Abstract Constituting one of the unearthed Western Han (206 BCE −25 CE ) bamboo-slip manuscripts acquired by Peking University in 2009, the Wang Ji 妄稽 text is unique in being a long narrative poem that recounts the travails of its eponymous protagonist – a woman depicted as having an irredeemably ugly physical appearance – when her husband acquires (and quickly becomes infatuated with) a beautiful concubine. This article provides an overview of the physical features of the Wang Ji manuscript as well as an introduction, summary, transcription, and annotated English translation of its contents.

Abstract The term chengyu 乘輿 during the pre-Qin period did not have a specific meaning as an identity marker. Slip 8–461 of the Liye Qin-dynasty slips shows that after the First Emperor of Qin unified China, he issued an imperial edict to change chengyu into a special title for the emperor. This was a direct influence of the prevailing “world-as-country” view in the late Warring States period, as seen in the phrases “heaven is the canopy and earth is the chariot” 天爲蓋，地爲輿 and “the emperor takes the whole world as his home and does not take the imperial palace as his permanent residence, so he should travel the world with his chariot” 天子以天下爲家，不以京師宫室爲常處，則當乘車輿以行天下 . The First Emperor of Qin regarded the world as his country and compared it to a chariot (yu 輿 ) ; he was the wise emperor who would ride in it to travel the world. The creation at this time of the compound yuditu 輿地圖 was made along the same lines. The terms chengyu and yuditu continued to be used in the imperial system thereafter.

Abstract In this paper, I look at the Tsinghua University * Wuji manuscript as an argumentative essay whose deliberate purpose is to integrate moral values, i.e. the Five Virtues, into the narrative structure of the text through the systematic use of correlated categories primarily based on the number Five. This kind of correlative and number-based rhetoric constitutes the most salient feature of the * Wuji text. It provides new evidence on the early development of correlative thinking and correlative cosmology in the Warring States period.

Abstract The Airs manuscript held by Anhui University (hereafter Anda Airs ) indicates that by the late Warring States, the Odes was approaching fixity; none of its odes are absent from the transmitted Mao Odes , and although there is evidence for significant variance at many levels, its stanzas were relatively stable units. This paper explores how reorganizing those units might affect narrative in the Airs , by comparative reading of the transmitted Qin Airs ode “No clothing” (Wu yi 無衣 ; no. 133) against a fragment preserved in the Anda Airs manuscript. I argue that the inverted stanzaic sequence and added lines of the Anda version constrain the narrative such that the ode’s interpretation must have differed significantly from the transmitted version. Moreover, the example presents a model for reconsidering the ontology of seemingly dubious “ironic” interpretations of individual odes.

Abstract The nine-chapter Book of Etiquette and Ceremony (Yili 儀禮) manuscripts found in the Han-dynasty Tomb 6 of the Mozuizi 磨咀子 Cemetery, Wuwei 武威 County contain three kinds of punctuations marks – dividers (fen’ge fu 分隔符), hooks (goushi fu 勾識符), and the signaling markers placed at the upper edges of the slips (jiantou tishi fu 簡頭提示符). These punctuation marks reveal that the text has undergone a complicated copying and transmission process. Copyists used dividers and hooks to separate the text into different layers to demonstrate their interpretations, thus making punctuation marks a medium that embodied their understanding. In addition, various ways of placing punctuation marks make it possible for classical interpretations to have great fluidity.

Abstract Several persistent errors in English-language accounts of the textual history of the Higher Writings (Shang shu 尚書) go back at least as far as Creel’s 1970 Origins of Statecraft and have appeared in recent work including the two books that are the primary focus here. The errors relate to the terms “jinwen” 今文 and “guwen” 古文, but their consequences are not merely terminological. They render insecure some of the interpretations advanced in the books under review. There is only one received version of the Higher Writings, not two. There is no such thing as a “received modern-script recension,” and attempts to cite it lead to a chain of further errors. There is a well-founded scholarly consensus regarding the ca. 317 CE recension of the Higher Writings and the extent that forgery played in it. Arguments to the effect that concepts of forgery or authenticity are problematic or in need of “rethinking” betray an unfamiliarity with that consensus and the evidence (palaeography, medieval commentary, and Qing and modern studies in Chinese) that supports it. Several key aspects of this consensus have not previously been well-summarized in English, so I provide a compressed summary here. I suggest that the concepts jinwen and guwen, even when used correctly, have already been stretched to the limits of usefulness by the current understanding of the Writings and their textual history. They should be replaced with less confusing alternatives.

Abstract Writings about long 癃 can be found in the medical literature on bamboo and silk manuscripts of the Qin and Han dynasties (221 BCE–220 CE). This article examines writings from the excavated manuscripts, together with material from the received literature, from three different aspects: definition, classification and treatment of the disease. Long 癃, also written as 𤵸, has two meanings. One, found in non-medical literature, is “debilitating illness” (babing 罷病) and the other, found in medical literature, is “difficult urination.” These two meanings are clearly and distinctly presented in both excavated manuscripts and the received literature, indicating that such a taxonomy pre-dates the Qin and Han dynasties. From these bamboo and silk medical manuscripts, it is evident that the basis for classification and treatment of long disease had already been established. The manuscripts contain many comparable descriptions about long disease which can complement and verify each other. They provide us with primary sources for researching into medicine of the early period, enabling us to explore the origins of certain formulary drugs, as well as the transmission of medical culture.

Abstract This article uses “women in charge” mentioned in the Shuihudi daybook as a thread to explore the lives of ordinary women during the Qin and Han transitional period. By examining different genres of excavated and transmitted texts, this article demonstrates how ordinary women could take in and abandon husbands, establish their own households, and manage family property. This article situates this phenomenon in the social context of empire building and argues that the chaotic and unstable transitional period gave women more freedom and authority in the household and their personal lives, and led the state to explicitly and legally acknowledge the contributions of women.