Zá Jìn Fāng 雜禁方
Miscellaneous Apotropaic Recipes
Anonymous (Mawangdui tomb 3 manuscript corpus, sealed 168 BCE)
About the work
The Zá Jìn Fāng 雜禁方 (“Miscellaneous Apotropaic Recipes”) is a short apotropaic text from the Mawangdui 馬王堆 tomb 3 silk manuscript cache, sealed 168 BCE at Changsha, Hunan. It contains ritual formulas (jìn fāng 禁方, literally “prohibited/secret recipes”) for warding off bad omens, resolving domestic misfortune, and gaining social advantage. The term jìn 禁 in early Chinese medicine and demonology refers to ritual prohibitions and protective spells — a category distinct from pharmaceutical recipes, though the two were regularly combined in practice. The text occupies both sides of its silk strip, producing a distinctive double-text in the manuscript that results in near-verbatim repetition of each entry.
Abstract
The Zá Jìn Fāng was excavated in 1973 from Mawangdui tomb 3 and published in 馬王堆漢墓帛書整理小組, 《馬王堆漢墓帛書》, vol. 4 (文物出版社, 1985); definitive edition in 裘錫圭 et al. (eds.), 《長沙馬王堆漢墓簡帛集成》 (中華書局, 2014). The title is a modern editorial designation.
The distinctive feature of the source text is that every entry appears twice in sequence, as if the two sides of the silk strip were transcribed sequentially or the text was written with an intent to create a paired/mirrored copy. Each ritual is stated once, immediately followed by its duplicate.
The ritual situations addressed include:
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A dog that repeatedly howls at the well or gate: “又犬善皋於亶與門，𡌘井上方五尺” (“Again: [for] a dog that barks habitually at the [place before the] well and gate — mark out a square five chǐ [feet] above the well”). The character 𡌘 is glossed by editors as a grapheme for marking/delineating a ritual space.
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Husband and wife who hate each other: “夫妻相惡，𡌘戶□方五尺” (“Husband and wife who hate each other — [mark] the door-space □ five chǐ square”).
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Wishing to subtly bring about a notable person’s goodwill: “欲微貴人，𡌘門左右方五尺” (“Wishing to subtly [gain] a noble person — [mark out] five chǐ square to the left and right of the gate”).
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Frequent bad dreams: “多惡薨，𡌘牀下方七尺” (“Many evil dreams — [mark out] seven chǐ square under the bed”).
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Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law quarrelling: “姑婦善𧯞，𡌘戶方五尺” (“Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law who quarrel frequently — [mark out] five chǐ square at the door”).
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An infant who cries frequently: “嬰兒善泣，涂□上方五尺” (“An infant who cries frequently — [mark out] five chǐ square above the road-altar □”).
Additional formulas address litigation (writing the opponent’s name under the sole of a shoe to gain advantage), attracting the affection of others (burning female sparrow tails and drinking the ash), and reuniting estranged spouses (placing the person’s eyelash in wine and having them drink it). These techniques blend household ritual and personal magic.
The text is anonymous; no attributed author appears. The use of the term jìn fāng 禁方 connects this text to the broader tradition of jìnfāng ritual magic, which later crystallized in the fāngxiāngsī 方相氏 and related exorcistic traditions of the imperial court, and more distantly in the Celestial Masters (Tiānshī 天師) Daoist tradition. The household context of the recipes — dogs, dreams, marital conflict, crying infants — suggests a practical domestic deployment.
Translations and research
- Harper, Donald. Early Chinese Medical Literature: The Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts. London: Kegan Paul International, 1998. — Translation and commentary; pp. 390–400.
- 馬王堆漢墓帛書整理小組 (ed.). 《馬王堆漢墓帛書》, vol. 4. 北京: 文物出版社, 1985.
- 裘錫圭 et al. (eds.). 《長沙馬王堆漢墓簡帛集成》, 7 vols. 北京: 中華書局, 2014.
- Hinrichs, T.J., and Linda L. Barnes (eds.). Chinese Medicine and Healing: An Illustrated History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013.
Other points of interest
The double-text structure of the Zá Jìn Fāng — each formula written twice in immediate succession — is a textual anomaly that has attracted scholarly attention. The duplication may reflect the physical nature of the silk strip (a two-sided medium where front and back were transcribed sequentially) or may indicate a deliberate ritual principle of doubling for efficacy. In either case it renders the KR2p digital transcription notably repetitive and confirms the physical characteristics of the original excavated object.