An Archaeological Study On Epitaphs Of Song Dynasty

This is a thesis on the published epitaphs of the Song Dynasty.Epitaph,which is buried in the tomb with a fixed style recording tomb owner’s name,birthplace,biography and genealogy,is a relatively fixed shape of the utensils.With the vigorous development of archeology field work,the number of Song Dynasty epitaphs is growing rapidly.However,the work of carding and studying their shapes and ornamentation is rather weak.This thesis uses the archaeological typology to describe the overall appearance of the epitaphs in Song Dynasty from the perspectives of texture,shape and decoration themes.This paper uses the inscription of epitaphs to obtain the owners’ identity information,combines with the official system in the political history and class system in the social history of the Song Dynasty and establishes the relationship between the size of the epitaph and identity of the tomb owner,and discusses the hierarchy of the Song Dynasty epitaphs.Finally,this thesis compares the historical documents with unearthed epitaphs,and describes the epitaph culture of Song Dynasty clearly.This thesis consists the following components:The first chapter is the introduction,which clarifies the research objects and methods of this article,and summarizes the archaeology discoveries,excerpts and past researches of epitaphs in the Song Dynasty.The second chapter is about the texture of the epitaphs.It discusses the epitaphs of other textures such as brick(pottery),porcelain,iron and writings-on-the-tomb-wall,in addition to the common stone epitaphs,in great detail.The third chapter is about the archaeological typology of stone epitaphs in Song Dynasty.It describes the shapes and ornamentations of the stone epitaphs,whose common forms are box-shaped and tablet-shaped,and summarizes its decorative features.Box-shaped epitaphs can be divided into casket top,flat top,Xieshan top and cover-and-stone.Decorative themes of box-shaped epitaphs are four symbols(Tsing lung,White tiger,rosefinch,basaltic),Chinese Zodiac,auspicious animals,official figures,the Eight Diagrams,elegy,geometric patterns,plant decorations,morie and imitation wood decorations.The tablet-shaped epitaphs can be divided into square head,round head and Gui head.Decorative themes of tablet-shaped epitaphs are plant decorations,figures,morie,Beichuan,geometric patterns and Fengdu mountain map.The fourth chapter is the relationship between the epitaphs and the identity of the tomb owners.According to the official system and society situation in Song Dynasty,the tomb owners’ status can be divided into imperial clan,former civilian officials before Yuanfeng new official system,latter civilian official after Yuanfeng new official system,former military officials before Yuanfeng new system,latter military officials after new system,mandated woman,non-mandated woman and the common people.In this chapter,the published epitaphs are classified according to the different statues of the tomb owners,the shape and size of the epitaphs in Song Dynasty are sorted out chronologically,the changing rules of epitaph sizes and the transition time of epitaph shapes are concluded.The fifth chapter is the discussion about historical documents and unearthed epitaphs.This part investigates the official government documents and other social-oriented private etiquette writings,compares with the actual situation of epitaphs in Song Dynasty,and depicts the process of gradual compromise between the official laws and regulations and the social reality.