Study on the Funeral Culture of Child Death in the Mid and Late Tang Dynasty: Centered on Epitaphs
Abstract
The death culture of the Tang Dynasty was affected by many things, like religious beliefs, social ideas and economic conditions. It formed a special way to deal with death and a special cultural atmosphere. In the late Tang Dynasty, parents had many ways to deal with their children who died young. Parents who believed in religion liked to bury their children near religious places. Parents who did not believe in religion mostly buried their children in the family's graveyard. If a child died young and had reached the marriage age, parents might arrange a ghost marriage for the child. This was seen as a normal marriage form in the Tang Dynasty. This death culture not only showed the living people's sadness and blessings for the dead people, but also reflected the religious beliefs, family ideas and people's understanding of death in that society at that time. Studying the death culture of the late Tang Dynasty can help us understand the spiritual world of people at that time and the social and cultural background behind it more deeply. It also helps us talk about the cultural forms and meanings when children died young.
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