Origin of Tombstones？

The main function of a tombstone is to give posterity some information about the past and their history, or what is commonly known as generation.  

Chinese funeral culture has a long history. For thousands of years, Kings and nobles, down to the common people, after the death of tombstones. Inscriptions are not only the carrier to record the life of the deceased, but also an important source for future generations to study history. Su Shi, in his "Chaozhou Han Wen Gong Temple Monument", once said: "An ordinary man is a hundred teachers, and a word is the law of the world." It can be seen that ancient people attached great importance to inscriptions.  

With the progress and development of The Times, there are many opposing voices about tombstone culture. Some people think that erecting monuments is a waste of resources, while others believe that tombstone culture, which has existed for thousands of years, is one of the traditional forms of culture and should be protected and inherited. 

Should a monument be erected on a grave?  

Before the Qin Dynasty, there were no tombstones in China. This was mainly because of the wars and different burial cultures. In the Qin Dynasty, The First Emperor of qin believed that he would "serve the three sovereigns with virtue and cover the five sovereigns with merit". After a hundred years, he also wanted to show his achievements to the future generations, thus opening the precedent of setting up monuments and making great achievements. In the Han Dynasty, the unification of Chinese characters and the erection of steles were also prevalent at this time, but the steles were mostly erected by Kings and nobles. According to the law of the time, ordinary people were not allowed to erect monuments, otherwise they were charged with treason. Therefore, ordinary people at that time were standing wooden plates after death, simply engraved with their names and birth and death, so that later generations have a memory.  

As the han dynasty erected tablets were all dignitaries, there were many rich funerary goods in the tomb. This gave tomb raiders an opportunity to lead to han tomb theft. Thus, in the Tang Dynasty, this law was abolished and ordinary people could erect steles. Since then, inscriptions have been used more and more widely, not only for burial, but also for ancestral temples, architecture, decoration and so on. For example, when Huang Taiji conquered Korea, he set up a local monument to praise his outstanding achievements.  

Therefore, from a historical point of view, the monument can not only record a person's life story, but also serve to decorate the building. Of course, tombstones also provide convenience for the rise of tomb raiding, I believe that many fans of the tomb raiding novel friends know that all princes will be buried with large tablets. As we know, wu Zetian no word monument, Confucius tombstone of Kong Lin, Zhu Ge Liang monument and so on. However, the erection of tablets is not the main cause of tomb robbing. In the final analysis, it is due to the royal family and nobles, who pay attention to rank and ostentation. After death, they should be as beautiful and rich as before. Let a lot of rare treasures accompany them into the tomb, but because this provoked the intrusion of tomb robbers.  

The real significance of erecting tablets for posterity is to understand the historical events of that time through the inscriptions. Without the inscriptions, much of what we know today would be impossible to verify. Therefore, erecting tablets is of great value and significance for later generations to study history. For example, the secret colored porcelain, which flourished in the Tang Dynasty, may become a secret forever without the help of historical materials.  

But over time, generations passed, and people wanted to find their graves to honor their ancestors. If the monument is not erected, then posterity will not be able to prove the cause of cultural chronology. The rupture is beyond repair.  

Tomb monument, in fact, is also a performance of family strength. The more powerful the family, the better the gravestones, such as marble and granite. And the condition is general will use stone or wood card. Not to keep up with the joneses, but to respect the dead.