An Analysis Of The Epitaphs Unearthed In The Southwest Tomb Of Ye City In The Northern Dynasties

Yecheng Southwest Tomb region was among the most important tomb regions in the Northern Dynasty. These tombs showed a typical significance when we do research on funeral system and tomb culture. As the firsthand material, the epitaphs did not only record the buried date, the buried location, the ownership and other useful information but can also reflect some common funeral customs in that period. It provided valuable historical data for researching the funeral culture of Yecheng during Eastern Wei and Northern Qi. This paper focused the tombs located in the southwest of Yecheng and to the south of Zhanghe as the main study object. According the local epitaphs and related documentary records, so as to organized and explored the tomb characteristic of this region.First, according to making generalizations of the epitaph era, we found that the quantity of epitaph in the Northern Dynasty changed obviously. The unearthed epitaph record information of Northen Qi was the most concentrated, and had the largest quantity. Then, the following was Eastern Wei. They accounted for 59% and 33% of the total respectively. Moreover, epitaphs of Northern Wei, Northern Zhou and the downfall of the Chen Dynasty were relatively less. They just accounted for 2%; 2% and 4% respectively. The reason for the huge discrepancy was because of its close relationship with the rise-fall-decline history of Ycheng and the new construction of Southern Yecheng. Yecheng used to be the capital city and most prosperous city in Eastern Wei and Northern Qi, and meanwhile, southern Yecheng was being expanded in this period. Therefore, The tomb quantity of Southwest Yecheng tomb region reached its peak during this period. Its-epitaphs were about 92% in the total number of Northern Dynasty. By these materials, it can fully reflect the change of the city population.Second, according relevant analysis of the basic material, we found density differences of the unearthed epitaphs in Yecheng Southwest Tombs. The epitaphs near Yecheng Southwest, Ximeng Bao Temple and Yema Gang are more than the south of Zhangh and also around Henghe. These phenomenon showed the funeral customs of Yecheng residents that they used to consider the special terrain feature, social position of the deceased, Fengshui Luck and so on. From the epitaph records of Ximen Bao Temple, we can find kind of cultural phenomenon of local folk belief. During different period, the different geographical coordinates in the same tomb can also reflect the significant change of the status of Yecheng.Third, this paper analyzed some tombs in the aspect of their distribution, features, owners and relation. And then, we selected representative family to research the personnel structure and northern clans’relationship. The owner’s identity of these tombs contained by different levels of the social organization structure, not only including the royal branches, noble eight surname families, but also the traditional clans of Central Plain, and various surname family spread surrounding area. The study found out that the official level of individuals in this tome region is relatively lower than other regions. So it can be found that the lower officials’and the civilians’ tombs are distributed in this region. Its overall position is lower than the royal tomb’s located to the north of Zhanghe.