Wǔwēi Hàn Jiǎn‧Jiǎ Běn Yǒu Sī 武威漢簡‧甲本有司
Wuwei Han Bamboo Slips — Version A: The Officials (Yǒu Sī Chè)
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 Yǒu Sī Chè 有司徹 (“The Officials Withdraw”) chapter as preserved on bamboo slips from the Mózuǐzǐ 磨嘴子 tomb 6 excavation, Wūwēi 武威, Gānsù (1959). This chapter directly follows and concludes the Shǎo láo kuì shí lǐ (KR2p0104) in both the received Yílǐ 儀禮 and the Wuwei slips. Part of the broader Wuwei Han bamboo slips (Wǔwēi Hànjian 武威漢簡) corpus.
Abstract
The Yǒu Sī Chè 有司徹 (“The Officials Clear Away”) is chapter 17 and the final chapter of the received Yílǐ 儀禮. The title refers to the ceremonial officials (yǒu sī 有司) who perform the closing procedures — removing the food offerings, dismantling the ritual setup — at the conclusion of the Shǎo láo 少牢 ancestral sacrifice. As the final chapter of the Yili, the Yǒu Sī Chè has attracted scholarly attention as a possible later addition to the text; the Wuwei evidence provides early testimony to its place in the received chapter sequence.
The Wuwei version opens: 有司徹，搔堂。司宮聶酒，乃深𡰣俎 (“The officials clear away: [They] sweep the hall. The palace manager turns the wine [jars]; then they deepen [the arrangement on] the impersonator’s meat-stand”). The text then describes the reassembly of the three ritual cauldrons (dǐng 鼎) — for the sheep, pig, and fish, without dried meat or skin portions — and the invitation of an alternate guest (huò 或) of a different surname to the post-sacrifice drinking. The chapter is thus both a closing ritual for the Shǎo láo and an independent secondary ceremony.
The Wuwei Version A is the only pre-Tang manuscript witness to the Yǒu Sī Chè chapter. Its textual significance lies in confirming that this chapter was already associated with the Shǎo láo sequence in the early first century CE. Comparison with the Shísān jīng zhùshū received text reveals minor variants in wording and occasional differences in the ritual prescriptions.
Translations and research
- Steele, John, tr. The I-li, or Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial. 2 vols. Probsthain, 1917. Covers the Yǒu Sī Chè 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).