Study Of Inscriptions On The Stone Tablets In The Eastern Han Dynasty

Study of the stone tablets is an important part of epigraphy. Stone tablets have both material and textual value. It is in the Eastern Han Dynasty that the inscription began to be produced consciously. The literary form is named because of its carrier. Erecting a monument has the similar function and aim with writing a historical biography. They all reflect the official and governmental ideology, represent the elite culture. As an important part of the living literature carrier of the Han Dynasty, stone tablets show the political life of persons lived in the Eastern Han Dynasty. This paper shows itself in the form of monographic study, it studies both stone tablets and inscriptions on the stone tablets in the background of culture, analyses the literary style and characteristic of inscription.There are five main chapters besides the preface and conclusion.The first chapter has three sections. The first studies the original of stone tablet and inscription, distinguishes some concepts that may be confused; the second lists the inscriptions briefly; the third divides its stage into two parts and concludes that inscription fall into a pattern during the reign’s middle of Emperor Huan of Han.The second chapter has three sections and the third has four. Each section can be viewed as a special topic. They focus on seven factors of the Eastern Han Dynasty’s culture that influence inscriptions, like the consciousness of life, the elaborate funeral, the change of scholars’ mentality in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and so on.The fourth chapter has three sections. It studies the verses of The Book of Songs in the inscriptions from the viewpoint of study of Confucian classics in Han Dynasty.The last chapter has two sections. The first contrasts inscription with historical biography. The second studies that how epigraph and eulogium influence on inscription, and why inscription conceals one’s defects and overstates his excellence.