CHAPTER 8 Daybooks in Qin and Religion

Marianne Bujard

Wang Chong 王充 (27–ca. 100), the well-known Han critic private sides of religious life. My presentation is intended of conventional wisdom, devoted an entire essay in his to show the interconnections among these manifestations Assay of Arguments ( 論衡) to denouncing the of religion as seen through the daybooks that once guided various beliefs held by his contemporaries regarding the people in their daily activities and now are unique prima- selection of appropriate days for engaging in activities. ry sources for the history of religions. The essay, “Refuting Day Avoidances” (Jiri 譏日), describes I begin with the cult of Xiannong 先農 (First Tiller), the beliefs in detail in the course of denouncing them, the god of agriculture. Emblematic of the three levels on addressing hemerologies related to burial, sacrifices and which Qin and Han religion manifested itself—impe- cults, toiletries, clothing, and construction work.1 Wang rial cult, local celebrations, and private rituals—the First Chong refuted the hemerological prohibitions, dem- Tiller cult was practiced in the imperial court as well as onstrating that they were contrary to tradition, that the in the administrative commanderies and counties of the choice of proscribed activities was arbitrary, that the pro- empire. A remarkable entry in the late third-century bce hibitions relied on absurd beliefs, and that the hemerolo- recipe miscellany from Zhoujiatai 周家臺 tomb 30, Hubei gies failed to recognize that the spirits were indifferent to (ZJTB.18), indicates that household sacrifices were also the petty affairs of humans. referred to the offered to First Tiller with the hope of increasing the writings that people consulted for guidance as “books of family’s prosperity and success in farming. In addition, day prohibitions” (rijin shu 日禁之書). Qin administrative documents excavated from well no. 1 Archaeological discoveries of the past forty years have at Liye 里耶, Hunan, are evidence of the contemporane- recovered many examples of manuscripts in tombs that ous observance of the First Tiller cult by local officials. contain this type of text. The manuscripts, written on Next comes an examination of local cults celebrated slips of bamboo or wood or on wooden tablets, have been with the cooperation of officials of the regional adminis- grouped under the generic heading “daybook” (rishu 日書). tration, that is, individuals whose social status was com- The texts inform users of the days to be avoided for ac- parable to that of the occupants of the tombs in which tivities ranging from birth, marriage, illness, and death daybook manuscripts were discovered. Among the trans- to those related to agriculture, animal husbandry, hunt- mitted sources, the “Treatise on Feng and Shan Rituals” ing, fishing, travel, cults, celebrations, theft, lost objects, (Feng Shan shu 封禪書) in the Records of the Scribe (Shiji administrative and military affairs, and commerce. The 史記) and the “Treatise on Sacrifices” (Jiaosi zhi 郊祀志) historian of religions will find in these primary sources in the (Han shu 漢書) enumerate the many at least two areas of interest: first, the most mundane ac- sacred places throughout the empire that were dedicat- tivities are subject to prescriptions based on complex and ed to mountains and rivers; to crags, caves, and rocks; to constraining symbolic systems originating in religion and, springs and wells; to animals, swords, and drums; and to second, activities related more directly to the spirit world, all manner of objects rare and familiar in which men be- the celebration of cults, and apotropaic rituals are pre- lieved they could detect wondrous powers. But historians sented in an everyday, local context. The daybooks nicely for the most part have provided only the names of revered complement knowledge of these matters gained from divinities and little about the cults that were dedicated to transmitted texts and epigraphy and, at the same time, them. Epigraphy is a useful resource in trying to fill in the add considerable new evidence. gaps in official history. Translations of three stela inscrip- This chapter focuses on religious practices disclosed by tions dedicated to Wuji 無極 Mountain (Hebei), the Huai daybooks and situates them in the religious landscape of 淮 River, and Mount Song 嵩山 (Henan) show the role of the Qin and Han periods. Whereas transmitted texts ad- government officials in the promotion, organization, and dress mainly the public side of religion with the imperial maintenance of local cults. cult at the center, daybooks provide access to the local and Finally, this chapter addresses the daybooks as sourc- es for private life. Excavated manuscripts reveal that the 1 Lunheng, 24, pp. 989–97 (“Jiri”); Kalinowski, 2011a, pp. 243–53. same officials who engaged in public and collective cult

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi ��.��63/9789004349315_010 306 bujard activities also used daybooks in their domestic settings, In addition to the imperial plowing ceremony, First either by making personal copies or by acquiring manu- Tiller was included in sacrifices to Heaven instituted by scripts copied by others.2 The Zhoujiatai recipe miscel- Emperor Guangwu (r. 25–57) of the Eastern Han in 26 ce. lany that contains the First Tiller entry has entries that First Tiller received offerings behind the eight-tiered touch on the private rituals of individuals in a variety round altar, newly installed in the southern suburbs of of circumstances—including recipes for the magical Luoyang 洛陽. Sharing offerings with more than 1,500 and ritual treatment of illness alongside others that use other divinities, First Tiller is listed before Rain General drugs—and has hemerological entries on safe travel and (Yushi 雨師) and Wind Elder (Fengbo 風伯) and after Sire recovering lost livestock, as well as recipes for various of Thunder (Leigong 雷公) (fig. 8.1).6 household needs. The manuscript does not belong to the At the regional level, the “Treatise on Sacrifices” in the daybook text type as described in chapter 2, but it has an Book of Later Han indicates that in the counties and towns abundance of content that is directly related to religion in of the empire, local officials regularly offered sacrifices to everyday life and reflects the non-hemerological content First Tiller, Wind Elder, and Rain General. Sacrifices for found in the daybook text type. My overview of the whole First Tiller took place on the day yiwei32 at a location in the manuscript shows that daybooks and daybook-related yis2 direction (east); for Wind Elder, on the day bingxu23 manuscripts were part of how people experienced reli- in the xub11 direction (west); and for Rain General, on the gion in the household and local community. day jichou26 in the choub2 direction (north). The sacrifice consisted of a sheep and a pig.7 The discovery in 2002 of Qin administrative documents The First Tiller Cult: Public and Private Rites in well no. 1 at Liye, Hunan, has transformed our knowl- edge of the organization of official sacrifices to First Tiller Transmitted sources identify First Tiller as the recipient at the local level. The documents are evidence of admin- of imperial sacrifice in the ceremony of the first plowing istrative activities in Qianling 遷陵 county (located in (geng 耕). According to the “Treatise on Rites” (Liyi zhi Dongting 洞庭 commandery) in the last decades of the 禮儀志) of the Book of Later Han (Hou Han shu 後漢書), third century bce. Archaeologists identified eighteen the imperial plowing ceremony took place in the first levels when excavating the well; documents were found month and began with the First Tiller sacrifice.3 Following in levels 5 through 17. Among the more than thirty-sev- the sacrifice, the emperor personally pushed the plow at en thousand pieces of wooden and bamboo documents the sacred field (jitian 籍田), initiating cultivation of the (slips, tablets, and fragments), roughly half (seventeen grain used for offerings in the imperial sacrifice. In his de- thousand to eighteen thousand) had writing on them. The tailed study of the ceremony, Derk Bodde counts twelve documents with dates recorded on them range between occasions between 178 bce and 194 ce when Han emper- 222 and 208 bce.8 ors performed the ceremony, based on records in the Han Twenty-nine slips are related to sacrifices offered to First histories. Notably, the ceremony did not always take place Tiller in 215 bce. The original slips are not yet published, in the first month: the first month was used four times, the but in 2005 and 2006, Zhang Chunlong, the archaeologist second month six times, the third month once, and the in charge of the excavation, presented his paper on the fourth month once.4 Moreover, according to the records, twenty-nine First Tiller slips at conferences and published the ceremony was performed only three times at the im- his transcription in 2007.9 In 2009, Peng Hao published a perial sacred field outside the capital. On six occasions, study in which he arranged the slips in three categories: the ceremony took place wherever the emperor found the thirteen slips in category A concern preparations for himself while on inspection tours; for three occasions, there is no indication of the location.5 jitian “sacred field” does not occur in Western Han sources but that other evidence confirms the existence of such a ceremonial loca- 2 On the makers and users of the daybooks, see pp. 104–10 in chap. 3. tion south of the capital at Chang’an. In the Eastern Han period, the 3 Hou Han shu, “Zhi” 志, 4, p. 3106. location shifted to Luoyang. 4 Bodde (1975, p. 226) identifies the years and the emperor who per- 6 Hou Han shu, “Zhi,” 7, p. 3160. formed the ceremony. In one instance, Bodde errs by identifying 7 Ibid., “Zhi,” 9, p. 3204. A sheep and a pig represent the shaolao 少牢 the celebration of the second month of 86 bce, during the reign of sacrifice. Emperor Zhao (r. 86–74 bce), as having occurred in the first month 8 For an overview of the Liye discovery, see Yates, 2013. See also of the same year, during the reign of Emperor Wu (r. 140–87 bce). pp. 101–2 in chap. 3. 5 It should be noted that First Tiller does not occur in either the 9 Zhang Chunlong, 2007. Some slips are reconstructions composed Shiji or the Han shu. Bodde (1975, p. 227) also notes that the name of several slip fragments.