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"Epitaphs China."
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Entombed Epigraphy and Commemorative Culture \u2028in Early Medieval China
In Entombed Epigraphy and Commemorative Culture Timothy M. Davis presents a history of early muzhiming-the most versatile and persistent commemorative form employed in the elite burials of pre-modern China. While previous scholars have largely overlooked the contemporary religious, social, and cultural functions of these epigraphic objects, this study directly addresses these areas of concern, answering such basic questions as: Why were muzhiming buried in tombs? What distinguishes commemorative biography from dynastic history biography? And why did muzhiming develop into an essential commemorative genre esteemed by the upper classes? Furthermore, this study reveals how aspiring families used muzhiming to satisfy their obligations to deceased ancestors, establish a multi-generational sense of corporate identity, and strengthen their claims to elite status.
eBook
Entombed Epigraphy and Commemorative Culture in Early Medieval China
In Entombed Epigraphy and Commemorative Culture Timothy M. Davis explains the social, cultural, and religious significance of early medieval muzhiming --one of the most versatile and persistent commemorative forms employed in the elite burials of pre-modern China.
eBook
Searching for Traces of the Shi in Tombs of the Jin Dynasty
Scholars of Jin history have noted a flourishing literati culture after the mid-Jin period, but excavated tombs suggest a more complicated picture. The shi , referring to literati without official titles, constituted a prominent group in Northern Song tombs, as evidenced by their epitaphs, but this group appears to have nearly vanished from the Jin tombs. To search for traces of the shi , this article comprehensively examines the social elites’ tombs with burial inscriptions and ink writings, where the shi would most likely be laid to rest. It shows that the text and paratext of epitaphs, as well as the tombs that yielded them, contain direct information about the shi and their interactions with other officials and non-official elites. Analysis of ink writings suggests that the shi played a role in the advanced literary expression in the tombs of some non-literati local elites. Examining these traces of the shi in tombs allows us to reintegrate them into broader society, investigate their interactions with other elites, and attain a more holistic understanding of Jin elite society and culture.
Journal Article
Another Sogdian–Chinese bilingual epitaph
Two stone tablets in the Wangye Museum, Shenzhen, contain a bilingual Sogdian and Chinese epitaph for a Sogdian merchant and his wife, who lived in the northern Chinese city of Ye 鄴 in the late sixth century ce. The two texts are published here for the first time and accompanied by a detailed commentary on philological and historical points of interest.
Journal Article
The tomb of Emperor Sui Yangdi at Caozhuang in Yangzhou City, Jiangsu
In March 2012, two brick-chamber tombs (numbered as 2013YCM1 and 2013YCM2) of the Sui and Tang Dynasties were found at Caozhuang Section of Situ Village in Xihu Town, Hanjiang District, Yangzhou City, Jiangsu. From March through November of that year, a joint archaeological team conducted detection and excavation to these tombs and the surrounding area, but no traces of graveyard were found. In M1, a stone epitaph with text of “Epitaph of the late Emperor Sui Yangdi” and so on was unearthed, the legible contents of which generally match the records in the historic literature. From the two tombs, the diexie belt decorated with 13 sets of jade plaques and gold plates, gilt bronze pushoudoorknockers, jade zhang-scepter, bronze chime bells and chime music stones and crown with phoenix design and other high-ranking and high quality grave goods were unearthed, as well as large amounts of elaborately and true-to-life made pottery human and animal figurines. The discoveries of the stone epitaph and the high-ranking and high quality grave goods fully proved that these two brick-chamber tombs found in Caozhuang are the final graves of Emperor Yangdi and Empress Xiao of the Sui Dynasty.
Journal Article
From restoration to unification: legitimacy and loyalty in the writings of Xu Xuan (917–992)
Works produced by Xu Xuan, a Chinese scholar-official of the tenth century, on either side of the Southern Tang–Song divide reveal the challenges on the issue of loyalty he faced in serving more than one state. Xu's works suggest that a personal transfer of service brought complications for any official seeking to write about the past, but these could be addressed according to context. Under the Song, the requirements of the new orthodoxy forced compromises and concessions in the sentiments he expressed, but he was still able to maintain reverence for the Southern Tang and its achievements.
Journal Article
\My Tomb Will Be Opened in Eight Hundred Years\: A New Way of Seeing the Afterlife in Six Dynasties China
Jie Shi analyzes the sixth-century epitaph of Prince Shedi Huiluo as both a funerary text and a burial object in order to show that the means of achieving posthumous immortality radically changed during the Six Dynasties. Whereas the Han-dynasty vision of an immortal afterlife counted mainly on the imperishability of the tomb itself, Shedi s epitaph predicted that the tomb housing it would eventually be ruined. This new, pessimistic vision of tombs was shaped by the experience people had in the Six Dynasties of encountering numerous ruined tombs in their daily life. To secure an afterlife for the deceased, they adopted a new strategy, which relied on words: they inscribed epitaphs on stone, concealed them in the tombs, and expected that after the tombs fell into ruin the epitaphs would resurface to be read by future audiences.
Journal Article
Evidence of ancient DNA reveals the first European lineage in Iron Age Central China
Various studies on ancient DNA have attempted to reconstruct population movement in Asia, with much interest focused on determining the arrival of European lineages in ancient East Asia. Here, we discuss our analysis of the mitochondrial DNA of human remains excavated from the Yu Hong tomb in Taiyuan, China, dated 1400 years ago. The burial style of this tomb is characteristic of Central Asia at that time. Our analysis shows that Yu Hong belonged to the haplogroup U5, one of the oldest western Eurasian-specific haplogroups, while his wife can be classified as haplogroup G, the type prevalent in East Asia. Our findings show that this man with European lineage arrived in Taiyuan approximately 1400 years ago, and most probably married a local woman. Haplogroup U5 was the first west Eurasian-specific lineage to be found in the central part of ancient China, and Taiyuan may be the easternmost location of the discovered remains of European lineage in ancient China.
Journal Article