In 971 AD, a single block of sandstone was carved to mark a fragile peace. This was the third year of the Mingzheng era of the Dali Kingdom. Regional conflicts had plagued the eastern borderlands until Duan Zizhen, uncle to King Duan Sushun, led forces to stabilize the area. He gathered the chieftains of thirty-seven Wuman tribes at Shicheng, modern-day Qujing. To seal their pact, the leaders sacrificed animals, tasted blood, and swore mutual non-aggression.

The monument they left behind is a rectangular slab of sandstone, measuring 1.25 meters high, 0.58 meters wide, and 0.16 meters thick, standing without a supporting base. Its surface holds 212 characters written in a robust running-regular script that mirrors the style of Tang Dynasty master Li Yong. The layout challenges traditional scribal rules. The upper section contains eleven vertical columns of narrative text designed to be read from left to right. Below this, a list of eight vertical columns containing the names and titles of Dali officials—such as Buxie and Dushuang—reverses direction, reading from right to left.

For centuries, the stone lay forgotten in the cool, damp earth. In 1679, laborers accidentally unearthed its dark, coarse-grained body in the northern outskirts of Qujing. In 1849, a local scholar named Yu Huaixin rescued the monument from neglect. He moved it to the Kui Pavilion, embedding it into a wall for safety, and carved his own historical notes onto the forehead of the stone.

Violence threatened the monument again during the warlord conflicts of 1927. Local protectors buried the stone deep in the soil to shield it from artillery fire. In January 1937, the Yunnan Provincial Education Department funded a protective pavilion at Qujing Middle School, bringing the stone back into the light. Today, it stands in the Cuan Culture Museum, a rare physical record of medieval diplomacy. Visitors can run their eyes over the uneven chisel marks, feeling the weight of an ancient treaty that survived both the decay of empires and the chaos of modern war.