Sǎn Jiàn Jiǎndú Héjí‧Gānsù Gāngǔ Hànjian 散見簡牘合輯‧甘肅甘谷漢簡
Collected Scattered Documents — Han Bamboo Slips from Gangu, Gansu
Excavated text; no attributed author.
About the work
Bamboo slips from Gāngǔ county 甘谷縣, Gānsù province, published in the Sǎn jiàn jiǎndú héjí 散見簡牘合輯. These slips preserve a substantial Later Han official petition document, dateable with precision to 158 CE on the basis of internal cyclical and reign-period dates. They are one of the most substantive documentary texts in the 散見簡牘合輯 corpus. Part of the 散見簡牘合輯 corpus (KR2p0110–KR2p0115).
Abstract
The Gāngǔ slips preserve a formal Later Han administrative petition (shàngshū 上書 / memorial) from the Imperial Clan Controller (zōngzhèng 宗正) to the Imperial Secretariat (shàngshū 尚書). The document is dated with remarkable precision in the opening formula: 延熹元年十二月壬申朔十二日甲申，宗正臣柜、丞臣敬頓首死罪上尚書。臣柜頓首死罪死罪。謹案文書 (“The first year of Yánxī [reign period = 158 CE], twelfth month, [1st day] rénshēn of the new moon, twelfth day jiǎshēn; the Imperial Clan Controller [zōngzhèng], Your Servant Jǔ, and the Associate, Your Servant Jìng, prostrate themselves to the death [formulaic self-abasement] in submitting [this document] to the Imperial Secretariat. Your Servant Jǔ prostrates himself to the death, to the death. We respectfully examine the documents…”).
The document covers at least twenty-three numbered sections (dì 第) and concerns a long-running dispute about the legal rights of the Imperial Clan (zōngshì 宗室) — descendants of the Han royal house resident in various commanderies — particularly regarding their liability for labor taxes (suàn 算) and their right to be exempt from various state impositions (fùchú 復除). The case involves:
- Multiple imperial rescripts on clan taxation and exemption from the reigns of Yuánhé 元和 (84–87 CE) through Yǒngshòu 永壽 (155–158 CE) and Yánxī 延熹 (158–167 CE)
- Individual clan members (Liú Huái 劉槐, Liú Zhí 劉直, Liú Yǔ 劉羽, Liú Zhèn 劉震, etc.) from Sìchuān, Zhāng’yè 張掖, and other commanderies
- Complaints that commandery officials were illegally imposing road and bridge fees (dào qiáo qián 道橋錢), assigning imperial clansmen to street-cleaning duties, flogging them, and imprisoning them in defiance of earlier imperial edicts granting the clan special status
- Counterarguments about which clan members are “within the five degrees of mourning relationship” (wǔ shǔ nèi 五屬內) and thus entitled to legal protections, and which are “outside” and thus subject to common law
The document demonstrates the complex intersection of imperial clan law, tax exemption, and local administration in the Later Han. The involvement of a senior official (zōngzhèng) of the court, the dense cross-references to earlier edicts, and the large number of named individuals make this one of the most historically rich documentary texts in the 散見簡牘合輯 corpus. The Liángzhōu 涼州 regional administration (covering Gānsù) appears as a party in the correspondence.
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 administrative document structure and Han bureaucratic formulae.
- Bielenstein, Hans. The Bureaucracy of Han Times. CUP, 1980. For the zōngzhèng office and imperial clan administration.
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.