The Hampers of Zeng: Some Problems in Archaeoastronomy Illustrations1 Hamper #1: Twenty-eight xiu (lunar mansions) on lacquer hamper Hamper #2: Text on lacquer hamper Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Western Branch of the American Oriental Society, Boulder, CO, November 2, 1985 Open Access. © 2018 Nivison/JAS, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501505393-004 ! 8 The Hampers of Zeng: Some Problems in Archaeoastronomy Transcription and Translations Jao Tsung-I’s 饒宗頤 interpretation (tentatively reconstructed by DSN), from his article “Zeng Hou Yi mu huqi qishu wenzi chushi” 曾侯乙墓匫器漆書文字初釋 (A preliminary explanation of the lacquer inscription on a hamper in the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng), Guwenzi yanjiu 古文字研究 10 (July, 1983) pp. 190–197 Line 1: It is Fang to which the people sacrifice; Line 2: The sun-moon conjunction is in the (northern) corner; Line 3: (a) (As for) the Four (Stars, i.e. Fang) that are auspicious for the (agri- cultural) year; or, (b) (As for) the Four (Stars) that are (like?) the auspicious year (-star), Line 4: What they preside over (?? i.e., the “many xiu,” p. 194, 1. 2; “suo shang” is not interpreted) are concordantly arranged (i.e., do not conflict with the year star, in some sense; cf 11. 2–3), Line 5: And as (they) circle the Heaven are always in accord (= in their proper places, making auspicious celestial harmony). David W. Pankenier’s translation and interpretation (from his article, “Early Chinese Positional Astronomy: The Guoyu Astronomical Record,” Archaeoas- tronomy 5.3, 1982 (actually 1983), 10–20; see pp. 10–11) Line 1: The people’s sacrifice to “House” (Fang), Line 2: the luni-solar conjunctions in the “corners”, Line 3: the four locations in which Jupiter arises, Line 4: Shang (asterism) like a row of troops, Line 5: [they] order Heaven and are constantly in harmony. Pankenier claims that the language of this –5th century inscription helps to show that the astrological text (of celestial events at the time of the Zhou Conquest) in Guoyu, “Zhou yu” 7, is a genuine text of a record made at the time of the Con- quest, in the –11th century. This translation, which he says follows Jao (who had DSN’s translation (27 October 1985) 8 # not yet published; Pankenier heard him read a paper on the problem in 1981), is merely parenthetical in the context of Pankenier’s article, and he does not de- fend it, saying only “it will not be possible to discuss this interesting catalog of seasonal observation in detail.” DSN’s translation (27 October 1985) Line 1: Min si wei Fang 民祀隹坊 When the people sacrifice to Fang, Line 2: Ri chen yu wei 日辰於維 And the sun’s chen is in the (winter-spring) corner, Line 3: Xing sui zhi si 興歲之四 You Four (Stars) that inaugurate the year, Line 4: Suo shang ruo chen 所尚若 May what you grant be like our plea. Line 5: Tian Tian chang he 天 和 Thundering Heaven sounds accord. Notes: Line 1: The reading of the fourth graph is open to question. I follow Jao, who takes it as 坊, i.e., 房. Line 2: I interpret “chen” here as the moving zodiac: space of 30 du with the sun at its center, i.e., the zodiac area too close to the sun to be visible. The third graph “yu” 於, “in,” must be a verb here, meaning “zai yu” 在 於, “is located in.” Line 3: “si” 四, as Jao argues, is “Si” 駟, the Team of Four Horses, i.e. Fang. Line 4: I interpret “shang” 尚 as “shang” 賞, “to give.” “Chen” is a variant for 敶 or 陳. 8 The Hampers of Zeng: Some Problems in Archaeoastronomy Line 5: For the first graph, otherwise unknown, compare Mencius 1A3, “Tian jan gu zhi” 填然鼓之, “Tian-like they drum it,” i.e., “Boom boom go the drums.” I take the third graph as having the top element as phonetic and the bottom, 音 “sound,” as giving the meaning; perhaps it was a way of writing “chang” 唱, “to call out,” “applaud.” Diagrams 8 Diagrams 8 The Hampers of Zeng: Some Problems in Archaeoastronomy Diagrams 8 / 0 8 The Hampers of Zeng: Some Problems in Archaeoastronomy The Hampers of Zeng: Some Problems in Archaeoastronomy I shall be talking about two clothes hampers found in the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, which was discovered in 1977 and excavated in 1978. The site is at Leigudun, northwest of Suixian City in Hubei. This tomb is a very rich find, already much publicized and written about; it is perhaps best known for the complete set of sixty-four musical bells, still mounted on an elaborate stand, that was found in it. The covers of the two hampers are illustrated in Sui Xian Zeng Hou Yi mu, compiled by the Hubei Provincial Museum (published by Wenwu Chuban she, Beijing, 1980). I am chiefly concerned with a short (20 graphs) lacquer inscrip- tion on hamper #2; but hamper #1 is the more spectacular. The illustration is described as a “lacquer box-cover painted with twenty-eight xiu (lunar man- sions), length 82.8 cm, total height 44.8 cm.” The cover has red designs on a black background. In the center is a large graph of the Big Dipper. Surrounding it in a loose circle are the names of the 28 xiu (not always the same as the classi- cal names), arranged in clockwise order, with a space before Jiao, indicating that it counts (as later) as the beginning of the series. If we orient the cover with Jiao at top, we find a date written under the next xiu name, Kang, reading “jiayin, 3rd day.” When this information is combined with a date on a bronze bell in the tomb, “the King’s 56th cult-year,” identifying the king as the king of Chu, the king turns out to be King Hui of Chu, and the year to be 433 BC. For, if the lunar zodiac is conceived to be laid out on the plane of the earth with Xu (mansion #11), traditionally supposed to be the sun’s location at the winter solstice, at north, and the assumption is made that the Big Dipper’s han- dle points due north at an ideal 6:00 p.m. at the winter solstice, it follows that the handle would point at Kang in the 5th lunar month counting the solstice month as 1st month; and in 433 the 3rd day of this 5th month was jiayin. (The exact date is April 1st, 433 BC, JD 1563361.) It is conjectured that this is the date of the death of Marquis Yi; perhaps it is the date of interment, or of the end of mourn- ing. In any case, it appears that the hamper lid was made, or at least altered, expressly for the burial. Here I do no more than describe the results of others. And it has occurred to others as well as to me that the depiction of the Tiger at the left side of the cover, and of the Dragon on the right, indicates that in the first stages of the develop- ment of the Chinese zodiac there were only two celestial animals, the (summer) Bird and the (winter) Turtle being added later. Perhaps then the year was origi- nally conceived to be literally a “spring-autumn” (Chun-Qiu); for on the Drag- on’s side are arrayed the mansions through which the sun passed in autumn The Hampers of Zeng: Some Problems in Archaeoastronomy 8 1 and winter, and on the Tiger’s side those through which the sun passed in spring and summer. Or, using the Dipper dial method, those at which the Dipper’s handle point- ed in winter and spring are on the Dragon’s side, and in summer and autumn on the Tiger’s side. Which is right? The latter. In Han astrology, the Dragon is asso- ciated with green, which is associated with spring and east; and the Tiger with white, which is associated with autumn and west. By confirmation we find among the mansions differing in name from their classical counterparts two: instead of #13 Ying Shi (Planned House) and #14 Dong Bi (East Wall) we have respectively Xi Ying (West Plan) and Dong Ying (East Plan). The order shows that east is the direction of the progress of the sun, moon and planets around the zodiac—as indeed it is, the only way one can see the zodiac, i.e., standing in one’s back yard at night looking south. If now we reckon from Jiao, top and starting point, we see that the Dragon is east and the Tiger is west. And here, for me, emerges a puzzle: The Dipper graph is presented (I think) as we would see the dipper when we look north, and up. But the names of the mansions are arranged as the Dipper would see the corresponding constella- tions if it were to look down at the earth and them, assuming they are beneath the Dipper in the layout of the cosmos. Notwithstanding, the handle of the Dip- per points at Fang and Xin, as is astronomically correct. Alternatively, I can imagine the bottom of the circle of mansions as being what I would see (at the right season) as I look south at night; this makes the zodiac come out right—I merely have to think of the rest of it as looped back of and the earth and out of sight; but then the Dipper, up there back of my brains, is reversed.