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Coping with the Loss of a Child: Evidence from Tang Funerary Writing
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 February 2022
Abstract
Based on a close reading of 118 Tang epitaphs for those who died young, this paper explores how Tang parents remembered and recounted their children's lives as well as factors that contributed to the rise of intense expression of mourning. It finds that while descriptions in epitaphs for adults largely followed Confucian ideals of life course and gender roles, the epitaphs for the young are much less formulaic, allowing space and latitude for parents and families to impart anecdotes and emotions. More importantly, it argues that the rise of epitaphs for children (especially for daughters in the ninth century) reflected a strong influence of Buddhist perception of death and Buddhist mourning rituals. As a result, Tang parents ignored the restrictions and decorum stipulated in The Book of Rites and mourned their children with outward grief, regardless their age and gender.
Keywords
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Journal of Chinese History 中國歷史學刊 , Volume 6 , Special Issue 2: Family Relations in Chinese History , July 2022 , pp. 247 - 267
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press
References
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9 For example, Chiu-Duke, Josephine, “Mothers and the Well-being of the State In Tang China,” Nannü 8.1 (2006), 55–114Google Scholar; Chen Jo-shui 陳弱水, “Shi tan Tangdai funü yu benjia de guanxi” 試探唐代婦女與本家的關係,” Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology 68.1 (1997), 167–248; Zheng Yaru 鄭雅如 (Cheng Ya-ju), “Zhonggu shiqi de muzi guanxi—xingbie yu Han Tang zhijian de jiatingshi yanjiu” 中古時期的母子關係一性別與漢唐之間的家庭史研究, in Li Zhende 李貞德 (Jen-der Lee), Zhongguoshi xinlun-xingbieshi fence 中國史新論—性別史分冊 (Taipei: Lianjing Chubanshe, 2009), 192–199.
10 Pei-yi Wu, “Childhood Remembered: Parents and Children in China, 800 to 1700,” in Kinney, Chinese Views of Childhood, 129–56.
11 Wang Pu 王溥 [922–982], Tang huiyao 唐会要, juan 85.
12 “Sangfu zhuan 喪服傳,” The Book of Rites.
13 Dong Gao 董誥 [1740–1818] et al., Quan Tang wen 全唐文, reprint (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju 1983, hereafter QTW). A total of 925 Tang funeral inscriptions are collected in this anthology.
14 Hu Ji 胡戟 and Rong Xinjiang 榮新江, Da Tang Xishi Bowuguan cang muzhi 大唐西市博物館藏墓誌 (Beijing: Beijing Daxue Chubanshe, 2012). Out of 500 epitaphs collected in XSMZ, 457 of them are from the Tang dynasty.
15 Zhao Liguang 趙力光, et. al, Xi'an Beilin Bowuguan xincang muzhi huibian 西安碑林博物館新藏墓誌匯編 (Beijing: Xianzhuang Shuju, 2007, hereafter, BLMZ) and Xi'an Beilin Bowuguan xincang muzhi huibian xuji 西安碑林博物館新藏墓誌續編 (Xi'an: Shaanxi Shifan Daxue Chubanshe, 2020, hereafter, BLMZXB). Out of 381 epitaphs collected BLMZ, 346 of them are from the Tang dynasty, the number for BLMZXB are 207 out of 231.
16 Liu's title name is Hebei Zhengjing Moxiangge zhuren 河北正定墨香阁主人 (Master of Fragrant Pavilion Ink in Zhengding, Hebei).
17 Zhou Shaoliang 周紹良 and Zhao Chao 趙超, Tangdai muzhi huibian xuji 唐代墓誌彙編續集 (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 2002, hereafter, XJ).
18 XSMZ 452.
19 “Shangshang Gaoshi muzhiming” 上殤高氏墓誌銘, QTW 216. Gao died in 686 at the age of 17 sui.
20 “Quanshi shangzi muzhiming bing xu” 權氏殤子墓誌銘並序, MZHB Yuanhe 102. The granddaughter of the deceased Quan Deyu 權德輿 (759–818) passed away in 817 at the age of 9 sui.
21 “Tang gu Liushi zhangshangnü muzhiming bing xu” 唐故柳氏長殤女墓誌銘並序, MZHB Huichang 42. The epitaph was dedicated to a Miss Liu who died in 845 at the age of 16 sui.
22 MZHB Yuanhe 001. The lid of the epitaph is not extant. Other cases include MZHB Zhenguan080, Dali036, Zhenyuan109, Dazhong112, Xiantong 002, Xiantong 099, and QTW juan 566.
23 “Nü Na kuangming” 女挐壙銘, QTW 566.
24 “Tang gu Zhengshi dizhangshang muji” 唐故鄭氏嫡長殤墓記, MZHB Yuanhe 090.
25 MZHB Dali 038. The lid of the epitaph is not extant.
26 “Da Zhou gu Jinghzao Du Bing muzhiming bing xu” 大周故京兆男子杜並墓誌銘並序, MZHB Changan 007.
27 “Tang gu zanshan daifu zeng shichijiedudu Yuanzhou zhujunshi Yuanzhou cishi ci zijinyudai shangzhuguo Zhoufujun muzhiming bing xu” 唐故贊善大夫贈使持節都督原州諸軍事原州刺史賜紫金魚袋上柱國周府君墓志銘並序, XJ Qianyuan 005.
28 “Tang Henan Yuanfujun furen Yingyang Zhengshi muzhiming” 唐河南元府君夫人滎陽鄭氏墓誌銘, in Zhu Jincheng 朱金城, Bai Juyi ji jianjiao 白居易集笺校 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1988), 2718.
29 XSMZ 422.
30 Collection of Liu Xiufeng.
31 Pengzu (ca. 1237 or 1214–1100 BCE) is a legendary Daoist deity who lived for more than 800 years.
32 “Tang Bohaiwang wudaisun Chen Xu Yin Cai guancha panguan jiancha yushi lixing Li Rengshu sisui nü Desun muzhiming bing xu” 唐渤海王五代孫陳許溵蔡觀察判官監察御史裏行李仍叔四歲女德孫墓誌銘並序, MZHB Yuanhe 120.
33 Ruoguan 弱冠, the year of capping, refers to the age of 20. The author probably intentionally used the term as a consolation to the family, as Wang Lie died a few years before reaching the age of capping.
34 Hairuo 海若 was the God of the Sea; Feng Yi 馮夷 was the God of the Yellow River.
35 “Leaping into this cowry gate, [he] went to that pearl court” alludes to Qu Yuan's poem “The River Earl” (Hebo 河伯).
36 These thirty epitaphs came from the following collections: Zhao Wanli 趙萬里, Han Wei Nan Bei chao muzhi jishi 漢魏南北朝墓誌集釋 (Taipei: Dingwen Shuju, 1972); Zhao Chao 趙超, Han Wei Nan Bei chao muzhi huibian 漢魏南北朝墓誌彙編 (Tianjin: Tianjin Guji Chubanshe, 1992); Yu Ping 于平, Zhongguo lidai muzhi huibian 中國歷代墓誌彙編 (Tianjin: Tianjin Guji Chubanshe, 1992); Wu Shuping 吳樹平and Wu Ning'ou 吳甯歐, Sui Tang Wudai muzhi huibian 隋唐五代墓誌彙編 (Tianjin: Tianjin Guji Chubanshe, 1992); Luo Xin 羅新 and Ye Wei 葉煒, Xinchu Wei Jin Nan Bei chao muzhi shuzheng 新出魏晉南北朝墓誌疏證 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 2005). Among them, only one epitaph, “Li Jingxun muzhi” 李靜訓墓誌, dated in 608, was dedicated to a girl. One possibility of such omission might be because these epitaphs were not written by parents.
37 “Shangshang Gaoshi muzhiming,” QTW 216.
38 MZHB Tianbao 15, Yuanhe 90, Huichang 42, Xiantong 009, and QTW 216.
39 XSMZ 422 and 455.
40 MZHB Tianbao 149, QTW 581 (Liu Zongyuan for his daughter).
41 For a translation of Quan Deyu's epitaph for his grandson, see, Anna Shields, “A Married Daughter and a Grandson,” in Chinese Funerary Biographies: An Anthology of Remembered Lives, edited by Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Ping Yao, and Cong Ellen Zhang (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2019), 72–74.
42 QTW 679.
43 MZHB Dahe 016.
44 MZHB Xiantong 103.
45 Wu Hung, “Private Love and Public Duty: Images of Children in Early Chinese Art,” in Kinney, Chinese Views of Childhood, 82.
46 “Zi Jing fu Fengxianxian yonghuai wubaizi” 自京赴奉先縣詠懷五百字. Peng Dingqiu 彭定求 [1645–1719], et. al., Quan Tang shi 全唐詩 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2008 reprint, hereafter, QTS), 216.
47 “Ku xiaonü Xiangzhen” 哭小女降真 and “Ku nü Fan sishi yun” 哭女樊四十韻, QTS 404.
48 “Ku zi shishou” 哭子十首, QTS 404.
49 Wu Hung, 1995, 138–40.
50 For an excellent study of the script as well as Buddhist influence on Tang perception of death, see, Teiser, Stephen F., “‘Having Once Died and Returned to Life’: Representations of Hell in Medieval China,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 48.2 (1988), 433–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
51 Stein 2630, transcribed in Huang Zheng 黃征 and Zhang Yongquan 張湧泉, eds. Dunhuang bianwen jiaozhu 敦煌變文校註 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1997), 319–332. Although the text was dated 906, the tale was widely circulated not long after Taizong's death in 649. See, Gao Guofan 高國藩, Dunhuang Suwenhua xue 敦煌俗文化學 (Shanghai: Sanlian Shudian, 1999), 349–84.
52 For a discussion on the connections between Buddhist perception of the netherworld and the popularity of minghun, see Yao, Ping, “Until Death Do Us Unite: Afterlife Marriages in Tang China, 618–906.” Journal of Family History 27.3 (2002), 207–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
53 Stein1727. Huang Yongwu 黄永武, et.al., Dunhuang baozaong 敦煌寶藏 (Taipei: Xinwenfeng chuban gongsi, 1981), vol. 13, 104–5.
54 The colophon was dated in 900. See Ikeda On 池田温, Chūgoku kodai shahon shikigo shūroku 中國古代寫本識語集錄 (Tokyo: Tōkyō daigaku Tōyō bunka kenkyūjo,1990), 438. For discussions of Buddhist influence on burial for children, see, Jiang Qinjian 蔣勤儉, “Dunhuang wenxue zhong de chanyu minsu yanjiu” 敦煌文學中的產育民俗研究 (PhD Dissertation, Yunnan University, 2015), 187–204.
55 Two of them were probably for adult children (I.O.Ch.00267 and S1171), but the rest were likely for unmarried children, though there is no evidence of their age. They are S.592 (a mother for her daughter, dated 688), Shangtu 上图 026 (a father for his son, 707), P.3031 (a father for his son, 712), Beihongzi 北洪字71 (a father for his son, 766), S. 2924 (a father for his son, 8th century), and S.2564 (a parent for the daughter, 8th century).
56 For example, Lu Zhaolin 盧照鄰 (634–689), “Yizhou zhangshi Hu Shuli wei wangnü zaohua zan” 益州長史胡樹禮為亡女造畫讃, QTW 166.
57 For example, an inscription on a stone Guanyin statue dated in 761 reads, “pure and faithful woman Hou respectfully built a Guanyin Bodhisattva statue for her deceased son Li Huzi” (清信女侯為亡男李胡子敬造觀音菩薩一軀). Lu Zengxiang 陸增祥, Baqiongshi jinshi buzheng 八瓊室金石補正 (Beijing: Wenwu Chubanshe, 1985), 206.
58 Liao Yifang, 2009, 121.
59 See, Jiang Qinjian, “Dunhuang wenxue zhong de chanyu minsu yanjiu.”
60 These two lines indicate the ritual of saying goodbye to a dead person. See, Jiang Qinjian, “Dunhuang wenxue zhong de chanyu minsu yanjiu,” 188–90.
61 P.3418 and P.3724. See Xiang Chu 項楚, Wang Fanzhi shi jiaozhu 王梵志詩校注 (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 2010), 563.
62 S.2832. See Huang Zheng 黃征 and Wu Wei 吳偉, Dunhuang yuanwen ji 敦煌願文集 (Chengdu: Yuelu Shushe, 1995), 102. For a study of Prayers for the Dead (wangwen 亡文), see, Zheng Zhiming 鄭志明 “Dunhuang xiejuan wangwen de shengming jiaoyu” 敦煌寫卷「亡文」的生命教育, Pumen Xuebao 19.1 (2004), 1–21.
63 Meng Zong's (d. 271) mother was ill and needed bamboo shoots for a nourishing soup. This was during a freezing winter, and Meng Zong felt hapless and cried in the bare forest. Soon bamboos grew out of the ground for him. Wang Xiang (184–268) lay on ice to catch fish for his stepmother. Both stories are collected in the Twenty-Four Exemplars of Filial Piety (Ershisi xiao 二十四孝).
64 According to Huang Zheng and Wu Wei, one of the prayers in S.1441 points to the Zhang Yichao 張議潮 period (851–872).
65 Willow leaves, liuye 柳葉, is traditionally an analogy of a beauty's eyebrow; however, here it can also be understood as a description of her expression.
66 Huang and Wu, Dunhuang yuanwen, 64–5.
67 XSMZ 331.
68 For an excellent translation of the jiwen, see Pei-yi Wu, “Childhood Remembered: Parents and Children in China, 800 to 1700,” 139.
69 QTW juan 785.
70 QTW juan 391.
71 BLMZ 263.
72 BLMZXB 81.
73 MZHB Tianbao 106.
74 XSMZ 120.
75 It is unclear whether Gao Fan actually passed the Filial and Incorrupt (xiaolian 孝廉) Exam. Most scholars believed that there was no such Filial and Incorrupt examination during the Tang dynasty, others argued that this was not a regular examination subject. Some scholars suggested that during the second half of the Tang dynasty, Understanding Classics (mingjing 明經) degree holders were often called Filial and Incorrupt. See, Gong Yanming 龔延明, “Tang Xiaolianke zhifei jiqi zhicheng yanbian” 唐孝廉科置廢及其指稱演變, Lishi yanjiu, 2012.2, 174–182.
76 XSMZ, 448.
77 XSMZ 455.
78 Liu Zongyuan, “Mashi nü Leiwu zangzhi” 馬氏女雷五葬誌, QTW 589.