A workflow for deciphering a deeply weathered Chibi cliff inscription

Deeply weathered stone inscriptions often remain physically visible even after their carved grooves have become too shallow to be recovered reliably by rubbings or ordinary photography. We test a perception–recognition–verification workflow on Inscription No. 8 at Chibi, Hubei, which has long been regarded as unreadable. Handheld 3D capture and two-stage enhancement increased the number of readable traces from about 15 to 39 characters or character fragments, of which 23 met our conservative secure-trace criteria. Because direct image-based recognition remained unstable, AI was used chiefly to narrow the range of plausible authors, historical settings, and documentary leads based on these secure traces and their spatial relations. Verification against morphology, poetic form, gazetteers, and dynastic histories supports the identification of the inscription as Xu Ke’s seven-character regulated verse Chibi (1495), with one local reading requiring philological emendation.