A literary study of the epitaph inscriptions of Northern dynasties = 北朝墓誌的文學研究

Abstract

Literatures produced in in the Northern dynasties has long been neglected by scholars and scarcity in literary texts further suppresses scholars’ passion to study the literary creations in this period in depth. Worse still, in general, literatures of Northern dynasties have long been considered that they are inferior to those in the Southern dynasties. Indeed, literatures of Northern dynasties may not be perfect and comparable to those canonical texts written by grand masters from the south. Does it mean that it is not worthwhile to conduct a literary study on the works produced in the North? Luckily, in the past century, numerous stone inscriptions were unearthed and particularly, epitaph inscriptions are the majority among the unearthed stone inscriptions, and some of them are considered as well written and praised by scholars due to its beautiful language usage. These unearthed stone inscriptions offer us a chance to explore the literary creation in the Northern dynasties and are the main theme of this thesis.

This thesis is mainly divided into five sections. The first chapter services as an introduction of the thesis. The main research questions, past studies, methodologies and expected findings and contributions are introduced in the chapter. The second chapter cover various important topics in the study of epitaph inscriptions, such as the origins, applications, contents, structure are discussed. It aims at summarizing, further analyzing and clarifying the findings from scholars in the past. The third chapter aims to explore the thoughts, ideas and cultures reflected in the epitaph inscriptions from interdisciplinary approaches. Main focuses are on the notion of clan, human natures, life, and ideal personalities. The fourth chapter focuses on analyzing the literary techniques that commonly found in the epitaph inscriptions. It aims at digging the literary values out of the inscriptions and exploring the capabilities of those unknown writer in the Northern dynasties. The fifth chapter concludes the findings of the study.

It is hoped that this thesis could outline and review the features and values of the epitaph inscriptions in the Northern dynasties, and more importantly, enrich the field of literary study of the Northern dynasties.