Gě-shì sāngfú biànchú 葛氏喪服變除
Master Gě’s [Chart of] Mourning-Dress Reduction-and-Removal
by 葛洪 (撰)
About the work
A single-juàn reconstruction of 葛洪 Gě Hóng’s (283–343) lost Sāngfú biànchú 喪服變除 — Gě Hóng’s surviving Sāngfú (mourning-dress) treatise in the biànchú-tú (reduction-and-removal-chart) form pioneered by 射慈 Shè Cí’s KR1d0114 Sāngfú biànchú tú. Gě Hóng is principally known to standard history as the author of the Bàopǔzǐ 抱朴子 (KR4i0006 and KR4i0007) — the foundational treatise of medieval Chinese Daoist alchemy and xiān-cultivation — but his Confucian-ritual scholarship is substantial and includes this Sāngfú biànchú alongside other ritual works. The CHANT reconstruction (CH2e1088) is drawn from Dù Yòu 杜佑’s Tōngdiǎn 通典 citations.
Abstract
The text opens with the canonical zhǎn-cuī full-mourning-dress specification: zhǎn-cuī cháng, jū-dié, zhàng, jiǎo-dài, guān shéng yīng, jiān-jù 斬衰裳、苴絰、杖、絞帶、冠繩纓、菅屨 (rough-cut skirt-and-jacket, hemp-cord head-and-loin bands, mourning-staff, twisted girdle, knotted-cord cap, jiān-grass sandals). The accompanying zhuàn gloss explains: zhǎn = uncut-hemmed; jū-dié = hemp with seed-residue; jū-dié circumference is dà-é (one-handspan), with the zuǒ-běn (left-base) underneath; subtract one-fifth for the dài (girdle); the zī-cuī dié equals the zhǎn-cuī dài, again subtract one-fifth for the zī-cuī dài; and so on down through the five grades.
The arithmetic-deductive structure of the biànchú charts — each mourning-grade’s specifications derivable from the next-deeper grade by the canonical one-fifth-subtraction rule — is fully exhibited here. The substantive content covers:
(i) The full canonical five-grade Sāngfú schedule with detailed measurements for dié (head-and-loin bands) and dài (girdles) calculated by the canonical one-fifth-reduction rule.
(ii) The biàn / chú sequencing. Step-by-step protocols for the transitions at zú-kū (initial wailing), xiǎo-liàn (lesser practice-sacrifice), dà-liàn (greater practice-sacrifice), liàn (felicitous practice-sacrifice at month 13), xiáng (felicitous-sacrifice at month 25), and tán (removal-sacrifice at month 27).
The dating bracket (283–343) reflects Gě Hóng’s documented lifespan in Jìn shū 72.
Translations and research
- The standard English-language treatment of Gě Hóng’s Bàopǔzǐ is James R. Ware, Alchemy, Medicine, Religion in the China of A.D. 320: The Nei P’ien of Ko Hung (MIT, 1966), with no comparable English coverage of his ritual scholarship.
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located specifically on the Sāngfú biànchú.
Other points of interest
Gě Hóng is best known as a Daoist alchemist, but the survival of this Sāngfú biànchú — along with his lost Sāngfú yìfēi 喪服遺非 — demonstrates that he was equally active in mainstream Confucian-ritual scholarship. The integration of these two strands in a single career is doctrinally important for understanding the early-medieval Chinese intellectual world in which alchemy, xiān-cultivation, and Sānlǐ exegesis could be pursued simultaneously without contradiction.
Links
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ge_Hong
- Chinese Text Project — Tōngdiǎn: https://ctext.org/tongdian