The Last Entrustment: Funeral Concepts and Arrangements of for the Afterlife in the Tang Dynasty

Abstract

Arrangements for the afterlife were important matters to the Tang 唐 (618–907) people. The newly unearthed epitaphs of the Tang Dynasty contain a large number of dialogues and words of the deceased before their death, as well as their instructions concerning the arrangements for funerals and the inheritance of family traditions. These instructions not only reflect Tang funeral concepts and the importance of arrangements for the afterlife, but they also allow us to perceive the characters and personalities of the deceased, which are valuable new materials for the study of ancient Chinese biographical literature.

Keywords

• words of the deceased before death
• funeral concepts
• epitaphs of the Tang Dynasty
• biographical literature