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The Yin-Yang Texts from Yinqueshan: An Introduction and Partial Reconstruction, with Notes on their Significance in Relation to Huang-Lao Daoism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2015

Robin D.S. Yates
Robin D.S. Yates*
Affiliation:
Department of East Asian Studies, McGill University, 3434 McTavish Street, Montreal PQ, Canada H3A1X9
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Abstract

The 1970's was a decade of extraordinary discoveries of texts that transformed scholarly understanding of late Warring States, Qin, and early Han philosophy, society, and culture. This article is devoted to the least well-known of these finds, made in 1972 at Yinqueshan, Linyi, Shandong. Specifically, it provides for the first time in a Western language an introduction to the Yin-Yang texts recovered from this Western Han tomb, probably dated to the early years of the reign of Han Wudi (r. 140-87 B.C.). Based on the only transcription yet published (in 1985 by Wu Jiulong), the article provides a transcription, reorganization, and full translation of three of the texts, and fragments of a fourth, together with supplementary notes on the approximately seventeen other essays and a discussion of their significance within the context of late pre-imperial and early imperial thought. The essays are found to be of immense importance in understanding the various dimensions of Yin-Yang theorizing prior to Dong Zhongshu's development of new text Confucianism. Of special interest is the author's conclusion that the texts throw considerable light on those of the Mawangdui silk manuscripts that have been categorized by most scholars as belonging to the Huang-Lao school, the so-called Huangdi sijing (Four Classics of the Yellow Emperor). The author concludes, on the basis of his analysis of the form, language, and philosophical content of the Yinqueshan Yin-Yang texts, that many of the Mawangdui silk manuscripts are products of Yin-Yang specialists and may well not belong to the Huang-Lao tradition.

七十年代是文獻出土令人嘆爲觀止的十年.這十年間超乎尋常的重大發現改變了學界對戰國，秦,漢的哲學,社會,以及文化等方面的認識.本文將對一九七二年出土的山東臨沂銀雀山竹書中最鮮爲人知的一些篇章進行硏究.本文首次以西方語言來介紹西漢墓（該墓的年代約可定爲武帝早期）中出土的陰陽論著.

根據現已刊行的唯一隸定本,本文抄錄,整理,並翻譯了竹書前三章的全文及第四章中的部分文字,並對其餘的大約十七篇作了簡介； 此外還對這些篇章在秦漢之際思想體系結構中所起之重要作用進行了探討.本文認爲這些論著對認識董仲舒前的陰陽理論之諸方面均有極其重大的意義.

特別値得注意的是本文之結論部分.作者認爲,根據銀雀山漢簡陰陽書,我們可以判定目前不少學者歸類爲黃老學派的馬王堆帛書,亦即所謂《黃帝四經》等似不應爲黃老之作而均應出自陰陽家之手.

Type
Articles
Information
Early China , Volume 19 , 1994 , pp. 75 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Study of Early China 1994

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References

1. This paper was first presented at the New England Symposium on Chinese Thought, June 12, 1993. I would like to thank Professore Kidder Smith and Harold Roth, organizers of the Symposium, for inviting me, and together with them and the other participants, such as Li Ling 李零, John Major, Karine Defoort, and Grace S. Fong, for their valuable suggestions and comments. Robert G. Henricks also made a number of helpful suggestions on the Yinqueshan materials quoted in the body of the article as did two referees of an earlier version submitted to Early China, and I very much appreciate their advice. Research for this paper was generously supported by a grant from the Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China in July and August, 1992. I would like to express special thanks to Professors Li Xueqin 李學勤 and Lin Ganquan 林甘泉 of the Institute of History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who were my hosts in China. They and members of the CASS staff facilitated my efforts in untold ways, in addition to discussing matters of detail that baffled my understanding. Wu Jiulong 吳九龍, one of the members of the initial excavation team and now a member of the Cultural Relics Bureau, Beijing, generously allowed me to see a number of photographs of the original slips and spent much time discussing with me many points of difficulty in the transcription and translation. Director Niu 牛 of the Shandong Provincial Museum, Jinan, permitted me to see a box containing some fifteen of the original slips and I am grateful to him and members of his staff for assisting me under difficult circumstances: the museum was in the process of moving its collections to another location. I would also like to thank Professors Qiu Xigui 裘錫圭 and Li Ling of Peking University for sharing with me their expertise and pointing out errors in my transcription and interpretation. Li Junming 李鈴明, Zhang Xuehai 張學海 and many other scholars were also most helpful during my stay in China. Finally, I am much indebted to Edward Shaughnessy for taking such pains in editing the manuscript; his efforts much improved the final version.

2. Shi ji (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1985), 65.2161–62Google Scholar.

3. The passage on cavalry ascribed to Sun Bin in the “Bing” 兵 chapter of Tong dian [Taibei: Guotai wenhua shiye youxian gongsi, 1977, 149B.4b], does not appear in the excavated material, although there is indeed a reference to the use of cavalry in the section “Eight Formations” (Ba Zhen 八陣); see also Hong, Yang 楊弘, “Qibing he jiaqi juzhuang” 騎兵和甲騎具裝 in his Zhongguo gu bingqi luncong (zengding ben) 中翻古兵器論叢（增訂本）(Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1985), 95Google Scholar.

4. Hanmu ztujian zhengli|xiaozu, Yinqueshan銀雀山漢墓竹簡整理小組， Sun Bin bingfa孫胺兵法(Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1975)Google Scholar; xiaozu, Yinqueshan Hanmu zhujian zhengli, Sunzi bingfa 孫子兵法 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1976)Google Scholar; xiaozu, Yinqueshan Hanmu zhujian zhengli, Yinqueshan Hanmu zhujian 銀雀山漢墓竹簡, vol. 1 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1975)Google Scholar; Yinzhang, Huo 霍印章, Sun Bin bingfa qianshuo 孫胰兵法淺說 (Beijing: Jiefangjun chubanshe, 1986)Google Scholar; Jiulong, Wu 吳九龍 et al. eds., Sunzi jiaoshi 孫子校釋， (Beijing: Junshi kexue chubanshe, 1990)Google Scholar; Peigen, Xu 徐培根 and Rulin, Wei 魏汝霖, Sun Bin bingfa zhushi 孫臏兵法註釋(Taibei: Liming wenhua shiye gongsi, 1976)Google Scholar; Zhenze, Zhang 張震澤, Sim Bin bingfa jiaoli 孫胰兵法後理 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1984)Google Scholar. For an excellent translation of the Sunzi that uses the new material, see Ames, Roger T., Sun-tzu, The Art of Warfare: The First English Transla-Hon Incorporating the Recently Discovered Yin-ch'üeh-shan Texts (New York: Ballantine Books, 1993)Google Scholar.

5. For example, xiaozu, Yinqueshan Hanmu zhujian zhengli, “Linyi Yinqueshan Hanmu chutu Wang Bing pian shiwen״臨沂銀雀山漢墓出土王兵篇釋文, Wenwu 1976.12, 36–43Google Scholar: this text is similar to, and probably the original source of, a number of passages now found scattered in various sections of the Guanzi 管子； xiaozu, Yinqueshan Hanmu zhujian zhengli, “Yinqueshan jianben Wei Liaozi shiwen (fu jiaozhu)” 銀雀山簡本尉撩子釋文（附校注)， Wenwu 1977.2, 21-27, 1977.3, 30–35Google Scholar; Yuqian, Pian 餅宇騫,”Yinqueshan zhujian Wang Bing yu Guanzi de guanxi—jian tan gushu de״銀雀山竹簡王兵與管子的關係一兼談古書的形成與發展,in Guanzi yu Qi wenhua luncong 管子與齊文化論叢(Ji'nan: Shandong renmin chubanshe, 1989), 325–337Google Scholar.

6. xiaozu, Yinqueshan Hanmu zhujian zhengli, Yinqueshan Hanmu zhujian録雀山漢墓竹簡, vol. 1 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1985)Google Scholar.

7. This is otherwise known as the Yanzi chunqiu 晏子春秋, a very interesting but much neglected source for late Warring States Confucian thought and ritual practice.

8. xiaozu, Yinqueshan Hanmu zhujian zhengli, “Yinqueshan zhushu ‘Shou Fa’, -Shou Ling- deng shisan pian ״銀雀山竹書守法守令等十三篇, Wenwu 1985.4,27–38Google Scholar.

9. Dubs, Homer H., The History of the Former Han Dynasty, 3 vols. (vol. 1, n.p.: American Council of Learned Societies, 1938; vol. 2, n.p.: American Council of Learned Societies, 1944; vol. 3, Baltimore: Waverly Press, 1955), vol. 2, 28Google Scholar.

10. Dubs, , History of the Former Han Dynasty, vol. 2, 66Google Scholar.

11. Jiulong, Wu, Yinqueshan Hanjian shiwen, 8Google Scholar.

12. One notable study is Changwu, Tian 田昌五,”Tan Linyi Yinqueshan zhushu-zhongditianzhi wenti” 談臨沂銀雀山竹書中的田制問題, Wenwu 1986.2, 57–62Google Scholar.

13. Obviously the “Yue ling” 月令chapter of the Lüshi chunqiu 呂氏春秋 was composed either by, or under the influence of, Yin-Yang theorists. I believe certain sec-tions of the so-called “Huang-Lao” silk manuscripts found at Mawangdui are also works of the Yin-Yang school. The dating of the sections in the Guanzi that can be associated with Yin-Yang theorists is unclear. For the best and most recent treatment of the development of Yin-Yang thinking, see Graham, A.C., Yin-Yang and the Nature of Correlative Thinking (Singapore: Institute of East Asian Philosophies, 1986)Google Scholar.

14. Jiulong, Wu, “Yinqueshan Hanjian Qiguo falü kaoxi” 銀雀山漢簡齊國法律考析, Shixue jikan 史學集刊 1984.4, 14–20Google Scholar.

15. For example, I would like to note that the phrase “the true conditions of the people” (min zhi qing 民之情)appears in Shen Dao's 慎到 work (Zhuziji cheng ed., rpt. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1990, ce 5Google Scholar, “Min Za” 民雜,3); this same phrase appears repeatedly in the fragments collected by the working group into Lun 38. The Yin-Yang texts discussed here may well be the remains of works by Zou Yan's 鄒衍 disciples or closely affiliated with his intellectual associates. For works of the Jixia academicians, see Bingnan, Zhang 張秉楠 ed., Jixia gouchen 稷下狗沉 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1991)Google Scholar.

16. See Yates, Robin D.S., “New Light on Ancient Chinese Military Texts: Notes on their Nature and Evolution, and the Development of Military Specialization in Warring States China,’ Toung Pao 64 (1988), 211–248Google Scholar. See also Yimin, Yang 楊一民, “Bing Yin-Yangjiachutan” 兵陰陽家初探, Sunzixuekan 孫子學刊 1992.1, 32–38Google Scholar.

17. Roger Ames will translate and annotate a number of these texts in his forthcoming book on Sun Bin, commissioned by Ballantine Del Rey Fawcett.

18. By “reconstruction” I mean rearranging the slips into what I believe was their original order. For the significance of this procedure, see below.

19. I was told in the summer of 1992 that perhaps there are only twelve, not thirteen texts in this group.

20. Of the some forty-two slips that give the number of graphs and are possibly ends of texts, about half cannot be identified.

21. According to Qiu Xigui, several of the Yin-Yang texts are written in the same calligraphy as that on the title board. If the calligraphy of slip #1114 is the same as that of these other texts, then it is reasonable to conclude that that slip refers to the same text whose title is written on the title board.

22. Xianqian, Wang 王先謙, Han shu buzhu 漢書補注 (rpt. Taipei: Yiwen yinshuguan, n.d.), 30. 62b–63aGoogle Scholar.

23. Jiulong, Wu, Yinqueshan Hanjian shiwen, 241Google Scholar.

24. In this and the other transcriptions of the text, I follow Wu Jiulong's system of indicating breaks in the original slips by three periods: “…” If, therefore, there are no “…“ at the beginning or end of a fragment, this indicates that the first or last graph was written at the beginning or end of that particular slip.

25. This is the title of the text, written on the back of the slip. The second graph and subsequent graphs were lost when this first slip broke.

26. This would appear to be a statement by Di Dian.

27. This is obviously spoken by the Yellow Emperor. Li Ling suggests that the two slips #1204 and 1016 should be reconnected and that gang 岡！ “hard” should be understood as wang 綱 “net/regulations.” This is quite possible.

28. Slips 2601 and 2688 are practically identical. I wonder whether an error has been made in the transcription.

29. Robert Henricks suggested to me in a personal communication that possibly Shangdi zhi jin 上帝之禁 could stand alone as “These are Shangdi's prohibitions.” Xia 下would start the next sentence.

30. Possibly įį is the same as xue 薛, a type of marsh grass.

31. Shi ji 130.3289Google Scholar.

32. Han shu, 30.62b–63aGoogle Scholar.

33. Xueqin, Li, “Mawangdui boshu Jing Ffl Da Fen ji qi ta” 馬王堆帛書經法大分及其他, Daojia wenhua yanjiu 道家文化硏究 3 (1993), 274–282Google Scholar.

34. This and other translations from the Mawangdui silk manuscripts will be published in my Dao, Yin-Yang, and the Law: Essays on Philosophy, Cosmology, and Government, Translated from the Silk Manuscripts of Mawangdui (New York: Ballantine, Del Rey Fawcett, forthcoming)Google Scholar.

35. Major, John S., “The Meaning of Hsing-te,’ in Chinese Ideas about Nature and Society, eds. Le Blanc, Charles and Blader, Susan (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1987), 281–291Google Scholar.

36. Han shu, 30.71aGoogle Scholar.

37. This is mentioned by Graham in the course of his discussion in Yin-Yang and the Nature of Correlative Thinking, 27-28. For my interpretation of the meaning of the title Cheng 稱 as Designations, see the introduction to my forthcoming translation of the Mawangdui texts.

38. Because of the lacuna, it is not clear exactly what this means.

39. Graham, , Yin-Yang and the Nature of Correlative Thinking, 76Google Scholar.

40. Shangshu zhengyi 尙書正義 (Shisan jingzhusu ed.), 12.76c (vol.1, 188)Google Scholar.

41. This slip contains twenty-eight graphs, with about five graphs missing at the beginning. I strongly suspect that it may have originally been joined to slip #2619 with a graph ren 人 “people” lost in between.

42. Fang 方 “square” is possibly an abbreviation of fang 放 “loosen,’ for the parallel word for autumn and winter is bi 閉 “close.”

43. Qu 去 “depart” is possibly an abbreviation of qu “yawn wide” or qu 肤 “rifle, open, break wide open” as in the chapter title “Rifling Trunks” of Zhuangzi. The term appears in slips #2464 and 2245 below.

44. Judging from the parallelism, there should not be a missing graph here.

45. From the parallelism, the rest of the sentence might well have read 後而口. This would give an original complete slip (#1246 combined with #4917) of thirty-three graphs.

46. In a private communication, Robert Henricks suggests that the texfs shi 失 “fail” should be understood as shi 是 “those/are”: shi as the copula appears in the Shui-hudi almanac slips, so it could be the copula here too.

47. For textual notes, see my Dao, Yin-Yang, and the Law.

48. I have examined this discourse in “Purity and Pollution in Early China,’ a paper presented at the Zhongguo kaoguxue yu lishixue zhenghe guoji yantaohui 中國考古學與歷史學整合國際硏討, Academia Sinica, January 1994, forthcoming in the proceedings of the conference.

49. The transcription was first published in the site report Yunmeng Shuihudi Qinmu 雲夢睡虎地秦墓 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1981)Google Scholar. See Loewe, Michael “The Almanacs (jih-shu) from Shui-hu-ti: A Preliminary Survey,’ Asia Major 3rd series 1.2 (1988), 1–25Google Scholar; Zongyi, Rao 饒宗頓 and Xiantong, Zeng 曾通, Yunmeng Qinjian Rishu yanjiu 雲夢秦簡日輪硏究（ Hong Kong: Zhongwen daxue chubanshe, 1982)Google Scholar; Zongyi, Rao and Xiantong, Zeng, “Yunmeng Shuihudi Qinjian Rishu yanjiu” 雲夢睡虎地秦簡日書硏究,in Chudi chutu xvenxian sanzhong yanjiu 楚地出土文獻三種硏究 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1993), 405–522Google Scholar; Kalinowski, Marc, “Les Traités de Shuihudi et l'Hé-mérologie Chinoise à la Fin des Royaumes-Combattants,” Toung Pao 72 (1986), 175–228CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

50. xiaozu, Qin jian zhengli 秦簡整理小組, “Tianshtii Fangmatan Qin jian jiazhong Rishu shiwen天水放馬灘秦簡甲種日書釋文,” in Hanjiandu lunwenji 秦漢簡牘論文集 (Lanzhou: Gansu renmin chubanshe, 1989) 1–6Google Scholar; He Shuangquan, 何雙全, “Tianshui Fangmatan Qin jian jiazhong Rishu kaoshu天水放馬灘秦簡甲種曰書考述,”in Qin Han jiandu lunwen ji, 7–28Google Scholar.

51. This is defined in the Guo Yu 國語 “Yue Yu xia” 越語下（ (sibu beiyao ed.) 21.1b as “courage” (yong 勇).

52. But note slips #2547 and 0857 of Master Cao's Yin and Yang: “Illumined Yang is the lustre produced by the illumined sage.”

53. It is possible that some slips contained in Master Cao's Yin and Yang were originally part of another text: Yin-Yang san. As both were written by the same copyist, possessing the same calligraphy, it is impossible to determine which slips belong to which text.

54. Possibly jue 厥 should be read here as an abbreviation for jue “stumble, excite, move.”

55. Robert Henricks in a private communication suggests this should be interpreted as “This is the way for the army to win”; i.e., following the changes in Yin and Yang, the intelligent general can figure out how to achieve victory.

56. Ling 陵 here may refer to tomb mounds.

57. Or, “like water.”

58. Possibly fang 方 here means “square,’ but the sentence is obscure because of the lacuna.

59. Pan 拌 is possibly an alternate form for ban 半 ”half,” i.e., “two thirds of them.’

60. As the transcription indicates that there are no breaks (…) at either the beginning or the end of the fragment, I assume that this sentence is written at the top of a slip and that there is a blank space below the last word. This would imply that it is the end of a section and that the next section of the text would have started on the following slip. I have translated as though the text reads 陰《可以得其靜. If it is taken as it stands, Robert Henricks in a private communication suggests the text might be interpreted, “… Yin. How? Because they attain tranquillity.”

61. Robert Henricks in a private communication suggests that possibly xing 刑 “punishments” should be understood as xing 星 “asterisms,” which is quite possible.

62. Graham, , Yin-Yang and the Nature of Correlative Thinking, 75Google Scholar, notes that the term wude appears in the writings of Zou Yan.

63. This is the title of the text written on the upper end of the recto side of the slip.

64. Jing xin 精薪 is unknown. In Lun Heng “Si Hui” 四諱(Lun Heng zhushi論衡注釋(Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1979) ce 4,1339), Wang Chong discusses the reasons why people believe that children born in the first and fifth month are unlucky and should not be raised to adulthood: “Now the first month is the beginning of the year and in the fifth month Yang is flourishing; a child born in this month is quintessentíally fíeiy (jing zhi 精戯)and hotly impetuous …” (cf. Alfred Forke, Lun Heng [1911; rpt. New York: Paragon Book Gallery, 1962], Part 2, 385). Vegetation that will become firewood or brushwood seems to possess the quintessential Yang essence because it will later be burned. Feng 鋒 is probably a loan for feng 豐 “abundant/luxuriant”, a usage that also occurs in slip #0339 below; for this usage, see Tetsuji, Morohashi 諸橋轍次, Dai kanwa jiten 大漢和辭典 (Tokyo: Daishukan shoken, 1977; hereafter “M.”), #27520Google Scholar.

65. Possibly dang 當 should be understood as ding 定 “definitely/truly”; see n. 70 below.

66. Although Wu indicates that the slip is broken at the top, probably no graphs are missing, if we judge from the parallelism with the next sentence.

67. Wu indicates that the copyist placed a mark = at the side of the graph sheng 生 to show that it should be reduplicated. This is clearly visible on the original slip. I am not sure how this sentence should be interpreted.

68. The first part of the passage is lost. Wu indicates that the graph before zhong 衆 is indecipherable. Judging from the parallelism with other passages below, it should beju 聚； i.e., wu yiju zhong 母以聚衆.

69. The copyist or Wu has mistakenly omitted the two graphs ju zhong聚衆.

70. In each of the following extant passages, the graph ding 定, literally “fix, settle,’ appears before the name of the season. Professor Qiu Xigui suggested to me that ding is a loan for ding 將, itself a loan for dang 當, a usage that is found in Jia Yi's 賈 biography in the Han shu, ([Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1962], 48.2232-2233), in the sentence Tianzi chunqiu ding sheng 天子春秋鼎盛, where Ying Shao 應助 glosses ding as fang 方 “just (at).”

71. Qiu Xigui suggests that hai 亥is an abbreviation for hai 骸 “startle”; it could also be a loan for hai 害 “damage/harm.”

72. Qiu Xigui suggests that du 堵 may be an alternative form for du 都 “capital/metropolitan”; it might also be an alternate form for du 閱 “tower on a city wall.”

73. See n. 71 above.

74. This slip was assigned no chapter by Wu, but it obviously belongs in this context in “Prohibitions.”

75. This clause wu yi ju zhong 毋以聚衆 obviously preceded this passage, which is the beginning of a slip. Possibly slip #3406 was originally located there, but Wu indicates that slip #3406 is broken at both the beginning and the end.

76. Judging from slip #0348, the graph is bing 冰 “frozen.”

77. This is a complete slip of thirty-four graphs.

78. Possibly jin 蓳 is an abbreviation of jin 瑾 “plaster with mud.”

79. Judging from slip #0342, the indecipherable graph is ning 凝 “congeal.”

80. This is a complete slip of 33 graphs. Slip #0331 cannot have originally followed directly on #0342.

81. This is a complete slip of thirty-one graphs.

82. This is a complete slip of thirty graphs. The following slip #0340 did not originally follow directly on #0339.

83. One graph indecipherable, probably wu 母.

84. A complete slip of thirty-two graphs.

85. A complete slip of thirty-one graphs.

86. See above n. 61. Henricks in a private communication suggests the interpreta-tion, “Above, it adorns the sky, creating the Five Asterisms.”

87. Possibly wei 爲 is the indecipherable graph.

88. See above n. 87.

89. Possibly there should not be a reduplication of the graph yue 月 “moon”, as indicated in Wu's transcription. If that is so, then one could punctuate the sentence differently to read, “Now above there is the Patterned Heaven. When it radiates, it creates the sun and moon and gloriously brings to completion the serried stars; when it disperses, it creates the Eight Quintessences.”

90. This is a complete slip of thirty graphs.

91. Given the language at the end of the previous slip, #0354, and the fact that this slip is already thirty graphs long, the average length of slips in this work, I suspect that no graphs may have been lost in the break at the beginning and that originally #0354 and 0345 followed on each other in the original text.

92. A slip of thirty graphs, broken at the beginning, but see above n. 91.

93. This is a complete slip of twenty-nine graphs.

94. This slip consists of eight graphs. The graphs are written at the top of the slip and the rest of the unbroken slip is blank, indicating that this is the end of a section or possibly the end of the entire work.

95. Here Earth is written with the graph di 地, not tu 土, as in the previous slips. Hence I suspect this fragment does not belong to the text Prohibitions.

96. This and the following two or three slips may have belonged to an original text on Wind.

97. I have not been able to determine the meaning of this unknown graph.

98. Possibly heng 衡 is a mistake for chong 衝 “buffeting.”

99. This is a fifteen-graph fragment giving a list of celestial phenomena. Use of the word mou 某 in such lists can also be seen in the military chapters of Mozi. The list was a guide for an expert who was urged to fill in the X's with the appropriate information. In other words, in this case the star-gazer would have been urged to fill each of the categories designated by “X” throughout the year. This slip is written in the same calligraphy as slips #0619 and 0609 above, so it is possible that it belongs to Yin 2.

100. This slip is too short to make much sense of.

101. I.e., they allow an escape route for the lucky few. Henricks suggests in a private communication, “they do not completely encircle (the game).”

102. A broken slip of twenty-four graphs.

103. On his court robes.

104. These observations are similar to those found in the Mozi chapters criticizing excess in expenditures.

105. This fragment is similar to one in the military chapters of Mozi.

106. The indecipherable graph is probably ze 貝 “then.”

107. It is possible that this fragment belongs to Yin 1 or Yin 2.

108. This fragment probably belongs to Yin 11 in the section on military formations.

109. I am unsure at present what the word sha 殺 means: Wu interprets it as an abbreviation for M. 40768 sha 娥 “damaged (feathers)” or “extended (wings).”

110. Rickett, W. Allyn, Guanzi: Political, Economic, and Philosophical Essays from Early China: A Study and Translation (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985), vol.1, 164Google Scholar. For the names in the “You guan” calendar, see vol.1, 162, chart 8.

111. For an exhaustive analysis of the functions of these sefu bailiffs in Qin and Han times, see Xigui, Qiu, “Sefu chutan” 裔夫初探, in Yunmeng Qinjian yanjiu 雲夢秦簡硏究,ed. bianjibu, Zhonghua shuju (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1981), 226–301Google Scholar.

112. The other slips have the graph ye 也 after qi 氣, so perhaps the copyist inadvertently left the graph out. “Winter” would be the remains of a phrase naming the season. Alternatively, this slip may not be the beginning of a season. If that is the case, then perhaps the translation might be “winter drowns qi. This desiring …” “This …” appears in many slips below, for example, #0252, 2655, 0883, 1828, 1203, 0800, 0913, etc.

113. Zuo Chun appears to be a solar time designation.

114. The graph ru 入 appears to have been inadvertently dropped from the text.

115. Perhaps the text originally read “it is ‘live’ qi.”

116. This seems to refer particularly to military affairs.

117. Robert Henricks points out that this is similar to the ending of chapter 9 of the laozi: “When the deed is accomplished you retire” 功遂身推(B version of the text); Henricks, Robert G., Lao-tzu: Te-Tao Oting: A New Translation Based on the Recently Discovered Ma-wang-tui Texts (New York: Ballantine Books, 1989), 61, 204Google Scholar.

118. The term “Spring Dies” also appears in slip #0243.

119. Yinzhi, Wang 王引之, Jingzhuan shici 經傳釋詞, eds. Kan, Huang 黄侃 and Shuda, Yang 楊樹達(Changsha: Yuelu shushe, 1985), 6. 123Google Scholar, demonstrates that nai 乃can be interpreted as fang 方 “just now.” Another possibility is that nai 乃 “then” is an abbreviation of nai 奶 “give birth”; i.e., “Mothers Give Birth.”

120. Wu Jiulong transcribes these graphs as jiten 刃 literally, “quick blades.” Ren is definitely the graph on the slip. However, in slip #0924, he transcribes a phrase as bu ji 不亟去 “you will not quickly return,” It is possible that the copyist made an error and that ren is a mistake for qu.

121. This slip most likely belongs to an autumn or a winter season. Possibly it was originally attached to slip #0936 below.

122. This appears to be the end of a section since there is a space at the end of the slip. I do not know how shu 臏is to be understood; perhaps it should be interpreted as du in the sense of “damaged, defiled.”

123. Possibly a graph has fallen out and the sentence should read, “it is Yin Bi (“Sound Closes”): it is … qi.”

124. The buckling on of a sword was part of the capping ceremony for a young man and would have taken place at the beginning of adulthood. For the date of adulthood in Qin, see Yates, Robin D.S., “Social Status in the Ch'in: Evidence from the Yiin-meng Legal Documents. Part One: Commoners,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 47.1 (1987), 197–236CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

125. Presumably this is a winter season, one of the four that have no slips assigned to them above.

126. This is either an autumn or a winter season.

127. It should be noted that one of the sections in the Mawangdui Canon text is called Dao, Qian 前道 “Putting the Dao First”; Mawangdui Han mu boshu, 1. 76Google Scholar.

128. Possibly this is a late winter season, conceivably the third season in the “upper” series.

129. Either an autumn or a winter season.

130. Renmin, i.e., slaves, tenants, or servants?

131. For this clause 入之三日精列, see also slip #2436, where jinglie “climb up into halls,’ is an alternate name for xishuo螺摔.This must be late summer or early autumn. Possibly this slip belongs to the text with the pitchpipes; if so, it would belong to the eighth month, which has been otherwise lost (see below).

132. This slip must come from the season of the equinox. As “guests” are victorious in battle, I suspect that this is the autumn equinox.

133. The meaning of the last two words is unclear since the rest of the sentence was located on the following slip; possibly the sentence should be read “though the Grand General be wounded, (he will have) the potency of long life.” The season must be late spring or summer.

134. I am unsure how to punctuate or translate this fragment.

135. The phrase bi she 避舍 appears in the Lüshi chunqiu (beiyao, Sibu ed.) “Chu Fang” 處方, 25.8bGoogle Scholar.

136. The term yin shang 引上 occurs also in slips #4881, 1005, 1653, 3043. I do not know what it means. Wu suggests it means “grow” or “multiply,” but I think “present offerings to superiors (i.e., divinities)” makes more sense.

137. Possibly zeng 增 “add/increase” is an alternate form for zeng 憎 “hate.”

138. On the graph te 滕 in the Shi jing “Xiao Ya” 小雅 “Datian” 大田, the Mao zhuan 傳commentary notes that “to eat leaves is to ‘nibble’”; quoted in Xi, Xiang 向熹, Shi jing cidian 詩經詞典 (Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 1986), 454Google Scholar.

139. “Move” either in the sense of forcing them to perform corvée labor services or enlisting them in the army.

140. The Divine Turtle was the name of one of the animals whose plastra were used for divination in early China. What relationship the text is positing between the turtle and Heaven is not known.

141. Or, “cover the encirclements of buildings and rooms.”

142. There is a gap in the transcription: perhaps the typesetter has inadvertently omitted the graph .

143. Or, “sunstroke will again.” This slip must belong to a summer season.

144. This slip probably belongs to an autumn or a winter season.

145. Cf. slip #0870.

146. This beginning of a slip, broken at the end, probably belongs to an autumn or a winter season.

147. For feng 封 as a boundary marker, see xiaozu, Shuihudi Qinmu zhujian zhengli, Shuihudi Qinmu zhujian 睡虎地秦墓竹簡(Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1978), 178Google Scholar, and Hulsewé, A.F.P., Remnants of Ch'in Law: An Annotated Translation of the Ch'in Legal and Administrative Rules of the 3rd Century B.c. Discovered in Yün-meng Prefecture, Hu-pei Province, in 1975 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1985), 164–65, D 136 and 211-215, especially 213, n. 13Google Scholar.

148. See slip 3238 below.

149. Wu interprets Xiang 粱 “sorghum” as an alternate form for liang 梁 “bridge.” This is possible, but see the following note on slip #4870.

150. Wu interprets liang “sorghum” as an alternate form for Hang “bridge.” However, fa liang 發梁 is a technical term for a revolving bridge that can be fired or released by means of a trigger mechanism. Such bridges could be “fired” when an enemy attacked in such a way that the advancing soldiers would be “revolved” and deposited into a moat or ditch dug below the bridge. I do not think that this device is appropriate here, but see slip #2173 below.

151. This slip must belong to a late autumn or early winter season.

152. Possibly er is an error for .

153. According to the Shuo wen, gou 溝is a drain four feet wide and four feet deep; xu 洫 is eight feet wide and eight feet deep.

154. Presumably this refers to the drill that is to be performed by the returning soldiers.

155. Obviously, this slip must belong to an autumn or early winter season.

156. Wu Jiulong reads zang 减 as cang 藏.

157. Wu reads 摩 as xia Ķ M. 5415, which, according to Yucai, Duan段玉裁, is the same as解； Shuo wenjiezi Duan zhu 說文解字段注 (Chengdu: Chengdu guji shudian), 2 vols., 731Google Scholar, defines the word xia Ķ as which is the original graph of zhe 折 M. 5006 “split open”; see Shuo wen, 237-238, where it is defined as lie 裂.

158. This slip must belong to a spring season.

159. This slip must belong to the beginning of autumn.

160. This is either part of the name of an insect or an error for min 民, as in slip #1710.

161. This slip must belong to spring.

162. This slip may belong to autumn or winter. It is the last part of a section, for the rest of the slip is blank.

163. Wu Jiulong believes that flw 案 is a loan for yan 雁 “wild goose,’ He may be correct, but I do not know which type of goose is being referred to.

164. This slip must belong to early spring, when claustration ends.

165. The typesetter mistakenly set the graph as jia 夾 “pinch/squeeze”; the correct graph is 英 “seeds,” which appears also in slip #0742.

166. Possibly this slip belongs to early autumn.

167. Wu interprets mo 沒 “sink, drown” as bei/pi 彼 “dam.” Possibly the typesetter has made an error since the graph in slip #0277 below is 波.

168. Wu interprets an 維 as an 鶴.維 is defined by the Shuo wen (1.151) as a type of quail. See M.42144.

169. This slip appears to belong to early summer.

170. This slip seems to belong to spring. Perhaps it should be interpreted, “you may not issue orders; they will be taken lightly. Insects begin to come out…”

171. This slip must belong to late spring or early summer.

172. The graph is unknown. Possibly it is the same as xu 蕴 “name of a grass” (M. 31997), suanmo 酸模, or an alternative form of which is the same as miao (M. 32267), according to the Shuo wen, (1.32), a type of purple grass used for dyeing.

173. Wu interprets zhi 執 “catch” as an abbreviation of zhi “hawk, accipiter.” This is possible.

174. Liu 雜 means “a large fledgling” according to one definition in the Shuo wen (1.149).

175. This slip must belong to a middle or late summer season.

176. Possibly ruo here means “if.”

177. This must be middle or late summer.

178. This must belong to middle or late summer.

179. Shu 叔 “younger brother” is probably an abbreviation of shu 寂 “pulse.”

180. 第 is the same as ti 荑 “sprouts/kind of white grass” according to the Ji yun 集韻 (M. 30773).

181. Possibly zai 災 “disaster,” which can be written as it, is a loan for zai 栽 ”plant,” since the phrase 至種災 occurs in slip #0952 below.

182. The graph is unknown. Possibly it is related to xia/he 嚇 “scare by saying xia/he.”

183. This slip must belong to early spring.

184. Chan 產 literally means “give birth/produce.”

185. Possibly shi mai 始麥 “begins wheat” should be inverted to mai shi 麥始 “wheat begins.’

186. Qiu or jiao may be the same as qin qiu 秦究.

187. This slip may belong to summer or autumn; the text is written at the top of a complete slip, indicating that it is the end of a section.

188. Zai Jic. may be the same as zai 栽 “plant,’ as in slip #2200 above.

189. Bao 哲 may be the same as pao 飽, which the Shuo wen defines as hu It must be the name of a type of calabash or gourd.

190. It is not exactly clear what ming 鳴 “sing/sound out” means in the abbreviated context.

191. This sentence is completely unclear to me.

192. It is unclear whether “increase” here means “profits” or “the harvest.”

193. Luo 洛 may be an alternate form for luo 絡 “silk” or “hemp” thread.

194. See also slip #1828.

195. See also slip #1933.

196. Wan/huan are sedge or marsh plants.

197. See slips #4641, 2436, 0888, 0443, 0773, 2058, 2014.

198. See slip #3044.

199. In other words, two people in the family or household die.

200. This slip, #2132, and slip #3258 may be related and/or belong to text 2 identified below or to the text on the pitchpipes (see below).

201. Lei 晶 = usually means “rampart,” so the verb shen 深 “deepen” must have a more general meaning here.

202. Literally, “debting old debts” or “loaning old debts:” I am not sure whether this means paying such debts off, calling them in, or taking a long-term loan. In later Chinese custom, debts were usually paid off at the New Year, so perhaps this slip belongs to the first month.

203. I am not sure that the transcription is correct and the translation is extremely tentative.

204. Li 立 “stand” may be an abbreviation of wei 位 “position/post” (in the government).

205. See slips #2061, 4224, and 3616.

206. The meaning of this slip is extremely unclear.

207. Zhangzi 長子 normally means “eldest son,’ Here, however, it must refer to some kind of servile worker or slave who is given to the successful prisoner-taker.

208. For “absconders,’ see McLeod, Katrina CD. and Yates, Robin D.S., “Forms of Ch'in Law: An Annotated Translation of the Feng-chen shih” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 41.1 (1981), 118-120 and 139CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

209. Probably this is the end of a slip and there is nothing missing at the end.

210. Or, “capture one village in the territory of another …”

211. Huainanzi 淮南于 (beiyao, Sibu ed.), 3. 6b–7bGoogle Scholar; cf. Major, John S., Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought, 224–258Google Scholar.

212. I do not understand this passage or how it is to be punctuated. The term fenliri 分離日 appears on the Shuihudi calendar slip #886 verso: it is a day on which one was not to take a wife; if one did, the wife would die or run away before the end of the year; Yunmeng Shuihudi Qinmu bianxiezu, Yunmeng Shuihudi Qinmu (Beijing: Wen-wu chubanshe, 1981)Google Scholar. However, this may not have anything to do with the present passage, which may equally well be referring to the equinox.

213. “Dividing the household” was a Qin legal practice, so this text must originate in the Qin.

214. This probably is the Dazu 大藤 pitchpipe of the first month since the Dalü 大呂 pitchpipe of the twelfth month appears in slip #0884 below.

215. Guxi is the pitchpipe of the third month.

216. For jinglie, see n. 131 above.

217. This is probably Zhonglü 中呂 of the fourth month: the two slips #4641 and 1949 should be reconnected. It could, however, belong to Nanlü 南呂 of the eighth month or the Dalii 大呂of the twelfth month. The snowgoose is more likely to return in the fourth month than the eighth, in which it might be leaving for the winter and it would be more likely to snow than rain in the twelfth month.

218. 霰 (M. 42476) is the same as he 蕺 “ripen”; M. 42476.

219. “Beautiful affairs” presumably refers to marrying off daughters, taking a wife, or other such auspicious activities.

220. This is the top of a slip and there should probably be no “…” at the beginning.

221. Ruthin 截賓 is the pitchpipe of the fifth month. The first part of this passage is at the beginning of a slip. It appears that the last graph marks the end of a section.

222. Linzhong 林鐘 is the pitchpipe of the sixth month.

223. Yize 夷貞 is the pitchpipe of the seventh month.

224. Or, “it rains frost”.

225. This must be autumn and closely connected to slips #0888 and 2102.

226. Or, “it begins to rain frost.”

227. The next graph on the next slip must have been yi 異.

228. The graph is unknown. Possibly it is an alternative form of mi 靡 “waste/be extravagant.”

229. Wu indicates that the slip reads 昔昔, i.e., xi is reduplicated. I believe this should be emended to a single xi, which is an abbreviation of que 韻 “magpie.”

230. This is likely to belong to a spring season, the second or third months.

231. Judging from the other similar fragments, Wu's transcription of ren zhi yue 人之曰 should be emended to ru zhi ri 入之白.

232. The traditional way of writing wu is 無 for this pitchpipe of the ninth month.

233. This passage possibly suggests that secondary burial was practised in the Qin.

234. There may be an error in the transcription of slips #2058 and 2014.

235. Yingzhong應鐘 is the pitchpipe of the tenth month.

236. Wu interprets the unknown graph 絮 as an alternate form of zhi 智 “knowledge’ I believe it may stand for zhi織 “weave.”

237. Wu assigned this and the following slip to Yin 1. This appears to be a mistake, for clearly both must have been linked to the other fragments in this section. The last few words of the translation are tentative and would be clarified if the indecipherable graph could be read.

238. I do not understand what li fang 立方 means here. Huangzhong is the pitchpipe of the eleventh month.

239. Possibly bi 畢 here should be understood as “end/finish.”

240. Dalü 大呂 is the pitchpipe of the twelfth month.

241. Wu suggested to me in conversation that this is the beginning of a section, possibly the preface of this text, and that there was originally a black dot before the first graph ri “sun.” In addition, he suggested that slip #0430 originally followed directly onto slip #3311. In this he is probably correct. I would like to point out, however, that the resulting reconstructed slip is only twenty-one graphs long, whereas other slips in Yin 4 are more than twice as long. I suspect that this may belong to another text.

242. Huainanzi, “Tianwen xun” 天文訓, 3.8b, records the same system as this passage; see, too, Major, Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought, 96-97.

243. Huainanzi, 3.6b, refers to the two diametral chords as ziwu 子午 and maoyou 卩酉 and the four hooks are chouyin 丑寅, chensi 辰巳, weishen 未申, and xuhai 戌亥. As John Major points out (Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought, 85), on the cosmograph ziwu denotes the north-south line and maoyou the east-west line. The “four hooks” are the pair of Earthly Branches flanking the four points, called “weft-strings” marking northeast-southwest and southeast-northwest.

244. Wu interprets as a loan for san 三 “three.” I suspect it may be a form of yang 陽.

245. I.e., the winter solstice.

246. This may mean to be exiled or transferred in an official position.

247. I.e., the summer solstice.

248. This slip contains twenty-five graphs and is broken at the beginning.

249. I suspect fa 發 “issue/set out” is an abbreviation of fei 廢 “destroy.”

250. See Yates, Robin D.S., ‘The City under Siege” (Ph.D. dissertation; Harvard University, 1980), 354, n. 1Google Scholar.

251. Possibly this means there will be no harvest or that there will be no peace.

252. See Rickett, , Guanzi, 148–192Google Scholar.

253. Juyou, Fu 傅舉有 and Songchang, ChenMawangdui Han mu wenwu (Changsha: Hunan Publishing House, 1992), 132-135, 144–145Google Scholar.

254. Yates, Robin D.S. (Shan, Ye 葉山), “Dui Handai Mawangdui Huang-Lao boshu (xingzhi) dejidiankanfa” 封漢代馬王堆黃老帛書性質的幾點看法, Mawangdui Hanmu yanjiu wenji—1992 nian Mawangdui Hanmu guoji xueshu taolunhui lunwenxuan 馬王堆漢墓硏究文集一1992年馬王堆漢墓國際學術討論會論文選, ed. bowuguan, Hunan sheng (Changsha: Hunan chubanshe, 1994), 16–26Google Scholar.