明清夫婦合葬墓誌銘義例探研

Married Couples Joint Burial Epitaphs in Late Imperial China

隨著明代印刷出版與文集流傳之盛行，明代墓誌銘基本上已經類似公開化的生命傳記，惜與這種發展相關的性別面向，似較為學界所忽略。十四到十八世紀文人學士對墓誌銘例義的討論，不僅驗證了當時撰著墓誌銘之興盛，也可作為我們考察時人撰寫女性生命史所斟酌的史學、性別、禮學與情感之參考。本文探究明清人們對於女性墓志寫作之論述，特別針對夫婦合葬墓誌銘的義例，從中發現，清初學者對於合葬墓誌標題揭示「暨配某氏」的批判，正可返照明代中晚期文人著重「夫妻之情」的描寫與其對合葬墓誌銘「名實相符」的遵循，此與清人執於「古法」和「古禮」不書婦女的堅持，大異其趣。

Entombed epitaph inscriptions (muzhiming 墓誌銘), which brought life writings into the open for discussion, began to circulate widely during the Ming dynasty, thanks to the flourishing of printed material and the wide circulation of literary collections. Many scholars have devoted a great deal of attention to studying muzhiming in recent years; but very little attention has been paid to examining them from the perspective of gender. This paper seeks to redress the balance by examining husband-wife joint burial entombed epitaph inscriptions from the Ming and Qing periods. It finds that during the Ming dynasty many muzhiming stressed loving relations between husband and wife and compliance with “description matching reality.” This contrasted sharply with scholars of the early Qing dynasty who criticized the usage of “and his spouse nèe such-and-such” to address the wife within titles of Ming muzhiming. This remarkable difference suggests that scholars of the Qing dynasty were beholden to the ancient notion that women should not be discussed or written about in public.