The necropolitan elite of northeast China in the long eleventh century: a social history of Liao dynasty epitaphs (907-1125)

Pursey, Lance (2020). The necropolitan elite of northeast China in the long eleventh century: a social history of Liao dynasty epitaphs (907-1125). University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

The historiographical record of the Liao dynasty (907-1125) is limited due to the contingencies of manuscript survival, and so excavated epitaphs have come to be a vital primary source for study of Liao history. This thesis analyses the epitaphs of the Liao as a whole and considers the contingent social factors behind their production.

This is done over four thematic chapters that roughly map onto four periods in the Liao where the themes are most apparent: geography, culture and the tenth century; territorial reforms, the expansion of the imperial examinations and the early-to-mid eleventh century; genealogy, the Kitan aristocracy and the mid-to-late eleventh century; and court politics, historiography and the late Liao (1085-1125).

Taken together these themes explain the increased production of epitaphs over the course of the dynasty and in different regions of the empire. I argue that epitaphs were not a cultural signifier of ethnic categories but a medium through which people not only commemorated the dead, but also signalled their status to others. It is this function of epitaphs as texts that could influence others perceptions that explains the growing demand for them against the backdrop of the changing social structures.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):