There's the Rub

The Cleveland Museum of Art frequently has small special exhibits that feature objects that have been in storage or which are on loan from other museums.  When I was last at the museum a couple weeks ago in one of the Asian galleries there was a display of rubbings from ancient Chinese stone relief carvings.

It has long been a tradition in China to make rubbings by placing a moist paper over the relief and then tamping the paper with an inkpad to produce an image of the raised areas.  The rubbings in the exhibit were done in the early 20th century and were given to the museum.  They have not been on display since 1916.  They come from two different locations in China...  the Longman Caves in central China which contain Buddhist shrines dating from the 500s to 700s, and the Wu Family Shrines, tombs from the Han Dynasty (AD 25 - 220).

From the Wu Family shrines this relief tells the story of a woman who was blackmailed into assisting in the murder of her husband.  She pretended to cooperate.  The murderers came at night to kill the husband in his bed.  The next morning they realized that they had murdered the wife, who had taken her husband's place in bed.

This relief showing a procession of figures, riders and chariots is also from the Wu Family Shrines.

This relief from the Longman Caves was commissioned by Emperor Xuanwa in the 1st century AD to honor his deceased parents.  The central figure is his mother, the late Empress.

Another relief shows Xuanwa's father, the late Emperor, along with his attendants, making an offering to the shrine of Buddha in the cave.