At the beginning of the 3rd century, Cao Cao banned thick burial. It is also forbidden to erect a monument in front of the tomb, which is a system of reburial. This is what people often say. The ban on steles led to the prevalence of epitaphs. However, when the imperial power was weak in the 3rd-6th century, aristocratic families often erected monuments without authorization.

Cao Weiyu, the successor of the Western Jin Dynasty, continued to ban the construction of monuments. Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty once wrote: "Monuments show private beauty and honor hypocrisy, which is nothing more than this. Stop it. " But in fact, Sima's royal family in the Western Jin Dynasty was a Confucian aristocratic family, advocating Zoroastrianism, filial piety and attaching importance to the gate valve. The life of the upper class of the ruling group is more luxurious than that of the previous generation. Although it still follows the ban on monuments since Cao Wei, it has become a practice for several generations of royal families to "live with relatives and mourn". At that time, the tombs of some noble officials were very luxurious, and there were often epitaphs in the pits, which were the epitome of historical sites, and some were simplified into rectangular stones, all of which were carefully carved. Therefore, the monarchs of the Western Jin Dynasty, the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Southern Qi Dynasty and the Liang Dynasty repeatedly applied for the prohibition of monuments. The prohibition of erecting monuments shows the contradiction between imperial power and gentry, laws and customs in that era from one side.