A Study On The Women In The Tang Family

In recent years, using the epitaphs to study the women in Tang Dynasty is the main way for scholars. Based on this background, this paper makes analysis of the unmarried women’s epitaphs, to study the unmarried women’s life and roles in their families of the Tang Dynasty from their family life, education, fifal piety, ideal behaviours.This paper try to explore unmarried women’s real lives.On the classification of the epitaphs of unmarried woman,these epitaphs roughly divided into two kinds.One kind is the epitaph whose owner is unmarried woman, and it record unmarried woman in detail, such as family life, education and fifal piety; The other kind is the epitaph whose onwner is not unmarried woman, and these records are scattered and scanty. Both of the two kinds are the basis of the paper.According to epitaphs, unmarried women always receive their parents’s care. There is a friendly parent-child relationship between unmarried women and their parents. They have a say in familiy affairs. The older daughters have a special status in their family because of the ethics morals of the respect for seniority. When their parents die, unmarried women are raised by their grandmother, or brother and sister-in-law, or uncle and aunt, or materal grandfather. Unmarried women also receive these relatives’care.The objective of unmarried women’s education is to be a good wife. Their education starts at about the age of six. Female orders take on the responsibility of their education. Unmarried women’s education includes women’s virtue, women’s work, reading and writing. Teaching materils include"Nv Jie", "Nv Shi Zhen", "Lie Nv Zhuan", "Nv Ze", "Nv Yi", "Shi Jing", "Yi Li" and"Li Ji". Unmarried women’s family education has an important influence on their marriage life.Unmarried women’s fifal piety is the one of the most common description in epitaphs. The object of unmarried women’s fifal piety are not only their parents,but also their uncle and older sister.Taking close and considerate care of parents is the most common fifal piety. This is what epitaphs want to creat the mage of unmarried women fifal piety.The epitaphs show expectations for unmarried women in Tang Dnasty society. To keep the women virtue, be intelligent and submissive is the ideal image of unmarried women in the epitaphs. Marrying a good husband to offer help is what parents want the unmarried women do.