Sǎn Jiàn Jiǎndú Héjí‧Gānsù Wǔwēi Mózuǐzǐ Shíbā Hào Hànmù Wángzhàng Shí Jiǎn 散見簡牘合輯‧甘肅武威磨咀子十八號漢墓王杖十簡
Collected Scattered Documents — Ten Wang-Staff Slips from Han Tomb No. 18 at Mozuizi, Wuwei, Gansu
Excavated text; no attributed author.
About the work
Ten bamboo slips from Han tomb no. 18 at Mózuǐzǐ 磨咀子 (also written 磨嘴子), Wūwēi 武威, Gānsù, excavated in 1959. The slips record a sequence of imperial edicts (zhì 制) and administrative precedents concerning the wángzhàng 王杖 (“Wang Staff” or, literally, “king’s staff”), the dove-topped ceremonial staff (jiūzhàng 鳩杖) awarded to Han subjects aged seventy and above as a symbol of imperial honor and a guarantee of legal privileges. Published in the Sǎn jiàn jiǎndú héjí 散見簡牘合輯. Closely related to the more complete Wángzhàng zhàoshū lìng cè 王杖詔書令冊 from the same tomb cluster (KR2p0114) and the miscellaneous Wuwei slips (KR2p0109). Part of the 散見簡牘合輯 corpus.
Abstract
The wángzhàng 王杖 system was a Han institution of elder welfare and social honour. Commoners who reached the age of seventy were entitled to receive from the imperial government a bamboo staff surmounted by a carved dove (jiū 鳩), the dove being symbolic of easy digestion and longevity. The staff conferred concrete legal privileges comparable to those of a six-hundred-shí (liùbǎishí 六百石) ranked official: the holder could enter official courts without prostrating (rù guān tíng bù qū 入官廷不趨), could not be tried for minor offences without a petition (fàn zuì nài yǐ shàng wú èr chǐ gào hé 犯罪耐以上毋二尺告劾), could travel on the imperial carriage-road (chí dào 馳道), and could trade in markets free of taxation (shì mài fù wú suǒ yǔ 市賣復毋所與). Officials who insulted, summoned, or beat a Wang Staff holder were to be executed in the market (qì shì 棄市) as guilty of nì bù dào 逆不道 (treason against the Way).
The ten slips from tomb 18 open with the formula: 制 詔丞相御史：高皇帝以來至本二年，勝甚哀老小，高年受王杖，上有鳩，使百姓望見之 (“Imperial edict to the Chancellor and Imperial Censor: Since the High Emperor [Gaozu, r. 202–195 BCE] until the second year [of the present reign], We have felt extreme compassion for the old and young; those of advanced age receive the Wang Staff, which bears a dove on top, so that the common people may see it when they look [at the holder]”). The phrase 本始二年 (Běnshǐ 2nd year = 72 BCE, Emperor Xuan’s reign) indicates this edict dates to the reign of Emperor Xuān 宣 (r. 74–49 BCE). Subsequent slips set out the privileges, cite a precedent case from Hépíng 河平 1st year (28 BCE) in which a military patrol officer named Wú Shǎng 吳賞 was sentenced to death for assaulting a Wang Staff holder named Xiān 先 (aged 70+) in Rǔnán 汝南, and end with an individual case: 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 Xiào-Píng [5 CE], received the Wang Staff in the fifteenth year of Yǒngpíng [72 CE]”), documenting an actual individual who lived to receive the staff seventy-seven years after his Han-era birth.
The ten slips are significant as among the earliest surviving evidence for the formal Han old-age welfare system and for the legal status of elderly commoners under imperial law. The edicts they preserve span from the Former Han (Gaozu era, conventional date 202 BCE onwards) to the Later Han (Yǒngpíng 15, 72 CE), suggesting the compilation assembled over time, with new precedents added as they accumulated.
Wilkinson (§59.7.2, III #3) identifies these as “10 slips recording two edicts relating to the rites due those attaining 70 years of age.” An even more complete set of Wang Staff edicts from the same tomb cluster is published at KR2p0114.
Other points of interest
The Wang Staff slips are important evidence for Han attitudes toward elderly commoners and demonstrate that the state took enforcement of elder-protection laws seriously: the compiled legal precedents — multiple executions of officials for mistreating Wang Staff holders — served as both a deterrent and a regulatory record. The dove (jiū 鳩) imagery on the staff top was understood as auspicious for digestion and longevity (since the dove, unlike other birds, does not choke).
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 companion Wang Staff slips from the same tomb cluster.
- 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 of this set.
- Loewe, Michael. Records of Han Administration. 2 vols. CUP, 1967. For Han administrative document context.
- Hulsewé, A. F. P. China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC – AD 23. Brill, 1979.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §59.7.2 (III Wuwei, #3) — brief discussion.