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散見簡牘合輯‧江西南昌東湖區永外正街一號晉墓木刺、木牘

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Text ID
KR2p0130
Date
317–420
Dynasty
晉

Sǎn Jiàn Jiǎndú Héjí‧Jiāngxī Nánchāng Dōnghúqū Yǒngwài Zhèngjiē Yī Hào Jìn Mù Mùcì、Mùdú 散見簡牘合輯‧江西南昌東湖區永外正街一號晉墓木刺、木牘

Collected Scattered Documents — Wooden Name-Cards and Wooden Tablet from Jin Tomb no. 1 at Yǒngwài Zhèngjiē, Dōnghú District, Nánchāng, Jiangxi

(anonymous; funerary name-cards and burial inventory)

About the work

A group of wooden name-cards (mùcì 木刺) and a wooden inventory tablet (mùdú 木牘) from Eastern Jin tomb no. 1 excavated at Yǒngwài Zhèngjiē 永外正街 in the Dōnghú District 東湖區 of Nánchāng 南昌 city, Jiangxi Province. The tomb occupant is identified by the inventory tablet as Wú Yīng 吳應, a man of Nánchāng styled Zǐyuǎn 子遠. Published in KR2p 散見簡牘合輯 (Sǎn Jiàn Jiǎndú Héjí), Institute of History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 1990.

Abstract

Wooden name-cards. The tomb contained four surviving name-cards, each bearing the standard visiting-card formula. Two variant formats appear:

Format A (three cards):

弟子吳應再拜 / 問起居 / 南昌字子遠

“Disciple / junior Wú Yīng 吳應, [presents] two prostrations / and inquires after [your] health / [from] Nánchāng, style-name Zǐyuǎn 子遠.”

Format B (one card):

豫章吳應再拜 / 問起居 / 南昌字子遠

“Wú Yīng of Yúzhāng 豫章, [presents] two prostrations / and inquires after [your] health / [from] Nánchāng, style-name Zǐyuǎn 子遠.”

The use of dìzǐ 弟子 (“disciple” or “junior”) on three of the four cards indicates that Wú Yīng positioned himself as a social or intellectual subordinate — either to the addressee of these cards or, more likely, as a self-deprecatory formula on his own calling-cards placed in his tomb. The variation between “Yúzhāng” (the old Han commandery name for the Nánchāng region) and simply “Nánchāng” (the county/city name) on one card reflects the dual usage of these place-names in the Jin period. This set of cards appears to have been Wú Yīng’s own name-cards placed in his burial, establishing his identity for the underworld administration.

Burial inventory tablet. The wooden tablet (mùdú) is a detailed burial inventory (suízàng pǐn qīngdān 隨葬品清單) listing personal effects buried with Wú Yīng. The tablet opens with a biographical identification:

中郎豫章南昌都鄉吉陽里吴應，年七十三，字子遠。

“[Former] Zhōngláng 中郎 (Palace Gentleman), [native of] Jíyáng-lǐ 吉陽里, Dū-xiāng 都鄉, Nánchāng 南昌, Yúzhāng 豫章; Wú Yīng 吳應, aged seventy-three (sic, nián qīshísān 年七十三), style-name Zǐyuǎn 子遠.”

This is followed by a systematically arranged inventory of textile goods, personal effects, and writing implements, grouped in threes per line. The items include:

  • Clothing and textiles: Two old white-silk (bái liàn 白練) long skirts (cháng qún 長裙); two old white-silk inner robes (lǐ shān 裏衫); one old white-silk padded jacket (fù liǎng dāng 複兩當); one old white-silk lined jacket (jiá liǎng dāng 裌兩當); one old white-silk padded trousers (fù kù 複袴); one old white-silk padded skirt (fù qún 複羣); one old white-silk lined skirt; one old white-silk rú-jacket (rú 襦); one old white-silk padded long-robe (fù shān 複衫); one old white-silk lined long-robe; one old yellow hemp padded outer-robe (fù páo 複袍); one old yellow hemp single-layer garment (dān yī 單衣); one old white-silk padded hat (fù móu 複牟).

  • Accessories and toiletries: One old rhinoceros-horn hair-pin (xī dǎo 犀導); one old white-silk kerchief (juān 絹[character]); two old white silk kerchiefs; one old white-cloth headwear (bù zé 布𥿉); one old silk shoes (sī lǚ 絲履); one old white-silk bedcover (bèi 被); one old white-silk tent-curtain (zhàng 帳); one pair of old white-silk hand-warmers (shǒu kōu 手摳).

  • Jade and personal ornaments: Two old jade pendant animals (yù tún 玉㹠, possibly jade pig-shaped pendants); one old white-cloth hand-kerchief; one old yellow-cloth hand-kerchief; one old white-silk face-covering kerchief; one old practice-pillow (liàn zhěn 練枕); one old white-cloth shroud-cloth (fù jīn 復巾).

  • Toiletry set: One old toilet-set box (yán qì 嚴器); one old bronze mirror (tóng jìng 銅鏡); one old white-silk mirror-cover (jìng yī 練鏡衣); one old white-silk powder-pouch (fěn náng 粉囊); one old dark-blue lined garment for “small girl Cóng-mó” (xiǎo nǚ Cóng Mó 小女傖嫫); one old five-silk tóngxīn ornament (wǔ sī tóngxīn 五絲同心) for “small girl Cóng” (xiǎo nǚ Cóng 小女傖).

  • Writing and miscellaneous: One old face-ornament kerchief (shì miàn jīn 飾面巾); one old brush (shuā 刷); two old fine combs (xì shū 細櫛); one old scented powder (xù fěn fēn 絮粉芬); one old face-cream (miàn zhī 面脂); one old book-box (shū xiāng 書箱); one old inkstone (shū yán 書硯); one old writing brush (bǐ 筆); one hundred sheets of paper (zhǐ 帋); one old ink-cake (mò 墨); five old name-cards (cì 刺); one old garment-board (liú yī bǎn 流衣板); one old shēng 笙 (mouth-organ) from inside the coffin; one old coffin-material (guān cái 棺材).

The tablet closes: “Right [= above]: seven categories (sāng qī zhǒng 𠦜七種).”

Historical significance. The inventory provides unusually rich documentation of the personal possessions of a Jin-period official of middling rank. Wú Yīng’s title 中郎 (Palace Gentleman, Zhōngláng) was a respectable but not high office in the Jin court or local administration. His age of 73 at death, his possession of a writing set (inkstone, brush, paper, ink), a mouth-organ (shēng), and numerous textile items suggests a cultivated local notable of the Yúzhāng region. The mention of “small girl Cóng-mó” (Cóng Mó 傖嫫, “barbarian girl” — Cóng 傖 was a slightly derogatory term for people from the North or from the Jianghuai region) whose garment and ornament are listed among the grave goods is intriguing; she was likely a young female attendant or concubine whose personal items were included in the burial. The five old name-cards (cì 刺) listed as grave goods — distinct from the name-cards found separately in the tomb — were Wú Yīng’s own stock of calling-cards.

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.
  • 胡平生、馬月華, 《簡牘檢署考校注》, 上海古籍出版社, 2008 — reference for Jin-period visiting-card conventions.
  • Richter, Antje. Letters and Epistolary Culture in Early Medieval China. University of Washington Press, 2013 — broader context for Jin social and epistolary practices.

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