Looking at these epitaphs, we can see that when the ancients wrote epitaphs, they often paid attention to two points: first, keeping secrets for the deceased and not revealing shortcomings; The second is for the deceased, or even out of thin air. Bai Juyi's poem "Qin Zhongyin Bailey" mocked this phenomenon:
Virtue has declined, and articles have flourished. But when I saw the stone in the mountain, I set it up as a roadside monument.
Mingxun knows Taigong, and both Syria and Germany are Zhong Ni. The more, the more expensive, and a thousand words are straightforward.
Who do you support? When you want to write. But those who want fools are happy, and those who don't think about sages are light.
Is it the only sage who sneers at it, but still spreads doubts to future generations? The words of ancient stones and moss, An Zhi is a shameful word.
I heard about Wangjiang County, and it has been ordered to be handled. There are benevolent policies among officials, and the name is not heard in Beijing.
The body longs to be buried, and people cover Luqi. I can't go back after climbing the iron well, so I'll leave Jiang Mei with me.
So far, men and women are crying. No one has erected a monument, only the city people know it.
The stone tablet records people who are better than Jiang Taigong and as good as Confucius and Zhong Ni. Only in this way can they be handed down to future generations, while those who are truly talented and hardworking can only be submerged in the years because they have not erected a monument, and finally only the local people know. This poem by Bai Juyi satirizes the wind of boasting about family status and praising virtue in order to establish a monument. Because according to historical records, in order to get a good epitaph for the deceased, people often have to spend a lot of money to find someone to ghostwrite, and the ghostwriter, driven by rich profits, can write words as great as Confucius in Jiang Taigong and make future generations suspicious just to meet the needs.
It is recorded in Biography of Li Yong in Old Tang Dynasty: "Praise fame, especially as a long monument. Although China and North Korea have been downgraded, their clothes and temples are all over the world, and they often beg for their articles with gold and silk. There are hundreds of songs before and after production, and there are also millions of receptions. At that time, I thought that there was no such thing as wealth since ancient times. "
Li Yong was a famous calligrapher in Tang Dynasty, especially good at reciting inscriptions. It is precisely because of the powerful life skills of "winning gold with literature" that Li Yong is often demoted from office, but his livelihood is not a problem, and he can even use the money to meet the huge expenses needed for making friends.
Liu Yuxi also said in his memorial to Han Yuwen: "The public will set a monument and will show money." The price of a word is like a golden mountain. "Han Yu is mentioned in it. Because he is good at writing inscriptions, he often makes great contributions by writing inscriptions for others.
In fact, Han Yu once wrote a tombstone for Wang Yong, so he got "a horse, a saddle, a title and a white jade belt" as a reward. Han Yu also praised Han Hong's contribution to Pinghuai Xibei, so he got Han Hong's "silk 500 horses", which was equivalent to 400 yuan, while Han Yu's salary at that time was only 250 yuan a month, but 300 yuan a year, which shows that this kind of golden pen cost is very considerable. As for Han Yu's other "grave-sweeping" works, they were quite ridiculed by people at that time. His friend Liu Cha was jealous of the money Han Yu earned by writing inscriptions, so he took a few catties of gold and left. He also plausibly said: "You pay tribute to the dead, you might as well give me living expenses."
After Bai Juyi wrote the epitaph for Yuan Zhen, he also received "hidden fire, Ma Yu, silk, silver saddle and jade belt" worth 600,000 yuan. Although Bai Juyi was unwilling to accept the friendship with Yuan Zhen and refused to accept it, he donated these properties to Xiangshan Temple for repairing it.
It is precisely because the remuneration for writing epitaphs is so rich, and driven by such huge interests, the authors of these epitaphs have to wash the white for the dead, or even reverse black and white, out of thin air. However, this kind of behavior of "winning gold with literature" is always not decent. There is a story in Tai Ping Guang Ji: "Wang Xian, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, likes to write inscriptions with others. The man who sent Run Hao off knocked on Wang Weimen, his right-hand man, by mistake. Wei said,' The great writer is over there.' "
Even Du Fu once wrote poems mocking Li Yong, and Li Yong wrote an epitaph in exchange for a great contribution: "The door is dry, and the monument shines on the four generations. Rich house coral hook, which is woven into a scorpion. Zisui followed the sword several times, and the righteousness was not empty. " "An old friend went to Nanjun and asked for money to make a monument. This article is for living, and the room is upside down. "
It can be seen that people are contemptuous of these epitaphs.
Of course, the epitaph is not a habit of the Tang Dynasty, but it has existed since ancient times. As early as the Northern Wei Dynasty, it was clearly pointed out that this epitaph was gold-plated, and it was pointed out in Luoyang Galand Ji:
"The golden mean at birth. And his death, on the epitaph, showed the virtue of heaven and earth, gave birth to people as much as he could, was the balance of Yao and Shun, and was the minister and Gao Yi. Officials of herders, floating tigers envy their dust; Law enforcement officers, thank you for burying the wheel. The so-called life is stealing feet, death is neat, rumors hurt the truth, and rhetoric hurts the truth. "
Man is only a man of the mean when he is alive, but the epitaph after death contains all the great virtues between heaven and earth and all the good things that the living can do. If this man is the king, then he can compete with Yao and Shun. If this person is a courtier, then his achievements are the same as those of Yi Yin. The so-called thief stole his foot when he was alive, but he can pretend to be a figure like Boyi and Shu Qi after his death. These are all damaging the truth with false and gorgeous rhetoric.
There are too many examples in the epitaph, which hide evil and promote good, wash white and dry Kun, and make something out of nothing. For example, Huang Deyi of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty fell out of favor a long time ago. During Huang Deyi's serious illness, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty was busy doting on Wu Huifei, while Wu Huifei was busy framing several princes such as Prince Li Ying and King Li Yao of Hubei. Li Yao, who was born in Huang Deyi, was once worried because her biological mother fell out of favor and could not speak for herself, but this did not prevent Huang Deyi from being touted as a peerless tombstone.
"Is the oldest to serve, beauty is rare. The delivery of medicine must go through the imperial hand, and the beginning of bed is different from the sky. Moon's messenger, empty talk about returning to the soul; Mrs. Han Di, the image of returning from injury. "
When Huang Deyi's tombstone said that she was seriously ill, Emperor Xuanzong personally gave her medicine to drink every day. After sleeping peacefully, she lingered at the palace gate and refused to leave. After Huang Deyi's death, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty still missed her, just as Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty missed Li Furen. But in fact, all empresses who are lucky enough to be personally served by the emperor will leave records in the history books like Li Yu's "Big Week", instead of just seeing the gold words on the epitaph.
Besides, just over a year after the death of Huang Deyi, Li Yao swallowed his anger and died because of the tragedy that Wu Huifei framed Tang Xuanzong for killing his third son in one day. The cruel reality tore up the gorgeous and pale words in the epitaph, indicating that this unloved concubine was only an extravagant hope to see the emperor for the last time before she died.
Another example is the epitaph of Pei County's wife, Wu, who claimed to be "the second daughter of Princess Taiping, surnamed Wang Xu" and was the second daughter of Princess Taiping and Wu. But according to Wu Shi, who died in the 25th year of Kaiyuan at the age of 54, Wu Shi was born at the latest in Heishengyuan, when Princess Taiping's husband was still Xue Shao? How did you give birth to the so-called second daughter with Wu?
For example, the epitaph of Wei Li, the second son of King Li Ke of Wu, said that his father Li Ke was "the emperor's beloved son" and a "special pet". But as far as historical facts are concerned, Li Ke did not have any favor deeds in his life. Instead, it has been demoted to the viceroy for many times in a row, and 600 households have been cut one after another, leaving only 200 households with real seals. Such bad treatment, in Emperor Taizong.
Although it was more than seven months after Emperor Taizong made Li a prince, he once wanted to change Li Ke into a prince on a whim, but this idea was only said to Wuji, the most unlikely person to agree. After being refuted, he never mentioned this matter again, and there was no danger of protecting Li Ke who failed to nominate him. But sternly warned Li Ke: "If you don't obey the law, Liu Dan, the prince of the Western Han Dynasty, will be your fate, even if you are my son, it will be mine.
Although some people think that this warning is that Emperor Taizong is "protecting" Li Ke and asking him to be careful, as a prince, Li Ke's life is not in his own hands but in the hands of the emperor. It's no use just warning Li Ke to be cautious. Only by letting the future emperor Li Zhi know to be kind to Li Ke can we achieve the goal of protecting Li Ke.
It is precisely because he understood this truth that Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang left a letter to Liu Yuxin during his lifetime, asking him to take good care of Ruyi Zhao, whom he once strongly supported. When Emperor Taizong made Li a prince, he repeatedly stressed that the reason for making Li Zhi was to save his three sons, Li Chenggan and Li Zhi. And since Emperor Taizong can think of planning for the future security of Li Chenggan, Lee Tae and Li Zhi, why not make the same arrangement for Li Ke's future security? I think, if Li Ke is really an "emperor's beloved son" and "arrogant and special" as boasted in his son's epitaph, how can he be treated like this?
And Wei, whose father and son are both prime ministers. It is clearly recorded in the history books that his second wife, Wang Wan, as a stepmother, was very strict with her stepson Wei Chengqing and easily punished him. Wei Lisi, Wang Wan's own son, couldn't bear his mother to treat his younger brother like this, so he took the initiative to take off his clothes and asked to take the blame instead of Wei Chengqing. Wang wan naturally didn't answer, so Wei blamed himself with a stick. Wang wan felt sorry for his son and treated Wei Chengqing a little better.
Therefore, in Wang Wan's epitaph, this typical stepmother, who obviously treats her parents differently from her stepson, is described as a loving mother who treats her stepson as her own: "Cheng Qing, the son of the former Lord, was punished at the age of eight, and was raised by his wife at the age of ten. He was rewarded and trained, and his kindness was not long. He learned to marry and was established by his wife." It is often said that the children born are Li and Shu, and so on: laity women have little knowledge, ex-wife's sons are often hated, and filial piety has become strange, and they are all human. This is my deep warning, and my generation knows it. "-it can be seen that the epitaph at that time had a high gold content, and it had reached the point where black and white were reversed and made out of nothing.