Hou Hanshu Research Articles

The Analects Jade Candle: A Classic of T’ang Drinking Custom

Tang Studies 4 (1986) The Analects Jade Candle: A Classic of T'ang Drinking Custom DONALD HARPER UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO, BOULDER Candy Is dandy But liquor Is quicker --Ogden Nash Among the elite ofT'ang times the liquor party was high on the list of life's essential pleasures. No mere drunken revel, a sophisticated liquor party was an affair which offered amusements and games in an atmosphere of taste and esthetic refinement. Many features of such a party had existed in the festive customs of earlier ages, as evidenced in the formulation of drinking custom under the rubric Uliquorrules" (chiu ling ft!!i ~) or ttgoblet authority " (shang cheng MilX) during the Han and Six Dynasties periods. Guessing games, dice, and other games of chance were often played, and drinks poured according to one's luck in the game. The display of literary erudition and skill at extemporaneous composition were yet another means to get the liquor flowing and quicken the party.! Perhaps pre-T'ang liquor parties were as diverting and lively as those described in T'ang poetry and prose. Yet Po Chu.-i B '* ~ (772-846) poetizing on a party held the morning after a cold-snap portrays a style oflife most fully realized in the T'ang imagination:2 ISeveral Ch'ing scholars compiled monographs on the "liquor rules." Yu Tunp 'ei l{ .± was one of several T'ang poets to use the term: "Su shan chuang," CTS, 79.854, and "Ho Sun Chang shih ch'iu jih wo ping," CTS, 79. 860. Kato Ji5ken 110 Ki m-'if, "On yu-chu.:E.li, ya-ehou-shih 5t .1M" re., and yuheng .:E.1ffi,"Nippon-Chiigokugakkai hi) B *I=f:t ~ ~ It ¥Ii 19 (1967),1-10, offers some interesting speculations on the origin of the term yu chu and its significance in early calendrical astrology. 78 Harper: Jade Cartdlr T'ang would have recognized the candle-cylinder as a form of the t'ung; and the use of this type of container to hold drinking-lots is documented in T'ang sources on "liquor rules."24 In discussing the symbolic significance of the Jade Candle I have saved for last a question that I cannot satisfactorily answer: why is the object named Jade Candle? The term yll chu ("jade candle") was known in T'ang times as one of the proper names for seasonal conditions listed in the Erh ya 爾雅. The Erh ya states that "jade candle" is an ideal condition that arises when the chi 氣 ("vapors") of the four seasons are in harmony. Commentators explain the term by analyzing the two words, namely that yll and chu both signify the numinous glow that arises when a cosmic balance is struck and human society is synchronized with it. Thus the condition of'Jade candle" has been regarded since Han times as an auspicious portent and this is how the term is used in T'ang sources.25 I doubt that the yll chu inscribed on the Jade Candle is the same yll chu of the Erh ya tradition. Rather I think that the words yll chu in the cartouche mean "candle made of jade," jade being a epithet for objects of high quality and great value and an apt epithet for the gilt silver Jade Candle; and the reference to a candle being in some way related to the mantic aspects of the game. Even though the term is not attested in T'ang sources in connection with any type of game, I find it hard to believe that the newly discovered Analects Jade Candle was unique. T'ang sources also provide no evidence of drinking games played with quotations inscribed on lots, so the lack of specific reference to a Jade Candle game-set is not surprising. I think that it may have been a generic term for a literary drinking game. From the name Analects Jade 24See below, p.80,wherethe"canister-stand" refersto the samegeneraltype ofcylindricalcontainer. Laterliterature onthe "liquorrules''also refersto thelotcontainerasa t'ung(cf.Chiulingts'ungchao,4.la) 25Erh ya(Shihsanchingchushued.),"Shiht'ien" 釋天， 5.13a-b. In the Six Dynasties, Fan Yeh 范曄 used the termin HouHan shu, 88.30b. LoPinwang 駱賓王 was...

Chinese Knowledge of Western Asia During the Han

(CANBERRA) A great number of scholars, Chinese, Japanese and western, have devoted a large amount of time and energy in the attempt to identify place-names in Western Asia mentioned in the Chinese historical texts from the Shih-chi on. In the following pages, we have attempted to resolve one out of the two main problems, the identification of Li-kan/T'iao-chih as the Seleucid Empire. The other vexed problem, the identification of Ta-ch'in in the Hou-Han shu as Rome or as the Eastern Roman Empire centred in Antioch or in Alexandria, still requires analysis.

Han Social Structure

This comprehensive analysis of the social structure of a major Chinese dynasty will be of great value to historians, anthropologist, and sociologist. A study of Han social structure is of particular importance because during the Han dynasty the complex heritage of ancient China was remolded and the foundations were laid for a stable, continuing system for state and society. The author investigates the whole range of Han society. He traces the powerful role developed by consort families and the rising status of the official, particularly of the scholar. he discusses 'guests' (or retainers), showing how their position in Chinese society slowly declined, and describes various aspects of the institution of slavery. According to Ch'u, a ruling bureaucracy formed the core of the social power structure in imperial China. This stratum interlocked with and was supplemented by "powerful families." "The Chi'in-Han material on powerful families assembled in this book is among the richest of its kind, and although different interpretations can be expected, all serious students will agree that Ch'u's contribution has raised the investigation of Chinese society and history to a new level of factual inquiry and coordination," Karl A. Wittfogel writes in the Foreword. The first part of the study contains discussions on kinship, marriage, the position of women, social classes, and power families. The second includes carefully annotated translations of passages from the Shih-chi, Han-shu, and Hou Han-shu. These documents not only provide the evidence for the author's argument, but also, by making such primary material available in English for the first time, will serve other researchers on a vast array of topics relating to all phases of Han history. This volume initiates a series of monographic studies on various aspects in the Han period as they have been researched by members of the Han Dynasty History Project and the University of Washington.

THE BIFURCATION OF THE YELLOW TURBANS IN LATER HAN

During the waning years of the Later Han Dynasty, Heaven seemed to be withdrawing the mandate to rule which it had bestowed upon Emperor Ling-ti (see Hou Han-shu, Po-na edition [hereafter abbreviated as HHS], 8 for biographical details). Hens developed male characteristics (see HHS chih, 13. iob-iib; also 8. Ioa-b.), a reminder that the monarch was allowing eunuchs to meddle in the affairs of state. On July I, 178, a wreath of black vapor in the form of a dragon entered the imperial audience chamber (HHS, 8. iob; also consult ibid. chih, 17. 4b, IIb-I2a). Away from the capital an earthquake occurred, creating a fissure in the earth (HHS chih, 16. Ioa-b). These supernatural omens, as well as others recorded in HHS chih, 17. 5a-b, 7b-8a, 18.I7b, were accompanied by a recurrence of agrarian distress. Great epidemics occurred in 171, 173, 179, 182, 185 (HHS chih, 17. IIa.), which gave rise to a vigorous religious movement. This movement eventually led to resistance against the throne. The waves of rebellion which finally engulfed the Han Empire, including rebellions initiated in the west by the Yiieh-chih, were directed primarily by NeoTaoist adepts skilled in alchemy, herbalism, and faith-healing. These adepts promised their followers that the azure heaven of Han would perish, and be replaced by a yellow one, and the eastern Yellow Turban leader Chang Chiieh even called himself Yellow Heaven in 184, as reported in HHS, 8. 14b, and ibid. chih. 17. 7a: 8a-b. The Taoists declared that 184, the first year of a new cycle, would also usher in a new era. The characters chia-tzu, designating the first year of the new cycle, were written with white clay in anticipation of the coming overthrow of the dynasty. They were to be seen on official residences in the prefectures and on temple walls in the capital of Lo-yang (HHS, 61. Ia-4b). The clamor for a new dynasty to accompany the change in cycle