"What is the meaning and difference between "deceased, apparent, kao, mother"" on the tombstone?"

Every year at the time of sacrifice, we will see tombstones in many places, which is a kind of rural customs and culture that has been passed down for hundreds of years. In these tombstones we will often see the words "deceased, obvious, kao, mother", if you do not have a serious understanding of this culture or read the history of this area, you may find it very puzzling. In fact, "the late, obvious, kao, mother" these words are respectively represents a kind of identity of the tomb owner, and the relationship with the monument people.

First of all, let's talk about the character "故". "Therefore" means "dead", and this character simply expresses the reason for the erection of the monument, and at the same time expresses the living's longing for the dead, which is relatively common on tombstones.

Then we come to the character "显". The character "显" is a word that needs to be used with caution, because the meaning it contains is that the owner of the tomb has no living elders in the world, his elders have died before him, and he only has children and grandchildren in the world. So one must be careful when using this word, otherwise it would be disrespectful and denigrating to the elders.

Lastly, the two words "考" and "妣", these two words are actually related. The word "kao" refers to the father, while "mother" refers to the mother. These two words are actually explaining that this is the tomb owner's children to their parents to set up a monument, but also with a word on the description of a kind of kinship, very subtle. Nowadays, because many people don't understand these two words, they also use "father" and "mother" instead, which is more intuitive.

Tombstone is a very solemn object, in a small place to record some relationships and identity, which is also a kind of art and culture.