Wǔwēi Hàn Jiǎn‧Zá Jiǎn Jí Qítā Kǎoshì 武威漢簡‧雜簡及其它考釋
Wuwei Han Bamboo Slips — Miscellaneous Slips and Other Studies: Day-Taboo and Divination Wooden Slips; Wang Staff Ten Slips
Excavated texts; no attributed author.
About the work
This entry collects two groups of miscellaneous wooden slips from the Mózuǐzǐ 磨嘴子 tomb 6 excavation (1959) and tomb 18 (1959), Wūwēi 武威, Gānsù, not belonging to the Yílǐ 儀禮 ritual manuscripts. The CHANT transcription groups them as “雜簡及其它考釋” (Miscellaneous Slips and Other Studies). The two sub-groups are: (1) 日忌、雜占木簡 (Day-taboo and divination wooden slips) from tomb 6, and (2) 王杖十簡 (Ten Wang Staff slips) from tomb 18 — a different tomb but the same Mózuǐzǐ cemetery. Part of the broader Wuwei Han bamboo slips (Wǔwēi Hànjian 武威漢簡) corpus.
Abstract
Day-taboo and divination wooden slips (日忌、雜占木簡): These 11 groups of wooden slips (numbered one through eleven in the edition) belong to the genre of rìjì 日忌 (day-taboo) and zájzhān 雜占 (miscellaneous omen-reading) texts that circulated widely in the Han period. The day-taboo slips specify which activities are prohibited on each of the twelve earthly-branch (dìzhī 地支) days: e.g., 甲毋治宅不居必荒 (“On jiǎ days do not build a dwelling — if you live in it, it will certainly be desolate”); 乙毋內財不保必亡 (“On yǐ days do not bring in wealth — it cannot be kept and will certainly be lost”); 午毋蓋屋必見火光 (“On wǔ days do not roof a house — you will certainly encounter fire”); 未毋飲藥必得之毒 (“On wèi days do not take medicine — you will certainly encounter its poison”). These follow the familiar day-taboo genre attested in other Han finds such as the Rìshū 日書 calendrical daybooks from Shuǐhǔdì 睡虎地 and Fāngmǎtān 放馬灘.
The first group of day-taboo slips also preserves a notable administrative notice on the front: 河平□年四月𝌆日諸文學弟子出穀五千餘斛。六 (“In the [reign period] Hépíng, [N]th year, fourth month, auspicious day: various student-disciples of the literary arts went out with more than five thousand hú of grain. Six”). This dates the administrative context to the reign period Hépíng 河平 (28–25 BCE), confirming a Former Han date for at least this slip.
The divination slips (zájzhān) contain shorter omen-type statements about the significance of various events (someone brings wealth, an official matter, a distant journey, etc.) and belong to the genre of popular omen manuals circulating in the Han.
Wang Staff Ten Slips (王杖十簡): The ten Wángzhàng 王杖 (“Wang Staff” or “King’s Staff”) slips, found in tomb 18 of the same Mózuǐzǐ cemetery, are quite different in character from the day-taboo slips: they are imperial edicts concerning the legal privileges of elderly commoners aged seventy and above who had been granted the honorific wángzhàng 王杖 (a dove-topped staff, jiū zhàng 鳩杖). According to these edicts, recipients of the Wang Staff enjoyed the same legal status as officials of the liùbǎishí 六百石 grade: they could not be summarily prosecuted (gào hé 告劾), were exempt from prostration when entering official courts (rù guān tíng bù qū 入官廷不趨), could travel on the imperial roads (chí dào 馳道), and were protected from being insulted or beaten by officials (violation was punishable by decapitation, qì shì 棄市). The slips record several case precedents in which local officials who had beaten or summoned Wang Staff holders were sentenced to death. The second edict (slip 2) is dated 建始二年 (Jiànshǐ 2nd year = 31 BCE) and the last slip records an individual: 孝平皇帝元始五年幼伯生，永平十五年受王杖 (“Born in the fifth year of Yuánshǐ of Emperor Xiaoping [5 CE], received the Wang Staff in the fifteenth year of Yǒngpíng [72 CE]”), documenting an actual recipient of the privilege in the Later Han.
These Wang Staff slips are closely related to the more complete Wángzhàng zhàoshū lìng cè 王杖詔書令冊 from tomb 18 published separately in the 散見簡牘合輯 corpus (KR2p0114) and the ten slips at KR2p0111. Wilkinson (§59.7.2, III #3) identifies them as Mozuizi tomb 18, Later Han, with “10 slips recording two edicts relating to the rites due those attaining 70 years of age.”
Other points of interest
The combination of Yílǐ ritual manuscripts with popular day-taboo manuals in the same tomb is a reminder that Han ritual learning coexisted with everyday apotropaic and divinatory practices. The person buried in tomb 6 may have been a ritual teacher or educated official who maintained both classical texts and practical almanac materials.
Translations and research
- 陳夢家 Chén Mèngjiā, ed. 《武威漢簡》. 文物出版社, 1964; repr. 中華書局, 2005. Contains the editio princeps of both groups of miscellaneous slips.
- Seidel, Anna. “Imperial Treasures and Taoist Sacraments.” In Michel Strickmann, ed. Tantric and Taoist Studies. Institut Belge des Hautes Études Chinoises, 1983. For the Wang Staff tradition and elder-care edicts in broader context.
- Loewe, Michael. Records of Han Administration. 2 vols. CUP, 1967. Administrative documents of the Han frontier.
Links
- Wuwei Han bamboo slips — Wikipedia
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §59.7.2 (III Wuwei, #2 and #3).