On Contents and Features of Yeh Shih's Work of Epitaphs

「墓誌銘」歷來為文人間應酬的作品，多不具價值，但在南宋永嘉學派的散文大家葉適文集中，這類體裁的作品卻極具有他個人的特色，歷代的文論家也給予極高的評價。在葉適百篇的墓誌銘，寫作對象的不少為臣僚、士人和親友，另撰有女性墓誌銘，葉適意圖在此文體上為他們樹立一種時代的精神典範。包括了對士人形象典範與女性賢德風範的探討，並架構在南宋時代氛圍中，對這些讀書人與婦女的言行深入的描寫。另外，在墓誌銘中的思想內涵，也窺探葉適對生死命題的想法。葉適在「墓誌銘」的書寫風格與形式上，力求突破，追求新變，一改碑誌以述敘為主的書寫風格，在文中插入大量的抒情、議論，透過蒐羅資料、訪問考察，對人物生平事蹟全面的掌握，形塑其人的行事風格、言行舉止的個人特色，成一部四十年間生動多彩的人物紀傳史。＂Epitaphs＂ had been vehicles of socialization among scholars in old times, therefore, they were mostly ordinary literary pieces. However, we found extraordinary epitaphs in books of Yeh Shih, a master in Yung-Chia school, South Sung dynasty of China. His works of epitaph had apparent features of his own, and had been positively commented as dynasties gone by. He wrote epitaphs mostly for his coworkers, scholars, and friends, sometimes for females. By writing these, he intended to extract, or to regulate a monumental model from the objects, and accumulate them to be the spiritual paragon of his time. These paragons contain those articles for scholars, and for decent women, in the time of South Sung dynasty. He wrote all these by detailed description of the people's behaviors and words. Furthermore, by reading and studying his epitaph writings, we found a part of Yeh's thoughts on issues of live and death. Yeh endeavored to renovate the style of epitaph writings of his time, by emphasizing on sentimental and discussive sides, instead of in a descriptive way. By information collecting and field investigation, Yeh Shih predominated the deeds of the objects he wrote for. He made everyone peculiar by digging and analyzing their behavior and words. By all of these, Yeh made actually a priceless, vivid, and colorful book of biographies of his own time