Stone monuments, steles and tablets were erected to serve as a memorial or record for future generations. This is a practice that has existed from the ancient times to the modern day. These carvings range from the Stone Drum Inscriptions of the Zhou dynasty, Qin Shi Huang's stone carvings, Eastern Han's The Xiping Stone Classics and The Stone Carvings of the Wuliang Shrine to the diverse and abundant stone monuments that have survived the ages. Their functions were to extol virtues, praise great deeds, reward righteousness, declare loyalty, proclaim filial piety, announce success, and record events. The stone memorials from later times not only emphasized the content and styles of language, the actual carving and body of the stone had also become more refined. These monuments are an integration of literature, calligraphy and the art of sculpture, and have become important research objects with historical and artistic value.

The National Taiwan Library collaborated with the Department of History, National Chengkung University to implement the "Plan of arranging and collecting the rubbings of the stone carvings currently in the region of Taiwan" in 1990. This plan collected over 2,000 rubbings of stone carvings with historical significance, and the basic information of the stone carvings were also recorded. The National Taiwan Library houses all originals and copies of the stone rubbings as described above as valuable resources to Taiwan's stone carving history. In addition, the publication "Existing Stone Monuments in the Taiwan Region" was produced as an important first-hand aid to fieldwork.

In 2002, the National Central Library obtained the permission of The National Taiwan Library and Professor He Peifu of National Chengkung University to digitalize and archive the original rubbings of the 2000-plus stone carvings described above, and to provide online searching and viewing to the public. For authorization and usage of the digital files, please contact the National Taiwan Library.