Wei Yuanwang’s newly discovered epitaph found in Luoyang provides important information about historical people and events like the Wei Family and the northeastern frontier problems of the Tang dynasty. By combining this text with the newly discovered epitaph and tombstone of Wei Zhe, Wei Yuanwang’s uncle, in Heshui, Gansu Province, it can be seen that the Wei family moved from Julu 鉅 鹿 in Hebei to Ningzhou 寧州 in Gansu during the Former Qin dynasty(351—394 CE). Wei Yuanwang served in an official capacity for eighteen terms, totaling up to nearly forty years. He served as the local governor of Tanzhou 檀州,Jizhou 薊州, Shazhou 沙州, Guazhou 瓜州, and Anxi, and was mainly active in the northeastern frontier and northeastern regions of the Tang dynasty before retiring as the governor of Guazhou. Despite such long service in a time and area of notable turmoil, however, his activities can rarely be seen in historical records. This epitaph not only replenishes the insufficient records of Wei Yuanwang’s activities, but also helps to prove that the political status of Guazhou was higher than that of Shazhou during the Tang Dynasty.
