The Anxiety Concerning “Immortality”: On OUYANG Xiu's Epigraphy Activities from the Perspective of Intellectual History

  • XIE Yan
Expand

Online published: 2017-03-23

Abstract

Performing epigraphy activities was a powerful way to realize their dream of being "immortal" for ancient Chinese people. In his epigraphy activities, OUYANG Xiu demonstrated his extraordinary anxiety concerning "immortality". With great enthusiasm, OUYANG compiled Records of Ancient Inscriptions(Jigu lu), wrote lots of epigraphs for the departed, and composed articles and engraved them on the stones for local officials. However, from time to time, he showed his sensibility and anxiety about "vanishing" and "fading away" of life and things, which reflected the negative impact of the failure of political reform during Emperor Qingli's reign and the shifting system of local officials. OUYANG's mentalities were shared by many scholar-officials who engaged in similar activities during Emperor Renzong's reign. The anxiety concerning "immortality", as well as its manifestation, was intellectually symptomatic in the sense of reflecting the process toward maturity of the new class in the period of social transformation.

Cite this article

XIE Yan . The Anxiety Concerning “Immortality”: On OUYANG Xiu's Epigraphy Activities from the Perspective of Intellectual History[J]. Journal of East China Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), 2017 , 49(2) : 99 -106 . DOI: 10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5579.2017.02.010

Outlines

/