Combining the research on fu and the epitaph can help us collate the lost Tang fu based on the epitaph. It is also an approach to studying how the people in Tang dynasty wrote fu for an epitaph. The association between fu and the epitaph will be discussed in four parts in this paper.The first part focuses on collating the literature of Tang fu based on a study of the newly unearthed epitaphs, among which over 10 are related to works of fu and their authors. Collating the literature on Tang fu gives us some information on the amount of fu written by Tang litterateurs, the style of fu, the spread of fu to the surrounding areas, and the period of time when terms of fu criticism came into being. For example, after studying Xie Guan's self-composed epitaph, we can conclude that lüfu(a form of literary style)emerged in the mid and late Tang Dynasty. The second part discusses the phenomenon that the epitaphs of Tang dynasty borrowed a lot from the works of fu in pre-Tang. The themes of these works fall under three categories:lament, homeboundness, and unrecognized talent. Lament was the author's purpose of writing an epitaph. It was a way to commemorate deceased relatives and friends. It was also the embodiment of culture. Like the motivation of writing an epitaph, the fu writer might use the allusions and historical facts of lament, especially in memory of the love between a couple. The writers often used the allusions of Pan Yue to express their sad feelings. Homeboundness and unrecognized talent were different. The former was an ideal state of life, while the latter expressed helpless sorrow. When describing the state of homeboundness, the writer tended to quote Zhang Heng's Guitian Fu and Pan Yue's Xianju Fu. When describing the unrecognized talent, they tended to relate it to Diao Quyuan Fu and Funiao Fu.The third part focuses on the phenomenon that the epitaph adopted the writing style of fu. The style of fu is found in the structure of the overall text and the sentences. As far as the overall structure is concerned, the epitaph is similar to fu in its use of conjunctions and modal particles. But when it comes to literary form, the epitaph is made up of lots of four-six-word sentences and Xi sentences. The four-sixword sentence is typical of the Parallel style, while the Xi sentence is typical of the Sao style. Based on the examples of the Pre-Tang fu, a reasonable assumption is that the epitaphs using these two kinds of sentences were inspired by the Pianfu and Saofu. The fourth part discusses the reasons why the epitaphs borrowed the allusions and writing techniques of pre-Tang fu. Firstly, the function of fu is similar to that of the epitaph: the writers can both become immortal in their work. Secondly, the system of selecting scholars by their poetry and fu had a certain degree of influence on the scholars. To have a brighter future, the scholars practiced and perfected their skills. Thirdly, from the perspective of stylistics, fu was valued more highly than other styles. Fu's aesthetic value is much more obvious than the epitaph and has certain reference value for the epitaph. In addition, fu was an elegant literary style that highly accorded with the purpose of an epitaph's as it pays tribute to the memory of the tomb owner, and there was also the possibility that the writers wanted to show off their scholarship through the epitaphs.