Sǎn Jiàn Jiǎndú Héjí‧Gānsù Yùmén Huāhǎi Hànjian 散見簡牘合輯‧甘肅玉門花海漢簡
Collected Scattered Documents — Han Bamboo Slips from Huahai, Yumen, Gansu
Excavated text; no attributed author.
About the work
Bamboo slips from Huāhǎi 花海, Yùmén 玉門, Gānsù province, published in the Sǎn jiàn jiǎndú héjí 散見簡牘合輯. The find is a mixed assemblage from a frontier garrison site in the Yùmén area of the Héxī corridor 河西走廊, yielding administrative documents, personal letters, literacy exercise texts, a calendrical fragment, a commodity sale register, and what appears to be a mock or actual imperial rescript to the Crown Prince. The variety of document types makes this the most heterogeneous collection in the 散見簡牘合輯 corpus within KR2p0110–KR2p0115. Part of the 散見簡牘合輯 corpus.
Abstract
The Huāhǎi, Yùmén find is a substantial mixed assemblage from the Han frontier in northwest Gānsù. The CHANT transcription reveals the following main document types:
Imperial rescript to the Crown Prince: The opening slips preserve what appears to be an imperial deathbed directive to the Crown Prince: 制詔皇大子：勝體不安，今將絕矣，與地合同，眾不復起。謹視皇大之𦭡，加曾勝在。善禺百姓，賦斂以理，存賢近聖，必聚諝士，表教奉先，自致天子 (“Imperial Edict to the Imperial Grand Heir: My body is unwell; now I am about to cease, to merge with the earth, and not rise again among the many. Carefully regard the [tablet?/tomb?] of the Imperial Grand…; devote care to [things] more than I do. Govern the common people well; in levying taxes follow principle; maintain the worthy and draw close to the saintly; you must assemble wise scholars; show [moral] instruction and revere your ancestors; advance to become Son of Heaven yourself”). This text, with its extensive counsel to a successor, has been compared to Han imperial testaments (yízhào 遺詔); its authenticity as an actual rescript (rather than a scribal exercise or fiction) is uncertain.
Personal letters: Several slips preserve informal personal letters with the characteristic formulaic openings of Han personal correspondence (e.g., 賤 弟時謹伏地再拜請。翁系足下善毋恙 “Your humble younger brother reverently prostrates himself twice and inquires. Wēng Xì, below your feet, I hope you are well and without illness”). These follow patterns well documented in other Han frontier letter corpora.
Literacy exercise texts (Cāngjié pian fragments): Three slips preserve repeated copies of the opening lines of the Cāngjié piān 蒼頡篇 literacy primer: 蒼頡作書，以教後嗣，幼子承調，謹慎敬戒，勉力諷誦，晝夜勿置，務成史，計會辯治，超等 (“Cāngjié composed the script to teach future generations; the young son takes up the learning: be cautious and respectful; strive to recite [texts]; day and night do not set it down; be diligent in becoming a scribe; understand computation and administrative matters; surpass [your peers]”). The repeated copying of these lines confirms that the site served an instructional or military literacy training function.
Commodity records and military documents: Many slips record grain and cloth purchases, sale of bolts of cloth, military supply logs, beacon-fire (fēnghuǒ 烽火) watch records, lance-arrow inventory tallies, and formal military orders transmitting edicts through the chain of command from the Dūnhuáng commandery headquarters to the various beacon posts (hòuguān 候官). Slips datable by internal dates include: Yuánpíng 元平 1st year (74 BCE) for a purchase of 武器具 (military equipment); dates ranging through the Later Han are also present.
Calendar fragments and name-student lists: One slip preserves the opening of the sexagenary cycle (甲子乙丑丙壬申癸酉甲…) and another preserves a list of personal names (shūrén míngxìng 曰書人名姓) with animals in the names, suggesting name-list exercises or census-style records.
The mixed character of the Huāhǎi slips reflects the administrative and personal life of a Han frontier garrison: a site where imperial orders arrived, soldiers learned to write, trade was conducted, and letters were composed, all documented on the same bamboo and wooden surfaces.
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.
- Hulsewé, A. F. P. China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC – AD 23. Brill, 1979. For northwest frontier administrative context.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §59.7.2 (Han frontier documents, Héxī corridor); §19.3.4 (literacy education and the Cāngjié piān).
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.