武威漢簡‧甲本少牢

Wǔwēi Hàn Jiǎn‧Jiǎ Běn Shǎo Láo 武威漢簡‧甲本少牢

Wuwei Han Bamboo Slips — Version A: Sacrifice of a Lesser Offering

Excavated text; no attributed author.

About the work

This text is the transcription (shìwén 釋文) of Version A (甲本 jiǎ běn) of the Shǎo láo kuì shí lǐ 少牢饋食禮 (“Rite of Offering Food with the Lesser Sacrificial Animals”) as preserved on bamboo slips from the Mózuǐzǐ 磨嘴子 tomb 6 excavation, Wūwēi 武威, Gānsù (1959). Part of the broader Wuwei Han bamboo slips (Wǔwēi Hànjian 武威漢簡) corpus. Closely related to the following chapter, the Yǒu Sī Chè 有司徹 (KR2p0105).

Abstract

The Shǎo láo kuì shí lǐ 少牢饋食禮 is chapter 16 of the received Yílǐ 儀禮. It describes the ancestral sacrifice performed by a high minister (qīng dàfū 卿大夫) using shǎo láo 少牢 offerings — specifically two animals (sheep and pig) without an ox, in contrast to the tài láo 太牢 (three animals) reserved for the ruler and the tè shēng 特牲 (one pig; see KR2p0103) used by the shì officer. The shǎo láo rite is thus the middle tier in the three-level sacrificial hierarchy of the Yili.

The Wuwei version opens: 少牢餽食之禮：日用丁、己，筮旬有一日。筮于廟門之外。主人朝服，西面于門東 (“The rite of offering food with the lesser animals: Use the [cyclical] days dīng and jǐ [i.e., the fourth and sixth heavenly stems]; divine eleven days [in advance]. Divination is performed outside the gate of the ancestral temple. The master of the household wears court dress, faces west, [standing] east of the gate”). The use of specific cyclical days for the sacrifice (dīng and jǐ) is a feature preserved only in the Wuwei text and not in the received Yili, making this passage particularly significant for comparative textual study.

The chapter proceeds through the ritual procedures corresponding structurally to those of the Tè shēng chapter: date divination, appointment of the ritual impersonator of the ancestor (shī 𡰣), the sacrifice and libations, and closing procedures. The Shǎo láo chapter concludes without a character-count colophon in the Wuwei version, suggesting possible incompleteness or damage.

The Shǎo láo kuì shí lǐ is followed directly in both the received Yili and the Wuwei slips by the Yǒu Sī Chè 有司徹 (KR2p0105), which describes the withdrawal procedures at the conclusion of the shǎo láo sacrifice.

Translations and research

• Steele, John, tr. The I-li, or Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial. 2 vols. Probsthain, 1917. Covers the Shǎo láo kuì shí lǐ in vol. 2.
• 陳夢家 Chén Mèngjiā, ed. 《武威漢簡》. 文物出版社, 1964; repr. 中華書局, 2005.
• Loewe, Michael. “I-li.” In Michael Loewe, ed. Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. SSEC/IEAS, 1993, pp. 234–43.

Links

• Wuwei Han bamboo slips — Wikipedia
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §59.7.2 (III Wuwei, #2).