峄山刻石 Stone Carving at Yi Mountain

High Museum 展出的峄山刻石篆文到底写了些什么?

If you have had the chance to visit terracotta army at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, you would have seen a big wall full of huge characters. Those characters are in the Zhuan form of Chinese characters which are the standradized Chinese characters under China’s first Emperor Qin Shihuang, as shown below:

yashan keshi
yishan keshi

正面、左侧面刊刻颂扬秦始皇功绩文字,背面刻秦二世诏书。小篆体,每面5行,共222字.

It is actually a poem with 222 characters, with four characters per line:

皇帝立国,惟初在昔,嗣世称王。

讨伐乱逆,威动四极,武义直 方。

戎臣奉诏,经时不久,灭六暴强。

廿有六年,上荐高号,孝道显明。

既献泰成,乃降专惠,亲巡远方。

登于峄山,群臣从者,咸思攸长。

追念乱世,分土建邦, 以开争理。

功战日作,流血于野。

自泰古始,世无万数,他及五帝,莫能禁止。

乃今皇帝,一家天下。兵不复起,灾害灭除。

黔首康定,利泽长久。群臣诵略,刻此 乐石,以著经纪。