Newly Published Inscriptions and Annotations of Tombs from the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties Periods

Author: Luo Xin / Ye Wei
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2005-03-01
Features:
1. The epitaphs of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties periods collected in this book span from the beginning of the Three Kingdoms to the end of the Sui Dynasty (220-618), all of which are not included in Zhao Wanli's Epigraphs of Han, Wei, Southern and Northern Dynasties (Science Press, 1956) and Zhao Chao's Compendium of Epigraphs of Han, Wei, Southern and Northern Dynasties (Tianjin Ancient Books Press, 1992). Zhao Wanli's book was published too early, and new epitaphs after the 1950s were not included. Zhao Chao's book only includes epitaphs up to 1986 and does not include Sui epitaphs. The Sui epitaphs collected in this book are all those that Zhao Wanli did not see, mainly those published from the 1950s to the end of 2003; the remaining epitaphs are those first publicly published between 1986 and December 2003, with some that were already published but missed by Zhao Chao. Although they were unearthed and published at different times, they are all uniformly titled "New Epigraphs of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties." The Gaochang epitaphs are excluded because they are relatively special, and Hou Can's Annotations to Brick Epigraphs Unearthed from Turpan (Ba Shu Book Company, 2003) provides a comprehensive compilation.
2. The book is divided into five parts: Wei, Jin, Sixteen Kingdoms, Southern Dynasties; Northern Wei; Eastern Wei and Northern Qi; Western Wei and Northern Zhou; and Sui. Each part is arranged in chronological order based on the burial dates of the epitaph owners. Relatives unearthed from the same tomb or family burial ground, due to different burial dates, are clearly marked, with spouses and parents listed separately for reference.
3. The epitaph texts are recorded in standard simplified Chinese characters, with variant and archaic characters replaced by common standard characters. To preserve the original form of the epitaphs, the texts are based on rubbing illustrations, with a forward slash "/" added at the end of each line on the cover and stone to indicate the original line numbering. Original blank spaces in the epitaphs are retained. For a small number of epitaphs without rubbings, the line numbering cannot be determined, and this is explained in the annotations. For damaged epitaphs that cannot be identified, a square "□" is used to indicate known missing characters, while a diamond "■" is used when the number of missing characters is unknown. Unclear characters are enclosed in square brackets, such as "[]."
4. Each epitaph is listed first, followed by annotations. The annotations aim to indicate the sources of rubbings and reference texts, introduce existing research findings, and provide brief historical and explanations related to the epitaphs.
5. Most of the epitaphs collected in this book are published in journals, but many are also compiled in various stone inscriptions collections. Detailed publication information for these books can be found in the reference list and are directly cited in the annotations without repetition. A few epitaphs are excluded due to overly rubbings that cannot be identified. Additionally, some epitaphs that have been unearthed but have not yet been publicly published with rubbings or reference texts are included in an appendix for reference.