DOCSLIB.ORG

Daybooks in Archaeological Context

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Daybooks in Archaeological Context 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.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Ps TOILETRY CASE SETS ACROSS LIFE and DEATH in EARLY CHINA (5 C. BCE-3 C. CE) by Sheri A. Lullo BA, University of Chicago
    TOILETRY CASE SETS ACROSS LIFE AND DEATH IN EARLY CHINA (5th c. BCE-3rd c. CE) by Sheri A. Lullo BA, University of Chicago, 1999 MA, University of Pittsburgh, 2003 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts & Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2009 Ps UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS & SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Sheri A. Lullo It was defended on October 9, 2009 and approved by Anthony Barbieri-Low, Associate Professor, History Dept., UC Santa Barbara Karen M. Gerhart, Professor, History of Art and Architecture Bryan K. Hanks, Associate Professor, Anthropology Anne Weis, Associate Professor, History of Art and Architecture Dissertation Advisor: Katheryn M. Linduff, Professor, History of Art and Architecture ii Copyright © by Sheri A. Lullo 2009 iii TOILETRY CASE SETS ACROSS LIFE AND DEATH IN EARLY CHINA (5th c. BCE-3rd c. CE) Sheri A. Lullo, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2009 This dissertation is an exploration of the cultural biography of toiletry case sets in early China. It traces the multiple significances that toiletry items accrued as they moved from contexts of everyday life to those of ritualized death, and focuses on the Late Warring States Period (5th c. BCE) through the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), when they first appeared in burials. Toiletry case sets are painted or inlaid lacquered boxes that were filled with a variety of tools for beautification, including combs, mirrors, cosmetic substances, tweezers, hairpins and a selection of personal items. Often overlooked as ordinary, non-ritual items placed in burials to comfort the deceased, these sets have received little scholarly attention beyond what they reveal about innovations in lacquer technologies.
    [Show full text]
  • The Evolution of Mathematics in Ancient China: from the Newly Discovered Shu and Suan Shu Shu Bamboo Texts to the Nine Chapters
    The Evolution of Mathematics in Ancient China: From the Newly Discovered Shu and Suan shu shu Bamboo Texts to the Nine Chapters on the Art of Mathematics*,† by Joseph W. Dauben‡ The history of ancient Chinese mathematics and texts currently being conserved and studied at its applications has been greatly stimulated in Tsinghua University and Peking University in Beijing, the past few decades by remarkable archaeological the Yuelu Academy in Changsha, and the Hubei discoveries of texts from the pre-Qin and later Museum in Wuhan, it is possible to shed new light periods that for the first time make it possible to on the history of early mathematical thought and its study in detail mathematical material from the time applications in ancient China. Also discussed here are at which it was written. By examining the recent developments of new techniques and justifications Warring States, Qin, and Han bamboo mathematical given for the problems that were a significant part of the growing mathematical corpus, and which * © 2014 Joseph W. Dauben. Used with permission. eventually culminated in the comprehensive Nine † This article is based on a lecture presented in September of 2012 at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Har- Chapters on the Art of Mathematics. vard University, which was based on a lecture first given at National Taiwan Tsinghua University (Hsinchu, Taiwan) in the Spring of 2012. I am grateful to Thomas Lee of National Chiaotung University of Taiwan where I spent the academic Contents year 2012 as Visiting Research Professor at Chiaota’s Insti- tute for Humanities and Social Sciences, which provided sup- 1 Recent Archaeological Excavations: The Shu port for much of the research reported here, and to Shuchun and Suan shu shu ................
    [Show full text]
  • Michael Nylan
    148 EASTM 17 (2000) Sun Xiaochun and Jacob Kistemaker, The Chinese Sky during the Han: Constel- lating Stars and Society. Leiden: Brill, 1997. 240 pages, 8 tables, 3 fold-out maps. Michael Nylan [Michael Nylan currently teaches at Bryn Mawr College. At present, her re- search focuses on three major areas: (1) the Five Classics and their reception; (2) domestic life in Warring States through Nanbeichao, with particular atten- tion both to material culture and to definitions of pleasure; and (3) the role of textuality, written and oral, in the production and transmission of traditions.] This work by Sun and Kistemaker would ascertain by Fourier analysis the positional astronomy of the Chinese sky during Han and then present "the cultural background" behind the constellations' names (pp. 9, 11, 95). The book in conse- quence divides into two parts, the first highly technical and the second of greater potential interest to the non-specialist, whose conceptual fit is less than ideal. After a brief general introduction to the Chinese sky, the authors undertake to date the core of the received text of the Shishi xingjing (Mr. Shi's Star Classic) to the first half of the first century BC, though some later material has been interpolated (p. 102). The authors then build a plausible case that the Star Classic probably reflects careful observations made in connection with the replacement of the Sifen calendar by the Taichu calendar in 104 BC (the first to require the armillary sphere in addition to the gnomon and water clock), possibly those made by Xianyu Wanren's group of twenty-two astronomers in the years 78-76 BC.
    [Show full text]
  • The Sacrality of the Mountain the Sacrality of the Mountain
    University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ScholarWorks@UARK Theses and Dissertations 12-2014 The aS crality of The ounM tain Manuel Rivera Espinoza University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd Part of the Asian History Commons, Asian Studies Commons, Comparative Philosophy Commons, History of Religions of Eastern Origins Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Rivera Espinoza, Manuel, "The aS crality of The ounM tain" (2014). Theses and Dissertations. 2072. http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/2072 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. The Sacrality of the Mountain The Sacrality of the Mountain A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in History by Manuel Rivera Espinoza Universidad de Chile Bachelor in History, 2008 December 2014 University of Arkansas This thesis is approved for recommendation of the Graduate Council. _______________________________ Dr. Rembrandt Wolpert Thesis Director _______________________________ _______________________________ Dr. Liang Cai Dr. Elizabeth Markham Committee Member Committee Member Abstract In this thesis I explore the conception of the mountain as a “sacred space” based on the definition provided by Mircea Eliade
    [Show full text]
  • “I Write Therefore I Am”: Scribes, Literacy, and Identity in Early China
    “I write therefore I am”: Scribes, Literacy, and Identity in Early China Armin Selbitschka NYU Shanghai [email protected] Accepted for publication in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 78.2 (2018). In a recently published article on literacy and identity, Elizabeth Birr Moje and Alan Luke distinguish five “metaphors for identity in history and contemporary research.” More importantly, though, the authors reviewed a tremendous amount of sociological and social-psychological literature in order to demonstrate how scholarship has increasingly related different conceptions of identity and the self to literacy. Accordingly, “texts and the literate practices that accompany them not only reflect but may also produce the self. Moreover, some have also argued that texts can be used as tools for enacting identities in social settings.”1 In view of the fact that a significant number of Chinese individuals living during the fifth through first centuries BCE were buried with manuscripts, such arguments seem pertinent for early Chinese society as well. What does it say about the self-concept of a person when his or her ability to write and / or read assumed a prominent role in funerary rites? This is the main question this article is going to pursue. Research on literacy in the field of Early China studies has gained some momentum with the release of a volume edited by Li Feng and David Prager Branner,2 yet the issue of identity has so far not been raised in this context. This article will therefore first discuss evidence of literacy and the skill of writing that are found in Chinese literary and archaeological sources of the late pre- imperial and early imperial period.
    [Show full text]
  • Picturing Or Diagramming the Universe
    PICTURING OR DIAGRAMMING THE UNIVERSE Wu Hung1 This paper is a broad speculation on image-making from the late East- ern Zhou to the Han. The kinds of images I want to consider include pictorial motifs and compositions (which are conventional subjects of art history) as well as abstract signs and patterns (which usually es- cape art historians’ attention). My main thesis is that during this pe- riod, not one, but a number of systems developed side by side to sup- ply different types of images. A single “subject matter” could thus be rendered in different visual presentations that operated as different languages and interacted in an increasingly complex visual culture. Having laid down this basic claim, I want to focus on one such “subject matter”—the universe—defined as an all-inclusive entity, encompassing all things—heavens, earth, and all that is in them—as well as time and space. Based on this definition the universe means an absolute interiority, a closed system that has everything inside and nothing outside. It is easy to understand why this interiority was imag- ined in terms of architecture in various ancient cultures. Such imagin- ings, in turn, stimulated the interest in fashioning a building as a microcosmic architectural representation of the entire cosmic order. Two kinds of microcosmic buildings were pursued through diver- gent cultural practices in China from the Eastern Zhou to Han. One of these was an idealized ritual structure known as Mingtang ĄŠ, translated into English as Bright Hall or the Hall of Light. Fig. 1 a–b shows the remaining foundation of the Bright Hall constructed by Wang Mang Ǟʜ in 4 AD.
    [Show full text]
  • Early Chinese Cosmology and Its Ritual Response K.E
    Rel. 307: Early Chinese cosmology and its ritual response K.E. Brashier (ETC 203) Fall 2010 Office hours: M 2-4, W 8-9 俯盡鑒於有形 Looking down, I exhaust my investigation because there are so many forms around me, 仰蔽視於所蓋 But when I look up, my vision is impeded by the cover of heaven. 游萬物⽽極思 So I wander among the myriad things and thereby take my thoughts to their limit; 故⼀⾔于天外 Then I can say a few words about what lay beyond heaven. – Chenggong Sui 成公綏 (231-73) Think for a moment about how we get knowledge. It can consist of direct experience itself. It can be taught to us through books and teachers. It can be intuited through meditation. It can be revealed to us through gods. Additionally as Chenggong Sui here argues, it can be extrapolated, and in his opinion when it comes to exploring the cosmos, extrapolation is indeed the only viable conduit. We first examine the little things near us, then deduce a pattern and finally extend that pattern to things far away. Chenggong Sui sets forth both the message and the medium for this course on early Chinese cosmology. His message is the all-encompassing pattern that ties together the annual seasons, the bodily organs, the government bureaucracy, the circumpolar constellations. We will explore that pattern and see how – and more importantly, why – it fits together into a comprehensive and comprehensible system. His medium is extrapolation, is looking at the small and specializing at the near-at-hand until he can trace that pattern outward.
    [Show full text]
  • MONUMENTA SERICA Journal of Oriental Studies
    MONUMENTA SERICA Journal of Oriental Studies Vol. LVI, 2008 Editor-in-Chief: ROMAN MALEK, S.V.D. Members of the Monumenta Serica Institute (all S.V.D.): JACQUES KUEPERS – LEO LEEB – ROMAN MALEK – WILHELM K. MÜLLER – ARNOLD SPRENGER – ZBIGNIEW WESOŁOWSKI Advisors: NOEL BARNARD (Canberra) – J. CHIAO WEI (Trier) – HERBERT FRANKE (München) – VINCENT GOOSSAERT (Paris) – NICOLAS KOSS, O.S.B. (Taibei) – SUSAN NAQUIN (Princeton) – REN DAYUAN (Beijing) – HELWIG SCHMIDT-GLINTZER (Wolfenbüttel) – NICOLAS STANDAERT, S.J. (Leuven) Monumenta Serica Institute – Sankt Augustin 2008 Editorial Office Monumenta Serica Institute, Arnold-Janssen-Str. 20 53757 Sankt Augustin, Germany Tel.: (+49) (0) 2241 237 431 • Fax: (+49) (0) 2241 237 486 E-mail: [email protected] • http://www.monumenta-serica.de Redactors: BARBARA HOSTER, DIRK KUHLMANN, ROMAN MALEK Manuscripts of articles, reviews (typewritten and on floppy-disks, see Information for Authors), exchange copies, and subscription orders should be sent to the Editorial Office __________ Taipei Office Monumenta Serica Sinological Research Center 天主教輔仁大學學術研究院 華裔學志漢學研究中心 Fu Jen Catholic University, Hsinchuang 24205, Taipei Hsien E-mail: [email protected] • http://www.mssrc.fju.edu.tw Director: ZBIGNIEW WESOŁOWSKI, S.V.D. ISSN 0254-9948 Monumenta Serica: Journal of Oriental Studies © 2008. All rights reserved by Monumenta Serica Institute, Arnold-Janssen-Str. 20, 53757 Sankt Augustin, Germany Set by the Authors and the Editorial Office, Monumenta Serica Institute. Technical assistance: JOZEF BIŠTUŤ, S.V.D. Printed by DRUCKEREI FRANZ SCHMITT, Siegburg Distribution – Orders – Subscriptions: STEYLER VERLAG, P.O. Box 2460, 41311 Nettetal, Germany Fax: (+49) (0) 2157 120 222; E-mail: [email protected] www.monumenta-serica.de EBSCO Subscription Services, Standing Order Department P.O.
    [Show full text]
  • Concubinage Was a Deeply Entrenched Social Institution in The
    Hsiang Lectures on Chinese Poetry Volume 5 Grace S. Fong Editor Chris Byrne Editorial Assistant Centre for East Asian Research McGill University Copyright © 2010 by Centre for East Asian Research, McGill University 3434 McTavish Street McGill University Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 1X9 Calligraphy by: Han Zhenhu For additional copies please send request to: Hsiang Lectures on Chinese Poetry Centre for East Asian Research McGill University 3434 McTavish Street Montreal, Quebec Canada H3A 1X9 A contribution of $5 towards postage and handling will be appreciated. This volume is printed on acid-free paper. Lost in Tradition: The Classic of Poetry We Did Not Know Martin Kern Princeton University Prelude Like no other poetic text in world literature, the Shijing 詩經, or Classic of Poetry, has a continuous history of some twenty-five centuries of reciting, singing, reading, teaching, memorizing, printing, quoting, and interpreting. True to Goethe’s definition of a classic, it is a text forever inexhaustible in its meaning. At the end of the Chinese empire, however, the text could barely carry the weight of its own commentarial tradition. When this weight was finally removed in the wake of May Fourth, little seemed left: a body of archaic, bombastic court hymns next to simple, formulaic songs that purportedly express—in however monotonous a fashion—the sentiments of commoners some time before Confucius. One may find these songs charm- ing and innocent, folk songs in Herder’s sense of song as the simple—and simple-minded—original language when civilization was still a child. But today, few lovers of poetry will read them for pleasure or inspiration.
    [Show full text]
  • Divination and Autonomy:New Perspectives From
    jocp_1623 124..141 lisa raphals DIVINATION AND AUTONOMY: NEW PERSPECTIVES FROM EXCAVATED TEXTS History is written by the victors. Much of the philosophical discussion of excavated texts has centered on the Guodian and Shanghai Museum texts, which augment or comment on the texts of the received tradition. This perspective omits the counterparts and com- petitors of the Warring States philosophers: the technical experts. The technical expertise traditions (medicine, the mantic arts, and astrocalendrics) were the counterparts and competitors of the phi- losophers, and far outnumber them in the perhaps narrow context of tomb texts. Both the received tradition and excavated texts attest to contact and competition between mantic experts and the “schoolmen” asso- ciated with Masters texts. Both livelihoods relied on literacy and specialist expertise. Both claimed access to divine knowledge and authority. Their competition thus involved career choice, patronage, students, and the status of modes of knowledge. In addition, it is now widely agreed that the bases of cosmological speculation first appeared in the ideas and methods of Warring States technical specialists, whose terms and techniques were later incorpo- rated into the yin-yang and Five-phase theories of Han cosmol- ogy. This view was first argued by Angus Graham some twenty years ago, and third-century excavated texts on these technical arts have reinforced it by supplementing the sparser record in the received tradition.1 In particular, technical experts were responsible for several developments that contributed to systematic thought and cosmology. These include (i) interest in symmetry, already visible in the oracle bone inscriptions; (ii) the articulation of a yin-yang polarity, abstracted as patterns of change, represented by numbers.
    [Show full text]
  • In the Government's Service: a Study of the Role and Practice of Early China's Officials Based on Caex Vated Manuscripts
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2013 In the Government's Service: A Study of the Role and Practice of Early China's Officials Based on caEx vated Manuscripts Daniel Sungbin Sou University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Asian History Commons, and the Asian Studies Commons Recommended Citation Sou, Daniel Sungbin, "In the Government's Service: A Study of the Role and Practice of Early China's Officials Based on caEx vated Manuscripts" (2013). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 804. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/804 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/804 For more information, please contact [email protected]. In the Government's Service: A Study of the Role and Practice of Early China's Officials Based on caEx vated Manuscripts Abstract The aim of this dissertation is to examine the practices of local officials serving in the Chu and Qin centralized governments during the late Warring States period, with particular interest in relevant excavated texts. The recent discoveries of Warring States slips have provided scholars with new information about how local offices operated and functioned as a crucial organ of the centralized state. Among the many excavated texts, I mainly focus on those found in Baoshan, Shuihudi, Fangmatan, Liye, and the one held by the Yuelu Academy. Much attention is given to the function of districts and their officials in the Chu and Qin vgo ernments as they supervised and operated as a base unit: deciding judicial matters, managing governmental materials and products, and controlling the population, who were the source of military and labor service.
    [Show full text]
  • 3 · Reinterpreting Traditional Chinese Geographical Maps
    3 · Reinterpreting Traditional Chinese Geographical Maps CORDELL D. K. YEE My interest in this chapter and the following four is tra­ frames in mind. These extended inquiries are obtained ditional Chinese geographic mapping-that is, Chinese at some cost, however. With a thematic approach one mapping of the earth before its Westernization in the late risks losing a clear sense of chronology, and one sacrifices nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. One of the first the power of narrative to maintain a sense of direction. lessons one learns when studying this subject is that the By keeping the focus on ideas or themes, one also risks traditional periodization used in scholarship is unsatis­ losing sight of the maps themselves. Detailed descriptions factory. The traditional scheme takes the rise and fall of of artifacts can disrupt the flow of an argument or at least China's ruling houses as constituting distinct periods (see make it harder to follow, and so in the thematic chapters table 2.1). Such a scheme may have been useful for orga­ that follow this one, artifacts are dealt with in only as nizing material dealing with political and institutional his­ much detail as is necessary to support the arguments pre­ tory, and as will be seen in a later chapter, cartography sented. was intimately connected to that history. But carto­ The loss of chronology and detail would be regret­ graphic developments do not neatly parallel changes in table, especially when at least part of the audience for politics. Historians of cartography in the past, however, this book-collectors and cartobibliographers, for exam­ have tried to tie cartography to dynastic changes in ways ple-could reasonably be expected to take an interest in I have found misleading.
    [Show full text]