Hàn Guān Jiùyí 漢官舊儀
Old Protocols of the Hàn Officials by 衞宏 (撰)
About the work
A foundational documentary fragment on Western-Hàn court protocols and offices, attributed to the Eastern-Hàn classicist Wèi Hóng 衞宏 (1st century CE). The transmitted text is the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn recension reconstituted by the Sìkù editors, in 2 juǎn (the original portion, “juǎn 1,” plus a supplementary bǔyí “juǎn 2” gathered from quotations in the Hàn shū and Hòu Hàn shū commentaries). Records imperial qǐjū (daily routine), the empress’s qīncán (silkworm ritual), seal-and-cord ranks, fief grades, and similar early-Hàn institutional matter not preserved in the Hànshū treatises.
Tiyao
The Yǒnglè dàdiǎn preserves a Hàn guān jiùyí of one juǎn, with no compiler’s name. Liú Zhāo’s commentary on the Xù Hànshū Bǎiguān zhì cites Hàn guān yí as Yìng Shào’s; cites Hàn jiù yí without an author. The Suízhì and Tángzhì give 4 juǎn; the Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì gives 3 juǎn. The Shūlù jiětí first writes Hàn guān jiù yí, with a note “compiled by Wèi Hóng.” Some say it is by Hú Guǎng. Wèi Hóng’s biography records a Hàn jiùyí in 4 piān containing matter on the Western-Hàn capital, not titled Hàn guān. The present text is in 3 juǎn with the title Hàn guān—uncertain whether this is the original.
The Yǒnglè dàdiǎn version, though titled Hàn guān, contains entries on the imperial qǐjū, the empress’s qīncán, seal-cord ranks, fief grades, and so on—matching exactly Wèi Hóng’s biographical Xījīng záshì description. Quotations from Hàn jiùyí in the Qián / Hòu Hàn shū commentaries match this text. So this is unquestionably Wèi Hóng’s work; perhaps later hands added the Guān in the title because the work is largely on offices.
The original transmitted manuscript has confused divisions and corrupt characters, almost unreadable. We have collated against Bān Gù and Fàn Yè’s standard histories, restoring suspect readings; the original interlinear notes (now indicated by “běnzhù” labels) are merged into the main text in the manner of Liú Zhāo’s Bǎiguān zhì commentary.
The Qián / Hòu Hàn shū commentaries also cite jiùyí passages on suburban-altar sacrifice, jiá combined sacrifice, the imperial-plough ritual, and the wine-libation—great state rituals not in the present text. As the work has been long transmitted, much has been lost; we have selected and re-collated these passages into a separate bǔyí appended at the end, to make up the deficiency.
Abstract
The Hàn guān jiùyí belongs to a small family of Wèi Hóng-attributed Eastern-Hàn institutional manuals—Hàn jiùyí (this work), Hàn yízhù 漢儀注, Hàn lǐyí 漢禮儀—of which only fragments survive. Wèi Hóng (fl. under Guāngwǔ 25–57 and into the MǐngZhāng reigns) was a guǔwén classicist, student of Xiè Mànqīng 謝曼卿, who taught the Máo recension of the Shī at court. The Hàn guān jiùyí documents the early-Eastern-Hàn court’s effort to recover (or to construct, depending on view) a documentary record of Western-Hàn institutional practice as the dynasty was being legitimated as a restoration.
The dating bracket is wide because Wèi Hóng’s life-dates are imprecise: notBefore=25 (Guāngwǔ’s accession, the earliest plausible point of composition) and notAfter=100 (a generous bracket for the late first century, before Yìng Shào’s Hàn guān yí of c. 197). The Sìkù editors’ textual reconstitution from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn and the Hòu Hàn shū commentaries is the basis of all modern editions.
The work is preserved in Sìkù with the modern editions deriving largely from the same recension. Sūn Xīngyǎn 孫星衍 (1753–1818) and Wáng Wénxī 王文錫 produced the most influential Qīng jíyì (gathering-and-reconstructing) reconstructions, the latter standardly cited as Hànguān liùzhǒng 漢官六種.
Translations and research
Standard punctuated edition: Sūn Xīngyǎn, Hàn guān liù zhǒng 漢官六種 (in Sūn shì cóngshū; reprint Zhōnghuá, 1990). The classical philological study is Wáng Guówéi 王國維, “Hàn jiù yí kǎo” (Guāntáng jí lín 觀堂集林). Modern: Yáng Hóng 楊鴻, Hànguān liù-zhǒng yán-jiū 漢官六種研究 (Shànghǎi gǔjí, 2014). Western-language: Hans Bielenstein, The Bureaucracy of Han Times (Cambridge, 1980), uses the Jiùyí fragments throughout as a primary source. Charles O. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China (Stanford, 1985), draws extensively on the Hàn guān jiùyí and its sister fragments.
Other points of interest
Wèi Hóng’s Hàn guān jiùyí should not be confused with Yìng Shào’s later Hàn guān yí 漢官儀 (c. 197 CE), which Liú Zhāo regularly cites alongside it. The two works are independent attempts to record Hàn institutional practice; the Sìkù editors and modern commentators are careful to distinguish them.