A best means of keeping records of people’s life stories by covering blemishes and highlighting merits, epitaphs usually present descriptions carved with social reasoning, which intentionally revealed and represented the current conceptions of morality and styles. The selecting standards of ladiesinwaiting in the Sui Dynasty embodied such qualities as pretty complexion, tender character, birth into a good family, being intelligent and wellbred and whatever. A proper control of the standards by preserving common qualities and saving individual distinctions in selecting each ladyinwaiting actually showed the many ideal expectations for selecting ladiesinwaiting in the society of the Sui Dynasty. This historical practice provides historical grounds for investigating the common idealized expectations of the Sui society for the class of ladiesinwaiting and further examining the perception of female morality and norm and criteria for female behaviour in the current society.

the Sui Dynasty; ladiesinwaiting; selecting standards; epitaphs in the Sui Dynasty