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居延漢簡釋文合校

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Text ID
KR5a0332
Date
-102–169
Dynasty
漢

Jūyán Hàn jiǎn shìwén héjiào 居延漢簡釋文合校

Collated Transcriptions of the Juyan Han Bamboo Slips ed. 謝桂華 and 李均明

About the work

The Jūyán Hànjian shìwén héjiào 居延漢簡釋文合校 (“Collated transcriptions of the Juyan documents on wood”) is a two-volume modern critical edition, compiled by 謝桂華 (Xiè Guìhuá, 1938–2006) and 李均明 (Lǐ Jūnmíng), and published by Wénwù chūbǎnshè 文物出版社 (Beijing) in 1987. It contains corrected transcriptions of the “old Juyan materials” — primarily the 11,000 bamboo and wooden slips unearthed in 1930–31 by Folke Bergman (1902–46) during the Sino-Swedish Expedition led by Sven Hedin, now housed at the Institute of History and Philology (Shiyusuo 史語所), Academia Sinica, Taipei. The work is highly anomalous in its placement within the KR5a corpus (a division otherwise devoted to Daoist texts); its inclusion reflects the CHANT database’s comprehensive approach to classical Chinese textual sources. The KR corpus contains only a single file labeled “第七節” (Section 7), representing one section of the complete work.

About the work

The underlying primary sources are Han dynasty administrative documents written on bamboo strips (zhújiǎn 竹簡) and wooden slats (mùjiǎn 木簡) — collectively jiǎndú 簡牘 — discovered at some 160 scattered sites along 354 km of the Han frontier defense lines in the vicinity of Khara-Khoto (Edsengol), in present-day Gansu and Inner Mongolia. These documents date primarily from 102 BCE to 169 CE. They comprise a wide variety of administrative records: military registers and personnel lists, reports of fines and expenses, laws and regulations, grain-allocation accounts, transit passes, letters, and official correspondence. The KR section labeled “第七節” contains a representative sample of such documentary fragments, including dated slips from the reigns of Han Emperor Wǔ through Emperor Huán, naming garrison commanders, duty officers, garrisons, administrative units, and recording quotidian military-logistical details.

The Juyan finds are among the most important sources for the history of Han frontier governance, military organization, economic life, and administrative language.

Prefaces

No preface in the source. The KR file opens directly with the transcribed slip texts under the heading “居延漢簡釋文合校-第七節.”

Abstract

The Juyan slips. The Juyan 居延 Han bamboo slips are the largest single find of pre-Tang written documents in Chinese history. The first major excavation (1930–31) by Bergman yielded approximately 11,000 jiǎndú from sites along the former Jūyán 居延 and Jiānshuǐ 肩水 border defense lines (in present-day Zhangye commandery territory, Han dynasty). A second, larger find (19,637 slips) was made in 1973–76, primarily from three sites: Jiāqú hòuguān 甲渠候官, the Fourth Beacon Tower (第四燧), and Jiānshuǐ Jīnguān 肩水金關. The 1987 Xiè–Lǐ edition covers the old (1930–31) finds only; the new finds have been published in a separate series (Jūyán xīnjian 居延新簡 and Jūyán xīnjian jíshì 居延新簡集釋).

The 1987 edition. The Shìwén héjiào was the authoritative corrected-transcription edition of the old Juyan materials for two decades. It improves upon earlier transcription editions, notably Láo Gān’s 勞幹 Jūyán Hànjian 居延漢簡 (Shiyusuo, 1957–60) and the Kaogu suo edition Jūyán Hànjian jiǎyǐ biān 居延漢簡甲乙編 (Zhonghua, 1980). It was superseded for many purposes by the new infrared-image-based transcriptions in Jūyán Hànjian 居延漢簡 1–4 (Shiyusuo, 2014–19). Wilkinson (§59.7.2.1) describes it as containing “corrected transcriptions of the old Juyan materials (available in CHANT database).”

CHANT digitization. The CHANT database (Chinese Humanities Text Project, CUHK) digitized the 1987 edition under the code @CH8x3601. The Kanripo corpus ingested section 7 of this digitization as KR5a0332. The placement in KR5a (Daoist section) is anomalous and reflects the catch-all character of the later CHANT additions to the corpus rather than any intrinsic Daoist content.

Content of the primary documents. The slips in this section contain: dated administrative reports naming garrison officers and units of the Zhāngyè 張掖 Jūyán 居延 frontier command; Jiāqú 甲渠 houguan unit records; personnel documents naming individual soldiers with age and status notations; accounts of grain delivery and allocation; transit documentation; fragments of official correspondence. The administrative terminology (hòucháng 候長 “beacon commander,” duì 隊 “garrison section,” súlǐ 卒吏 “trooper-clerk,” zhōng 種 “seed grain”) illustrates the rich vocabulary of Han military administration. Dates span the reigns of Emperors Wǔ, Yuán, Chéng, Āi (W. Hàn) through Guāngwǔ, Míng, Zhāng, Hé, and Huán (E. Hàn).

Translations and research

  • Loewe, Michael. Records of Han Administration. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967. Repr. Curzon, 2001. Pioneering study using the Juyan documents.
  • Ōba Osamu 大庭脩. Kankan kenkyū 漢簡研究. Hōyū, 1992. Chinese tr.: Hànjian yánjiū 漢簡硏究. Tr. Xu Shihong 徐世虹. Guangxi shida, 2001. Representative Japanese-language scholarship on the old Juyan slips.
  • Chang, Chun-shu. Frontier, Immigration, and Empire in Han China, 130 B.C.–A.D. 157. Vol. 2 of The Rise of the Chinese Empire. Ann Arbor: CCS / University of Michigan Press, 2006.
  • Li Junming 李均明. Qín Hàn jiǎndú wénshū fēnlèi jíjiě 秦汉简牍文书分类集解. Wenwu, 2009. Sorts documents from both Juyan finds by category with annotations.
  • Lǐ Zhènhóng 李振宏. Jūyán Hànjian yǔ Hàndài shèhuì 居延漢簡與漢代社會. Zhonghua, 2003.

Other points of interest

The KR5a0332 text is highly anomalous in the Kanripo corpus: it is the only entry in KR5 (道家 Daoist) that consists of 20th-century scholarly editorial work rather than a traditional Chinese text. Its presence reflects the CHANT database’s broad ingestion policy. Researchers consulting this entry should be aware that the authoritative editions for the Juyan slips are now the infrared-image-based Shiyusuo series (2014–19) and, for the new finds, the Zhang Defang 張德芳 Jūyán xīnjian jíshì 居延新簡集釋 (7 vols., Gansu wenhua, 2016).

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