CHAPTER 1 Daybooks in Archaeological Context Alain Thote Since the second half of the twentieth century, ancient shafts of wells at administrative sites in southern China.5 Chinese manuscripts made of bound slips of bamboo or This chapter addresses the archaeological context of the wood and silk sheets have nearly all been discovered in ancient Chinese manuscripts in general and of rishu tombs that date between the fifth century bce and the 日書 “daybooks” and daybook-related manuscripts in first century ce. The inclusion of manuscripts among the particular.6 This context and the material characteristics burial goods placed in ancient tombs has been known of the manuscripts provide essential evidence for un- since the third century ce, when the Warring States tomb derstanding the social and cultural background of the at Jixian 汲縣, Henan, was excavated. The original manu- production and use of manuscripts during the centuries scripts are long lost.1 The famous Chu Silk Manuscript 楚 when manuscript culture in China was fully developed 帛書, looted from the Warring States Chu tomb at Zidanku and had an effect on the lives of different social groups. 子彈庫, in Changsha 長沙, Hunan, in 1942, can be con- sidered the first tomb-excavated manuscript of modern times.2 Other discoveries followed in the 1950s, culminat- Daybooks in Tombs ing in the excavation in 1959 of Mozuizi 磨嘴子 tomb 6, at Wuwei 武威, Gansu, where three Han manuscript copies of Tombs constitute our main source of manuscript evidence the Ceremonial Rituals (Yili 儀禮) were discovered as well for the Warring States, Qin, and Han periods. To date, as fragments of slips related to hemerology.3 The variety more than twenty daybooks and daybook-related manu- and quantity of manuscripts excavated from four tombs scripts have been discovered in China, both in tombs and in the 1970s—ranging in subject matter from thought and at non-tomb sites. Despite their substantial number, study religion to medicine, astrology, divination, and hemerolo- of the tomb-excavated manuscripts encounters a variety gy—placed the study of manuscripts at the center of early of obstacles. In the first place, their state of preservation China studies: in 1972, the Han bamboo-slip manuscripts is often fragmentary. Then there is the issue of their pub- from Yinqueshan 銀雀山 tomb 1 and Yinqueshan tomb lication. Brief excavation reports published in archaeol- 2, Shandong; in 1973, the Han manuscripts on silk, bam- ogy journals may include passages in modern Chinese boo, and wood from Mawangdui 馬王堆 tomb 3, Hunan; transcription, often without photographs of the original in 1975, the Qin bamboo-slip manuscripts from Shuihudi manuscripts, which are published later in the full archae- 睡虎地 tomb 11, Hubei; and in 1977, the Han bamboo-slip ological excavation report of a tomb or in a separate vol- manuscripts from Shuanggudui 雙古堆 tomb 1, Anhui.4 ume exclusively for the manuscripts. In a number of cases The interest aroused by ongoing manuscript discov- there has been a considerable time lag between discovery eries—both archaeologically excavated and looted, and and publication, and the publication of all known manu- from non-tomb settlement sites as well as from tombs— scripts remains incomplete. has not always been equally concerned with the close examination of the archaeological context in which manuscripts are discovered, including tombs, adminis- trative and military outposts in northwest China, and the 5 For a summary of archaeological sites and manuscripts as of the end of the twentieth century, see Giele, 1999. At present there are a 1 For an account of the Jixian tomb manuscripts, see Shaughnessy, number of studies of particular manuscripts in Chinese, Japanese, 2006, pp. 131–53. Korean, and Western languages, but there is no single publication 2 For the history of the discovery of the Zidanku Silk Manuscripts, or database that provides a comprehensive record of all archaeo- see chap. 6. The manuscript generally known as the Chu Silk logical sites with manuscripts, and the archaeological excavation Manuscript is Zidanku Silk Manuscript 1. reports that sometimes accompany the Chinese publication of the 3 For details of the manuscript discovery, see pp. 74–75 in chap. 2. manuscripts from a given site may lack sufficient detail. 4 See additional information concerning these four tombs in appen- 6 For discussion and definition of the daybook as a text type within dix A, secs. A.1 (Shuihudi), A.4 (Shuanggudui), A.5 (Yinqueshan, the larger body of manuscripts with mainly hemerological content, Mawangdui). see chap. 2. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi ��.��63/97890043493�5_003 12 thote Manuscript Sources image of the site at the time of burial, and this knowledge Of the archaeologically excavated daybooks and daybook- of the site is carefully presented in the excavation report. related manuscripts, twelve have been systematically ed- In actuality, the quality of published excavation reports ited and are fully published. First are the six manuscripts varies considerably depending on the archaeological unit that are identified as belonging to the daybook text type, responsible for the site and the date of the excavation, and which come from four tombs: a Warring States Chu tomb, this variability applies to monographs with full excavation Jiudian 九店 tomb 56, in Jiangling 江陵, Hubei (one reports as well as to brief reports published in journals. manuscript); a Qin tomb, Fangmatan 放馬灘 tomb 1, in In regard to the excavation date, compared to excavations Tianshui 天水, Gansu (two manuscripts); another Qin conducted today, those done even in the past several de- tomb, Shuihudi 睡虎地 tomb 11, in Yunmeng 雲夢, Hubei cades may have paid less attention to recording certain (two manuscripts); and a Han tomb, Kongjiapo 孔家坡 details that are very important for a complete understand- tomb 8, in Suizhou 隨州, Hubei (one manuscript).7 Next ing of the sites. Reports also do not consistently supply all are six daybook-related manuscripts from five Qin and of the basic documentation necessary for interpretation, Han tombs. They share hemerological and non-hemero- for instance, the dimensions of bamboo slips found in a logical content with the daybook text type, but their form tomb may not be indicated. Finally, there have been enor- as manuscript miscellanies is not the same as the daybook mous improvements in the quality of images provided in manuscripts (see appendix A, sec. A.2). As for other man- the plates and figures of the reports, and we can now ex- uscripts, brief excavation reports and specialized studies pect them to reliably provide information that was miss- of nine tombs refer to the occurrence of rishu, some- ing in the past. Of course, research carried out today still times of considerable size—as in the case of Huxishan suffers from omissions in the reporting of past discoveries. 虎溪山 tomb 1, in Yuanling 沅陵, Hunan, and Shuiquanzi Fragments of material related to hemerology on slips 水泉子 tomb 5, in Yongchang 永昌, Gansu—but until the and tablets of wood or bamboo discovered at Han settle- manuscripts are published in full, we cannot be certain ment sites are valuable precisely because of their non- that they belong to the daybook text type.8 Finally, there funerary context and the text parallels with daybooks and are looted daybooks or daybook-related manuscripts that daybook-related manuscripts excavated from tombs (see have been acquired by museums and universities in China appendix A, sec. A.3).10 The fragments are often found and Hong Kong.9 Their provenance is unknown, and the discarded in wells or in ash-pits where they were mixed context of the sites where they were found is definitively with other manuscripts, documents, and miscellaneous lost. Moreover, authenticity is an issue with some looted objects without regard to their nature. They were every- manuscripts. For these reasons, this chapter does not take day ephemera and were discarded by their owners under into consideration manuscripts of unclear origin. The a variety of circumstances when they were no longer of purpose here is to approach the daybooks from an archae- use. With discoveries of this type, the scholar is confront- ological perspective in order to address their function in ed with all sorts of interpretive problems concerning the tombs and to explore more generally the circumstances original form, uses, and dating of the manuscripts. surrounding their production, their readership, and their dissemination in society during a period when interest in A Phenomenon Embedded in Time and Widely precisely this type of literature was particularly strong. Diffused A tomb that is found intact and archaeologically ex- In order to understand what daybooks represent in their cavated forms a closed set that has been altered only by archaeological context, an overall view of the tombs natural processes through the centuries. The work of ar- containing manuscripts is necessary. Unlike a daybook chaeological excavation at its best reconstructs a faithful found in the context of a dwelling, a daybook placed in the tomb next to the deceased is the result of an inten- 7 See the detailed discussion of the four tombs below; for biblio- tional symbolic act carried out at a precise time. This act graphical references and other basic information, see appendix A, is embedded in a history of funerary customs. At the same sec. A.1. time, the practice of placing daybooks or hemerological 8 See appendix A, sec. A.4, and table 1.1 in this chapter. From the brief account of the Huxishan manuscript in Guo Weimin, 2004, the manuscript does not seem to fit the definition of the daybook text 10 Two sites are in the Dunhuang region, and others are in the type. Juyan region of Inner Mongolia.