Study On The Newly Unearthed Poets' Epitaphs Of Tang Dynasty

This thesis is centered on the newly-excavated epitaphs of the Tang Dynasty poets.Grounded in extensive collection,collation and proofreading,a monographic study of the newly-excavated Tang Dynasty poets' epitaphs was carried out by combining the unearthed and the extant bibliographies.The thesis not only tries to conduct case proofreading and elucidation to the epitaphs of the significant Tang poets,but also specifically studies the group characteristics and special phenomena of the poets' epitaphs based on general inspections.The thesis aims to break through the model of the interpretation of the works of an individual poet,and is committed to reconstructing the original literary environment of the Tang Dynasty poets and revealing specific literary phenomena.It also tries to provide new interpretive methods to literary works that are unnoticed or controversial.The thesis is made up of six chapters.The first three chapters are a monographic study of the poets' epitaphs,and the latter three are the case studies of the poets' epitaphs.Chapter one,a study of the newly-unearthed epitaphs of poets in Dali period of Tang dynasty.Based on the 23 newly-excavated epitaphs of the poets from Dali period,this chapter verifies the official careers and social networks of the Dali poets,discusses the options and mindsets of poets in the complicated political situation at that time and observes the literary environment in Dali period based on newly-unearthed epitaphs.Chapter two,a study of the newly-unearthed Yuanyang epitaphs of Tang poets.Based on the 48 pairs of 97 Yuanyang epitaphs of Tang poets,this chapter examines the identity of the writers of the Yuanyang epitaphs of the poets,such as the situations in which a poet writes an epitaph for his dead wife,for himself or his friends write epitaphs for him.This chapter highlights the issues engendered by Yuanyang epitaphs such as marital bonds and extramarital relationships,cultural families and literary inheritance,women poets and morning poems concerning the Tang poets.Chapter three,a study of newly-unearthed poets' epitaphs and the Collection of Danyang Poems.This chapter focuses on the issues related to Ma Ting' s epitaph,literature and calligraphy of Cai brothers in Cai Xizhou' s epitaph,as well as literary clans in Bao Chen' s epitaph.It also excavates the new materials of the poets Ding Xianzhi and Shen Tanggou which are found in the Collection of Danyang Poems in the newly-unearthed epitaphs.Chapter four,a study of newly-unearthed Wei Guan' s epitaph and Zhou Qin Xing Ji.Firstly,this chapter probes into the literary lineage,experiences of imperial examination,official career,social network and literary achievements of Wei Guan from Wei Guan's epitaph and discusses the link between Wei Guan and the Niu-Li partisanship.Secondly,the link between Wei Guan and the Niu-Li partisanship is directly associated with the authorship of the famous Tang novel Zhou Qin Xing Ji,and thus this chapter takes a closer look at the author of Zhou Qin Xing Ji and holds that the sayings that Zhou Qin Xing Ji is the creation of Wei Guan in the name of Niu Sengru is groundless,and that Zhou Qin Xing Ji is very probably written by Wei Guan himself.This is an extension to the poet-work relations based on the study of the newly-unearthed epitaphs of the poets.Chapter five,a study of the newly-unearthed Cui Shang' s epitaph and Tang Tong Bai Guan Bei.Centered on Cui Shang' s epitaph together with several newly-unearthed epitaphs written by Cui Shang,this chapter weave together the family,official career and literary creations of Cui Shang,examines the track of dissemination,time of writing,connotation of Taoism,value in terms of calligraphy and literature of Tang Tong Bai Guan Bei written by Cui Shang,and corrects the errors made by scholars in their verification of Cui Shang's life based on the epitaph.Chapter six,a study of the newly-unearthed Wei Yuanfu' s epitaph and the Mulan poetry.Revolving around Wei Yuanfu' s epitaph,this chapter tries to validate the family and official career of Wei Yuanfu in the extant bibliographies and furthermore,analyzes Wei Yuanfu's writing of Mulan poetry.