An Analysis Of Words,phrases,and Illusion Usages On Newly Unearthed Tang Dynasty Tombstones

The Tang Dynasty marks a prosperous period in the history of ancient Chinese stone carving development.Stone carving materials during this period have diverse forms,providing a bunch of new data for the history,archaeology,language,writing,calligraphy,fine arts,and other aspects of the Tang Dynasty,thus they are highly focused by academics.In recent years,Tang Dynasty tombstones have been unearthed in large quantities,rich in content,and of high research value.The previous studies mainly focus on history,archaeology,literature,calligraphy,folklore,and other aspects,while the research on language and writing is fragmented and relatively rare.Most of them are about the interpretation of characters and newly discovered tombstones,but there are lots of things unexplored.This dissertation concentrates on newly published works about Tang Dynasty tombstones between 2010 and2023,collects and organizes them in a comprehensive and systematic way,interprets the words and the use of illusions based on previous literature,and summarizes relevant regularities to contribute to more accurate interpretation of Tang Dynasty’s tombstones and provide more accurate and reliable information for relevant research.This dissertation consists of five chapters,of which the second,third,and fourth chapters are the main body.Chapter one is the introduction.First,it introduces the research object of this dissertation,synthesizes relevant literature reviews,and lists the materials used in this research.Combined with the stylistic characteristics of inscribed documents and procedural writings,it puts forward the methodology of using words and phrases on the tombstones of the Tang Dynasty.The second chapter is about the interpretation of difficult words on newly unearthed Tang dynasty tombstones.Difficult words can be regarded as the hardest part to be explored in the collation and study of stone-carved literature,and it needs lots of effort to research to accurately understand their meanings.This chapter explores the interpretation of difficult characters with 126 in total from the aspects of misinterpreted characters,uninterpreted characters,and mutilated characters,and strives to understand the context to help the readers read and better understand the tombstone literature.The third chapter examines the difficult words and phrases on newly unearthed Tang dynasty tombstones within which there are a group of difficult words,which may bring obstacles to the readers’ reading and understanding,so it is necessary to do some investigations.This chapter explains 29 difficult words and phrases in total,whether they are illusion uses or normal characters.The fourth chapter is about the usage of illusions on newly unearthed Tang dynasty tombstones.It explains illusion usages with 79 in total,whether they are from traditional story usage,traditional word usage,or traditional people/places names.The explanation of traditional story usage not only covers the interpretation of a single word within each entry but also enumerates its related words and phrases,such as form,phonetics,meaning,structures,etc.,to systematically explore the meanings of a group of related illusion usages.This dissertation finds that there are some problems that need to be paid attention to through the examination of lots of illusion uses.It’s necessary to pay attention to the phenomena of unusually used forms of illusions and illusions with the same forms but different sources.Also,it is important to pay attention to the phenomena of tombstone writers’ unconscious misuse of illusions and the use of illusion within illusion.Analyzing and summarizing related issues will help supplement and improve the compilation of dictionaries and provide a reference for the study of the history of Chinese vocabulary.The fifth chapter is about the research practical value of this topic.This chapter talks about the value of studying the words and phrases of newly unearthed Tang Dynasty tombstones and illusion uses from three aspects,the benefits of identifying and understanding Tang Dynasty tombstones,the benefits of further exploration for characters after Southern and Northern Dynasties,and the benefits of the compilation and corrections of large-scale dictionaries.The last part is the appendix section.Appendix I is the index of words and phrases.Appendix II is the list of explanations and corrections of newly unearthed Tang Dynasty tombstones while Appendix III has a table for the characters’ stylist forms on newly unearthed Tang Dynasty tombstones.