Sǎn Jiàn Jiǎndú Héjí‧Gānsù Wǔwēi Mózuǐzǐ Hànmù Wángzhàng Zhàoshū Lìng Cè 散見簡牘合輯‧甘肅武威磨咀子漢墓王杖詔書令冊
Collected Scattered Documents — Register of Imperial Edicts and Orders Concerning the Wang Staff, Mozuizi Han Tombs, Wuwei, Gansu
Excavated text; no attributed author.
About the work
Twenty-seven numbered bamboo slips excavated in 1981 from a Han tomb in the Mózuǐzǐ 磨咀子 cemetery, Wūwēi 武威, Gānsù (tomb number not specified in the CHANT text; distinct from tomb 18 from which KR2p0111 came). Published in the Sǎn jiàn jiǎndú héjí 散見簡牘合輯. This is the most complete surviving compendium of Han imperial edicts and legal precedents concerning the wángzhàng 王杖 (“Wang Staff”) elder-privilege system, comprising at least three separate imperial edicts and multiple case precedents. Wilkinson (§59.7.2, III #4) identifies this as the “Wang Zhang zhaoling ce 王杖詔令册 (contents similar to the previous item),” referring to the Hànjian yanjiu wenji 漢簡研究文集 of 1984/1988. Part of the 散見簡牘合輯 corpus.
Abstract
The Wángzhàng zhàoshū lìng cè 王杖詔書令冊 (“Register of Imperial Edicts and Orders Concerning the Wang Staff”) is the most complete surviving text of the Han wángzhàng 王杖 (Wang Staff) elder-privilege regulations. It is closely parallel to the shorter ten-slip set (KR2p0111) from tomb 18 of the same cemetery and to the version in the Wǔwēi Hànjian (KR2p0109), but is more complete, preserving 27 numbered slip sections.
The register opens with the key imperial edict: 制詔 御史：年七十以上人所尊敬也，非首殺、傷人毋告劾也，毋所坐。年八十以上生日久乎？ (“Imperial edict to the Imperial Censor: Those aged seventy and above are what the people revere and respect; except for [crimes involving] killing or injuring someone at the head [of the case], they may not be prosecuted; they are not liable to be seated [for interrogation]. Those aged eighty and above — haven’t they lived a long time?”). This edict proceeds to grant full tax exemption to the elderly: men of sixty and above without male children (designated kūn 鯤) and women of sixty and above without male children (designated guǎ 寡) are exempt from market taxes and exempted from labor service. Husbands and wives both childless are together exempted.
Key provisions across the 27 slips include:
- Explicit statement that elderly persons aged 70+ bearing the Wang Staff are equivalent to officials of 600-shí rank, may enter official courts without prostrating, and may travel on imperial carriage roads
- Those who insult or beat Wang Staff holders are guilty of nì bù dào 逆不道 (treason against the Way) and liable to immediate execution without waiting for seasonal judicial review (qì shì wú xū shí 棄市毋須時)
- A precedent case: Yúnyáng 雲陽 White Water (Báishuǐ 白水) garrison chief Zhāng Áo 張熬 was executed for beating and dragging a Wang Staff holder and forcing him to work on road repair; the man’s name was Wáng Tāng 王湯, who reported the offense (slip 8)
- A further precedent: a man from Rǔnán 汝南 (Nán commandery) named Wáng Ānshì 王安世 was executed for striking a dove-staff holder and damaging the staff (slip 23)
- Multiple officials (亭長 garrison chiefs, 鄉嗇夫 township administrators) were executed for unauthorized summons of Wang Staff holders
- A personal petition: Cháng’ān 長安, Jìngshàng lǐ ward, commoner gōngchéng 公乘 rank, subject Guǎng 廣, submits to the throne that he has been mistreated despite holding a Wang Staff; the emperor adjudicates in his favour and orders the delinquent township official tried and executed
- The closing colophon: ■右王杖詔書令在蘭臺第卌三 (“The foregoing Wang Staff imperial edicts and orders are in the Lántái [imperial archive] section 43”)
The edict dated to 建始元年 (Jiànshǐ 1st year = 32 BCE, Emperor Chéng) is preserved on slip 6: 臣咸再拜受詔。建始元年九月甲辰下 (“Your Servant Xián received the imperial rescript with two prostrations. Issued in the ninth month, jiǎ-chén day, first year of Jiànshǐ”). An edict of Yuándì 元帝 period (Yuán’yán 元延 3rd year = 10 BCE) is referenced in slip 20: 元延三年正月壬申下.
The colophon citing Lántái 蘭臺 archive section 43 (第卌三) is an important piece of evidence for Han imperial archival organisation and for the administrative life of these edicts: they were formally recorded and stored in the court archives.
The presence of this text in a frontier tomb at Wuwei documents that imperial elder-protection policy was known, cited, and apparently enforced at the empire’s northwest frontier, far from the Chang’an capital.
Other points of interest
The wángzhàng dove-staff system is richly significant for Han social history: it represents a formal state mechanism for institutionalising respect for the elderly, backed by serious criminal sanctions against officials who violated it. The accumulation of precedent cases — officials executed for mistreating staff holders — suggests the system was not merely aspirational but enforced. The Wuwei finds (this text, KR2p0111, and KR2p0109) together constitute the primary source corpus for this institution.
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.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §59.7.2 (III Wuwei, #4): brief identification.
- 漢簡研究文集. 甘肅省文物考古研究所 (Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology), 1984; 1988. Contains earlier studies of the Wang Staff slips.
- Loewe, Michael. Records of Han Administration. 2 vols. CUP, 1967. For general Han administrative document context.
- Ch’ü T’ung-tsu. Han Social Structure. University of Washington Press, 1972. For the place of the elderly in Han society.