。他经年累月记录的碑文拓片与现场照片——包括本项目所使用的影像——使这项工作成为可能。

愿这座碑林提醒我们：纵使顽石会风化，记忆与历史的余响不会消散——只要这世间还有人侧耳倾听，还有人选择铭记。

Bobby Liu 刘植

email: bobby_liuzhi@outlook.com