China is the most popular country in the world. Burial is to put the coffin with the body into the dug burial pit, fill it with soil and pile it up to a certain height, which is called a grave. No mound is built after the burial pit, which is called a tomb. The tomb consists of mounds and mounds, plus tombstones and rhyming objects buried inside and outside the coffin. Under the control of immortal soul and ancestor worship consciousness, people's moral norms are gradually formed through careful pursuit of the future, worship of ancestors and grave sweeping. You can remember the graves of bereavement for one or two generations, but not after three generations, especially after migration and war, you don't know where the ancestral graves are. How to solve it, people have come up with many ways. At first, people buried the dead. Inspired by the wooden stakes used to maintain the coffin rope, they inserted wooden stakes and bamboo poles in front of the tomb and tied fibrous things (paper or silk, etc.) ) to indicate the date and time of birth and death of the deceased, which is called "Ming Jing" (or "Ming Jing"). But it is easy to be damaged, so people try to find another way: the rich use stone pillars instead of wooden pillars, and engrave the name, birth time and official rank of the deceased on the stone pillars. In order to carve more characters, its shape evolved into squares and rectangles, and it began to be buried inside or outside the tomb. Referring to the architectural structure, the top of the monument is capped and decorated with animals, plants or landscape patterns, and the body of the monument is engraved with the resume of the deceased. It shows that he was buried alone with his wife, concubine, son and daughter. Geomantic geographical orientation of the inscribed Yin House (that is, the tomb) (expressed in heavenly stems and earthly branches). Middle-class families set up medium-sized tombstones, while poor families can only set up small stone tablets with names, ceramic brick tablets or plant some evergreen trees as symbols. As a result, tombstones are gradually transformed from practical products into cultural works of art, and their functions, shapes, textures and decorations are becoming more and more diversified. Celebrity tombstones pay more attention to granite, marble and other high-quality stone materials. There is a statue of the deceased on the top of the monument or a porcelain statue of the deceased embedded in the center of the monument. Tombstones have become "honorary certificates" and decorations to record the family background and merits of the deceased. This is in line with the social fashion of China people to honor their ancestors, benefit future generations and last forever. In order to avoid natural erosion and man-made destruction caused by wind, rain and sun, a monument was erected outside the tomb, and the epitaph and inscription were buried in the tomb. Tombstones prevailed in Han and Tang dynasties, and later became a fixed trend.

Epitaph is a kind of stone carving, which contains the biography of the deceased stored in the tomb. It condenses the housekeeping, virtue, academic orientation, skills, achievements and merits of the deceased into personal historical records to make up for the shortcomings of family history, local chronicles and even national history. This is also the confirmation of the age of the epitaph. For example, in the second year of Zhangzong (AD 669), barbarians and pirates made an insurrection in southern Fujian. The court sent a general from Gushi, Gwangju (now Huangchuan, Henan Province), and led the government soldiers to delete three people (58 surnames) to conquer the six sons. At the age of 13, Wei Mu (Jing), the mother, was recommended as the first one by the country sages, and went to war with her father. The parishioners learned the Central Plains culture and advanced agriculture and textile technology. After his father died, Yuan Guang inherited his father's position at the age of 18. He showed kindness and kindness to the rebels, and advocated that the 58-year-old man should marry soldiers and local residents freely and go fishing and doing business in the sea, so that the barren land of Guangdong and Guangxi could enter the state of etiquette. It also cleaned up the establishment of Zhangzhou and other counties and was promoted to the secretariat. In a battle, Yuan Guang died heroically at the age of 54. Because Chen's father, son, grandparents and grandchildren were buried in Zhangzhou, people regarded him as "Wang Sheng" (also in Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties) and built a tomb and temple for him. Up to now, there are more than 100 Zhang Kai Wang Sheng temples in Taiwan Province province alone. Strangely, the main characters of such a successful family are not among the new and old Tang books. No wonder later generations carved couplets in front of Chen Sheng Temple: "The official history has not been repaired; There is a temple in Zhangjiang dedicated to the general. With the expansion of cross-strait exchanges, among the 58 surnames who sailed with Chen's father and son, Chen, Zheng, Lin, Hu, Huang, Wang, Zhao, Zhan and Qiu became rich people in Fujian, Taiwan and overseas. With the help of epitaphs, spectral spies, tombstones and other scholars' records, the research results continue to go deep into Gushi, Xinzheng and other places in Henan Province to seek roots and ancestors; According to the epitaph and local chronicles, Zheng Chenggong's descendants also learned that their ancestors were also one of the 58 surnames in Fujian, followed by Zheng Chen and his son.

Epitaph includes two parts: chronicle and inscription. Ming used prose to describe the name, font size, native place, official rank, merits and demerits of the deceased. The inscription sums up the full text of the chronicle in verse, expressing condolences, comfort and praise to the deceased, and euphemistically expressing emotion. But some only use inscriptions (texts) or inscriptions. Inscriptions are records and carvings. Initially, it was carved (or cast) on a bronze tripod. Later, it was also engraved on stone tablets, metal plates and other artifacts, or called merit, or borrowed from Shen, and gradually evolved into an independent style. Xiao Tong's Selected Works of Zhaoming contains five inscriptions by Ban Gu and others. Among Wu Chucai and Wu Diaohou's Notes on Ancient Chinese Literature, there is Liu Yuxi's Humble Room Inscription, which has been handed down to this day. The inscription is short and lively, or in a Sao style, or like a five-character or seven-character poem or song advocated by Buddhists, or like a warning motto. The punch line is implicit and flashy, and it contains philosophy but is not obscure. This is the characteristic of epitaphs and other aphorisms in the inscription of merits and things.