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武威漢簡‧甲本燕禮

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Text ID
KR2p0174
Date
-250–-100
Dynasty
漢

Wǔwēi Hànjiǎn‧Jiǎ Běn Yān Lǐ 武威漢簡‧甲本燕禮

Wuwei Han Bamboo Slips — Banquet Ritual, Version A

(anonymous; excavated bamboo slip manuscript, no attributable author)

About the work

The Jiǎ Běn Yān Lǐ 甲本燕禮 is a text from the Wǔwēi Hànjiǎn 武威漢簡 (Wuwei Han Bamboo Slips), a group of manuscripts excavated in 1959 from a Han-period tomb at Mózuǐzi 磨咀子, Wǔwēi 武威 (in present-day Gānsù 甘肅 Province). The text is a detailed protocol for the Yān Lǐ 燕禮 — the “Banquet Ritual” (sometimes translated “Feast Ritual” or “Feast of Entertainment”), one of the chapters of the received Yílǐ 儀禮 (Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial). At 3,066 characters — a count the text itself supplies at the conclusion (fán sānqiān liùshíliù zì 凡三千六十六字) — it is the most extensive ritual text in the Wuwei corpus and one of the most precisely documented pre-imperial or early imperial witnesses to the Yílǐ tradition. The file header in the CHANT transcription reads 武威漢簡-甲本燕禮釋文.

Prefaces

No preface or postface preserved; excavated manuscript.

Abstract

Discovery and provenance. The Wǔwēi bamboo slips were excavated in July 1959 from a Han tomb at Mózuǐzi 磨咀子, a site some 15 km east of Wǔwēi city in the Héxī Corridor 河西走廊 (the narrow passage between the Qīlián 祁連 Mountains and the Gobi Desert), which was the main route linking the Central Plains with the Western Regions in the Han period. The tomb was assigned to the Eastern Han on the basis of associated grave goods. The slips were published in 1964 as the Wǔwēi Hànjiǎn 武威漢簡 by the Gānsù Provincial Museum and the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, under the imprint of Wénwù Chūbǎnshè 文物出版社; this remains the editio princeps. The corpus comprises both ritual texts and a medical text (zhì bǎi bìng fāng 治百病方, “Recipes for the Cure of a Hundred Ailments”).

The ritual texts. The Wuwei ritual slips contain versions of several Yílǐ 儀禮 chapters: the Shì Xiāng Yǐn Jiǔ Lǐ 士相見禮 (Ritual for Scholar-Gentleman Mutual Introduction), the Fú Wèn 服問 (Enquiry on Mourning Garments) and related mortuary chapters, the Tài Shè 泰射 (Grand Archery Ritual), and the present Yān Lǐ. The versions preserved in the Wuwei slips sometimes differ from the received Yílǐ transmitted through the Hàn and Táng commentarial tradition; these variants are of great importance for textual criticism of the Yílǐ corpus.

The Yān Lǐ chapter. The Yān Lǐ 燕禮 (“Banquet Ritual”) is chapter 17 of the received Yílǐ (using the standard 17-chapter count). It prescribes the ritual conduct for a formal banquet (yàn 燕) hosted by the feudal lord (gōng 公) for his ministers, great officers (qīng dàfu 卿大夫), lower officers (shì 士), and guests. The banquet is distinguished from other types of formal drinking ceremonies (xiāng yǐn jiǔ lǐ 鄉飲酒禮, the district drinking ceremony) by its setting in the lord’s residential palace (qǐn 寢 — the term used here, as in the received text) and by the presence of court musicians, archery, and a very precise hierarchy of toasting protocols.

Content of the Wuwei Jiǎ Běn. The Kanripo text (CHANT transcription) gives the full Yān Lǐ protocol in exhaustive detail. The main stages are:

  1. Preparation (設): The Little Steward (xiǎo chén 小臣) gives orders to participants; the Kitchen Master (shàn zǎi 膳宰) sets out the ritual vessels and food. Washing basins (xǐ 洗匪) are placed to the southeast of the eastern staircase. The Palace Steward (sī gōng 司宮) sets out two square wine-jars (fāng hú 方壺), with dark wine (xuán jiǔ 玄酒, plain water used for ritual propriety) on the left. Round jars are placed for lesser participants outside the gate.
  2. Seating (就席): The lord (gōng 公) ascends to his mat, faces west. Ministers (qīng) and great officers (dàfu) enter, face north, arranged by seniority from east.
  3. Invitation of the guest (bīn 賓): The Archery Official (shè rén 射人) requests the lord to appoint the guest; the lord designates “the one to the east” (mìng dōng wéi bīn 命東為賓). The guest declines twice, accepts on the third command.
  4. First round of toasting (獻): The host presents the first libation to the guest (zhǔ rén qián xiàn bīn 主人前獻賓) in the elaborate sequence: host descends to wash the vessel, guest declines the courtesy, host presents the cup, guest accepts, libation-vessels are exchanged, the guest eats (with ritual bites of lung meat), the guest drains the cup, prostrates and announces that the wine is good (gào zhǐ 告旨), receives the vessel, presents it to the lord. The lord is then served. The host and guest exchange elaborate counter-toasts (suì 酢 — counter-presentation of cup).
  5. Mediating toast (yìng gōu 媵觚): The host pours for the guest in a further exchange, and lesser cups (jiǎo zhì 角觶) are passed.
  6. Vessels conveyed by the lord (téng jué 騰爵): The lord commands two great officers to convey (téng 騰) cups, who approach the washing basin, rinse cups, mount the stairs, pour a sàn 散 (a type of vessel) each, cross at the pillar to the north, descend, present the cups in prostration to the lord, drain them, and present empty vessels back to the lord.
  7. Lord’s toast to the guest (gōng zuò qǔ… zhōu bīn 公坐取…州賓): A section of great formulaic complexity in which the lord picks up the vessel that was presented to him and presents it (zhōu 州) to the guest; the guest descends, prostrates, rises, declines; the lord commands the Little Steward to accept the declination; the guest ascends, completes the prostration; further exchange of cups follows.
  8. Roving toasts (lǚ chóu 旅酬): The Archery Official summons the great officers for the communal toast sequence, beginning with the longest great officer, who ascends, receives the toast from the guest, the guest presents to the next, and so on in sequence.
  9. Toasting of the qīng ministers (獻卿): The host ascends, fills a sàn 散, presents to the minister on the western staircase. A double mat (chóng xí 重席) is added by the Palace Steward for the minister; the minister declines the honor; the mat is removed; ritual food is brought. The minister drinks and returns.
  10. Elevation of the qīng (升卿): All ministers ascend to their mats (seated, attended).
  11. Second round of vessels conveyed (二騰爵): Repeated sequence with two great officers.
  12. Toasting of the great officers (就大夫): The host toasts each great officer in turn.
  13. Musicians (樂工): The musicians are seated on the west staircase; the Music Master (yuè zhèng 樂正) takes position to the west of the musicians. Four musicians and two zithers (sè 瑟) enter, assisted by the Little Steward. They perform: Lù Míng 《鹿鳴》 (“Deer Calling”), Sì Mǔ 《四牡》 (“Four Stallions”), Huáng Huáng Zhě Huá 《皇皇者華》 (“The Bright Blooming Flowers”) — the three songs of Xīn Fēng 小雅 prescribed for the banquet in the received Yílǐ as well.
  14. Zhū Nán odes and alternating performance (間歌合樂): After the public music, the performance alternates between sung odes and instrumental pieces; the Zhōunán and Shàonán sections of the Shījīng 詩經 are performed: Guānjū 《關睢》, Gé Shèng 《葛勝》, Juǎn Ěr 《縇耳》, Juān Jiāo 《召南‧䧿蕉》, Cǎi Bó 《采䒬》, Cǎi Pín 《采*》. The Music Master announces “the ritual songs are complete” (zhèng gē bèi 正歌備) and reports to the Music Director.
  15. Appointment of the Superintendent of Correctness (sī zhèng 司正): The Archery Official requests permission to establish a Superintendent of Correctness to maintain order during the free-drinking phase. The superintendent washes a jiǎo zhì cup, delivers commands to ministers and great officers: “The lord says: be at ease!” (jūn yuē: yǐ wǒ ān! 君曰：以我安！). Ministers and great officers reply: “We dare not fail to be at ease!” (gǎn bù ān 敢不安). The formal mats and raised food-tables (zǔ 柤) are removed. Participants remove shoes and sit informally.
  16. Free drinking (無筭爵): Unlimited-round drinking begins; great officers offer sacrificial morsels; the lord commands: “Let none fail to be drunk!” (wú bù zuì 無不醉！). All reply: “We dare not fail to be drunk!” (gǎn bù zuì 敢不醉). Ordinary shì officers are toasted in sequence; musicians, palace attendants, and lesser officials receive separate toastings.
  17. Archery (射): If archery is performed (an optional element), the Great Archery Master (tài shè zhèng 泰射正) serves as Archery Director. Complex exchange of cups follows each round of shooting.
  18. Evening torches (燭): When darkness falls, page boys hold torches on the eastern staircase, the Palace Steward holds torches on the west, estate people hold large torches in the courtyard, and people of the mǐn 閔 category hold torches outside the gate.
  19. Departure (出): The guest, now drunk, descends, takes ritual dried meat (pú 脯) from his tray, descends. The Hài 《胲》 piece is performed. He distributes the meat to the bell-player at the inner gate. Ministers and great officers all exit. The lord does not see them out.
  20. Protocol for hosting foreign guests (公與客燕): A dialogue protocol for the banquet format used when entertaining emissaries of other states (gōng yǔ kè yàn 公與客燕), framed as a formulaic exchange: the host state’s emissary presents a gift of wine, using the forms “My lord, having unworthy wine, requests that you favor him with your company for a while; [he] sends me to make this request.” The visiting lord’s representative declines twice, accepts on the third request.

The text closes with its own character count: 凡三千六十六字 (“altogether 3,066 characters”). After the main text, a shorter supplementary section (beginning 燕：朝服，於寖 — “Banquet: in court dress, at the residential palace”) provides condensed variant protocols for banquets hosted by the lord for foreign guests (sì fāng zhī bīn 四方之賓), and for banquets with ministers (qīng), with great officers (dàfu), and with “inner guests” (nèi bīn, presumably ladies of the court). This supplementary section ends with a note: 記三百三文 (“the notes, 303 characters”), suggesting that the scribal tradition distinguished the main text (jīng 經) from a supplementary commentary or record (jì 記).

Relationship to the received Yílǐ. The Wuwei Yān Lǐ is a close parallel to the received Yílǐ chapter of the same name but preserves numerous variant readings and at times different ordering of procedural elements. It is one of the most important early textual witnesses to the Yílǐ and has been used extensively in the textual criticism of the received text. The Yílǐ transmission is complex: the received text derives from a Jīn Wén 今文 (modern-script) version recovered in the early Hàn, attributed to Gāotáng Shēng 高堂生 (fl. second century BCE); the Wuwei slips are thus the oldest physical exemplar of the Yān Lǐ chapter that survives. The character count and record note (記三百三文) at the end of the Wuwei text provide evidence that the jīng-jì distinction — main text and supplementary notes — was already embedded in the manuscript transmission of the Yílǐ in the early Han.

The Yílǐ in the intellectual tradition. The Yílǐ 儀禮 is one of the three received ritual classics (三禮), alongside the Zhōulǐ 周禮 and the Lǐjì 禮記. The Yān Lǐ chapter describes the most elaborate of the drinking and banquet rituals. The protocols — which govern the precise number of cups exchanged, the seating arrangements by status, the role of musicians, the songs performed, and the transition from formal (fú lǐ 服禮) to informal (mò lǐ 末禮) stages — instantiate in procedural detail the Confucian vision of society ordered by graduated status, reciprocal courtesy, and the civilizing power of ritual music. The Wuwei slips show that this vision was being transmitted in manuscript form in the far western frontier regions of the Han empire, at a time when the Yílǐ had only recently been established in the curriculum of the Imperial Academy (tài xué 太學).

Dating. The tomb is dated to the Eastern Han. The Yān Lǐ ritual protocols as a genre are conventionally traced to Western Zhou practice, but the text as a stable written document probably took shape in the Warring States period, and the Wuwei slips themselves were copied in the Western or early Eastern Han. The composition dates (notBefore -250, notAfter -100) represent a plausible range for the underlying textual tradition reaching its present form; the physical slips themselves are somewhat later.

Translations and research

  • 甘肅省博物館、中國科學院考古研究所. 《武威漢簡》. 文物出版社, 1964. — Editio princeps, with photographs, transcriptions, and annotations of the ritual and medical texts.
  • Loewe, Michael. “The Wooden and Bamboo Strips Found at Mo-chu-tzu (Wuwei).” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society n.s. 97.1 (1965): 13–36. — The first substantial Western-language study of the Wuwei corpus; provides an overview of the ritual and medical texts and their relation to received classics.
  • Steele, John. The I-Li, or Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial. 2 vols. Probsthain, 1917. — Translation of the received Yílǐ; provides the comparative base for reading the Wuwei Yān Lǐ.
  • Ebrey, Patricia. Confucianism and Family Rituals in Imperial China: A Social History of Writing about Rites. Princeton University Press, 1991. — Contextualizes the Yílǐ tradition in terms of social history and the practical use of ritual texts.
  • Loewe, Michael. New Sources in Chinese History. Cambridge University Press, 1975.
  • 王輝、黨燕妮. 《武威漢簡》校注. Various journal publications. — Ongoing Chinese-language philological work on the Wuwei corpus.
  • Riegel, Jeffrey. “Rites and the Spirit of the Nation: Wang Su’s San-li Scholarship.” T’oung Pao 81.1–3 (1995): 1–40. — Relevant for the transmission history of the Yílǐ commentarial tradition.

Other points of interest

The text’s own character count at the end — 凡三千六十六字 — is a scribal feature of great interest: it attests that the Wuwei slips were copied from an exemplar in which the scribe (or a redactor) had already counted every character, suggesting a tradition of meticulous textual control and probably official transmission. The same tradition of counting characters appears in Hàn official documents and administrative texts. The supplementary section’s own count (記三百三文) shows that the distinction between the main jīng text and supplementary jì record was operational at the copying stage, not merely a later commentarial invention.

The songs prescribed for performance during the banquet — Lù Míng 《鹿鳴》, Sì Mǔ 《四牡》, Huáng Huáng Zhě Huá 《皇皇者華》, and the Zhōunán and Shàonán odes — correspond exactly to the songs prescribed in the received Yílǐ for the banquet context, providing independent manuscript confirmation that these specific songs had been canonically fixed for this ritual purpose by the early Han, before any of the received commentaries on the Yílǐ or the Mao 毛 recension of the Shījīng had been formally established.

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