Research On Zeng Gong’s Epitaphs

As one of the "Eight Great Prose Writers of the Tang and Song Dynasties",Zeng Gong made great achievements in the field of prose writing.Epitaph as an important part of Zeng Gong’s prose,writing has its own characteristics,but at present in the academic circle received less attention,so this article choose Zeng Gong collections which punctuated and collated by Chen Xingzhen and Chao Jizhou as the study version,which included 60 epitaphs for in-depth study.Zeng Gong was born in the "Gate of Confucianism" and was a typical "mellow Confucian" with an extremely profound background in Confucianism.In the creation of his epitaphs,his adherence to Confucianism is reflected in his inscriptions.Whether in the selection of characters or the evaluation of the tomb owners,Zeng Gong always stood on the Confucian position and based on Confucian morality.On the principle of writing epitaphs,Zeng Gong,as the "direct heir" of Ouyang Xiu,inherited the spirit of "actual record" in Ouyang Xiu’s epitaphs,and with the influence of his family tradition and his own experience as a historian,Zeng Gong always insisted on writing epitaphs in a straightforward manner.Zeng Gong,in his essay Sending a Letter to Ouyang Xiu,stood at the height of "history" and pointed out that epitaphs "are close to history in meaning" and should play the role of using history as a guide.On the basis of this theory,Zeng Gong emphasized that the writing of epitaphs should be close to that of historical biographies,so his epitaphs also showed the characteristics of using historical writing into the epitaphs,mainly in the use of the method of reciprocity,the appropriate details of the selection of materials,and the linguistic descriptions of the mouths and kisses.Zeng Gong’s epitaphs reflect his Buddhist and providential views: in the pagoda inscriptions he wrote for Buddhist monks,he revealed the idea of "supporting Buddhism and supplementing Confucianism",mainly by praising Buddhist sons and daughters with a view to awakening scholars and scholars,thus inspiring them to revitalize Confucianism.In the epitaph he wrote,Zeng Gong expressed the Confucianism of "death is destiny,wealth is in heaven" and often attributed the misfortunes of the deceased to the "destiny of heaven".He was aware of the injustice of human affairs,and although he could not escape the predetermined fate of heaven and earth,he was able to weaken the influence of the "fate of heaven" by his moral integrity in difficult situations,and to relieve himself by "cultivating his body and keeping the path",thus gaining spiritual transcendence.In addition,Zeng Gong is good at discussing and reasoning in his epitaphs,and his strong Confucianism,coupled with Confucianism’s "resentment but not anger",makes his emotions expressed in a subtle and restrained manner,making his epitaphs present the moderate and elegant beauty of Confucianism.In terms of artistic characteristics,he pays attention to the structure of the inscriptions,which is well thought out and rigorous;in the narration of the deeds of the characters,he is plain and simple,and does not pursue strange things.In general,the epitaphs present a calm and soothing,dignified and elegant artistic style.In short,Zeng Gong’s epitaphs reflect distinctive Confucian characteristics from their ideological connotation to their artistic style.Zeng Gong’s writing of epitaphs is based on his own innovations,and is able to stand on its own.The principle of "using historical writing to write epitaphs" makes his epitaphs of great historical value,especially for characters not recorded in the official history,which can play a role in supplementing character information and provide valuable information for studying the deeds of Northern Song characters.In short,Zeng Gong’s literary and historical cultivation promoted the bridging of literature and history in the writing of epitaphs,and had a significant impact on the writing of epitaphs for future generations.