睡虎地秦墓竹簡‧秦律雜抄

Shuìhǔdì Qín Mù Zhújiǎn‧Qín Lǜ Záchāo 睡虎地秦墓竹簡‧秦律雜抄

Bamboo Slips from the Qin Tomb at Shuihudi — Miscellaneous Extracts from Qin Statutes

About the work

The Qín Lǜ Záchāo 秦律雜抄 (Miscellaneous Extracts from Qin Statutes) is a compilation of selected clauses drawn from at least eleven distinct named Qin statutes, recovered from Qin tomb no. 11 at Shuìhǔdì 睡虎地, Yúnmèng County 雲夢縣, Hubei Province, excavated in 1975–76. Unlike the Qín Lǜ Shíbā Zhǒng 秦律十八種 (KR2p0176), which presents more extended sections of named statutes in sequence, the Záchāo presents isolated clauses from different statutes in a collection whose organizing principle appears to be practical relevance to the work of a local official of the type buried in tomb 11. The statutes represented include laws on official recruitment, travelling knights (yóu shì 游士), apprenticeship of craftsmen, military horses, granary storage, artisan work, animal husbandry, military encampments, and others. This is one of the core legal texts of the Shuìhǔdì corpus; see also KR2p0140, KR2p0142, KR2p0177.

Abstract

Content and organization. The Záchāo is not a formally organized statute in the manner of the Xiào Lǜ (KR2p0140); rather, it is a personal selection or zāi 抄 (“extract”) from multiple named statutes, as evidenced by the fact that each section is labelled with the name of the source statute at its end (e.g., 除吏律 “Statute on the Appointment of Officials,” 游士律 “Statute on Travelling Knights,” 除弟子律 “Statute on the Appointment of Apprentices,” 中勞律 “Statute on Meritorious [Military] Service,” 臧律 “Statute on Stored Goods,” 公車司馬獵律 “Grand Chariot Director Hunting Statute,” 牛羊課 “Livestock Audit,” 傅律 “Statute on Registration [for Military Service],” 敦表律 “Statute on Company Standards,” 捕盗律 “Statute on Catching Thieves,” 戍律 “Garrison Statute”).

The statute opens with provisions on officials who serve as legal officers (rèn fǎ guān zhě wéi lì 任法官者為吏): “Those who serve as a legal officer shall be penalized two suits of armour.” This is followed by a prohibition on upper-ranking officials (shàng zào 上造 and above) who refuse to comply with mobilization orders.

The section on military horses (mǎ 馬) is substantial: military saddle-horses (mò mǎ 驀馬) must be at least five feet eight inches tall (chǐ 尺, in the Qin measurement system); horses that fail to perform as required, or that fail inspection on arrival at the army (dào jūn kè zhī 到軍課之), result in fines for the county cavalry commander (xiàn sī mǎ 縣司馬) of two coats of armour, and for the county chief (lìng 令) and deputy (chéng 丞) one coat each. Horses that rank last in the end-of-year assessment (mǎ láo kè diàn 馬勞課殿) incur fines for the stable head (jiù sè fū 廄嗇夫).

The section on livestock (cattle and sheep) specifies: if ten breeding cows (dà pìn niú 大牝十) produce fewer than six calves, the agency head and his assistant (nǚ sè fū, zuǒ 嗇夫、佐) each face one shield penalty; for sheep (yáng pìn 羊牝), if ten ewes produce fewer than four lambs, the same penalties apply (牛羊課 “Livestock Audit”).

The Yóu Shì Lǜ 游士律 (Statute on Travelling Knights) addresses persons travelling without credentials (fú 符): county-level penalties of one coat of armour (jū xiàn zī yī jiǎ 居縣貲一甲) are imposed; by year’s end (zú suì 卒歲), these must be paid. Former Qin subjects (gù Qín rén 故秦人) who depart the state and have their household registrations cancelled (xiāo jí 削籍) face penalties graduated by rank.

The Chú Dìzǐ Lǜ 除弟子律 (Statute on the Appointment of Apprentices) concerns the training of craftsmen and the obligations of masters (gōng shī 工師): failing to meet the quota for training apprentices (shǐ qí dìzǐ yíng lǜ 使其弟子贏律) incurs one coat of armour. If the master uses the rod (jué gé 决革), two coats.

The 敦表律 (Statute on Company Standards) and 捕盗律 (Statute on Catching Thieves) address military discipline: soldiers who abandon their posts, claim wounds falsely, or flee after a city is taken are subject to shaming penalties (nài 耐, “shaving”). Soldiers who capture bandits (bǔ dào 捕盗) but illicitly transfer the reward merit (bǔ rén xiāng yí yǐ shòu jué 捕人相移以受爵) are punishable by shaving.

The Shù Lǜ 戍律 (Garrison Statute) concerns the construction and maintenance of city walls (chéng 城) by garrison troops (shù zhě 戍者): walls built by garrison troops and their sections (lìng gū dǔ yī suì 令姑堵一歲) are subject to inspection; if they collapse within a year (suǒ chéng yǒu huài zhě 所城有壞者), the county works director (xiàn sī kōng 縣司空) and the supervising gentleman (shǔ jūn zǐ jiāng zhě 署君子將者) each face one coat of armour.

Significance. The Záchāo is valuable precisely because it is a selection: unlike the formally organized statutes, it reveals which clauses a working Qin official considered most relevant to his daily duties. The range of topics — from travelling knights to armour penalties for livestock deaths — reflects the breadth of administrative responsibilities expected of a county-level official. Together with the Qín Lǜ Shíbā Zhǒng (KR2p0176) and the Xiào Lǜ (KR2p0140), it constitutes the core evidence for Qin penal-administrative law in the pre-unification period.

Dating. The statutes excerpted were likely in force from the reign of Qin Zhāowáng 昭王 (306–251 BCE) or earlier. The tomb was sealed c. 217 BCE, providing a terminus ante quem.

Translations and research

• Hulsewé, A.F.P. Remnants of Ch’in Law. Brill, 1985, pp. 110–148 — annotated English translation (Section C: “Miscellaneous Rules from Various Ch’in Statutes”).
• 睡虎地秦墓竹簡整理小組, 《睡虎地秦墓竹簡》, 文物出版社, 1990 — editio princeps.
• Caldwell, Ernest. Writing Chinese Laws: The Form and Function of Legal Statutes Found in the Qin Shuihudi Corpus. Routledge, 2018.
• Barbieri-Low, Anthony J., and Robin D.S. Yates. Law, State, and Society in Early Imperial China. 2 vols. Brill, 2015.

Other points of interest

The Záchāo contains one of the few explicit references to the regulation of yóu shì 游士 (“travelling knights” or “itinerant persuaders”), a social category that figured prominently in the political life of the Warring States period. The Qin statute’s strict credential requirements for such persons — penalizing counties that harbour them without proper fú 符 travel documents — reflects the Qin state’s characteristic suspicion of mobile, credential-free persons and its effort to control population movement through bureaucratic registration. This provision complements the picture drawn by the Shāng Jūn Shū 商君書, which advocates control over itinerant persuaders as part of the Legalist program of state consolidation.

Links

• Wikipedia (Shuihudi bamboo slips): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuihudi_bamboo_slips