Wǔwēi Hàn Jiǎn‧Yǐ Běn Fú Zhuàn 武威漢簡‧乙本服傳
Wuwei Han Bamboo Slips — Version B: Commentary on Mourning Dress
Excavated text; no attributed author.
About the work
This text is the transcription (shìwén 釋文) of Version B (乙本 yǐ běn) of the Sāngfú zhuàn 喪服傳 (“Commentary on Mourning Dress”) as preserved on bamboo slips from the Mózuǐzǐ 磨嘴子 tomb 6 excavation, Wūwēi 武威, Gānsù (1959). This is the second of two manuscript copies of the Sāngfú zhuàn in the Wuwei find; Version A is at KR2p0102, and Version C of the main Sāngfú text (without Zhuàn) is at KR2p0108. Part of the broader Wuwei Han bamboo slips (Wǔwēi Hànjian 武威漢簡) corpus.
Abstract
The Sāngfú zhuàn 喪服傳 (“Commentary on Mourning Dress”) is the question-and-answer explanatory supplement to the Sāngfú 喪服 chapter of the Yílǐ 儀禮, explaining the rationale behind each mourning rule. The existence of two separate manuscript copies of the Sāngfú zhuàn in the same tomb — Version A (KR2p0102) and Version B (this entry) — is highly significant: it documents that the text was being actively studied, copied, and cross-checked, suggesting the presence in the Wuwei region of one or more individuals engaged in ritual learning.
Version B (乙本) opens with the same opening as Version A: 斬衰常，苴絰，杖，絞帶，冠繩纓，菅屢者。斬者？不䌌也 (the at the head of the line is an unclear character in the CHANT transcription, possibly representing a damaged or unusual graph in the original slip). The text proceeds through the same five mourning grades as Version A, using the same question-and-answer format, and contains a partially overlapping but not identical set of textual variants relative to the received Yili.
Comparison between Version A (KR2p0102) and Version B reveals both agreements against the received text (confirming that the Wuwei slips preserve a genuine regional tradition) and small differences between the two Wuwei copies themselves — suggesting they derive from a common but not identical exemplar, or that one copy was made from the other with amendments. For instance, Version A reads 苴絰大鬲，左末在下 while Version B reads 苴絰大鬲，左本在下, a potentially significant variant involving 末 vs. 本 (tip vs. root). Such micro-variants make the Wuwei Sāngfú manuscripts a key object of study in the history of pre-Han and early Han textual transmission.
Translations and research
- Steele, John, tr. The I-li, or Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial. 2 vols. Probsthain, 1917. Covers the Sāngfú chapter 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. Contains synoptic comparison of Versions A, B, and C.
- 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).