| dc.description.abstract | Tongcheng School is the main trend in Qing dynasty so you have to recognize it for understanding the literature of Qing Dynasty. You want to know Tongcheng School and you must know Yao Nai first. Because Yao Nai is the leader of Tongcheng School. Epitaph is the most important part in Yao Nai’’s Collected Works. So everyone wishes for knowing Yao Nai’’s world, he/she has to research Epitaph. Epitaph originates from scholars’ different ideas, and nobody integrates them so far. But Epitaph which is in burial rite is an access of the died world including Tombstone ,Mujie, Tomb of the table. The trend that names are shown on tombstones were popular in Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties. Therefore, the government passed the law to forbid using tombstone. The style and the writing of Epitaph are fixed. The main ideas of Epitaph were about the lives of the dead and they took the deeds of the dead for example. Everybody criticized that the content of Epitaph always covered up the faults and just commended the dead, which was the limit of art.
The style of Yao Nai’’s works was rigorous and was never excessive praise. But he made the dead and his/her descendants feel the glory. Yao Nai lived in Qianlong period of prevalent textual culture. He did not object the Textual Sinology but he claimed that Argumentation, Textual and Essay, the three factors, must be used in Epitaph. He thought that promoting Neo-theory was his whole -life responsibility and performing morality was his goal. Besides, he approved of extremely intense moral behaviors such as cutting leg for their parents and killing themselves for their dead husbands. He would rather exceed the moral limit than meet less. In order to reach the aim of knowing morality and maintaining custom naturally, he stressed that strict virtue standard was important by writing and promoting Epitaph.
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