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散見簡牘合輯‧江蘇連雲港市花果山竹木間牘

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Text ID
KR2p0133
Date
-100–100
Dynasty
漢

Sǎn Jiàn Jiǎndú Héjí‧Jiāngsū Liányúngǎng Huāguǒshān Zhúmù Jiān Dú 散見簡牘合輯‧江蘇連雲港市花果山竹木間牘

Collected Scattered Documents — Mixed Bamboo and Wooden Slips from Huāguǒshān, Liányúngǎng, Jiangsu

(anonymous; local administrative and legal records)

About the work

A collection of fragmentary bamboo slips and wooden tablets (zhúmù jiān dú 竹木間牘) excavated at Huāguǒshān 花果山 in Liányúngǎng 連雲港 city (Jiangsu Province), the site of Han-period administrative activity in the coastal Hǎizhōu 海州 region. The documents are heavily fragmentary, with most entries marked by a lacuna symbol (〼) indicating lost text at the beginning or end. They appear to record local legal cases involving assault and theft, administrative proceedings including reporting of criminals, calendrical data, and commercial transactions. Published in KR2p 散見簡牘合輯 (Sǎn Jiàn Jiǎndú Héjí), Institute of History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 1990.

Abstract

The Huāguǒshān slips survive in highly fragmentary form; most entries begin or end with the 〼 symbol (indicating a damaged or missing end). The content falls into several discernible categories:

Legal case records (assault and weapons). The clearest entries record violent incidents at the local level, with dates, names, locations, and weapon types:

  • “Róngsī-lǐ 榮成里 Xú Tán 徐譚: on the 14th day of the 10th month, jiǎchén (cyclical day), □□ stabbed [with] a knife at Xīcháng-lǐ 西長里 Sūn Xuān 孫宣 〼”
  • “Lì □ Sāng 桑 Zhū Xuān 朱宣, Liáng-lǐ 梁里 Xú Shù 徐竪: on the 17th day of the 10th month, dīngwèi, [they] sold a knife with □ blade, jointly wounding [someone surnamed] <damaged> Hé 何, [aged] eighteen 〼”
  • “Yǒngchāng-lǐ 永昌里 Zhū Wú□: on the 2nd day of the 11th month, a person attended [/came before the official] □□ [with] a knife-blade, wounding Mǎn-lǐ 滿里 Xú Èr 徐二 〼”
  • ”□: it is not known who, on the 6th day of the 11th month, yǐchǒu evening, wounded with a blade Lìchéng-lǐ 利成里 Sūn Zǐyóu 孫子游, □ [damaged] head 〼”
  • “〼 violent robbery □ no eldest son’s black garment, one cè (cè 筴, document-bundle); seventeen Yú Jūnsūn 俞君孫 black garment coins 50 □ 〼”

These records reflect the genre of local government bào’àn 報案 (crime reports) or yuán gòng 爰書 (depositions) known from the Shuǐhǔdì legal corpus (cf. KR2p0128). The entries record perpetrators by name and home ward (lǐ 里), victims, dates (by cyclical day and month), type of weapon, and nature of the injury.

A summary financial entry follows: “Township (xiāng 鄉) funds: 110 cash; total value: 3,400 [cash].”

Administrative correspondence (fragmentary). A series of slips records official language characteristic of Han administrative documents:

  • 〼 ”□□ heard <damaged> 〼”
  • 〼 ”□□ Wǔfāng 武坊, not yet… 〼”
  • 〼 “the road, fortunately a great □ reward 〼”
  • 〼 “request for general beating □□ suffering to the point of self-harm 〼”
  • 〼 “those who suspect [there is an] arising matter (qǐjū 起居) and yet beat [them] 〼”
  • 〼 “order the magistrate (lìng zhǎng 令長) to face each other 〼”
  • 〼 ”□ said: the great commandery (dà bāng 大邦) newly arrived 〼”
  • 〼 “already □ said: those who heard [it] — eventually the county tax (fù 賦) 〼”
  • 〼 “not yet [submitted]: the bureau (fǔ) said □□ □ transgressed □ not 〼”
  • 〼 ”□ said: the official investigated the matter, did not □ persons 〼”
  • 〼 ”□ good people □ bandits and robbers” (liáng mín □ dào zéi 良民□盗賊)

Further fragments mention: numbers of people sent to subordinate offices (“5 people submitted to the department”, “10 people submitted to Xiàpī 下邳”); references to pǔ gōng 捕功 (“arrest results”); month-end crime documents (dào zéi wén 盗賊文).

Calendrical table (calendar slips). A portion of the slips preserves a calendar-table fragment listing lunar months with their first-day cyclical signs (shuò 朔):

  • 10th month: xīnmǎo shuò 辛卯朔 (day xīnmǎo as the 1st)
  • 11th month: gēngshēn shuò 庚申朔
  • 12th month: gēngyín shuò 庚寅朔
  • 1st month: jǐwèi 己未
  • 2nd month: jǐchǒu 己丑
  • 3rd month: [damaged]

Below this, a sequence of cyclical-day names appears: dīngwèi 17th day, wùshēn 18th day, jǐyǒu 19th, gēngxū 20th, xīnhài 21st, rénzǐ 22nd, guǐchǒu 23rd, jiǎyín 24th. A separate section gives a table grid with individual dates and cyclical signs.

Commercial and monetary records. Isolated entries record financial transactions: ”□□ 10 days, 10 people buying yù zǐ □□: 2,000+ [cash] 〼”; ”□ former people: 1,700-odd, 2,500-odd □□ gate: 300-odd 〼”; selling of wine at market (“8th month market: each 800”; “sell wine 3 jīn to □ for □ jīn, 8 [cash]…”).

Historical significance. The Huāguǒshān slips are important as evidence for grassroots Han local administration in the coastal Jiangsu region. The legal case records — specifying ward names (lǐ 里), perpetrators’ names, dates, weapons, and victims — conform closely to the yuán gòng 爰書 (written deposition) format attested at Shuǐhǔdì and Zhangjiashan. The administrative correspondence fragments suggest the slips came from a county-level (xiàn 縣) or township (xiāng 鄉) office. The calendar table provides potential data for absolute dating if the cyclical-day sequences can be matched against Han calendrical tables, though the damaged state of the slips makes precise dating difficult.

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.
  • Hulsewé, A.F.P. Remnants of Han Law, vol. 1. Brill, 1955 — reference for Han legal document genres.
  • Loewe, Michael. Records of Han Administration. 2 vols. Cambridge University Press, 1967 — reference for Han county-level administrative formats.
  • Barbieri-Low, Anthony J., and Robin D.S. Yates. Law, State, and Society in Early Imperial China. Brill, 2015 — broader context for Han local legal administration.

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