An Analysis Of The Funeral System Of Officials In The Tang Dynasty

The ritual serving the dead as you would serve the living has been a significant part intraditional Chinese funeral and burial systems. Tang dynasty as the transitional period of thefuneral and burial systems in the feudal society, the investigation of which during Tang dynastyis, therefore, crucial. Ceremony does not descend to the common people had been a creed sinceancient times. Besides, the ancient books and records recorded mostly the rituals of thebureaucratic class and hardly the rituals of the common people. Therefore, in order to have awhole picture of Tang dynasty’s funeral and burial systems, we need to trace it from the rituals ofthe bureaucratic class. During Tang dynasty, the government attached great importance to thefuneral and burial of the officials and many systems were regulated and standardized. Forexample, the government may give some favors to them both materially and ritually and as to theofficials who had made great contributions to the country, more privileges were endowed.Based on the analysis of the above mentioned features, this paper illustrates the funeral andburial systems of the officials of Tang dynastay. sing historical documents and archaeologicallyexcavated material, the author researches on the features of the funeral and burial institution inthe Tang dynasty, especially some privileges practiced during the funeral ceremony of somehighly-ranked officials. In recent years, the researches on the funeral and burial institution aremainly focused on the following two aspects. Firstly, the research on the funeral and burialrituals, such as it’s evolve, the refined research and the textual research for the error of thecorresponding records. Secondly, the excavation and the organization work of the correspondingmaterials, including the collection and classification of the grave materials, the restoration andthe comparision of the epigraph materials, the research of the relics and the funeral and gravesystems. The approach of focusing on the official’s funeral is a quite original method.With anintergration of the findings from the two aspects, this paper is well-grounded.