Lan University scholars "listened" to the last words of ancient women: to make up for the lack of angles in the study of Sui and Tang history

"Out of Shape, Wisdom, No Tiredness: The World of Sui and Tang Women in Last Words" collects a total of 236 last words of women in the Sui and Tang dynasties, involving women from different social classes.　Courtesy of Lanzhou University

Lanzhou, China, April 5 (Faisa Chen Yuxin) Before he was born, he was afraid of water, and did not cross the river on the burial road; his son was still young and hoped that his husband could raise him well; because he believed in Buddhism, he did not bury with his husband... In the 326 years of the Sui and Tang dynasties, Mo Zhenhua, associate professor of the School of History and Culture of Lanzhou University, sorted out 236 last words from the various historical materials, from the emperor's concubines and wives of officials, down to the official prostitutes and commoner women, and faithfully recorded the women's dying answers of an era in the new work "Out of Shape, Wisdom, No TiredNess: The Sui and Tang Women's World in the Last Words".

In September 2021, the manuscript was officially published by Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House. "This work can make up for the lack of sui and Tang history research to a certain extent." Mo Zhenhua, who is also a woman, recently said in an interview that what questions and concerns the ancients were thinking before they died, whether modern people can be inspired by it, learn lessons from it, and explore the ideological wisdom in it. People's concern and reluctance at the last moment of life, and their perception and thinking about life and death, have both the characteristics of the times and the commonalities.

Make up for the lack of angles in the study of Sui and Tang history

Mo Zhenhua, who focuses on the study of the history of the Five Dynasties of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, has paid attention to the natural disasters of the Tang Dynasty and their social responses, and the legal cases on the inscription documents, and she found that Japanese scholars have paid attention to the last words of the Tang Dynasty from the Dunhuang documents, and many domestic scholars have also paid attention to the study of epitaphs. Compared with the epitaphs that are suspected of routine and overflowing writing, the deceased's own personalized expression of last words is rarely studied, and the research objects are mostly focused on men, and there is little attention paid to women's last words.

In December 2015, at the 22nd Annual Conference of the Chinese and Foreign Biographical Literature Research Association held in Beijing, Mo Zhenhua made a keynote speech on "A Treatise on the Hospice of the Tang Dynasty as Seen in His Last Words". Before that, she began to pay attention to this field, looking for clues from the vast historical materials, and successively visited several major museums in Xi'an and Luoyang, where more tombstones were unearthed in the Tang Dynasty.

Mo Zhenhua collected more than 700 cases of Sui and Tang last words from very scattered historical materials, separating 236 of them from female last words. Due to practical factors and personal interests, she chose to start with a small number of women's last words, "The status of women in the Sui and Tang Dynasties was relatively high in ancient Chinese society, with more distinct characteristics of the times. In her view, this part of the historical material has strong theoretical value and practical significance.

From 2019 to 2020, Mo Zhenhua began to write. Whether the collected last words were classified by age, class, or religious belief, Mo Zhenhua found that there would be an intersection, and finally chose to distinguish by region: the Tang capital Chang'an, the eastern capital Luoyang, and the tang Dynasty two capitals outside the three parts. In the first part of the book, the last words of each woman are listed as coordinates for the place of death and the time of death, and they are accurately located, trying to present a three-dimensional world of women's last words in the Tang Dynasty. The relevant characteristics of women's last words in various regions are further analyzed, and the influence of factors such as the identity and family background, religious beliefs, and marital status of the deceased on the content of the last words is discussed.

On the basis of comprehensively combing the last words of women in the Tang Dynasty, the next part examines the many contents of the hospice care for Sui and Tang women with different identities shown in the last words. Through the last words, we examine the thoughts, loves, hates, and pleasures of many groups of women, such as the destiny and the non-life women, the monks and laymen, the old and the young, the married and the unmarried, and pay attention to whether these last words are fulfilled or not, that is, the attitude of the descendants of the deceased or relatives and friends towards their last words or wills.

Attention and expression before death

Mo Zhenhua said that in the vast majority of cases, last words are the expression of the true meaning of relatives and friends and the expression of true emotions, even if they are obscure, they generally do not make false and false beauty, and to a large extent can express the deceased's view of life and death.

Among the last words collected by Mo Zhenhua, there are well-known historical figures such as Empress Dowager Taizong of Tang and xu Hui, Empress Wang and Concubine Xiao Shu of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, and Wu Zetian, but even more attractive are those concubines, bhikshunis, women to be married, and other ordinary women who rarely appear in the canonical history.

Compared with men who are concerned about the social welfare and the long-term development of the family, ordinary women pay more attention to the problems of family and children's marriage before dying, showing concern and concern for their children and their marriages, regretting that their parents and uncles have failed to fulfill their filial piety, and so on.

Mo Zhenhua observed that women's dying mentality is more rational than men's. Many Women in the Tang Dynasty regarded life and death as an inevitable thing, so they had a calm attitude and no fear. This may have something to do with the characteristics of the era of openness and the prevalence of various religions, especially Buddhism.

Out of shape and wisdom, no tiredness

The discussion of "women's status" has been heard endlessly. In ancient Chinese society, women had a relatively high status in the Sui and Tang dynasties. Compared with the Song Dynasty's advocacy of "starvation is small, loss of control is big", the Tang Dynasty attaches relatively high importance to women's own happiness, and the freedom of marriage and union is largely retained. In this context, it is interesting and precious to write the history of women in the Sui and Tang Dynasties from the last words.

Thinking about death has commonalities and personalities in different eras, and also reflects social development and change. "If we regard life as a countdown, the last words of the ancients will have a certain inspiration for us today, and after we understand the last words of our predecessors, we may consciously avoid some regrets and strive to complete our life goals before we die." Mo Zhenhua said.

After writing this book, Mo Zhenhua also has some of his own understanding of life and death: "The attitude of the ancients and today's people towards death is very similar. Although modern people have a richer life, the ultimate concern for who they are and where they go is essentially not much different. For the survival of contemporary women, the biggest understanding is to have an independent and rich spiritual world, is the most valuable wealth of a person standing in the world, it can let us not lose ourselves, which is very valuable in modern society. (End)