The Buddhist Impact on the Last Testaments of Women in Medieval China

Abstract

Through a comparative study of last testaments documented in epitaphs of the Tang period, this article offers a glimpse into people’s outlooks on life and their concerns in the face of death. The thoughts expressed in last testaments have been neglected in the studies of Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty, with research restricted to compilations of materials. In-depth analyses of such materials are rare. Through a study of the last testaments in the epitaphs, several trends in attitudes towards death and burial can be discerned: a turn from burial to cremation; the simplification of ritual and its procedures; a greater prevalence of separate, rather than joint spousal interment. The last testaments from the Tang period exhibit these different features under the influence of Buddhist ideas prevalent during those times.