散見簡牘合輯‧敦煌研究院收藏的漢簡

Sǎn Jiàn Jiǎndú Héjí‧Dūnhuáng Yánjiūyuàn Shōucáng De Hànjian 散見簡牘合輯‧敦煌研究院收藏的漢簡

Collected Scattered Documents — Han Slips in the Collection of the Dunhuang Research Institute

Excavated text; no attributed author.

About the work

This text is the transcription (shìwén 釋文) of a small collection of Han-period bamboo and wooden slips held by the Dūnhuáng Research Institute (敦煌研究院), as published in the Sǎn jiàn jiǎndú héjí 散見簡牘合輯 (“Collected Scattered Bamboo and Wooden Documents”). This collection assembles isolated bamboo-slip finds from various sites too small for separate monograph publication. Part of the 散見簡牘合輯 corpus (KR2p0110–KR2p0115).

Abstract

The Sǎn jiàn jiǎndú héjí 散見簡牘合輯 (“Collected Scattered Bamboo and Wooden Documents”), compiled by the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (中國社會科學院歷史研究所), was published by Wénwù Publishing House (文物出版社) in 1990. It gathers isolated bamboo-slip and wooden-tablet discoveries from various archaeological sites not large enough to warrant separate monograph publication, organized geographically.

The Dūnhuáng Research Institute collection assembled here comprises approximately fourteen slips. The CHANT transcription preserves fourteen numbered fragments, most heavily damaged. The legible content consists of short administrative documentary fragments:

• 右條官牛將轉出入□ (“Right column: official cattle to be transferred, in and out [number damaged]”)
• □遣宜持魚一枚〼 (“Sent [name] holding one fish [token]〼”) — the fish token (yú 魚) likely refers to a fish-shaped tally (yú fú 魚符) used for official identification
• 武威徒王□〼 (“Convict-laborer [or: Wuwei [place-name] convict] Wang [name]〼”)
• 馬入塞，今還〼 (“Horses entering the pass, now returning〼”)
• 前卅人轉 (“The preceding thirty men transferred”)
• 鄯善督使君寧〼 (“The governor/superintendent of Shànshàn [Kroraina], his excellency Níng〼”)
• 入三百廿五錢 入二百六十七錢 (“Income: 325 cash; income: 267 cash”)
• 府君教 敦煌長史印 元嘉二年九月廿日丁酉起 (“The prefectural lord’s instruction; seal of the Dūnhuáng Chief Historian; Rising on the twentieth day, ninth month, [reign period] Yuánjiā, second year, cyclical day dīng-yǒu”)

The reference to the reign period Yuánjiā 元嘉 (2nd year = 153 CE, if Eastern Han) and the Shànshàn 鄯善 (Kroraina) superintendent indicate a Later Han administrative context in Dūnhuáng’s role as a gateway to the Silk Road. The fish token and cattle-transfer records belong to standard Han frontier administrative documentation. The small number and fragmentary condition of these slips make them of limited textual significance individually, but they contribute to the corpus of evidence for Han administrative practice in the Dūnhuáng region.

Translations and research

• 中國社會科學院歷史研究所, 《散見簡牘合輯》. 文物出版社, 1990. Editio princeps.
• Loewe, Michael. Records of Han Administration. 2 vols. CUP, 1967. For general context of Han frontier administrative documentation.
• Hulsewé, A. F. P. China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC – AD 23. Brill, 1979. For the Dūnhuáng region and its place in Han administration of the northwest.

Links

• Editio princeps: 中國社會科學院歷史研究所, 《散見簡牘合輯》, 文物出版社, 1990.