武威漢簡‧甲本泰射

Wǔwēi Hàn Jiǎn‧Jiǎ Běn Tài Shè 武威漢簡‧甲本泰射

Wuwei Han Bamboo Slips — Version A: The Great Archery Ceremony

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 Great Archery ceremony as preserved on bamboo slips from the Mózuǐzǐ 磨嘴子 tomb 6 excavation, Wūwēi 武威, Gānsù (1959). The Wuwei manuscript title is 泰射之儀 (Tài shè zhī yí, “Ceremonies of the Great Archery”), using the archaic character 泰 in place of 大 (dà) found in the received Yílǐ 儀禮 title Dà shè lǐ 大射禮. This is a notable textual variant. Part of the broader Wuwei Han bamboo slips (Wǔwēi Hànjian 武威漢簡) corpus.

Abstract

The Dà shè lǐ 大射禮 (“Great Archery Ceremony”) is chapter 7 of the received Yílǐ 儀禮. It describes the formal archery ritual performed by the ruler in preparation for selecting archers to participate in the royal sacrifice — only men who hit their targets were considered spiritually composed enough to attend. The ceremony involves elaborate preparations over the preceding days, measurement of the archery range by pacing, the arrangement and design of the targets, the ceremonial sequence of draws, and the toasting of the winning archers.

The Wuwei version opens: 泰射之儀：君有命戒射。宰戒官有事於射者。射人戒諸公、卿、大夫射。司士戒士射與贊者 (“Ceremonies of the great archery: The lord issues a command to prepare for the shooting. The steward alerts the officials who have roles in the shooting. The archery officer alerts the grandees, ministers, and great officers for the shoot. The master of officers alerts the officers who will shoot and the assistants”). The 泰/大 variant in the title is one of several places where the Wuwei manuscript preserves what appear to be older or regional orthographic conventions. 泰 (variant of 大) is used in the name of the Tài miào 泰廟 (Supreme Ancestral Temple) and similar terms; its use here for the archery ceremony name may reflect an earlier scribal tradition.

Archery (shè 射) was one of the six arts (liù yì 六藝) of ancient elite education, and the ceremonial archery ritual described in the Dà shè lǐ placed enormous weight on the proper moral deportment of the archer. The Lǐjì 禮記 chapter Shè yì 射義 provides an ideological complement to the Yili procedural text, explaining why archery ability reveals the archer’s inner character. The Wuwei slips provide an independent early textual witness to the procedural tradition.

Other points of interest

The variant title 泰射 for the received 大射 is unique to the Wuwei manuscript and has been noted in textual studies of the Yili. The variant is not a scribal error but appears consistently at the head of the chapter; it may preserve a regional or earlier term for this rite.

Translations and research

• Steele, John, tr. The I-li, or Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial. 2 vols. Probsthain, 1917. Covers the Dà shè lǐ in vol. 1.
• 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.
• Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual. §26.15 (Archery) for broader cultural context.

Links

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