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Han Society and Social Structure

Ch'ü's book

Ch'ü, T'ung-tsu. (1972). Han Dynasty China: Volume 1: Han Social Structure. Edited by Jack L. Dull. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press. ISBN 0295950684.

Kinship

Page 3: The patrilocal family living in a single household was the basic social unit in Han society. It could be a simple nuclear family living under one roof, or extended family.
Page 3: Chinese kinship was patrilineal, meaning descent was traced through the father. QUOTE: "A man who assumed his father's family name affiliated only with the consanguineal kin group of his father and disregarded his mother's kin group."
Page 3-4: Due to this, the Erya dictionary identifies four kinds of relatives: (1) the zongzu or father's kin group or lineage, (2) the mother's relatives, (3) the wife's relatives, and (4) the qinqi or in-laws, i.e. relatives by marriage.
Page 4: QUOTE: "Only the father's lineage was considered lineage, whereas all others who had a different surname belonged to a different lineage. It was remarked that the mother's parents were called 'outside grandparents' because they had a different surname and were therefore considered outside relatives."

Structure and Size of Family

Page 4-5: As suggested by Shang Yang in the 4th century BC, the State of Qin instituted a law which required any father with two or more adult sons living with him to pay a double tax, while another law prohibited fathers, sons and brothers from living in the same room. Thus large households were discouraged through economic restraints. This encouraged sons to become independent of their families and to develop an individualistic attitude towards property ownership; according to Jia Yi (201–169 BC), a poor family often pawned a grown-up son to another family as a bondservant while the rich could afford to send their sons away with a share of the family wealth. Yet this system also encouraged daughters-in-law to become independent-minded as well, as stated by Jia Yi, who asserted that they back-talked to their parents and argued with them unlike daughters-in-law who obeyed Confucian standards of subordination and politeness to elders. The independent attitude supposedly embodied in Qin times QUOTE: "deviated from the ideal pattern set up by the Confucianists, who denied that a son or a daughter-in-law should possess any private property;" instead, the property should be officially owned by the parents. This individualistic attitude supposedly embedded into Qin society "was considered less civilized" by the age of Jia Yi in the Western Han Dynasty.
Page 6: Despite supposed changing attitudes in light of acceptance of Confucianism, this law promulgated by Shang Yang was copied and retained in the Han law code drafted by Xiao He, who largely kept the Qin law code intact. In fact, this particular law remained in use throughout Han and was not abolished until the Cao Wei era.
Page 6: In addition, Jia Yi himself, QUOTE: "who had property worth two thousand catties fo gold, gave each of his five sons two hundred catties of gold—telling them to make a living from it—and kept the rest to himself. He made an agreement with his sons that he would visit them in turn and that the son being visited would supply him and his attendants with food and wine; he also promised that each visit would be limited to ten days and that he would not pay more than two visits a year to any son. This actual case in which the sons lived separately supports the remarks made by Chia I taht rich families of Ch'in sent away their grown sons with a share of the family property."
Page 6-7: Plus, Jia Yi was a man from Chu in east-central China, suggesting that other parts of China were affected by Qin law after the Qin Dynasty consolidated all of China into one empire by 221 BC.
Page 7: However, the practice of sending sons away in later times was not found in later dynasties. In fact, from the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, traditional Chinese law stipulated that if a son was found to live separately from his parents with his own property, this was considered "unfilial" and he could be subject to punishment by the state. Under the law of later dynasties after Han, a son living apart from his father's family was not allowed even if the parent accepted it. The law tolerated a parent who allowed his son to own property, but the law did not allow that son to live separately from the main household.
Page 7: Thus, the fact that Jia Yi only visited his sons for limited times, which suggests that the sons would get tired of supporting their father after a while, QUOTE: "would also have been unthinkable in later dynasties."
Page 7: Yet Jia's case of visiting sons is not the only surviving one from Han, as there are several others which indicate the custom was regarded as common during Han.
Page 7-8: The fact that many men of Han lived with their siblings is proven by well known historical examples like that of Liu Bang's adviser Chen Ping living with his brother Bo and Bo's wife, as well as the many documents found in frontier areas like Juyan listing the families where brothers lived together. In these cases, it was usually a younger, unmarried brother living with his elder, married brother.
Page 8-9: QUOTE: "Although there were families in which parents and married sons lived together, the nuclear family was the common pattern in Ch'in and Han times. The average size of a family was small, including only the couple and their unmarried children. When the son married he often received a part of the family property, moved away, and established a separate residence. The average family included only four or five persons."
Page 9: QUOTE: "Larger families began to appear in the Later Han. Some brothers lived together after they married and maintained an extended family, embracing such collateral relatives as uncles, nephews, and first cousins."
Page 9: QUOTE: "An extended family that included three generations was still uncommon. Only two are mentioned in the Hou-Han-shu." This is incredible if compared to a survey of later dynasties from the Jin Dynasty onwards, which QUOTE: "shows that a family consisting of only three generations had little chance of being mentioned."

Lineage

Page 9-10: All men of a common patrilineal ancestor shared a lineage and a kinship. Those who shared a similar patrilineal ancestor were divided into four subgroups which treated each other differently in terms of different degrees of ritual mourning for each other upon death. These subgroups were as follows: QUOTE: "(1) brother, brother's sons, and brother's grandsons; (2) father's brothers, father's brother's sons and grandsons; (3) paternal grandfather's brothers, their sons, and grandsons; and (4) paternal great-grandfather's brothers, their sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons."
Page 10: Since one was supposed to be closer to a brother's son (nephew) than to a father's brother's brother's grandson, one was supposed to mourn for an entire year for the former and only five months for the latter. Likewise, a man was supposed to mourn a year for his brother's grandson and only five months for his father's brother's grandson. These were the "mourning relatives," while no mourning was supposed to take place for kinsmen outside this group; for example, one did not mourn at all for his great-grandfather's brother's great-great-grandson. QUOTE: "Thus a lineage consisted of many subgroups by which the relationship of kinsmen was defined and systematized."

Inheritance

Primogeniture in the Royal Family and Among Nobles

Page 13: QUOTE: "In Ch'in and Han times there were two main forms of inheritance. One was based on the property relationship, that is, the inheritance of the property of the dead. The inheritance might also include the succession to rights and privileges, such as to the throne or to a title. The first form was applicable to anyone who possessed property that could be bequeathed to someone else. The second form applied only to a special group of persons of political status. I shall discuss this type first."
Page 13: QUOTE: "The throne, the symbol of political entity and sovereignty, could be succeeded to by only one person. There could be only one emperor, and the empire could not be divided. Although a king in Han times was only a figurehead and had no actual political power, his throne could be succeeded to by one person only. Likewise, the titles of the various ranks of marquises could not be divided. Therefore only one son of an emperor, a king, or a marquis could have the privilege of possessing his father's throne or title, and the institution of primogeniture was followed."
Page 13: QUOTE: "Primogeniture had been in practice since Chou times, and the kind of primogeniture practiced by the Chinese was complicated. The right of inheritance did not always belong to the first-born son. A strict distinction was made between the children of the principal wife and those of the various concubines. The eldest son of the principal wife was entitled to be the successor; the sons of the concubines, even if older, were excluded from the succession. Anyone who put aside the sons of the principal wife and appointed the son of a concubine was severely criticized."
Page 13-14: QUOTE: "In Han the eldest son of the empress was appointed heir apparent and all other sons, whether by empress or the imperial concubines, were made kings. Violations of this principle met with severe criticism. Thus when Emperor Kao intended to dismiss the heir apparent and appoint the son of his favorite concubine, many officials opposed him and remonstrated with him. One official declared before the emperor that he would not accept the edict if he removed the heir apparent. Another official asked the emperor to kill him before the appointment of a new heir apparent. A similar action was taken by an official when he learned that Emperor Yüan wanted to dismiss the heir apparent, who was the son of the empress, and appoint the son of an imperial concubine. As a result neither Emperor Kao nor Emperor Yüan succeeded in dismissing his heir apparent."
Page 14: QUOTE: "When an empress was dismissed and a new empress appointed, the son of the former was usually dismissed and replaced by the son of the new empress. In the Later Han a lady of the Kuo family was appointed empress to Emperor Kuang-wu, and her son was made heir apparent. Later, Empress Kuo was deposed, a new empress was appointed; and her son was made heir apparent after the fismissal of the former heir apparent."
Page 14-15: QUOTE: "As a rule the son of a concubine was appointed as the successor only when the son of the empress died or when the empress had no son. If there were several sons by imperial concubines, usually the eldest was the successor. But it seems that seniority was not a determining factor; succession depended upon the personal relations between the emperor and the mother as well as between the emperor and the son. Emperor Wu had six sons, but only one of them was the son of the empress. When this son, the heir apparent, was killed, the king of Yen, the eldest among the brothers, expected to be appointed and therefore requested leave to stay in the imperial palace. Emperor Wu disliked this request and appointed a younger son heir apparent. Disappointed, the king of Yen rebelled. In the Later Han, Emperor Chang was the fifth son of Emperor Ming, and Emperor Ho was the fourth son of Emperor Chang. The emperor sometimes changed his mind about the heir apparent when there was a change in his affection for his son or for his son's mother. Thus an imperial concubine's son who had been appointed heir apparent might be dismissed and the son of another concubine made heir apparent."
Page 15: QUOTE: "The same principle was observed among the kings and marquises. The eldest son of the queen was always appointed heir apparent. The son of a concubine was not qualified to succeed his father, even if he was his eldest son...All sons, other than the eldest son of the queen, had a chance to replace the heir apparent only when he was found guilty of some crime and dismissed...A kingdom was under the close supervision of the emperor, and the appointment of an heir had to be approved by the emperor."
Page 15-16: Although one son inherited his father's kingdom and thus a kingdom could not be divided, the imperial court worked around this when QUOTE: "a measure to prevent this was suggested by an official of the central government and put into practice in 127 B.C. Under this new measure a king was permitted to give land to his sons and brothers, all of whom would then be ennobled as marquises by the emperor. In this way the old principle of primogeniture was maintained as usual, yet the size and power of a kingdom was automatically reduced, for the oldest son who inherited the title of king received a much smaller kingdom."
Page 16: Commoners and officials who held one of 20 honorary ranks but not an actual fief could also pass on a title in much the same way that fief nobles practiced primogeniture. The 20th and 19th ranks were marquises, while only those with the 20th rank could possess a marquisate. Those with ranks 19 and below were merely exempted from labor service. Ranks were conferred onto officials and commoners (usually only on the heads of a household and not all the males of a household) during certain special occasions, such as QUOTE: "accession to the throne, appointment of the heir apparent, capping of the heir apparent, appointment of princes to become kings, changes of the reign titles, sacrifices to Heaven, completion of the city wall of the capital, appearance fo good omens, calamities, and so on."

The Principle of Equal Shares

Page 17: QUOTE: "Primogeniture, however, was not applicable to other forms of property that were divisible. A king disliked his eldest son, whose mother was an unfavored concubine, and did not leave him any property when he died. An official urged the heir apparent and the queen to order the sons of the king to share their property with this unfortunate man. The suggestion was not adopted, which caused the eldest son to hate them. This case implies that although the heir apparent was the successor to the kingdom, all other sons were given the privilege of sharing the property of the deceased king."
Page 17: QUOTE: "The principle of equal distribution of property was practiced by officials and commoners who had no hereditary titles to leave. Lu Chia's case affords a distinctive illustration. The retired official, who had five sons and two thousand catties of gold, gave two hundred to each of his five sons and made an agreement with his sons that the family in which he died during his brief biannual visits would inherit his personal property...This case indicates two points: the equal right of inheritance among all sons and the disposition of property at will. We do not know how popular the practice of testacy was or whether there was a law governing it. But it is certain that the right to make a testament was fully recognized by custom, if not by law. Probably the principle of equal shares was enforced if men died intestate."
Page 17: QUOTE: "The popularity of equal sharing by all sons or brothers is also seen in another case. Hsü Wu...who wanted to make his two younger brothers famous, divided the family property into three shares; but he took for himself the fertile land, big buildings, and strong slaves, and allotted the younger brothers inferior shares. Consequently he was looked down upon by the community because of his greed, whereas his two brothers were admired for being able to yield."

Women and the Right of Inheritance

Page 17-18: QUOTE: "Since the Chinese family system traces only through the male descendants of a common ancestor, a woman was excluded from the right of succession to a hereditary title as well as to the family property. The dowry was the only form in which she could obtain a part of the family property, and the amount she got certainly depended upon the will of her father or brother. Usually the dowry was a small portion of the family property and was not to be compared with what was inherited by her brothers. If her father was generous, a girl might get a dowry equal to the inheritance of her brother. Thus the wealthy merchant Cho Wang-sun...gave one hundred slaves and a million cash to his daughter Wen-chün...who had eloped with Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju...later when the husband was appointed to a high official post, Cho granted his daughter property that was equal to what he gave his son...Of course, he had been angry with his daughter because of her elopement when he gave her the first dowry. The second gift was given to her because he was impressed by the political status of his son-in-law."

Adoption

Page 18: QUOTE: To the ancient Chinese a male descendant was very important because he was the agent who carried on the function of ancestor worship and the continuation of the family. A female descendant left her family when she married and became a member of her husband's family; so she was not a permanent member of her father's family, and the continuation of the family did not depend upon her. The children she bore were descendants of her husband's family, and they worshipped his parents and his ancestors. Her children were considered outside relatives of her father's family."
Page 18: QUOTE: "A man who had only daughters was considered to have no descendants. Because there would be no one to worship his ancestors after his death, the family would come to an end. Concubinage was introduced to increase the possibility of having a son. But when this failed, adoption was the only means to prolong the family line, and thus to carry on all the necessary functions that had to be performed by a male descendant."
Page 18-19: QUOTE: "The first principle was that the adopted male must be a member of the same lineage. It was commonly believed that the spirit of a dead man would not accept any offerings from a man who had a different surname and who was not consanguineously related to him. There was a saying that 'a ghost accepts no offerings from someone who is not of the same lood.' A story was told in Han times concerning an adopted son who had a different surname. When he offered sacrifices it was his own ancestors who enjoyed the offering, not those of the family that had adopted him. Finally, when this was discovered, the adopted son was sent back to his own family and a son of a paternal cousin was adopted. A son adopted from a different kin group introduced alien blood into the family."
Page 19: QUOTE: "Thus to adopt someone from a different kin group was considered improper, and, at times, unlawful...Because our knowledge of Han law is based only on existing remnants, we do not know whether it prohibited the adoption of a man of a different surname. But since such a prohibition is found in the laws of Shu-Han and Chin, it seems unlikely that the adoption of a son of a different surname would be tolerated by the law in Han times. In any case, it is certain that such action was generally disapproved by society, especially by the intellectuals who supported the doctrines of li. After citing the story of the sacrifices by an adopted son mentioned above, Ying Shao remarks: 'it is clear that a ghost would not accept the offerings [of a man of] different blood. Why should a man adopt the son of others [who had no blood relationship]?'"
Page 20: QUOTE: "However, deviations were found at all times, even when such action was held to be unlawful. Han was no exception. An essay written by Wu Shang...in the Later Han revealed that it was not uncommon for a man to adopt someone of a different surname when he had no son. A male adopted from a different lineage might be someone who was no relation; or a sister's son might be adopted."

Patterns fo Authority in Family and Lineage

Page 20-21: A man could often be humble and lenient with others, but as a father he was expected to be severe and harsh with his sons so that they would fear and respect him. The father was also in charge of marriage arrangements for his sons and daughters, irrespective of what they or his wife (the mother) thought. A wife could complain if she disagreed with the choice of marriage partner for her son or daughter, but ultimately the decision was the father's to make.
Page 21-22: Children (and even adult sons) were supposed to obey the wishes and commands of both their father and mother. If they disobeyed then they were punished. The rule of the father in the house and the punishments he meted out were considered parallel to the central government over the country. Indeed, just as a commoner was expected to beat a disobedient son, a king was also expected to beat a disobedient heir apparent.
Page 22-23: However, a father was not allowed to kill his own son; if he did so, it was possible that he could be sentenced to execution for this crime. Infanticide was also punished by the law, which was considered homocide and thus could be punished with execution. One Han texts explains why a father was not allowed to kill one of his own sons: QUOTE: "All human beings are given life by Heaven and come into existence merely through the medium of the parents. The king nourishes and educates them. Therefore a father can have no claim on [the son] exclusively."
Page 24-25: QUOTE: "The lineage head apparently did not exist in Ch'in and Han times. There is no mention of one in our texts or other supplementary works, so we cannot tell if there was the formal institution of a lineage head. Since the average family size at that time was rather small and the Han government discouraged the lineage from living together, it is safe to assume that the practice of having a lineage head was not common as it was in later times. The families of a lineage usually lived separately, and there is no evidence of lineage property or lineage temples, so apparently there was no need for a lineage head. However, there was a certain form of authority in a lineage. It is certain that any common action, such as the mobilization of the whole lineage, had to be organized under the command of a certain kinsmen whose authority in the kin group was commonly accepted...Authority over kinsmen is more clearly seen when military activities are involved. A lineage was often organized militarily under the command of one of its members."

Legal Function of the Family

Page 25: QUOTE: "Since the head of the family was its ruler and his authority over its members was recognized by law and society, a family was functionally a unit of self-government. It was expected that order would be maintained within each family. Thus when Wang Mang's son, an official in the government, made an offensive remark to three other top officials, one of them complained to Wang Mang, who then punished his son. The fact that the father was reprimanded instead of the son indicates that a father, whose patriarchal authority was supreme, was also responsible for his children's behavior."
Page 25: QUOTE: "The law also gave some legal responsibility to the family head. Persons engaged in trade or handicraft were allowed to assess their own taxes in Han times, but according to the law the head of a family in person was to assess the value of the family's goods. If his assessment was not accurate, or if he did not personally write it down, he was fined two catties of gold, and the goods that had not been assessed were confiscated."
Page 26: QUOTE: "Collective responsibility of family members was another feature of Han life. The ancients usually considered that merely punishing the criminal himself in severe cases was not sufficient punishment to prevent a recurrence of crime. The arrest and punishment of the innocent family members of a criminal along with him was thought to increase the mental burden of the criminal so that he would hesitate to violate the law again. This philosophy is expressed in our texts in the statement of Han officials who favored the practice of collective responsibility...At the same time, the practice was intended to make all family members watch each other's behavior."
Page 26: QUOTE: "Collective responsibility may have been exercised in two ways: either the family members received the same punishment as the criminal or they were punished less severely than the criminal. The punishment of the three tsu provides an example of the first category. It was first introduced by the state of Ch'in in 749 B.C. Under the law, the parents, siblings, wife, and children of a criminal were to be executed with him...this punishment was adopted by Han when the code was formulated...Edicts to abolish this kind of punishment were issued in 187 and 179 B.C...however, it came into practice again in 163 B.C. during the reign of the same emperor who had ordered it abolished. Actually the punishment of the three tsu for particularly heinous crimes was in practice throughout Early and Later Han. In less severe cases the family members of the criminal were not subject to the death penalty, but were seized and made slaves."

Economic Function of the Family

Page 26-27: QUOTE: "The family was a productive unit. The land and other forms of property, such as cattle, were owned in common, and the living of the family members was derived therefrom. They might also own some kind of property connected with their agricultural work: it was not uncommon for a family to build reservoirs and canals for irrigation...They produced their own food and grew a variety of vegetables and fruit trees in the family garden. Pigs and chickens were raised, and some families even had fish ponds. Various implements and utensils were also made by the family. A slave contract reveals that brooms, bamboo rakes, well wheels, fishing nets, shoes, ropes, mats, charcoal, knives, and bows were made by the family slaves. One family head even went so far as to plant catalpa and lacquer trees so he would have his own wood and lacquer to make utensils...Women in the household engaged in spinning and weaving which provided the clothing for the family."
Page 27: Han agricultural families typically supported themselves, providing all their own food and clothing. Everyone in the family, except for special cases, were expected to work in a division of labor; while one brother tended to the fields, this could save up time for the other brother to continue his studies in hopes of becoming an official.
Page 28: QUOTE: "There were also divisions of labor according to sex. Men engaged in farming, construction of irrigation works, domestication of animals, and the production of working tools and certain utensils; women were mainly concerned with spinning, weaving, sewing, the production of certain utensils, cooking, and other domestic services." In one instance, it is known that even the wife of a wealthy marquis spun and wove her own clothes.
Page 28: Slaves, and sometimes "guests", were also put to work producing items and goods for the benefit of family consumption or commercial profit. Slaves were most likely given the more menial tasks which exempted the master's family members from doing them.
Page 28-29: When a kinsman became an official, it was seen as a common obligation to share some of the wealth garnered by his official salary to his kinsmen, especially his close relatives. A lineage group was also responsible for providing charity and security to its members, especially those vying for an official career.

Educational Function of the Family

Page 29: QUOTE: "A family usually served the function of providing some form of education to its young members. The kind of education given to children was obviously conditioned by the intellectual as well as the socio-economic level of the family. A child of an illiterate father had little chance of receiving literary knowledge from him. Nor was a poor family able to send its children to the village school. Most likely the children would be sent to work in their early childhood, and the instruction they received from their elders was mostly training in connection with their professions. On the other hand, a child of a wealthy family was not bothered by work and could devote most of his time to getting the knowledge required to reach the upper class. A family of intellectuals would also do their best to give literary training to their children."
Page 29-30: Aside from the education given by schools and private teachers, the family and extended kin were responsible for socializing their youth and teaching them important values of filial piety and brotherly love.
Page 30: Ban Zhao wrote her Lessons for Women largely for the purpose of educating her unmarried daughters. Ma Rong admired this text and had his daughters and even his wife study it carefully.
Page 30: Given the importance that family played in everyone's lives, the elders and heads of families continued to provide education even to adult sons and daughters. Sometimes written family instructions were passed down from generation to generation.

Religious Function of the Family

Page 30: QUOTE: "It was commonly believed that when a man died his soul still needed food and drink, and that the only way it could enjoy these material things was to accept what was offered by its own living family members or kinsmen. For this reason, ancestor worship was an obligation of the children, and constituted a major function of the family. Sacrifices were usually offered in the family shrine or temple, but they could also be offered at the tombs or tombhouses, which were often built by officials and other well-to-do people."
Page 31: In addition to sacrifices given to ancestors, families also made sacrifices to deities and powerful spirits.

Military Function of the Family

Page 31-32: QUOTE: "Most families had no military function. However, some families and lineages did engage in military activities, and both their frequency and their consequences need special attention. Military functions in the family were all connected with periods of war and disorder. All our examples are found at the end of the Later Han and the era of the Three Kingdoms, when no protection was given to the people by the government, and when they were under constant threat of war and bandits. The poor and the helpless had no alternative but to run away; but the greater families organized their members to protect themselves and their family properties. The we-group sentiment was particularly strong during crisis that involved the kinsmen; at such times they felt that they shared the same fate and that only blood relatives could lean on each other."
Page 32: Some kinship groups, who were described in history as having "big surnames," were wealthy and large enough to defend themselves by producing their own arms and using slaves and "guests" (retainers) as extra forces. Sometimes a lineage group could mobilize a thousand men and could not only fend off bandits but overtake an entire town and gain possession of it.

Marriage

Age for Men and Women to Marry

Page 33-34: QUOTE: "The ideal age for a man to marry was said to be thirty and for a woman, twenty. However, this was understood by some ancient scholars as the latest age for men and women to marry, and they held that a man could marry at the age of sixteen and a woman at fourteen. The information we have indicates that very few people married at such a late age. The author of Lessons for Women married at fourteen...and there are other examples showing that a girl was usually married at the age of fourteen or fifteen. According to the Han system, the girls who were selected and taken into the inner palace were between the ages of thirteen and twenty...A family that requested that one of its daughters be selected for the heir apparent reported that the eldest was fifteen, next fourteen, and the youngest thirteen. The youngest was finally selected...Two other girls were also selected for the palace when they were thirteen, and two were sent into the palace at the age of sixteen...A regulation issued in 189 B.C. that any unmarried woman between fifteen and thirty was to be taxed at five times the normal rate...is additional evidence that most women in Han times were expected to marry around the age of fifteen."

The Family and Marriage

Page 34: In the Han, marriages were viewed as agreements and bonds made between clans, not necessarily individuals, since it was the families' interests which were being served when the fathers selected the husbands for their daughters and the wives for their sons. The father's choice and final decision always trumped the mother's, but a grandfather was considered a higher authority over the father's decision if the former objected.
Page 34-35: QUOTE: "Ancestor worship in connection with marriage was very important: all of the six wedding rites were held in the temple of the girl's family; before the marriage was contracted, the matter was divined before the spirits of the ancestors in the temples of both families; before the bridegroom went to welcome his bride, instruction was given by his father with the words, 'Go to welcome your helpmate in order to fulfill our affairs in the ancestral temple'; and visiting the family temple was an important activity to be observed by the bride after the wedding. According to a quotation in the Li-chi attributed to Confucius, a bride's inability to visit the ancestral temple would lead to serious consequences: if the bride died before she could pay the visit to the temple, she was not to be worshipped in the temple, her body was to be buried with her father's family, and she was not to be considered as having attained the status of daughter-in-law. Obviously the status of daughter-in-law meant more to her and her husband's family than the status of wife."

Prohibited and Approved Marriages

Page 35: QUOTE: "A patrilineage was an exogamous group; its members were prohibited from intermarrying. In fact, the rule of exogamy even applied to persons who bore the same surname but could not actually be traced back unilaterally to a common ancestor. Thus according to Chou tradition one was not allowed to marry someone from a family with the same surname, no matter how remote the blood relationship. It was held by the ancients that such a marriage would not produce many children...It is not possible to know whether the Ch'in and Han law prohibited this kind of marriage, as did the codes of T'ang, Sung, Ming, and Ch'ing. All we can say is that since this taboo was already widely accepted in Chou and Han times and was followed by all the succeeding dynasties, it seems unlikely that T'ang was the first dynasty to make this taboo into law. However, no matter how strong tradition and law were, there were always deviations. We know of some in later dynasties, when marriage between persons of the same surnames was unlawful and when violations were punished. During Han times the younger sister of Empress Lü married a Lü, and Wang Mang's wife was from another Wang family."
Page 36: QUOTE: "Marriages between cross-cousins and maternal parallel cousins (mother's sister's children) were at times permitted and at times prohibited in China. Were such marriages allowed in the Han? Yüan Chun argued in his essay that cross-cousins and maternal parallel cousins should not marry each other because of their close relationship. He mentions that the people of his time did not consider such marriages improper. This must have been true of Han times."
Page 36: QUOTE: "Emperor Wu married his father's sister's daughter...This is the only instance of cross-cousin marriage found in our texts, but it would seem to show that marriage to one's father's sister's daughter was permissable. Yet it is not clear whether such a marriage was generally accepted in society, because Emperor Wu's marriage may have been contracted for political reasons. The princess who was so anxious to marry her daughter to the heir apparent...was apparently interested in acquiring more political power. The political status and power enjoyed by a consort family was much superior to that of a princess's husband's family."
Page 36-37: In Han there are cases where an older uncle would marry a niece, but such a marriage (i.e. an older relative from a different generation marrying a younger relative) was outlawed in the Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing Dynasties. However, these types of marriages were often with the royal family and were done for political reasons.

Divorce

Page 37-40: If one of the following seven conditions were met, a man was allowed by custom to divorce his wife: disobedience to parents-in-law, barrenness (unable to continue family line), adultery (mixing other clan's blood into the family), jealousy (of concubines), incurable disease (unable to continue family line), loquacity (not getting along with brothers-in-law or sisters-in-law), and theft. We do not know if these conditions were actually legalized in Han like they were in the Tang Dynasty.
Page 41: In regards to more customs (although it is not known if they were laws), QUOTE: "A wife, however, was given some protection. Traditionally there were three conditions under which a wife could not be divorced, even if she had one of the seven faults: (1) A wife who had worn three years' mourning for a parent-in-law could not be divorced. Here again the influence of the husband's parents shows that the relationship between parents-in-law and daughter-in-law was more important than the relationship between husband and wife. (2) A wife was not to be divorced if she had no relatives in her father's family to whom she might return. (3) A wife was not to be divorced if the husband's family had been poor when they married and had since become wealthy."
Page 41: There were no established laws or customs which allowed women to divorce their husbands, although there are several cases in Han documents and histories where women actually requested to divorce their husbands and were able to remarry. Desertion on the part of the wife was not tolerated under later dynasties.

Remarriage

Page 42-43: Despite the fact that Ban Zhao emphasized in her Lessons for Women that a woman should not remarry due to devotion to her husband (and the admiration of her work by Ma Rong), it was common in the Han for people to remarry, whether they were women or men, divorcees or widows, rich or poor, commoner or aristocrat. More importantly, remarriage was not looked down upon as a source of shame by the literati of Han, which was the complete opposite in later dynasties when virtually only the poor and uneducated remarried. In the highest ranks of society, among princes and princesses, remarriage was a common occurence.
Page 43: There were only a couple surviving cases from the Han when women mutilated themselves or committed suicide rather than remarry another man, but such cases are rare when stacked against the multitude of cases where men and women did remarry in the Han Dynasty.

Concubinage

Page 44-46: Concubinage was sanctioned by law and by custom during the Han Dynasty. Most men were not wealthy and therefore could only afford a monogamous relationship of supporting one wife, thus having a wife and multiple concubines was out of the question for most men of the Han. While most people practiced monogamy, the wealthy upper class and the aristocracy could afford to support many concubines in addition to their legal wife. Although some concubines came from wealthy and prominent families, concubines usually came from families which could not support them, thus they were found in abundance during times of famine and distress. An edict of 31 AD stated that any concubine or slave sold as a result of famines, disorders, or kidnapping by bandits in Qingzhou and Xuzhou were to be allowed to leave and return home, and that anyone who disobeyed this order would be dealt with by the authorities. A similar edict was issued in 38 AD.
Page 46: Although a man could have a number of concubines in a relationship of polygyny, he was to have only one legal wife, thus there was no practice of bigamy, where there was more than one legal wife. Concubinage was not legally considered a marriage since it did not involve a wedding ceremony. A concubine was inferior to the wife and had to be subservient to the wife's needs and treat her with respect. If a man treated a concubine better than his wife, he would be the object of criticism and ridicule; such was the case of a marquis during the Han, who was dismissed and moved to another place for doing this. A son of a concubine was also inferior to the son of the legal wife.
Page 46-47: Since a man could use the excuse of jealousy to divorce his wife, wives were cautious when dealing with concubines and did not try to seem jealous of them. However, there were always deviations to this. For example, the wife of Liang Ji, the Grand General (Da Jiangjun) was extremely jealous of other women, so much so that Liang Ji did not dare take a concubine while married to his wife.
Page 47: Since the numbers of concubines in the imperial palace or in the courts of kings were so large, jealousy and competition for attention were widespread and became very intense, especially when an empress was not yet appointed by a new emperor who could seek one out in his imperial harem. The status of empress trumped all the imperial concubines, thus the thirst for power drove many concubines to compete.

Position of Women

Women's Status in the Family

Page 49-50: As written by the lady historian Ban Zhao in her Lessons for Women, humility and weakness were the characteristics of women's behavior:
- QUOTE: "In ancient times, people put a baby girl on the ground on the third day after her birth. . . .To lay the baby on the ground signifies that she is inferior and weak, and that she should humble herself before others. . . .To be modest, yielding and respectful; to put others first, and herself last; not to mention it when she does a good deed; not to deny it when she commits a wrong; to bear disgrace and humiliation; and always to have a feeling of fear—these may be said to be the ways in which she humbles herself before others. . . .Yin and yang are not fo the same nature; men and women behave differently. Rigidity is the virtue of the yang; yielding is the function of the yin. Strength is the glory of men; weakness is women's good quality. Thus in self-cultivation, nothing equals respect for others; in avoiding confrontation with strength, nothing equals compliance. Therefore it is said that the way of respect and compliance is woman's great li (proper rule of conduct)."
Page 50: By the Han Dynasty, the theory of the "three dominations" was widely observed; this was the domination of the father over a female child, the domination of the husband over her when she reached adulthood, and the domination of the son over her when she reached old age.
Page 51: As always, there are deviations to the main rule, as women did not always act passively and in subordination to their husbands. The wife of Ma Rong overturned his argument when he attempted to ridicule her and her father.
Page 51-52: QUOTE: "Usually a wife was allowed to be active only in domestic affairs; she was not supposed to be interested in social and political activities and was not allowed to interfere in such matters, which were considered exclusively men's affairs. However, a woman who had extraordinary determination might take an active part in men's business. An official's wife who was skilled in writing essays and calligraphy frequently wrote letters for her husband...A woman of strong personality might even dominate her husband in his official affairs. When Grand General Ho Kuang sent a representative to tell Imperial Chancellor Yang Ch'ang...that they had decided to dethrone the emperor, Yang Ch'ang was so frightened he did not know what to say. Then his wife warned him: 'This is an important affair of the empire. Now the Grand General has decided after deliberation and sent one of the Nine Ministers to report it to you. If you do not respond promptly, are not of the same mind as the Grand General, and hesitate without decision, you will be killed first.' Then she and her husband talked together with the guest, and Yang Ch'ang promised to obey Ho Kuang's order...Obviously, it was she who made the decision and dominated her husband. However, women of such dominating character and broad insight in politics were rare."
Page 52: QUOTE: "A wife who could manage and dominate her husband was usually respected and looked up to by him. It was said that Liang Chi's beautiful wife was very jealous and was able to manage and control him. She made him remove the Liangs from government positions and replace them with members of her family. He did not dare to keep his concubine openly, and had to hide her child. Finally she seized the concubine, cut off her hair, and beat her...In this unusual situation it seems that the expected 'wife-subordinate-to-husband' pattern was reversed."
Page 52-53: QUOTE: "The status of the mother in the family needs special attention. Theoretically, children were under the authority of their parents, and no distinction was made between father and mother. The children were supposed to be filial to both and obey both. However, the mother's status was conditioned by another basic principle: a wife was inferior to her husband. Thus the mother's status was also inferior to the father's. The point that there was only one supreme head in the family, and that the mother was not as superior as the father, was usually emphasized by ancient scholars. A child wore a full three years' mourning for his father, but he only wore one year's mourning for his mother when the father was still alive. It was explained that since three years' mourning was assigned for the father, the supreme head of the family, the mourning for the mother had to be reduced. Therefore, the mother was also under the control of the family head, the husband and father, and she was expected to obey him. There was no problem when father and mother agreed; but when disagreement and conflict arose, the father's authority took precedence. This point has already been discussed regarding the authority of the parents to arrange the marriages of their children. I have also indicated that both mother and children were under the authority of the same family head."
Page 53: QUOTE: "The problem of the mother's status was more complicated after the death of her husband. Theoretically, no one in the family was superior to a mother after the death of her husband; so she should have had the highest authority. But it was also held that a woman should obey her son after the death of her husband, which was in keeping with the belief that women were inferior to men. So the two theories were in conflict: If a son was to obey the will of his father and mother, how could a mother be expected to obey her son and be subordinate to him? Was there a change in the status of the mother and of the son after the father's death? Since a woman was unlikely to be a family head and it was usually the son who became the head if there were no other senior male members of the family, it seems that there was a change in the son's status when he became a family head. However, it does not follow that there was a change in the mother's status and that the mother was under the son's authority. On the contrary, there are indications that a son was still subject to his mother's authority after the death of his father. The mother's authority over a son is clearly illustrated in 'The Peacock Flies to the Southeast.' In this poem the mother becomes angry with her son, who wants to keep his wife in the family; finally, on the mother's orders, the wife is sent away. Sometimes a mother even had a voice in her son's public life. Yen Yen-nien...a grand administrator who resorted to severe punishments to maintain law and order, was merciless in killing powerful and evil persons. Once his mother came from her native town to Lo-yang to visit him. She disapproved of his harsh policy and refused to go to his official residence. She allowed him to see her only after he had removed his hat and kowtowed; she then rebuked him and told him to be benevolent to the people, and he again kowtowed and apologized."
Page 53: QUOTE: "In short, there is no evidence to support the theory that a mother was subordinate to her son after the death of the father. I am inclined to think that it would be misleading to treat the so-called mother's subordination and the other two kinds of subordination on the same basis."

Women's Status in Society

Page 54: QUOTE: Most women engaged in weaving and domestic work; even the wife of an imperial chancellor did some weaving in her home...But women in wealthy families were not usually expected to undertake productive tasks; only the women of poor families had to work. The family's profession generally conditioned the kind of work a woman was supposed to do; the women in farmers' families, for example, usually had to work on the farm...Weaving was the most common profession for women, either to provide clothing for the family or to supplement the family income, but occasionally a woman had the full responsibility of supporting her family when her husband was not engaged in productive work. For example, the wife of a gambler managed to support his mother...It was not uncommon for a woman who had lost her husband to become the sole support of her family, often undergoing great hardship. One widow sold silk fabrics to support herself and her son...Another widow with a twelve-year-old son made a living by making straw sandles in the capital. He was able to study for more than ten years and finally became an official; without his mother's support he would have remained an office boy in the commandery government and would not have had a chance for an official career...Liu Pei was also supported by his widow-mother who made shoes and straw mats."
Page 54: QUOTE: "Some women of well-to-do families engaged in profitable businesses, and such trade sometimes provided opportunities for them to associate with customers of the upper class. A mother who sold pearls frequently went to the family of a princess; because of this connection her son became a paramour of the princess."
Page 55: QUOTE: "Only a few occupations were open to women. Since magic was very popular in Ch'in and Han times, and since there was a division of labor based upon sex, there was a considerable demand for sorceresses. But because sorcery was a humble profession, the status of a sorceress and her family must have been inferior."
Page 55: QUOTE: "The profession of a woman physician was a respected one. Sometimes opportunities for social mobility were given to her family members because of her professional connections with important families. A woman physician was an intimate friend of the wife of the grand general, and through his influence her husband was promoted to a higher post...The brother of one woman physician, who was the personal physician of the empress dowager, was appointed prefect and was later promoted to the post of grand administrator."
Page 55-56: QUOTE: "Perhaps singing and dancing were the most common professions for girls. Some cities were noted for providing singing and dancing girls, and there were specialists who brought up girls of poor families and trained them to dance and sing. Beautiful girls with such skills were usually sought by the families of nobles, officials, and wealthy commoners. They served as entertainers in the family as well as giving sexual satisfaction to their masters. Since the occupation of these girls was not respected by society, their status was very inferior. However, a singing girl who was able to win the favor of her master sometimes ascended to a superior status and at times even brought social mobility to her father's family."
Page 56: Although women of the Han were not given the same education as men, there nonetheless were great female scholars (often daughters of great male scholars) during the dynasty. Fu Sheng, a Qin Dynasty erudite (boshi) and specialist in the Classic of History, was too old during the Western Han to give lectures, so when Chao Cuo was sent to him by the government to gather information, Fu's daughter lectured Chao instead. Ban Zhao, the daughter of Ban Biao and brother of Ban Gu, finished the Book of Han historical text which was the lifework of her father and brother. Although Cai Yong had lost a large collection of books during the conflict at the end of the 2nd century, his daughter could recite many of them and thus was called to serve at the court as requested by Cao Cao. QUOTE: "However, no woman was occupied as a teacher; probably there was no demand for women professional teachers."
Page 56-57: Although no woman was ever appointed as an official during Han, Ban Zhao was summoned to the court by Emperor He of Han to finish compiling the Book of Han, to write essays on precious items of tribute, and treated as a teacher by the empress and some concubines. Despite this, Ban Zhao was never given an official title.
Page 57: A marquis was usually wed to a royal princess, since the daughter of an emperor was considered to be equivalent in political status to a marquis; in fact, her fief was classified as a marquisate. When a princess died, her fief was inherited by her eldest son, who became a marquis. The son of any princess had a special legal status that other royal family members (and some officials of high rank) enjoyed; if he was accused of a crime, permission had to be granted from the emperor himself if the son of the princess was to be tried and punished.
Page 58: When a new empress was wed to the emperor, the father of the empress was ennobled as a marquis and the mother of the empress was ennobled as a baronet, a title which gave her the equivalent status of a princess. The rest of her consort family, including brothers and sometimes brother's sons, could also be made marquises. A male member of the consort family might also have the opportunity to land one of the highest offices in the land, such as Imperial Chancellor.
Page 58-59: When a woman became empress, she became the most senior member of her family, as even the elder persons of her family had to respect her. She had the power to control the male members of her family, since it was through her that their status was lifted. After Empress Ma (Ming) became empress dowager, she became incredibly strict with her family members, openly reprimanding them. When one of her male family members did not show up in appropriate attire and carriage according to sumptuary laws, she had him sent back to his hometown. QUOTE: "When she complained that the tomb of her mother was slightly higher than that allowed by the law, her elder brother immediately made the adjustment and reduced the height of the tomb."
Page 59: Dou Xian was confined in the palace under house arrest when his younger sister, Empress Dou (Zhang), the empress dowager, became angered by his actions. In order to absolve his guilt and redeem his reputation, he pledged to lead an expeditionary force against the Xiongnu. The elder brother of the Empress Deng Sui (when she was empress dowager) had a son who broke the law and feared that his sister would punish his son, so he had his son shave his head in order to acknowledge his fault.
Page 59: QUOTE: "The actions illustrated in these three cases are certainly contradictory to the accepted principle that a younger brother or sister was subordinate to his or her elder siblings."
Page 59: Yet even the father of an empress or empress dowager had to bend to their will, despite the fact that the father was supposed to be the supreme authority in the family hierarchy. Both Dou Wu, father of Empress Dowager Dou, and He Jin, elder brother of Empress Dowager He, were unable to dismiss all of the eunuchs at court due to these empress dowagers who disapproved of their plans. Hence, political authority trumped the usual family authority, as these two men, who were officials, had to take orders from a junior female member of their family.
Page 59-60: Even the emperor had to respect the wishes of his mother, the empress dowager. For example (and the author Ch'ü gives several others here), since Empress Dou (Wen) favored the doctrine of Huang-Lao Daoism, her son Emperor Jing of Han and the members of the Dou family had to read and respect the teachings of Laozi.

Social Classes

Page 63: A person of a particular social class often married a person of the same class.
Page 64-66: As summed up by Mencius, the social hierarchy was dominated by those who labored with their minds; beneath these people were those who labored with their physical strength. Mental work required an education, which was one of the criteria for social success in ancient China. If one had more wealth, than one could obtain a better education and hope to land a job as an official, although wealth was not exactly the prime prerequisite for becoming an official. Some merchants were incredibly wealthy, yet they were seen as inferior to officials and not as well-respected as scholars. Once one obtained true political power, then wealth and prestige naturally followed.

The Emperor and the Imperial Family

Page 66-67: The "Son of Heaven" was the political title touted by the kings of the Zhou Dynasty, who had limited political authority and was unable to interfere in the administrations of the surrounding feudal states which claimed loyalty to him. Nonetheless, the "Son of Heaven" was aptly named since the Chinese believed that he was appointed to lead by Heaven and thus had to answer to no human authority. The first ruler of the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang initiated the title huangdi (emperor), since his centralizing reforms made him the most powerful individual in Chinese history by that point. The emperor was at the apex of society, the source of all power, while others QUOTE: "merely acquired a share of power through him."
Page 68-69: Due to the emperor's unique status, people could be punished if they spoke his name or even wrote his name, and were only supposed to address him in indirect fashion; for example, referring to him by saying bixia ("under the steps to the throne"), or by his carriage name, chengyu, or the term shang, meaning above or superior one. If one imitated the hat, garments, carriage, or flag of the emperor, that person was subject to severe punishment. If one entered the outer gate of the palace without permission, they would be punished with forced labor, usually by being sent to work with a team on building a city wall. If one entered the inner palace without permission, they were executed. These laws and punishments about entry into the palace were applied to officials, nobles, and commoners. There were also laws and punishments for showing lack of respect. If a marquis did not dismount from his horse in front of the palace gate, he could be demoted one rank. If a marquis wore a one-piece casual garment into the palace, he could also lose his rank.
Page 69-70: All laws had to be approved and promulgated by the emperor, while only he could have them abolished. The Commandant of Justice, one of the Nine Ministers, handled the administration of justice and punished criminals according to the law. However, the emperor's authority superseded that of the Commandant of Justice, and the emperor could override a ruling by the Commandant if he wanted to, for it was the emperor's word that was final. If a local magistrate could not decide on a case, he referred it to the Commandant of Justice; if the Commandant could not decide on a case, he referred it to the Emperor.
Page 70: QUOTE: "Han law also required that permission be obtained from the emperor before nobles and certain officials could be arrested, tried, and punished. Certain other special cases also had to be reported to the emperor by the commandant of justice. On the other hand, a criminal might be pardoned by order of the emperor, and general amnesties were occasionally issued by the emperor for various reasons."
Page 70: QUOTE: "With the exception of petty officials, all officials, central as well as local, were appointed by the emperor, and he also determined whether they should be promoted, demoted, or dismissed. Members of the imperial family, as well as certain high officials, were ennobled by the emperor.
Page 70-71: A court conference (tingyi) was usually called into order by the emperor when there was a serious problem to be dealt with; these conferences involved the input of the imperial chancellor, the grandee secretary, marquises, erudites, and high officials of the 2000 bushel rank. Their majority consensus on an issue was reported to the emperor, who saw it merely as superior advice, since he could choose to accept or reject the decision and judgment reached the court conference. In fact, QUOTE: "Sometimes the conclusion reached by the officials was rejected and they were ordered to reconsider and report again. No action could be taken until the emperor approved the suggestion."
Page 71: QUOTE: "The emperor was also the highest priest in the empire. Since he was the Son of Heaven, only he was qualified to worship Heaven. He also offered sacrifices and prayers to the supreme gods, big mountains, and large rivers."
Page 71: QUOTE: "Next to the emperor were his imperial relatives. Among them the empress dowager occupied the highest position and was the most powerful. This was so not only because she was the wife of the late emperor, but also because she was the mother or grandmother of the reigning emperor. The last factor seems to be the more significant...An empress dowager of an older generation was always superior in status to one of a younger generation."
Page 72: QUOTE: "The predominance of the empress dowager usually led to political dominance. It was not infrequent that an emperor sought the approval of the empress dowager in political affairs. Emperor Wen wanted to exterminate the whole family of a criminal who had stolen from the imperial ancestral temple. The commandant of justice attempted to convince him that according to the law only the criminal himself should be executed. Emperor Wen reported this to the empress dowager and only with her consent was the punishment carried out as the commandant of justice suggested."
Page 73: QUOTE: "An empress dowager played a more active role in government if the new emperor was a youth and she was his regent. She attended the court with the young emperor and issued edicts. In theory she ruled jointly with the emperor; in fact she was the real ruler who exercised political power and made important decisions. The emperor, who was usually young, was merely a figurehead under her control. Empress Dowager Lü, who was the first woman in Chinese history to introduce the system of an empress dowager attending the court, is a case in point. Nominally, her son, Emperor Hui, was on the throne for seven years; he actually ruled for only about one year and then left all affairs to his mother. Thus Emperor Hui was completely ignored by the great historian, Ssu-ma Ch'ien, and the annals of Empress Lü came immediately after those of Emperor Kao...Apparently he gave up his role because the empress dowager was too domineering and cruel to the members of the imperial family; although he did not approve, he was too weak to keep her from doing it. After his death a young emperor was put on the throne, but it was actually the empress dowager who issued all the edicts and ruled the empire. Later the young emperor was dismissed and killed by the empress dowager, and another king was made an emperor. However, the empress dowager was still the ruler."
Page 73-74: Empress Dowager Lü's pattern was followed by several other empress dowagers who were also interested in exercising power. Empress Dowager Wang was the second to attend court in the Early Han, remaining on the throne from 1 B.C. until A.D. 6, when her nephew Wang Mang became the acting emperor...In the Later Han there were six empress dowagers who attended the court.
Page 74: QUOTE: "The power of an empress dowager who attended the court was imposing. Ministers presenting memorials were required to submit one copy to the empress dowager and another to the emperor. In fact all edicts were issued by her, and she was in a position to appoint and dismiss officials. An empress dowager even personally investigated judicial cases and issued pardons to prisoners during a time of famine."
Page 74: QUOTE: "If the emperor died without an heir, it was usually the empress dowager who selected and appointed the new emperor. In extreme cases she could even dismiss the emperor and appoint another. Although the dismissal of the king of Ch'ang-i, who ascended the throne after the death of Emperor Chao, and the appointment of Emperor Hsüan were initiated by Ho Kuang and other top officials, the proposal was approved by the empress dowager and carried out under her authority."
Page 74: QUOTE: "Under the empress dowager were the empress and the various imperial concubines. The empress, who assisted the emperor in serving in the ancestral temple, and who was considered the 'mother of the empire,' was supreme among the wives of the emperor. All these ladies were selected from the good families in the capital. Those whose age was between thirteen and twenty and who had been judged satisfactory by physiognomists were selected by imperial messengers...Families of nobles and high officials could also ask for permission to present their daughters to the inner palace."
Page 75: QUOTE: "The empress was usually selected from among the imperial concubines; a woman was seldom appointed empress before the wedding. In most cases the empress was appointed by the emperor, but sometimes the decision was made by the empress dowager. As a rule the imperial concubine who had given birth to a son who was chosen as heir apparent was appointed empress."
Page 75: QUOTE: "An empress, though considered the "mother of the empire," was subordinate to the emperor, and her status was not secure. She could be dismissed by order of the emperor, or sometimes she was given poison and ordered to commit suicide."
Page 75: In the Western Han, the imperial concubines were divided into fourteen ranks which paralleled the civil bureaucracy. Thus, the first rank, the brilliant companion (zhaoyi), was equivalent inrank to the imperial chancellor and in rank to a king. A concubine who held the fourteenth rank was equivalent to an official who earned 100 bushels (or 100 piculs). During the Eastern Han, there were only four ranks of concubines.
Page 75: All the concubines were subordinates of the empress. QUOTE: "Many empresses were so jealous that concubines who had had sons were murdered. Similarly, an imperial concubine who was pregnant took drugs to induce an abortion because she was afraid of the empress."

Nobles

Imperial Relatives

Page 76: In the Han Dynasty there existed a system of partial feudalism, since a number of kingdoms and marquisates were established. The first kings of the Han were the brothers, paternal cousins, and brother's sons of Emperor Gaozu of Han, although some men who were not of the imperial family were given kingdoms. Eventually all the kings who were not of the imperial household died off, whereupon the emperor ordered that only imperial family members could become kings. All the sons of the emperor except the heir apparent were made kings, while other relatives were made marquises.
Page 76: QUOTE: "At first a king governed almost independently; little control was imposed by the central government. Later, after a policy had been adopted by the Han government to weaken the kings, they lost their power to rule their kingdoms...But a king still enjoyed the superior status next only to that of the emperor. He also collected taxes from his kingdom."
Page 76: QUOTE: "Under the principle of primogeniture, only the eldest son by the legal wife of a king was entitled to be his heir; other sons received no land at all in the early days of the dynasty. Nobility was extended to other sons of a king after Emperor Wu established a new system to weaken and reduce the size of a kingdom: all kings were allowed to distribute fiefs to their other sons and their brothers, who would then be ennobled as marquises by the emperor...A marquis received a definite amount of tax from his marquisate, depending upon the number of households assigned to him by the emperor."
Page 76: QUOTE: "Princes and other imperial relatives were similarly ennobled as kings and marquises in the Later Han. Altogether 137 imperial relatives were made marquises in A.D. 37, a year after the empire had been unified."

Consort Families

Page 77: The family members of the consort family, i.e. the family of the empress or empress dowager, enjoyed high status at court and in society. Their status was enhanced by having an empress on the throne or even better, an empress dowager. Ch'ü calls it the "fastest channel of social mobility, enabling persons to move up to the top in the socio-political stratification order."
Page 77: In Western Han, the Lü, Dou, Wei, Zhao, and Xu families were all of humble origin before being uplifted by consort-family status.
Page 78: Beginning with Emperor Xuan of Han, a trend emerged where emperors of the Han Dynasty usually married women from prominent, not humble, families. Xuan's first wife was the daugher of an official who had been castrated; thus her family was not very prominent. However, his second wife was the daughter of Huo Guang, while his third wife was a descendant of a marquis. All the consort families which rose to power in Han after Emperor Xuan, with the exception of the family of the singing, dancing palace maid Empress Zhao Feiyan, were recognized as prominent families, usually with high officials or with members of a previous consort family.
Page 78: QUOTE: "Whether the consort family had been prominent or not, it immediately became prominent through ennoblement, which brought with it prestige and wealth. Although a regulation had been established by Emperor Kao that only meritorious officials could be made marquises, this regulation gradually became a formality, and as a rule one or more members of the consort family were ennobled as marquises. Among the consort members listed in Han-shu, chüan 18, as marquises, only seven were ennobled because of merit. The father of an empress or an empress dowager was always ennobled; he he had died he was ennobled posthumously. Brothers of an empress might not be ennobled, but they were always ennobled by the next emperor when the empress became empress dowager."
Page 79: QUOTE: "At the same time the consort families were given prestige through ennoblement, they also gained political power through official appointment. With few exceptions the members of a consort family, particularly the father and brothers of an empress or empress dowager, were given official appointment. Other family members, such as her paternal uncles, cousins, and nephews, were often appointed to various offices. Even the children of an empress's sister were given appointments. Members of consort families frequently became high or even top officials...But the customary practice was to make them generals; they held such titles as grand general, general of chariots and cavalry, or general of flash cavalry...From Emperor Wu's time on, all consort family members who were given the top post and the authority to assist the emperor in the government...were appointed grand minister of war (ta-ssu-ma...), either as an additional title to the office of general or as an independent title."
Page 80: Although the father of the empress should have been the most superior member of the consort family, the emperors of Han usually favored maternal uncles instead, appointing them to the top official posts.
Page 81: QUOTE: "Unlike the consort families of the Early Han, nearly all the empresses in the Later Han came from wealthy and prominent families."
Page 82: QUOTE: "There was a tendency for the imperial family to maintain conjugal relations with the previous consort families. Male members often became husbands of the princeses, and girls were often selected to become concubines or empresses. Altogether five empresses came from previous consort families (Yin, Tou, Teng, Liang, and Sung); four of the families produced two empresses."
Page 82: During the Eastern Han, only one consort family came from a commoner background, that being the family of Empress He (Ling). Her father had been a butcher.
Page 82: Following the practice of the Early Han, the father or brother of an empress or empress dowager was usually ennobled as a marquis. Emperor Ming was the only emperor who neither ennobled members of his empress's family, Ma, nor gave high posts to its members.

Meritorious Officials

Page 83: Meritorious officials were nobles who had won their title, rank, and fief by virtue of their merit, usually involving military achievements. Thus, seven non-related but loyal retainers of Liu Bang were made kings when the latter established the Han Dynasty. There were also 137 non-related but prominent followers of Liu Bang who were made marquises for their lesser merits.
Page 83-84: QUOTE: "However, the emperor considered these nonrelatives untrustworthy and unsafe; so within a few years these kings of different surnames were disposed of one after another by the emperor and his wife. With the exception of the king of one kingdom (SC 17:1b), all of them were replaced by members of the Liu family. Emperor Kao then laid down the rule that only the members of the imperial family could be made kings. He and a group of his high officials took an oath that they would destroy anyone not a member of the Liu family who proclaimed himself king. From this time on, kingship, the highest noble rank, was exclusively reserved for the imperial relatives. The rank of marquis, with marquisates varying from several hundred to over ten thousand households, became the highest rank a meritorious official could obtain."

Officials

Status of Officials

Page 84: QUOTE: "Next to the nobles in status were the officials. Although some high officials were ennobled, most officials were non-nobles. I have already mentioned that mental labor, which was associated with governing, was highly valued in Han society. The ruling class was superior, and they ruled the inferiors. Officials thus enjoyed an extremely superior status."
Page 84: The level of this status, however, depended on the rank the official held in the bureaucracy. In the Western Han era the officials who were ranked at 10,000 bushels (or 10,000 piculs) were the three grand tutors (taishi, taifu, and taibao, their rank also known as the "Supreme Lords" or shanggong), the imperial chancellor, the grand commandant, the grandee secretary, and the top generals. The imperial chancellor, grand commandant, and grandee secretary were known as the Three Dukes (sangong), also known as the Three Ducal Ministers.
Page 84: In the Eastern Han era there was only one Supreme Lord, the Grand Tutor, while the minister over the masses, the grand commandant, and the minister of works were the new titles of the Three Dukes. The rank of grand general was enhanced during Eastern Han so that it became an equivalent rank to these three ministers.
Page 84: Below these Three Ducal Ministers were the Nine Ministers, who ranked 2,000 bushels (or 2,000 piculs). Other 2,000-bushel-rank officials were grand administrators and the chancellors of kingdoms.
Page 85: QUOTE: "The status of the imperial chancellor in the Early Han was almost without a parallel. When he paid a visit to the emperor, the emperor had to stand up for him; if the emperor was driving he got down from his carriage to greet the imperial chancellor. The emperor usually paid him a visit when he was ill and offered sacrifices for him when he died. It was very unusual for an emperor to visit other officials when they were ill."
Page 85: QUOTE: "Since the imperial chancellor was the superior of all officials, his prestige was almost unique in the bureaucracy. Even the grandee secretary assumed a humble position in his presence. In the court the grandee secretary always stood behind the imperial chancellor...Once a grandee secretary was accused of failing to visit the imperial chancellor when he was ill and of not standing behind him in court. An edict was issued blaming him for treating the imperial chancellor impolitely, and for these (and other) reasons the grandee secretary was demoted."
Page 85: QUOTE: "The superior status of an imperial chancellor dominated even family relationships. One imperial chancellor placed his elder brother, also a marquis, in a seat less honorable than his own, which deviated from the principle under which a younger brother always respected his elder brother. The fact that political status superseded family status implies that political status dominated even family relationships, not to mention other forms of social relationships. This confirms our point of view that prestige was mainly derived from political power."
Page 85-86: Starting with Emperor Cheng of Han, the Three Dukes or Three Ducal Ministers were each given equal status, instead of the imperial chancellor dominating the other two. QUOTE: "Thus the emperor rose from his seat and descended from his carriage when he met one of the Three Ducal Ministers. All officials had to salute them."
Page 86: QUOTE: "As a rule, only officials of similar ranks who treated each other as equals or near-equals associated with each other, and families of such officials tended to intermarry. Children of a high official, particularly a marquis, often married a princess, prince, or king or became a consort of an emperor (an imperial concubine or an empress)."
Page 86-87: Officials as a whole enjoyed a greater quality of life than most of the populace. According to sumptuary laws, various special carriage designs were assigned to officials of different ranks, along with other luxurious indicators of status. QUOTE: "In the early days of the Early Han, since most of the newly appointed officials were military men who cared very little about their carriages or garments, the emperor complained of their wearing ordinary dress that did not differ from the people's. For this reason a regulation was put into effect that those whose dress, carriage, horses, and attendants were not in accordance with their official posts and those who went to the villages without observing the proper decorum would be subject to punishment."
Page 88: QUOTE: "A great distance was always maintained between officials and commoners. When an official's carriage reached the village gate, all the people, including the elders, always ran and hid themselves (HS 46:2b-3a). There was very little social communication between the two classes. Probably wealthy merchants were the only ones able to associate with the officials. In any case, association with officials always meant honor and prestige...Chances for social communication between officials and commoners were very few. If there were any, the humility of the commoner was always observed."

Wealth of Officials

Page 89: QUOTE: "Officials, whose functions contributed the most to society, were rewarded with high salaries and better living conditions. Theoretically, the higher a person's virtue and ability, the higher the rank he would occupy, and consequently the larger his salary would be. Obviously this kind of theory assumed that in a society in good order the virtuous and intelligent persons would be appointed to the government. Thus to be poor and humble in such a society was considered shameful by Confucius. An inferior position and poor income meant that one was not virtuous and not intelligent."
Page 89: QUOTE: The ranks of officials in the Han were indicated by piculs, varying from 10,000 piculs down to 100; the salaries actually received varied from 4,200 to 192 piculs a year...According to Li K'uei, a farmer owning 100 mou of land had an annual income of 150 piculs. Therefore, a 2,000-picul official's income was about ten times that much. Even the official of the lowest rank (100 piculs) had an income that was slightly more than the farmer's, for 150 piculs was an optomistic estimate; furthermore, the farmer did not always have a good harvest, and he was subject to all kinds of government taxes...Officials were far better off than a small landowner. In fact, the salary received by most of the officials was sufficient to maintain a good standard of living and a style of life appropriate to the status group. Let us take the example of Kung Yü...he received 110,000 cash a year when holding an 800-picul rank, and he later received 144,000 cash a year when promoted to the rank of 2,000 piculs...Since ten catties of gold (one hundred thousand cash) was considered the value of the property of an average middle-class family (HS 4:19a), this means that the yearly salary of such an official was the equivalent of the total property of a middle-class family."
Page 90: In the case of Gong Yu, when he became an official of the 800-picul rank, he earned a monthly salary of 9,200 cash, in addition to various gifts given to him by the emperor which included silk, cotton, clothes, wine, meat, and fruit. When he obtained the Equivalent to 2,000-picul rank, his monthly salary was increased to 12,000 cash.
Page 90: QUOTE: "Other extra income of officials, whether lawful or not, should also be taken into account: the higher the rank the more extra income one could usually get. Many officials got magnificent incomes from their fiefs, and both consort members and meritorious officials were ennobled as marquises with households varying from several hundred to more than ten thousand."
Page 90-91: On the average income collected by a marquis as described in the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian, QUOTE: "Assuming that on the average two hundred cash was collected from each household, the historian figured out that a marquis given one thousand households would have an annual income of two hundred thousand cash (SC 129:14b). However, the tax in question was not a sort of household tax; it was the poll tax and land tax that a marquis was entitled to collect from the various households specified in the ennoblement. The poll tax (suan fu...) per capita was 120 cash, form which the marquis paid 63 to the emperor as tribute (hsien-fu...) and retained 57...If the family members of a household averaged four adults, the marquis would receive 228 cash per household in his fief; it would be very close to 200 if the average was three and a half adults."
Page 92-93: QUOTE: "Officials frequently received gifts from the emperor. They consisted of gold, houses, farms, or slaves. The gifts received by one imperial chancellor totaled tens of millions of cash (HS 81:13b). It was not unusual to give several hundred or a thousand mou of land to an official. In an extraordinary case the emperor gave 100,000 mou of land to a single person (HS 86:12a). Some officials increased their wealth enormously through corruption and other unlawful means. For these reasons, entering officialdom always brought great fortune. A man would change from poor to rich overnight. Many poor people who could hardly support themselves and their families became rich after their appointments. A man who started his official career as a subordinate possessing only a horse accumulated a wealth of a hundred million cash when he reached the status of a high official (HS 60:2a)."
Page 93-94: QUOTE: "Nearly all officials invested their money in land. One general bought much land, with houses and slaves, for his father (HS 68:1b); and the wife of a general who was on the battlefield bought land at home (HHS 18:11b-12a). It was generally considered that landed property was the most secure investment and that family wealth could bes be handed down to future generations if it was in the form of land...officials usually bought the most fertile land."
Page 94: QUOTE: "Some officials invested their money in businesses and handicrafts for more profit. Chang An-shih...accumulated his wealth because his wife wove and the family slaves were engaged in various kinds of handicrafts."
Page 94: QUOTE: "Because of their wealth, officials usually enjoyed a luxurious life. Many officials built large houses that they filled with precious articles. Emperor Ch'eng complained that many nobles and officials were expanding their residences, ponds, and gardens, keeping a great number of slaves, wearing luxurious garments, possessing musical instruments, and keeping singing girls and dancing girls that went beyond the sumptuary regulations (HS 10:13b)."

Privileges of Officials

Page 94: QUOTE: "Officials were the privileged class. They enjoyed a monopoly of certain material goods, which was accorded to them in the sumptuary laws. Under the privilege of jen-tzu, children and junior relatives of high officials were automatically entitled to enter officialdom. And the system of recommendations usually worked to their benefit. Although recommendation was open to all, most of those recommended by lcoal authorities were family members of officials. This was particularly noticeable in the Later Han. By this means they more or less monopolized preferential opportunities for obtaining office."
Page 94-95: QUOTE: "Officials also had many regular privileges. First of all, their arrest had to be approved by the emperor prior to any action, a privilege known as hsien-ch'ing...(previous request). In some cases a court discussion was held before the emperor, but the final decision was in his hands."
Page 95: In the Early Han the privilege of previous request was granted to all officials from the rank of 600 piculs up; it was even granted to the gentlemen of the palace (lang-chung...), who only held a rank of 'equivalent to 300 piculs,' when their crimes deserved a punishment of more than nai...(or erh...), a punishment which left the criminal's head unshaved...no action could be taken if the request was disapproved by the emperor."
Page 96: QUOTE: "In the Later Han similar legal privileges were extended even to officials holding ranks lower than 600 piculs; for example, the chiefs of small prefectures and the chancellors of marquisates...whose ranks were only 300 or 400 piculs, enjoyed this privilege."
Page 96: QUOTE: "Officials, when arrested, were imprisoned and fettered in the same way as commoners. An edict was issued in 195 B.C. by Emperor Hui that any official who held the title of wu ta-fu...whose rank was more than 600 piculs, or who had served the emperor and was known by him was not to be fettered...When trials were in progress, officials were not exempted from torture."
Page 97: QUOTE: "Officials could not be sentenced and punished by the legal authorities without the approval of the emperor. During the Han many high-ranking officials were executed. Many others escaped execution by committing suicide, either voluntarily or because they were told to. Some officials committed suicide before arrest to avoid punishment. Such action was usually encouraged by their subordinates and students, who were more interested in decorum than in the lives of the top officials to whom they were attached. It was traditionally held that an imperial chancellor or a general should not appear before the judicial authorities to defend himself...At the same time, induced suicide was also institutionalized as a formal action in lieu of execution."

Eunuchs

Page 97-98: QUOTE: "The status of eunuchs was a very complicated one. On the one hand, they were commonly humiliated because of their castration. This can be seen in the subjective evaluation of the eunuchs themselves...That castration was considered more shameful than any other kind of mutilation seems to have its roots in the traditional attitude of the supremacy of the male. Castration, which made family continuation impossible and thus hampered ancestor worship, certainly took away the main role of a male descendant in a family. At the same time castration deprived a man of his masculinity and forced him to take up a semi-feminine role in society. This meant great frustration in a society in which male superiority was widely accepted."
Page 99: QUOTE: "In regards to the attitudes of Yuan Ang and Sima Qian, QUOTE: "It is understandable that a man who had become a regular member of the bureaucracy, the most honorable channel of social mobility, would look down upon a eunuch. And it is also understandable that a man would be depressed if he were forced to change his status from that of an official to that of a eunuch. But the situation and attitude might be different for a poor family that could hardly support its children. Having their sons castrated so that they could become eunuchs was an easy solution to an economic problem. They did not have to borrow money for capital, which was required for almost any business. The job also required no long-term professional training. Furthermore, this job also provided a channel for social mobility that might lead to wealth and power. This certainly was an attraction for those who lacked reading ability and other qualifications required for entering officialdom, but who sought ways of social mobility. This kind of attitude must have existed at a time when people began to realize that eunuch-status brought the same kind of fortune and power that officials enjoyed, while painstaking preparations were required only for the latter."
Page 99-100: QUOTE: "Here we must make a distinction between ordinary eunuchs and those who held superior posts and were entrusted with power. Their status and prestige must have been very different. There were hose petty eunuchs who rendered all kinds of domestic services within the palace. There were also eunuchs who supervised other eunuchs who were in charge of matters concerning the imperial concubines, various imperial parks and gardens, various sacrifices within the palace, and so forth. Above all of them were those who attended the emperor and whose duties were more or less associated with the administration of court affairs—providing informtion to the emperor, receiving memorials from officials, announcing imperial edicts, serving as ushers in the court when a king paid a visit to the emperor, and also serving as ushers in the inner palace and accompanying the emperor there. The bureaucratic hierarchy among the eunuchs was officially recognized and institutionalized. The ranks held by the eunuchs varied from 100 piculs up to 'equivalent to 2,000 piculs'. Eunuchs were thus given both superior bureaucratic status and a high official salary comparable to that of the officials. The status of eunuchs in the Later Han was even higher because the rank of the regular palace attendant (chung-ch'ang-shih...) was raised from 1,000 piculs to 'equivalent to 2,000 piculs,' and some of them were even ennobled as marquises. Their success in political affairs certainly had a great effect on their status: it offset the general attitude of humiliation of the eunuchs by society."
Page 100: QUOTE: "Many people sought to be the adopted sons of eunuchs. Apparently this was because the adopted heir of an ennobled eunuch—whether of the same family or of a different surname—was allowed to inherit his noble title (HHS 78:12a-b; III, 64). Obviously this provided one of the easiest ways of social mobility—a way which was impossible under the usual rule, according to which a son or a close relative of a noneunuch was allowed to inherit a noble title."
Page 100-101: For example, the father of Cao Cao, Cao Song, was the adopted son of an ennobled eunuch. Cao Song inherited the marquisate and even became the Grand Commandant, one of the Three Ducal Ministers.
Page 101: QUOTE: "The wealth, status, and power of eunuchs in the Later Han was so impressive that many persons castrated themselves and their sons in order to become eunuchs (HHS 78:5a)."

Commoners

Page 101: QUOTE: "Commoners were traditionally classified in the following order: scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants. The classification was not an arbitrary one, but implied the evaluation of the four main occupations and represented a ranking of occupational groups. Although sometimes merchants were mentioned before artisans, scholars and farmers were always the first to be mentioned, and scholars always headed the list. This suggests that artisans and merchants had a more or less similar position, but scholars and farmers were always superior to them, in the order mentioned."

Scholars

Page 101: QUOTE: "The term shih 士, in its broad sense, included both scholars who had already entered officialdom and the commoner-scholars. Since the vast majority of the civil officials had been students and many of them still were scholars, the distinction between scholars and officials was not clear-cut, and the two usually overlapped. The term in its narrow sense, however, referred only to those who were engaged in study or teaching and who had not yet entered officialdom. The group included those who sought to enter officialdom as well as those who refused to enter. Once they were appointed they were considered not scholars but officials."
Page 101-102: QUOTE: "Scholars had the highest status among the commoners, for they were the only group engaged in mental labor, which was traditionally considered superior to physical labor. Knowledge of the classics, which was a prerequisite for official appointment, was highly valued in Chinese society. The scholars, possessing such qualifications, were thus potential candidates for officialdom, the most honored position in society. In fact civil officials were mainly recruited from the scholars. Entrance to officialdom was open to them in many ways. One way was to become a student in the Imperial Academy (pi-yung...), studying under the erudites. In the Early Han, after a year of study in the Academy, the students were given a test and those who had mastered one subject or more were appointed men of letters (wen-hsüeh...) or masters of precedents (chang-ku...); those whose achievements were rated excellent were eligible to be gentlemen of the palace (HS 88:4b-6a). In Wang Mang's time and during the Later Han, students were appointed gentlemen of the palace, members of the retinue of the heir apparent (t'ai-tzu she-jen...), men of letters, or masters of precedents, according to the results of the tests. They could then be promoted to erudites and other higher posts."
Page 102: QUOTE: "Scholars were also frequently recommended by the various officials of the central and local governments as 'men of wisdom and virtue' when an edict was issued for such recommendations. After arrival in the capital the candidate wrote an essay in answer to questions put by the emperor and was then appointed to a post according to his success in answering the questions; usually the man whose essay pleased the emperor was given a high post. One man who was recommended and made an erudite later became the imperial chancellor."
Page 102: QUOTE: "Outstanding scholars with unusual reputations and academic accomplishments, such as famous teachers, were usually summoned with great honor to the imperial court and appointed erudites or were named to higher posts such as grand administrator or minister...Scholars were often appointed by grand administrators and other high officials as their subordinates. This practice was particularly popular in the Later Han. Many outstanding scholars were appointed by the Three Ducal Ministers and grand generals."
Page 102: QUOTE: "Scholars could present memorials directly to the emperor to recommend themselves. It was said that about one thousand scholars attempted to show off their talents by this means in Emperor Wu's time."
Page 103: QUOTE: "The socio-economic status of scholars varied: some were rich, some were poor; some were descendants of officials' families, and some were commoners. There were also different kinds of scholars. They were either (1) professional teachers, (2) students enrolled in the Imperial Academy, (3) students studying in the schools sponsored by commandery governments, (4) students of the professional teachers, or (5) self-taught students. It was not uncommon for a scholar to open a school in a village or town, and sometimes a moderate house was built especially for this purpose (HHS 57:9b, 33 b). A single teacher might have from several hundred to more than a thousand students. Since tuition was expected from every student—one students who was too poor to pay picked up firewood and performed various services for his fellow students (II, 66)—a teacher with hundreds of students must have had a considerable income. The teaching profession seems to have been a decent one and one sought by many people (HHS 79B:6a, 7a, 14b). A teacher in a village was usually respected by the villagers and assumed leadership in the community; for example, he was usually sought as an arbitrator in disputes (HHS 67:27b). Many teachers became erudites and some became officials of high rank—grand administrators and ministers. One was even appointed imperial chancellor."
Page 103: QUOTE: "Among the students, the status of those who studied at the Imperial Academy was superior. Students who studied under the erudites were selected from persons above the age of eighteen by the grand minister of ceremonies (t'ai-ch'ang...). Also, those who were interested in literature and who behaved well could be recommended by the local authorities to study at the Academy (HS 88:4b)."
Page 103-104: When Emperor Wu of Han established the Imperial Academy, it had only fifty students. Under Emperor Zhao of Han, this was increased to one hundred; under Emperor Xuan of Han it was two hundred; under Emperor Yuan of Han it was one thousand; under Emperor Cheng of Han it was the same number, although for a short time it reached three thousand; under the usurper Wang Mang it reached ten thousand; after a period of decline during Emperor An of Han's reign, the Academy ballooned in size and hosted as much as 30,000 students by the time of Emperor Huan of Han.
Page 104: QUOTE: "Prominent officials often sought to associate with famous scholars. In one instance two renowned scholars purposely declined to receive high officials who had come to visit them in order to impress others...The influence of the students of the Imperial Academy was also manifested in their role in shaping the popular opinion of the scholar-officials, that is, in their expression of approval or disapproval of the behavior of others. Their criticism affected both a person's reputation and his political career. Appointments made by high officials were often based on their evaluation (HSS 67:5a-6a)."
Page 104: QUOTE: "The influence of the students of the Imperial Academy is fully illustrated in the politcal movement against the powerful eunuchs in the second century. They were really the backbone of support for the group of officials and members of the consort family who fought against the eunuchs. The association of the officials and the students and the fact that leaders of the students, Kuo T'ai and Chia Piao...were also leaders of the movement and that their names were listed by their followers togeher with those officials of high integrity as eminent leaders are indicators of their superior prestige (HSS 67:5a-6a)."
Page 104-105: QUOTE: "It is obvious that only those scholars whose families were rich enough or who were lucky enough to be supported by their family members could be free to be full-time scholars; all others had to support themselves by some kind of work. With the exception of a bookseller (II, 82) and a drug seller (II, 81) none of them engaged in trade. It seems that scholars avoided becoming merchants, whose status was an unfavorable one and a hindrance to an official career. Bookselling was the exception, probably because it was connected with study and was therefore not looked down upon by society as were the ordinary trades. Farming was one of the most favored occupations for the scholar, probably because it was an honorable one and was considered more acceptable than other kinds of labor. Many scholars...engaged in farming...Poor students often supported themselves in other humble occupations.. A poor scholar maintained a humble living by gathering and selling firewood...A number of students supported themselves by being wage laborers...Although a humble occupation was generally a status disqualification, it seems that a scholar who engaged in such an occupation would not be looked down upon by society."
Page 105: QUOTE: "A similar attidue is found also in cases where scholars engaged in other kinds of humble occupations. The student who hired himself out to husk rice for others did not lose his status as a student of the Imperial Academy; on the contrary, he won the friendship of a prefect (HHS 64:2b). Another poor student of the Imperial Academy was a painter and was respected by Kuo T'ai and Ts'ai Yung, the leading scholars of his time (HHS 53:12a)."
Page 106: Pig breeders were another occupational group which were somewhat respectable if they were also scholars who performed the job simply to advance their future career and aims to be an official. For example, Gongsun Hong, the first commoner-scholar in the Han Dynasty to be appointed Chancellor yet lacking a marquis title and military background, was a pig breeder.
Page 106: QUOTE: "Sorcery and trading wree the only humble occupations that were detrimental to a scholar's official career...Another scholar avoided official appointment by announcing that his family had practiced sorcery."
Page 106-107: QUOTE: "Scholars who had been summoned and appointed by the imperial court or high officials obviously had more prestige than those hwo had never been summoned. It seems that the moe a man was summoned the more prestige he had, and scholars in general were pleased at the public recognition that such summonses brought them. However, it was not absolutely necessary for a scholar to become an official in order to maintain his prestige. In fact there was a tendency in the Later Han for scholars to decline the summonses and the appointments. Declining meant purity and loftiness in character; hence declining brought even more prestige. It seems that the scholar's status was determined mainly by his academic accomplishments and personal integrity rather than by such factors as official rank."
Page 107: In the Eastern Han period, QUOTE: "scholars were highly respected and were given opportunities to move up in the class structure by official appointment. It was also a period in which the commoner-scholars could have a status comparable to that of the officials, and in exceptional cases a commoner-scholar with outstanding accomplishments could even have more prestige than officials."

Farmers

Page 107-108: The socio-economic life of the Chinese farmer changed drastically after the abolition of the feudal land system in favor of private ownership, a Qin State policy of Shang Yang during the 4th century BC. QUOTE: "In feudal times only the feudal lords owned landed property, which was in the form of a seigniory or manor, and those who cultivated the land for their lords were serfs. They were not free and were obliged to pay dues and render corvée, including military service. After the new law was introduced, people were free to buy and sell land. But not all owners were cultivators: those wealthy people, such as merchants, who were able to buy a large amount of land were either unable or unwilling to cultivate it themselves; on the other hand, most of those who cultivated the land were too poor to buy any, so it was unequally distributed among the population."
Page 108: According to Ch'ü, Dong Zhongshu was QUOTE: "a Han political thinker who was concerned with the problem of the unequal distribution of land and traced its origin back to Shang Yang's policy, 'the rich owned land piece after piece, while the poor did not own enough on which to stand an awl' (HS 24A:14b). These landless people naturally became the tenants of the wealthy owners and paid them a fixed amount of rent, usually 50 per cent of their produce. Or they became wage laborers and worked on the farms of others."
Page 108-109: QUOTE: In this section, Ch'ü does not discuss or factor in the wealthy nobles, officials, and merchants were were large landowners. These latter three groups were engaged in professions and functions other than agriculture; they acted merely as QUOTE: "absentee landlords who lived in the city and collected rent from their tenants and performed no managerial or supervisory activities." In this section, Ch'ü concerns himself the small proprietors and ordinary landowners engaged primarily or solely in agriculture.
Page 109-110: What were the conditions of average farmer in the Han, who had a family of five and 100 mou of land? Chao Cuo discussed this in his memorial to the throne in 178 BC. Each family had to work in the fields, gather firewood, and have two people from the family attend to the government's corvée labor needs. If only 100 piculs of grain could be gathered from 100 mou of land, it would not be enough to cover the costs of hosting guests, going to funerals, taking care of the sick, and raising children. When a calamity occurred or when the government imposed an exceptional tax on the people, many farmers had to sell their land, their houses, their wives, and their children just to pay off the debt, and some became fugitives.
Page 110: A property of 30 mou could not produce enough food to support more than two people. A family with about 130 mou could live with the average amount of family members with at least coarse clothing and some husks and beans to eat.
Page 110-111: People who were landless became tenants of the wealthy landowners; the former had to pay the latter 50 percent of their harvest as rent. If officials were greedy and cruel with the tenants, the latter were often driven into banditry to make a living. The wage laborer did not fare too much better either, as work was often irregular and not always available.
Page 111: The small landowner was superior to the tenants and wage laborers, while the large landowners were superior in status compared to the small landowners.
Page 111: QUOTE: "The farmer's work was considered productive and fundamental, for it supplied food for society. The work of merchants and artisans, on the other hand, was nonproductive and secondary. It follows that farmers contributed more to society and deserved more rewards; theoretically they had a social and legal status superior to merchants and artisans. There were no special sumptuary laws against the farmers as there were against the merchants. On the contrary, the title 'diligent farmer' (li-t'ien...) was specifically created to encourage farmers; those who received this title were exempted from corvée for life and sometimes were given land or silk as rewards. Moreover, farmers could enter an official career by recommendation."
Page 111: QUOTE: "But social reality did not correspond to the ideal. Merchants possessed wealth and controlled the life chances of farmers, and they enjoyed material comforts and were respected by society. Farmers were looked down upon by society because of their poverty."
Page 111-112: QUOTE: "Although legally farmers were permitted to enter officialdom, because of poverty and lack of leisure time to study most farmers were illiterate, and rarely did a farmer have a chance of being recommended for officialdom. In one instance a farmer who personally cultivated his land was appointed to office by a grand administrator; later he was offered the position of grand administrator (II, 84). The famous scholar Cheng Hsüan, who did some farming and was followed by a thousand students, was recommended and appointed to official posts several times and was even assigned to such a high post as minister of agriculture. An agricultural laborer in the Later Han who studied in his leisure time was recommended as 'filially pious and incorrupt,' appointed prefect, and later promoted to the post of grand administrator (II, 75). But cases like these were rare."

Artisans

Page 112: QUOTE: "Our knowledge about the lives of artisans is limited because very little information is available. The only valuable information provided by a Han historian is that the economic position of the artisans was somewhere between that of merchants and farmers. In other words, artisans made more money than farmers but less than merchants (SC 129:15b). A craftsman who made knives and swords is mentioned in the biography of merchants, where it says that he became wealthy and was able to eat the food usually enjoyed by nobles and officials (HS 91:11a)."
Page 112: QUOTE: "Artisans had a more favorable legal position than merchants, who were not allowed to wear silks or ride on horses and in carriages. There were no such sumptuary laws regarding artisans. Nor were artisans legally prohibited from entering officialdom. Apparently these laws gave artisans a legal status superior to merchants and assured them of more social mobility, particularly through the channel of officialdom."
Page 112-113: After relating the story about the painter who was a student at the Academy and who declined several offers for appointments to office, Ch'ü says: QUOTE: "Obviously this contrasts with the general attitude toward merchants: an official who appointed a merchant was impeached, and in another case a man avoided an appointment by saying that he was a merchant."
Page 113: The four occupations were listed in the Han in this descending order of social status: scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants, the latter theoretically at the bottom of the hierarchy. However, Ch'ü argues that artisans seem to have had a social status which was similar to that of the merchants and superior to that of many of the farmers. Artisans could also associate themselves with high officials, thus enhancing their social prestige.

Merchants

Page 113: QUOTE: "The term 'merchant' in Ch'in and Han times referred not only to various traders and shopkeepers but also included persons engaged in mining (particularly iron and cinnabar), salt manufacturing, cattle and pig breeding, raising fish, manufacturing, and money-lending. Frequently a person had more than one occupation, such as a combination of farming, animal breeding, and trade."
Page 113-114: Animal breeders and merchants often invested their money in land, despite the law enacted in 119 BC which prohobited merchants from owning land. This law was not taken seriously, as writers in the Han explicitly mentioned the merchants owning large amounts of land.
Page 114: Artisans made more money than farmers but less than the merchants. Chao Cuo Compared the humble farmer with the wealthy merchant, stating that the latter wore silk clothes, ate good grain and meat, and rode around in well-built carriages pulled by fat horses.
Page 114: QUOTE: "Of course there were peddlers and merchants with only a small amount of capital who lived on their small profits. Unfortunately their lives were overlooked by ancient historians, so our knowledge concerning them is very limited. We only know of those who made fortunes in various businesses. A seller of dry tripe is said to have traveled with a long chain of outriders. A retailer of suet and a dealer in sauces each accumulated a wealth of ten million cash (HS 91:10b-11a). These seem rather exceptional. A trader who had property worth one thousand catties of gold (ten million cash) was classified as a big merchant (II, 3, 30). This amount is a hundredfold more than that possessed by an average middle-class family, and because of the size of this fortune, such a merchant and his family were among those moved by the government to the mausoleum towns. (Usually a family with a fortune of one to three million was ordered to move to a certain place designated by the government.)"
Page 114-115: In his Records of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian writes that if a person, whether he be a farmer, merchant, or artisan, made a capital investment of one million cash and earned 20 percent profit from it, he would have an annual income of two hundred thousand cash. This was equal to the annual income that a marquis enfeoffed with a thousand households would make. Needless to say, a merchant with this kind of money lived well, ate nice food, and had nice clothes. Thus, Sima Qian points out that a man with ten million cash could live as well as the lord of a large city, while a man with one hundred million cash could live like a king.
Page 115-116: The salt and iron industries were the most lucrative industries which were controlled by the merchants in early Western Han, described in Sima's chapter titled "Biographies of Moneymakers." The salt manufacturer Dongguo Xianyang owned one thousand catties of gold, which equalled ten million cash. The Zhuo family is described as owning a thousand slaves, lands with large ponds and areas for hunting which were suitable for a ruler. A Bing family in Shandong is said to have had as much as one hundred million cash, which was equal to ten thousand catties of gold. Cinnabar mining in Sichuan was very lucrative. The sheep breeder Bu Shi was wealthy enough to voluntarily donate two thousand cash to the government.
Page 116: In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Fan family made profits from trade, farming, fish raising, and animal breeding which allowed them to purchase 300 qing of land and accumulated a wealth of one hundred million cash. Shisun Fen, a wealthy man who lived in Luoyang, had a fortune of about one hundred seventy million cash and was able to loan thirty million cash to Liang Ji (d. 159 AD) at one point. Two horse traders each had a wealth of one thousand catties of gold (ten million cash) and it was their aid which enabled Liu Bei to gather his followers in fighting off the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Liu Bei also relied on a rich man named Mi Zhu, who owned ten thousand slaves and had a wealth of one hundred million cash. Mi Zhu's sister married Liu Bei, and for this occasion Mi gave Liu two thousand slaves and guests as well as gold, silver, and cash to fund his troops.
Page 116-117: Thus the merchants had a wealth comparable to that of the highest officials who similarly made a hundred million cash. The greatest fortune amassed in Han times is said to have been three billion cash, supposedly accumulated by the corrupt official Liang Ji (look to HHS 34:25a).
Page 117-118: Merchants during the Qin Dynasty not only had social prestige, but were also not barred from serving political office. The sumptuary laws against merchants in Han did not exist during the Qin. Some very wealthy merchants were even treated as feudal lords when in the presence of Qin Shi Huang. There is only one significant discriminatory law against merchants known from the Qin (which forced some merchants to become frontier soldiers and sent them to conquer parts of Guangdong and Guangxi), but this was not established until 214 BC.
Page 118: In contrast, throughout the course of the Han Dynasty there were many regulations imposed on the merchants which made them legally inferior to other classes. Emperor Wu of Han, like Qin Shi Huang, sent some merchants to the borders to act as frontier guards and garrison troops. The Han founder, Emperor Gaozu of Han, intended to humble the merchants by sending out an edict which prohibited them from wearing brocades, embroideries, silks, and other fine cloths. This edict also banned their right to carry weapons and riding on horses.
Page 118-119: Emperor Wu made certain to impose heavy taxes on the merchants' properties, collecting dues on everything from their small carts to their boats. If merchants lied to tax collectors about the amount of properties they owned and thus were not assessed, the government could confiscate their property, forcing some to go bankrupt. Another edict by Emperor Wu attempted to ban merchants from owning land, and if it was found that they did own land, then it and the slaves who lived on it would be confiscated by the government. This same prohibition was issued again in an edict of 7 BC.
Page 119: The founder Emperor Gaozu ordered that merchants were not allowed to enter officialdom, a rule which was strictly enforced until the reign of Emperor Wu. In order to aid the government in maintaining its finances to keep up with the war against the Xiongnu, the expertise of the merchants had to be sought. Therefore, Dongguo Xianyang, a salt manufacturer, and Kong Jin, an iron manufacturer, were appointed as assistants to the Minister of Agriculture. Due to the suggestions of these two, the salt and iron industries were placed under the control of the Minister of Agriculture as government monopolies. Many other merchants were thereafter drafted into the government to handle these two industries. Kong Jin was even appointed as Minister of Agriculture. Sang Hongyang, the son of a merchant, was put in charge of accounting for that ministry due to his expertise in calculating finances; he was later made Chief Commandant for Grain and then acting Minister of Agriculture in place of Kong Jin. In the culmination of his career, Sang Hongyang became the Grandee Secretary.
Page 119: The first two merchants, Dongguo Xianyang and Kong Jin, opened the door for other merchants to enter officialdom. However, after Sang Hongyang rebelled in his post during the reign of the following emperor, no other merchant became a prominent official in Western Han. The law banning merchants from becoming officials was restated in the edict of 7 BC enacted by Emperor Ai of Han, suggesting that this rule had become very lax under Emperor Wu of Han.
Page 119: Breaking with the original tradition once more, Wang Mang appointed many merchants to official posts, yet none of them were given a post higher than the rank-salary of 600 piculs (or 600 bushels). They were given posts in the Ministry of Agriculture while many were sent out to supervise the government monopolies. One wealthy merchant was appointed as the supervisor of markets in the capital, while two others were appointed as communicators for Wang Mang.
Page 119-120: In the Eastern Han, the merchants were still forbidden from riding on horses or in carriages. The merchants wore the color of white, indicating their lower legal status and the sumptuary laws against them. There are no records for Eastern Han indicating that merchants were forcefully sent to the border garrisons as soldiers, but a good amount of merchants were recruited into the army. Sun Jian was able to raise an army of a thousand which comprised msotly skilled soldiers and merchants.
Page 121: Like Wang Mang, the Emperor Gengshi of Han appointed merchants as officials. A merchant who had been an official under Wang Mang not only went on to serve Emperor Guangwu of Han, but he also became Grand Minister of Works, was enfeoffed as a marquis, and married an imperial princess. Mi Zhu, the wealthy grandson of a merchant, was appointed as an official under the administration of Tao Qian (Three Kingdoms); after this, he also became an official under Cao Cao, and then became a military general under Liu Bei (who married Mi's sister).
Page 121-122: However, merchants were still seen as socially inferior to officials, and for a person from a family of officials to become a merchant was a great disgrace to that family. For example, Cui Shi, QUOTE: "the son of a high official who sold all his family property for his father's funeral and then supported himself by selling wine, was ridiculed by his contemporaries (HHS 52:26a-b)."
Page 122: Despite the inferior legal status of merchants and the unfavorable view of them by the scholars and officials, the merchants were still able to accumulate tremendous wealth and thus built associations with nobles and officials who were in power of the government. To have associations with prestigious groups such as nobles and officials was to have social prestige, thus the merchants were able to offset some of the negative attitudes which were aimed at them.

Other occupations

Physicians

Page 123: Physicians not only made a good living from their specialized profession, but they were also able to serve in officialdom. For example, the prosperous physician Hua Tuo was recommended as 'filially pious and incorrupt' by the chancellor of the Pei Kingdom and was summoned by the grand commandant. Another physician was appointed as the grand palace grandee and prefect of the gentlemen of the palace, while his sons also became officials. The brother of a woman physician who became associated with the empress dowager was appointed as chief commandant.
Page 123: Nevertheless, Hua Tuo was actually ashamed of his position, which he deemed not as honorable as a scholar's or an official's position in society.
Page 123: QUOTE: "Another example also shows that the status of a physician was humble. A man whose father was a veterinarian for cows was described as coming from a family that had been 'poor and humble for generations.' A veterinarian's status would probably have been inferior to an ordinary physician's; however, it did not preclude his entrance to officialdom. The veterinarian's son was recommended by the local authorities as 'filially pious and incorrupt' and later summoned by the central government."

Occultists

Page 123-124: Those with careers in occultism during the Han were largely concerned with alchemy and communicating with the immortals in the spirit world. Some of these occultists were even employed by the government where their services in sacrifices were needed. If they were able to convince an emperor of their supernatural powers, they would be granted official titles and lots of wealth. Emperor Wen of Han made one occultist as grandee (dafu), while Emperor Wu of Han gave one occultist the title of a general and ennobled another as a marquis over two thousand households and a personal estate with a thousand slaves and luxurious furnishings. This occultist even married a princess, while he often had nobles and officials over at his mansion to drink wine. However, such cases were very rare during the Han. Most occultists were simply asked to perform sacrifices and were never appointed as officials or given grandiose titles.
Page 124: In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Cao had three prominent occultists summoned to his court and appointed them as military officials.
Page 124-125: Some occultists could be classified as diviners. Jia Yi was once impressed with a famous diviner. Divination became even more popular during the Eastern Han when the chanwei or apocryphal texts on prognostics flourished. It was considered a scholarly pursuit to study astrology, which was heavily associated with divination, yet the nonprofessional scholar-official diviner was considered higher in status than a professional diviner who spent his whole career in the occultist arts and nothing else. In general, the occupation of the diviner was a humble one which did not earn much income or garner much prestige.
Page 125: There is not much information on physiognomists; a woman physiognomist is mentioned in the biography on Zhou Yafu of the Western Han period, while a professional physiognomist was made a gentleman of the court by Cao Cao.
Page 125: Another group of occultists practiced sorcery; there were both sorcerers and sorceresses. These occultists would pray and dance during sacrifices and were supposed to conjure up spirits through their incantations. They thus served as a medium whose bodies were supposedly taken over by spirits in order to communicate with them. Some sorcerers and sorceresses could also allegedly heal the sick and ill.
Page 126: Not only was sorcery a humble profession, but those who practiced it seemed to be barred from serving in officialdom. Gao Feng was one scholar who avoided an appointment to office by proclaiming that he was from a sorcerer's family, hence disqualifying him for the job.

Butchers

Page 126: The position of a butcher was a humble one during the Han and did not provide one with any social prestige. Mi Heng QUOTE: "once used the epithets 'butcher and wine-seller'" to humiliate two officials he did not respect."
Page 126-127: Despite this, butchers were allowed to enter officialdom. In one exceptional case, the butcher Fan Kuai, who had been a follower of Liu Bang during the civil war, became a high official, was ennobled as a marquis, and married the sister of Empress Lü Zhi. Towards the end of Eastern Han a lady who came from a family of butchers was appointed to become a concubine of the inner palace and then became empress in 179 AD; since only girls from "good families" were allowed into the inner palace, this would seem to indicate that a butcher family, although humble, was nonetheless considered a good family. When this empress's son took the throne and she became empress dowager, both her father and mother were ennobled while her brother, He Jin, became the grand general.
Page 126-127: Her brother He Jin was the leader in the politial fight against the eunuchs and was supported by many eminent families of officials, indicating QUOTE: "that butchers were not categorized wit those who were prohibited from an official career."

Runners

Page 127: QUOTE: "The occupation of government runner was considered a humble one. The fact that a former student of the Imperial Academy changed his name when he served as a street runner implies that engaging in such an occupation made him feel ashamed. An inspector of a regional division who had studied in the Imperial Academy with him regretted that his former colleague had become a runner and ordered the prefect to replace him (II, 52); however, it seems that there was no discrimination against a runner that prohibited him from entering officialdom, for this runner later became a grand administrator."

Guests

Page 127: "Guests" (binke or ke) in Han China meant one of two things: (1) a guest who had their own occupations and family but visited a host to be received and entertained by him, or (2) a distinct social class of retainers who lived on the property of a host and in return for services were supported by him. Only the latter group is the focus of this section of the chapter.
Page 127-128: A host maintaining "guests" was a tradition spanning back to the Warring States Period. Keeping a large number of guests served as a status symbol as well as a means to "augment political power" according to Ch'ü, since having a lot of loyal manpower meant you could coerce, threaten, or persuade others.
Page 128: QUOTE: "The host was expected to provide lodging, food, clothing, and even carriages for his guests and to treat them generously. Some of the most honored guests were even given luxurious articles; for example, a guest proudly wore a scabbard decorated with pearls and jade, and many of the guests of Huang Hsieh wore shoes decorated with pearls (SC 78:7b). Probably this served the function of conspicuous consumption, for it showed how wealthy the master was and how generously he treated his guests."
Page 128: QUOTE: "Obviously on the wealthy nobles and officials could afford to support a large number of guests."
Page 128: QUOTE: "Some masters received all kinds of people who came to them, and the home of such a person became a haven for fugitives and criminals. Even thieves were included."
Page 128-129: QUOTE: "The guest seldom had definite obligations, and usually no routine work was assigned to him. He was expected to render occasional service according to his abilities when there was such a demand...Sometimes the mission was difficult or even dangerous. A guest was expected to do what the master asked of him and even risk his life for him."
Page 129: QUOTE: "The social status of guests was not an inferior one. A master, though much superior in political and social status as well as in wealth, had to treat his guests politely...But guests did not all have the same status, nor were they all treated the same...Better food and carriages were given to those who lived in the first-grade residence...Only the most honored guests wore such luxury articles as shoes decorated with pearls...Those who were less respected always occupied seats of less honor and were looked down upon by the other guests...As a rule, those who engaged in humble occupations and were looked down upon by society were also held in less respect by this particular group...A man without special ability was also considered inferior by the master and by his fellow guests."
Page 129: QUOTE: "A guest was not permanently attached to a master, but was free to come and go. He could leave when he was not treated politely or when he disapproved of the behavior of the host (SC 75:3b, 76:1b, 77:7a). It was quite common for a guest to leave and to attach himself to a new host whom he admired. Frequently guests left their host when he lost his political status and power, and it was not uncommon for them to seek an opportunity to return when he regained power."
Page 130: Although masters during the Han Dynasty did not host several thousand guests each like the masters of the Warring States Period and Qin Dynasty, there were still some who had at the most a thousand guests; two contemporary kings and one general each had a thousand guests according to the Book of Han. The usual number for each master though was about several tens or hundreds of guests living on their estate. The number of guests kept by masters increased again to more than a thousand for each master during the Three Kingdoms; this was due to the chaos and displacement of many people in that period as well as the need for many masters to keep large numbers of retainers to defend themselves or acquire political power.
Page 130: As in pre-Han times, during the Han Dynasty many nobles and high officials hosted guests, but sometimes petty officials and even commoners had their own guests. The latter two groups did not have them in times before Han, showing that the practice was becoming very popular throughout various social classes.
Page 130-131: QUOTE: "Under the protection of a powerful master a guest usually was able to avoid the payment of taxes. Furthermore, the government had difficulty in levying labor and military service upon the guests of powerful persons. Under the protection of a master some guests engaged in robbery, murder, and other unlawful activities. As a rule guests gave only occasional service in return, and the kind of service varied according to the particular situation and the requests of the master. But as time went on guests began to render services more or less regularly, and gradually they assumed the role of a client or retainer. It seems that there developed a sort of patron-client relationship. The master became more demanding and arrogant, while the guests became more subservient."
Page 131-132: QUOTE: "Guests served in various capacities. There were intelligent men who served as personal advisors to high officials. Others were engaged in physical and menial work. Some guests served as bodyguards. It was not uncommon to ask a guest to assassinate an enemy. Under unusual conditions guests were even asked to engage in robbery and other unlawful activities. As a rule guests were expected to share the suffering of their master and offer help in times of emergency or danger. One man who was arrested by one of Wang Mang's officials was rescued forcibly by his guests. Guests also had obligations to defend the family of their master when it was attacked by bandits or enemies. It was a common practice for guests to follow their master to war...Retainers or guests became the core of the organized forces of the powerful families that took an active part in the rebellion against Wang Mang and in the power struggle during the transitional period at the end of Wang Mang's reign...Emperor Kuang-wu's military force was greatly strengthened by those persons who led a large number of guests and kinsmen and became his followers (I, 41, 42). The military services of guests obviously were a help in seeking military and political power. This was even more true at the end of the Later Han and in the era of the Three Kingdoms, when there were frequent wars and great disturbances and all powerful persons sought to organize forces strong enough to protect their families and properties or to seek political power to enable them to rule some territory."
Page 132-133: However, by the end of the 2nd century AD (a period of turmoil and rebellion), guests slowly became known as the buqu, or personal troops of a master, which significantly altered their role and status. QUOTE: "It is obvious that when guests became personal troops under the command of a private person, they became more dependent and lost their freedom of mobility. Since they were under more complete control, their status must have been inferior to what it had been in the earlier days. And in the earlier days guests had been kept as individuals...The attachment of the whole family of a guest to a master indicates that the master had more responsibility in the support of guests, but on the other hand the master extended his control over a whole family. Also the attachment was more permanent and required more loyalty."
Page 133: QUOTE: "Guestss were usually not asked to perform domestic or productive work in the pre-Ch'in through Early Han periods; however, there is evidence of a new trend in the first century A.D. Ma Yüan, who raised animals and cultivated land on the frontier, commanded the service of several hundred families who were attached to him as guests. Because of this he was able to raise seevral thousand livestock and accumulate several thousand piculs of grain. Later when he moved to the capital, he also asked his guests to encamp and cultivate land in the imperial park (HHS 24:2a, 5b). In the first instance he became wealthy by exploiting his guests. In the second, the guests supported themselves by their own labor. T'ao Hsi-sheng is right in pointing out that most of the guests in the Early Han did not engage in productive work but that from the end of the Early Han the guests participated in production, particularly in the cultivation of land."
Page 133-134: QUOTE: "This tendency was more dominant at the end of the Later Han and in the era of the Three Kingdoms. For example, a grand administrator sent ten of his guests to build a house and plant orange trees. The family derived a profit worth several thousand rolls of silk from the produce yearly and became wealthy. Obviously, the guests instead of being a burden to the master were exploited by him."
Page 134: QUOTE: "Sometimes guests were treated as slaves and servants...Since there are indications that these guests were transferred in the same manner as slaves, and that slaves and guests were expected to perform the same kind of menial work, we believe that though they were two distinct classes of persons, their status was more or less the same. This is further supported by evidence that in the Later Han a guest sometimes meant a hired servant who received definite wages. It was said that when a prefect was unable to own a slave he would have such a guest. Thus the evidence suggests that the fundamental difference between the two was that one was not free and the other was merely a hired laborer. The status and role of such a guest was not much different from that of a slave."
Page 134: Although during the Eastern Han the guests' status was lowered to that of a slave or servant, were more tightly controlled by their masters, and were given harsher treatment by their masters, guests of the Eastern Han were still able to come and go as they pleased, traveling from one master to the next as in earlier periods.
Page 135: QUOTE: "Before this section is concluded, the government policy toward guests should be discussed. A policy of noninterference was usually adopted by the government concerning the keeping of guests as long as the guests did not violate the law. Since they frequently engaged in unlawful activities, many of them were arrested and punished. The government also realized that keeping a number of guests meant power for their master, which constituted a potential threat; drastic measures were sometimes taken to reduce the power of such masters. Guests were sometimes even arrested with their master when he was found guilty and subject to punishment."

Slaves

Page 135: QUOTE: "At the bottom of the social strata were the slaves, whose social and legal status was most inferior. Special dress and decoration were designed particularly for this group to give them social dishonor. They had the most humble way of life, which clearly marked them off from the rest of the population. The social distance between slaves and free men was great: there was no social communication between them. Normally intermarriage between the two groups was prohibited. Social mobility among the slaves was very slight. In fact, they formed a caste rather than a class."

Enslavement

Page 136: During the Han Dynasty, a person could be enslaved by the government if his father or elder brother had committed a serious crime. A criminal's wife and children who were enslaved had their faces tattooed to mark their new status; by "criminal," this meant a serious crime that entailed execution, such as rebellion against the throne. The wives and children of the leaders of the Rebellion of the Seven States were all enslaved in 154 BC, but were pardoned fourteen years later. The law of collective enslavement of family members was abolished by Emperor Wen of Han for a short period but reinstated later and remained in place throughout the Han.
Page 136-137: The only time during the Han that criminals were made slaves and not convicts was during the reign of Wang Mang, who ordered in 10 AD that those caught counterfeiting and casting illegal coins would be enslaved along with their family.
Page 137: The government could also acquire more slaves if they were donated to the government or confiscated from private slaveholders. Emperor Wu of Han encouraged the donation of private slaves when he would reward the former slaveholder with exemption from mandatory labor service, appointment as a gentleman, or if already an official, a promotion in rank. Slaves could also be confiscated from those who broke the law; for example, if a merchant failed to assess his taxed property, he could have his slave confiscated.
Page 137-138: Slaves could also be obtained through capturing foreign enemies in warfare. For example, Jin Midi, the son of a Xiongnu king who was killed for not surrendering, was enslaved alongside his mother and younger brother. However, those enemies who surrendered voluntarily were given rewards, as one Xiongnu king came to realize. Jin's case, however, should not be seen as an indication that all prisoners of war were made slaves, since evidence suggests that non-Chinese slaves made up a very small part of the slave population in China (this claim is repeated by Ch'ü on page 141 as well).
Page 139: Jin Midi was put to work caring for horses until he was freed by Emperor Wu of Han, who granted Jin Midi an office, then a post as general, and even ennobled him as a marquis and then second regent. Huo Guang, who first declined the offer to be regent, had even recommended Jin Midi for the job instead. Huo even married one of his daughters to Jin's son. Jin's younger brother who had also been enslaves was made a Gentleman of the Yellow Gates (Huangmen lang). Both of Jin's sons became high officials as well, and his family became very well off. Although his case is unusual, it highlights the fact that a foreign slave (and a freed foreign slave) was viewed differently than normal Chinese slaves (and freed Chinese slaves).
Page 139: Foreign slaves could be acquired by the Han government from foreign tribes themselves who offered slaves to Han as tribute. The Han officials in charge of supervising these tribes could also be bribed with foreign slaves or be granted gifts of foreign slaves.
Page 140: Many slaves were imported from the southern coast and southwestern regions, which were inhabited by aboriginal peoples.
Page 141: Some poor people who could not pay off debts or even support themselves or their family could sell themselves or their children into slavery, a practice recognized by law.
Page 141: Some merchants made a profession out of being slave traders. They usually kept slaves in the same pens as cattle and horses, even female slaves who were well-dressed with embroidered clothes and silk shoes.
Page 141: Government slaves could also become private slaves. For example, a government slave might be given as a gift to a high official or a noble. They could also be bestowed on people as rewards for merit. Huo Guang was given one hundred and seventy male and female slaves for his services to the state.

Government Slaves

Page 142: In 44 BC, the Grandee Secretary (or Imperial Secretary) Gong Yu estimated that the number of both male and female slaves owned by the Han government was more than a hundred thousand. This figure is the only one given for the amount of government slaves in the entire Han Dynasty. Since the government kept extensive records and since Gong Yu was one of the Nine Ministers, his estimate can be trusted. The government went to great lengths in properly feeding and clothing its slaves, which caused a great burden for the government since an estimated four million piculs (bushels) of grain had to be shipped up the Yellow River to support the government slaves and convicts.
Page 142 QUOTE: "One very large group of government slaves was engaged in looking after government-owned animals. Thirty thousand male and female slaves were assigned to take care fo three hundred thousand horses in the various horse pastures along the borders...When a thousand or more private male and female slaves were confiscated from the wealthy merchants in Emperor Wu's time, the slaves were assigned such tasks as rearing dogs, horses, birds, and other animals in the various parks."
Page 142-143: Female slaves who served in the inner palace were usually given domestic duties in the women's quarters. Palace maids and wet nurses were chosen among the female slaves to serve the empress and imperial concubines. Girl slaves serving in the inner palace had to be at least eight years of age and were required to wear green garments.
Page 143: In the office of the Grand Provisioner (Taiguan), where all the food preparations for the palace took place, there were three thousand male and female slaves. There were also three thousand male and female slaves in the office of the provisioner of wines and fruits (tangguan); they wore aprons and served wines and foods.
Page 143: QUOTE: "All the official bureaus within the palace had the service of a number of male and female slaves who wore red kerchiefs and served as messengers in announcing the names of officials to be summoned; government slaves were employed in the office of the imperial chancellor and acted as time announcers and ushers, and clever male slaves were selected to do clerical and accounting work."
Page 143: QUOTE: "Were slaves employed in government industry? The only instance found in the texts is that of skilled and clever male slaves who were kept by the minister of agriculture to manufacture implements (HS 24A:16a). However, no slaves were employed in iron mining and manufacturing, one of the main government industries. According to Kung Yü, convicts were employed in the bureau of iron to dig copper and iron ore from the mountains, and more than a hundred thousand labor units were required yearly."
Page 144-145: In addition to no slaves being used in the government's mining, iron, and salt industries, slave labor was also not used for government farming on agricultural garrisons, building city walls, building dams and dikes, and other forms of government-imposed hard labor that corvée laborers and convicts fulfilled. Instead slaves were mostly set to work in the palace, in bureaus and offices, in tending to animals, and in manufacturing agricultural implements. Various Han statesmen complained that slaves were becoming a burden for the government, since they alleged that most of the slaves were engaged in idleness while requiring government-provided food and clothing, whereas the common people struggled hard to fulfill labor duties yet were still taxed by the government. Ch'ü points out that the slaves were not idle and their work entailed some labor, but the complaints of Han statesmen reveal that the work the slaves were engaged in was less strenuous than that of the commoners' hard labor.

Private Slaves

Page 146-147: QUOTE: "The owners of private slaves, were, first of all, the nobles and officials who got their slaves either by purchase or as grants from the government, and, second, the commoners, including merchants, who also owned slaves."
Page 147: The number of male and female slaves owned by nobles, officials, and wealthy merchants were as much as several hundred to over a thousand for each master.
Page 148: Although the government did not make use of slaves in their monopoly system on the salt and iron industries, the early Western Han iron and salt manufacturers did make use of slave labor. There is no explicit statement that slaves were used in the mines for the iron industry, but they were put to work manufacturing charcoal for the iron industry businessmen.
Page 148-149: Slaves were also engaged in agricultural work. There was a saying in the Han Dynasty: "You should consult about farming with your male slaves, and you should consult about weaving with your female slaves." The essay "slave contract" by Wang Bao mentions male slaves being made to plant ginger, melons, scallions, and mulbery, peach, plum, and pear trees. Slaves were also used to harvest and collect beans. QUOTE: "A wealthy landlord who engaged in farming, fish raising, and animal breeding was able to double his profit yearly because both his family members and his slaves diligently worked together."
Page 149: QUOTE: "We are unable to solve the problem of how much slaves were used on farms. Were tenants and hired laborers used more frequently than slaves? There is just not sufficient data to warrant estimates of the relative roles of tenancy and hired labor in Han agriculture...But because tenancy is frequently mentioned in the discussions of the unequal distribution of land between wealthy landlords and poor, landless peasants (HS 24:15a, 19b), it seems more likely that tenancy was prevalent. Pointing out that there was a large supply of landless free labor and that slaves constituted only a small part of the total population and were mostly employed in nonproductive activities, Wilbur reaches the conclusion that slaves were probably unimportant in agriculture."
Page 149-150: Households were supposed to be self-sufficient, meaning they made their own utensils and tools, but if the homeowner was also an owner of slaves, he could put his slaves to work in making these handicrafts. Wang Bao's satirical essay "Slave contract" has the fictional slave being ordered to make brooms, bamboo rakes, well wheels, fishing nets, shoes, ropes, mats, charcoal, knives, bows, and other items. Although most of these items would have been for consumption within the home, it is known from a marquis who had seven hundred slaves making handicrafts so that he could sell these goods for commercial profit.
Page 150: It was common for privately-owned male and female slaves to be engaged in domestic services. As Wang Bao's essay points out, slaves could be ordered to clean house, wash dishes, wash clothes, pound rice, cook meals, serve food, serve wine, shop for goods at the market, feed animals, and guard the house at night.
Page 150-151: Some slaves, such as those owned by nobles and royalty, could be made bodyguards and even mounted retainers who would act not only as escorts on horseback, but escorts armed with weapons. They were called "mounted slaves," or qinu (HS 77:17b). Some male slaves were also asked of their masters to commit crimes such as theft and murder; for example, the slaves of a princess were ordered to shoot officers that were coming to her residence to arrest a criminal fugitive. Attendant male slaves could also join the field of battle with their master and fight against enemy forces. They were expected to unconditionally defend their masters in times of war. At one point, Wang Mang raised troops by drafting criminals destined for execution and male slaves who were owned by officials and commoners (HS 24B:25a, 99C:5a).
Page 151: QUOTE: "Wealthy families usually kept a number of male and female slaves as entertainers—musicians, singers, and dancers. Female slaves of beauty and talent usually performed dancing and singing (I, 25; HS 97B:11a). Since dancing and singing abilities require years of training, it seems likely that some girls were trained in their youth for this purpose and sold as singing girls (HS 97A:22a-b)."
Page 151: QUOTE: "Masters also had sexual privileges with their young female slaves. Wang Mang once bought a female slave and presented her to a general, saying that he did this because the general had no son and this slave was fertile (HS 99A:2a)."

Status of Slaves

Page 151-152: QUOTE: "Slaves were legally unfree and were owned as property either by the government or by private persons. A privately owned slave was under the complete control of his master. Slaves could be sold or given to others as gifts (II, 17, 24). A slave had to obey and render any kind of service wanted, and the master had the right to chastise a disobedient slave. Wei Ch'ing once said when he was a slave that a slave would be satisfied if he could be exempt from scolding and beating. It was entered in Wang Pao's slave contract that the slave was to be subject to a hundred strokes when he disobeyed his master. The law also recognized the inferior status of a slave, who was not treated as the equal of a commoner before the law. A slave who had shot and injured a commoner was subject to the death penalty. (This law was only abrogated in A.D. 35 by the order of Emperor Kuang-wu; see II, 60.)"
Page 152: QUOTE: "Han law did not permit a master to kill a slave of his own free will. Two kings lost their kingdoms because of murdering their slaves. Another kingdom was abolished because a king ordered the death of several slaves who were to be buried with him (HS 53:9a-b). The investigation of the wife of an imperial chancellor who was suspected of murdering a female slave shows that even a chancellor's wife was not free from legal responsibility (II, 35). Wang Mang ordered his son to commit suicide when he learned that he had murdered a slave (I, 37), and his granddaughter and her husband also committe suicide when he scolded them because she had murdered a female slave (HS 99C:4a). This provides more evidence that killing a slave was a serious illegal matter that might involve the family in trouble. It seems unlikely that Wang Mang would have shown such a severe attitude if there had been a law that tolerated such action."
Page 152: QUOTE: "But it does not follow that the punishment for murdering a slave was the same as for ordinary homocide. Emperor Kuang-wu's edict of A.D. 35 (II, 59) proves that before that date a lesser punishment was applied to those who killed their slaves. Furthermore, a master was given the privilege of asking the local government to authorize the killing of a slave. It is not clear whether the master asked for permission from the government so that he himself could kill the slave or whether he only presented the guilty slave to the government and asked to have him put to death (II, 9). A similar law existed under the Chin dynasty: when a slave resisted his master, the master could petition the government to have the slave killed (CS 30:10a). No matter who actually put the slave to death, it is certain that a slave was pretty much at the mercy of his master; the government merely acted as an agent to authorize the action which the master took the initiative. Tung Chung-shu must have had this in mind when he suggested the abolition of the slavery system in order to eliminate the killing of slaves on the authority of the masters (HS 24A:15b). The same is also implied in Wang Mang's statement that masters had arbitrary authority over the lives of their slaves (II, 2)."
Page 152-153: QUOTE: "More legal protection was given to slaves in the Later Han. It was Emperor Kuang-wu's edict of A.D. 35 that abolished the law demanding the death penalty for a slave who had shot and injured a commoner (II, 60). At the same time heavier punishment was imposed upon those who injured or killed a slave. An edict of the same emperor indicates that cruelty was frequently involved in the punishment of slaves by their masters. It was decreed that anyone who burned a slave should be punished according to the law and that those who were burned should be freed and permitted to become commoners (II, 59). Moreover, another edict, also issued in A.D. 35, ordered that anyone who killed a slave should not receive a reduction in punishment (II, 59)."
Page 153: QUOTE: "As we would expect, most slaves were engaged in manual labor and lived in a humble way; however, not all slaves lived under miserable conditions. Some of them had better conditions than the ordinary poor commoner. The contrast was noted by Pao Hsüan...who said that whereas the commoners were half starved and wearing ragged clothes, the slaves of the powerful families were enjoying wine and meat, and such slaves as the Dark-green Heads and the Hut Dwellers even accumulated wealth and became rich (HS 72:26a)."
Page 153: QUOTE: "It should be stressed that slaves were not all treated the same way, nor did they have the same status. Probably status was conditioned by the way a person became a slave, by the kind of work assigned to him, by his manner of dress, by the way he ws treated, and the like. A slave who had his head shaved and wore an iron collar (II, 13) certainly had a status much inferior to those who were dressed in silk and embroidered clothes (II, 19; see also HS 10:13b). The slaves who were assigned to do menial labor, such as making charcoal, farming, and so on, must have been inferior to those whose duty it was merely to do domestic work. The 'big slave' or the 'superintendent slave,' who acted as a steward and who had the authority to supervise the work of other slaves, certainly was the one who had the most superior status among the various household slaves. He must have been exempt from menial labor and had many other privileges that ordinary slaves could not have. He was the person entrusted with the general management of the household and was consulted by the master or mistress. That superintendent slaves were favorites of their masters and had illicit relations with their mistresses—in one instance the event happened after she was a widow and in another while the master was still alive—is an indication of their intimacy and the trust placed in them (II, 33, 77)."
Page 153-154: QUOTE: "The so-called Dark-green Heads also had a superior status compared with othe slaves. A male slave of this kind was sent to the court by his official-master to pay a visit on his behalf (HS 68:14b). Among the female slaves, those whose job it was to sing and dance and those who had intimate personal relations with their masters must have enjoyed a comfortable and luxurious life and had a status superior to other female slaves in the household."
Page 154: QUOTE: "The superior status of certain slaves was evident both within the household and outside of it. The king of Ch'ang-i was so friendly with his male slaves that he allowed them to wear caps that were not to be worn by humble persons and he drank and played with them (HS 27B1:10b, 68:8b-9a)."
Page 154: QUOTE: "Although the general formal status of slaves as a whole was inferior to commoners, some slaves in exceptional cases enjoyed a status superior to that of the commoners; their own status was of course determined to a great extent by the status of their masters. Slaves of influential persons usually were able to have social contact with officials. Some of Tiao Chien's slaves rode in carriages and associated with grand administrators and chancellors (II, 1). When Ho Kuang held the key position in the government and all official promotions depended on his recommendations, all officials served his cheif slaves, Feng Tzu-tu...and Wang Tzu-fang...and paid no attention to the imperial chancellor (HS 68:16b). Liang Chi's superintendent slave, Ch'in Kung, was so important that his dignity and power shocked the public. All the inspectors and 2,000-picul officials paid visits to him and came to bid him farewell when they left (II, 77)."
Page 154: QUOTE: "Relying on the influence of their masters, the slaves of powerful families were usually arrogant, overbearing, and violent (II, 63; III, 26, 34, 43). A slave of a redresser-of-wrongs, who was a retired official, had an argument with a butcher and injured him (III, 47). The slaves of Ho Kuang's family frequently carried weapons to the market, fighting and quarreling, and the officials were unable to stop them (III, 26). A male slave of a princess once killed a commoner in the marketplace (II, 63)."
Page 154: QUOTE: "Occasionally these influential slaves were even overbearing and rude to officials. Once the slaves of Ho Kuang's family argued over the right-of-way with the slaves of the grandee secretary; they entered the grounds of the grandee secretary's office and wanted to break down the gate. They did not leave until the secretary kowtowed and apologized (III, 34). On another occasion, forty armed slaves were sent by a powerful official to attack the bureau of music; the officials of the bureau were forced to make a very humble apology (III, 43). Similar cases were also found in the Later Han. Pan Ku's male slave once stopped the carriage and outriders of the prefect of the capital and cursed the prefect. The prefect was afraid of Tou Hsien...the grand general, with whom Pan Ku was closely associated, and did not dare to do anything (HHS 40B:26b-27a)."
Page 155: Although rare and exceptional, slaves who were freed and made commoners could immediately be appointed to office and enter the world officialdom. Jin Midi is a prominent example, although there are others listed here by Ch'ü. Wei Qing, who had originally been a mounted courtier for a princess who his slave mother also worked for as a maid, was freed and made grand general, ennobled as a marquis, and married the princess who once owned him as a slave. Qin Gong, the superintendent slave owned by Liang Ji, was even made Chief of the Grand Granary (taicang zhang) even while he was still a slave of Liang Ji!

Manumission and Government Policy

Page 156: QUOTE: "A person once enslaved lost his personal freedom forever. His descendants, male or female, became 'born slaves' (II, 8, and n. 29) of the government or of a private household, depending on the status of their parents. Obviously children of slave parents were slaves at birth. But what of the child of a slave and a free man? It was said that when a free man married a female slave, a child of this marriage was called a huo...when a male slave married a free woman, the child born of the union was called a tsang...A tsang and huo were humiliating terms for male and female slaves, their use suggests that the child of such a union was still considered a slave."
Page 156: QUOTE: "A slave could be free only when he was manumitted. Manumissions were granted to government slaves under various conditions. Sometimes such a privilege was limited to a special group. For instance, in 140 B.C. the family members of the leaders of the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, who had been made government slaves, were pardoned by Emperor Wu. The rebellion took place in 154 B.C.; so the persons who were freed had been slaves for fourteen years. Such a favor, however, must be considered unusual. Ying Shao commented that 'Emperor Wu pitied them, pardoned them, and sent them away' (HS 6:2a)."
Page 156: QUOTE: "Government slaves who became too old to render routine services to the government were at times manumitted in their old age. In 7 B.C., when Emperor Ai ascended the throne, an edict was issued that all government slaves, male and female, who were over fifty were to be dismissed and made commoners (II, 45)."
Page 157: QUOTE: "General manumission, which applied to all government slaves without special qualification, was rare. If such a manumission had been put into effect, the government would have been left with few slaves. There were only two general manumissions in Eary and Later Han: one occurred in 160 B.C. (II, 2) and the other in A.D. 110 (II, 74). Individual manumission could be granted to any particular government slave. Since this kind of action did not involve the problem of dismissing a large number of government slaves whose services were demanded by the government, it seems that individual manumission was more frequent than a general one or one on a large scale. Any slave whose physical appearance, personality, diligent service, or meritorious behavior impressed the emperor migh be freed by him."
Page 157-158: QUOTE: "The manumission of private slaves depended on the owner. The usual way for a private slave to be freed was to buy himself from his master, that is, buy his freedom. A marquis was deposed because he seized and re-enslaved a former slave who had purchased his freedom (HS 17:7b). A slave might also be freed by his master on his own volition. Thus everything depended upon the master, and very little could be done by the government. However, at times the government did interfere, usually when the empire was just at peace again after a period of war and disturbance. In 205 B.C., when there was a great famine, Emperor Kao ordered that people might sell their children (II, 12), and three years later an edict was issued to the effect that all commoners who had sold themselves to other people because of the famine were to be manumitted and become commoners (II, 14)."
Page 158: QUOTE: "A similar policy was inaugurated by Emperor Kuang-wu. It was decreed in A.D. 26 that the wives who had been remarried to others by their husbands and the children who had been sold by their parents were allowed to return to their homes if they wished to; anyone daring to hold them would be punished according to the law (II, 54). An edict was also issued in A.D. 31 to free those who had become slaves because of famine and poverty (II, 58). Other edicts to free slaves were issued by Emperor Kuang-wu in A.D. 31, 36, 38, and 39. But differing from the general manumission mentioned above, these were applicable to people of a particular locality only—the people who had been enslaved by the Red Eyebrows, and the natives of modern Szechwan and Kansu who had been seized and enslaved when Kung-sun Shu...and Wei Ao were the rulers of these areas. It was mentioned in the edicts that those who had sold themselves did not have to pay back the money and also that those who dared to detain the slaves would be sentenced according to the law of kidnapping people (II, 58, 61)."

Science and Technology

Sun and Kistemaker's book

Sun, Xiaochun and Jacob Kistemaker. (1997). The Chinese Sky During the Han: Constellating Stars and Society. Leiden, New York, Köln: Koninklijke Brill. ISBN 9004107371.

What is the Chinese Sky?

Page 1: QUOTE: "Chinese star names differ widely from the occidental ones. Instead of mythological heroes and superhuman beings, you find objects from the realistic terrestrial world: people of all classes, as high as the emperor, the royal family, officials and generals, as low as peasants and petty soldiers. All kinds of social institutions, constructions, activities and objects, either for daily use or ceremonial occasions, were installed. One should not be astonished to find the Celestial Toilet and the Pit of Manure in the holy sky because it was meant to be a complete projection of the terrestrial world."
Page 1-2: QUOTE: "Firstly, the phenomenon of the ancient Chinese sky is a natural one. The 283 constellations are spread out all over the visible sky. Not only the star names but also their positions and celestial surroundings should be considered in order to explain the meaning of these constellations. Some constellations were simply descriptions of the celestial sphere...The most important fact is the correspondence between constellations and seasons. As the sun moves among the stars along the ecliptic, the part of the sky which is visible at night shifts with the change of the seasons. Thus the constellations in that part of the sky presumably bear the touch of the corresponding season: the climate, natural life and human activities. The correspondence between the sky and the seasons is the primary key to understanding star names."
Page 2: QUOTE: "Secondly, the Chinese sky is a historical phenomenon. The constellations were designed neither during a single short period, nor by a single astronomer or astrologer. They developed during a long period of history. Some constellations like Beidou...Shen... and the four cardinal asterisms are probably from the 24th century BC. During the Zhou...period (1027–221 BC) astronomy developed considerably. The gnomon and the water clock were used in astronomical observations; the twenty eight lunar lodges (xiu...) were introduced as celestial reference points to register the positions of celestial objects. All astronomical measurements seemed to serve primarily the purpose of calendar-making and astrology based on the movement of the planets. During the later Zhou, namely the Zhanguo...(Warring States) period (475–221 BC), the sovereignty of the Zhou ceased to exist except in name. Each state had its own court astrologer, among them were Shi Shen... of the Wei...state and Gan De...of the Qi...state. Apparently such a situation provided a nutritious soil in which all kinds of astronomical and astrological ideas could germinate. Around 200 constellations in the Chinese sky were attributed to Shi Shen and Gan De. Although we will prove that this attribution is not valid, it does indicate that at that time more and more constellations were configured. The real development of the Chinese sky happened during the Han, however. Historical aspects should be taken into account to understand the names and configurations."
Page 2-3: QUOTE: "Finally, in a broader sense, the Chinese sky is a cultural phenomenon. It reflects a cultural complex, a celestial representation of the terrestrial society. The sky presents an astrological scheme of constellations which was based on the principles of cosmology. The universe was a harmonious unity of Tian...(Heaven), Di...(Earth), and Ren...(Man). This unity was the basis for the mutual response between Heaven and Man. Chinese astrology was strictly omen-astrology which only dealt with affairs of state. The first step was to observe portents in the form of celestial or meteorological phenomena; the second step was to correlate these portents with events in the imperial society. Since the observed phenomena happened on the celestial background, astrologers designed the sky as a counterpart of the terrestrial society. The sky was like the setting of a stage on which all kinds of events were happening. Thus the astrological interpretations of these events became directly related with the affairs of state."

Why Choose the Han Period?

Page 3: QUOTE: "The choice was based on historical considerations. The Han time was the most important period for the formation of Chinese culture. The social structure, the cosmological ideas, philosophies, rituals and ceremonies, etc., were cast at large; changes and modifications were all based on Han models. The celestial representations of these Han models changed very little indeed. To understand the Chinese culture from its roots, one should go back to the Han time."
Page 3-4: QUOTE: "Before the Han, the period of philosophers yielded many political, social and philosophical ideas. There was already a tremendous amount of knowledge in separate branches of learning such as medicine and astronomy...It was during the Han that the academic tendency to systematize all kinds of knowledge by means of cosmological principles started. The yin-yang philosophy and the Five Elements theories became the fundamental principles used to explain all kind of phenomena, natural as well as social. Everything could be explained by the interplay of the yin...and yang...forces and the Five Elements. An obvious example is medicine. The traditional medical classic Huangdi neijing...was totally based on the yin-yang and Five Elements philosophies. But certainly the knowledge of medicine was not derived from the yin-yang philosophy but from long experience. The book was only an attempt to systematize this knowledge."
Page 4: QUOTE: "Astronomy, astrology and calendrical sciences had always been 'official,' exclusively controlled by the court."
Page 4-5: QUOTE: "During that period there was a prince, Liu An...who organized hundreds of scholars from different places to write a book Huainan zi...(Book of the Prince of Huainan) which contained comprehensive knowledge. There was also an astronomer Luoxia Hong...the inventor of the armillary sphere, who was summoned to the court from the remote southwestern region Ba...by Emperor Wu...for the purpose of calendar reform."
Page 5: QUOTE: "The choice of the Han period also emerged from the general opinion that the complete system of the Chinese sky was formed during that period, which we will explain in due course. Although during the preceding Zhan Guo period there must already have been quite a lot of constellations, their names remained quite obscure except for the xiu...(Lunar Lodges or Lunar Mansions). The first systematic description of the sky was by Sima Qian, the Tianguan shu...(Monograph on Celestial Officers (constellations)). Many constellations which have been attributed to Shi Shen and to Gan De were apparently developed after the Tianguan shu. The 283 constellations were from three astronomical schools which were active during the Han but attributed their knowledge to Shi Shen, Gan De, and Wuxian...the last one a vague personality from the Yin...dynasty, about 1200 BC. Immediately after the Han, the astronomer Chen Zhuo...constructed the constellations of the whole sky based on these three schools. From then on the Chinese sky was fixed."
Page 5-6: QUOTE: "The Han sky is retrievable because in the first palce there exists an ancient star catalogue - the Shi shi xingjing...star catalogue - which gave the coordinates of the leading stars of the constellations of Shi Shen's school and of the 28 xiu...This catalogue proved to be based on observations during the Han. Its constellations generally included bright stars. Historical star maps and star catalogues from following dynasties facilitated the reconstruction of the Han sky."

Stars from Remote Antiquity

Page 16: The earliest sources for star names in China include 13th-century-BC oracle bone inscriptions from the Shang Dynasty and a seasonal description in the "Canon of Yao" found in the Book of Documents. The latter mentioned the four cardinal asterisms (i.e. four patterns of stars): (1) the Niao (Bird) asterism corresponding to mid-spring and days of medium length; (2) the Huo (Fire) asterism corresponding to mid-summer and days of long length; (3) the Xu (Void) asterism corresponding to mid-autumn and days of medium length; (4) the Mao (Hair) asterism corresponding to mid-winter and days of short length.
Page 18: Other early texts to mention star names include the Zuo Zhuan and the Shi Jing.
Page 18: QUOTE: "As far as the existent ancient literature is concerned, all star names mentioned were from the 28 xiu, except for a few extraordinary bright stars like Beidou and Zhinü. The purpose of observing these stars was obviously to determine the seasons or to make a calendar. It seems that there was no intent to observe or to register stars in the total sky before the Han or, safely speaking, before the Zhanguo (Warring States) period (480–222 BC [sic]). The construction and naming of constellations in the whole sky hsa apparently been an attempt by astronomers and astrologers after the Zhanguo period, as we will see in the following sections."
Page 19: QUOTE: "The 28 lunar lodges (xiu...) belong to the most important structures in the Chinese sky. They were constellations (or asterisms) marked along the ecliptic belt of the celestial sphere to serve as reference points for the motion of sun, moon and planets. Thus they were essential in calendar making...The earliest complete set of the 28 xiu was discovered on a cover of a box excavated formt he tomb of Zeng Hou Yi...who died in 433 BC."
Page 19: Nearly all of the xiu names can also be found in the "Yue ling" chapter of the Lüshi Chunqiu by Lü Buwei, who died in 235 BC.

Stars in the Tianguan Shu

Page 21-22: QUOTE: "The earliest book which systematically described the stars in the whole sky is the Tianguan shu...a Monograph on Celestial Officials (Constellations) written by Sima Qian...(145 - 87 BC). When he wrote his famous Shi ji...(Historical Records), he devoted this special chapter to the description of stars. Sima Qian was an astronomer himself. He had the position of taishi ling...(Prefect Grand Astrologer) at the court of Han Wu Di...or Emperor Wu (140–87 BC). He organized appreciable astronomical activities preparing for the calendar reform during the reign of Emperor Wu. His father, Sima Tan...also had the position of taishi ling before his son. We have every reason to believe that what Sima Qian said about the sky was from authoritative sources. Sima Qian and his father had learned about the sky from an astronomer whose name was Tang Du...(c. 120 BC). In Tang literature we discovered material saying that Tang Du wrote several books on astronomy, which might still have existed during the Tang dynasty. One of them was a preliminary type of star map based on observations by means of an equatorial armillary sphere. During Sima Qian's lifetime there were several famous astronomers. One of them was Luoxia Hong...(fl. 140–104 BC) who invented the armillary sphere. The observation and description of the sky were already quite mature at Sima Qian's time. So we consider his descriptions in the Tianguan shu as the general view of the Chinese sky during the Former Han...or Western Han...(206 BC–AD 8)."
Page 22: QUOTE: "About 90 asterisms were mentioned in the Tianguan shu, including the 28 xiu. Their positions in the sky, relative to each other, were described and even the number of stars in the asterisms were given in most cases. This book registered 412 stars without including asterisms of which no number of stars was mentioned. Even the brightness of stars was given in words which might be considered as equivalent to magnitudes."
Page 22: QUOTE: "The Tianguan shu divided the sky into five gong...(Palaces). The zhong gong...(Central Palace) indicated the area surrounding the celestial North Pole (Beiji...). The North Pole held the most dignified position in Chinese cosmology simply because of the fact that all other stars in the sky apparently moved around it. In the Tianguan shu the circumpolar area was established as the central imperial palace with star names like emperor, queen, princes, and all kinds of court officials. The other four palaces are the four cardinal palaces along the ecliptic, namely the East, South, West, and North Palaces. Each of them represented the most prominent stars during one of the four seasons of the year. The 28 xiu were divided into four groups of seven xiu each group representing a palace."
Page 22-23: NOTE: Bei Dou is the constellation Ursa Major; QUOTE: "In the Tianguan shu typical ideas reflecting the political system were presented like a central imperial court controlling the provinces. Celestial control was realized by the movement of Bei Dou around the Central Palace. The text goes:"
- QUOTE: "Bei Dou serves as the chariot of the emperor and effectuates its control over the four cardinal points by revolving around the center; it separates the yin...(feminine or negative force) and the yang (masculine and positive force) and regulates the four seasons; it maintains balance between the Five Elements (wu xing...); it regulates the moving of the celestial objects; it determines the epoch of the calendar."
Page 23: QUOTE: "We clearly see the general idea of constructing the sky as a celestial counterpart of the terrestrial imperial state, hence the book's title Celestial Officials (tian guan...). During the Han there apparently existed an academic tendency to correlate the sky with human society. The impetus came from the philosophy of tian ren gan ying...(Interaction between Heaven and Man) which came to a climax during the Han with the writings of the famous philosopher Dong Zhongshu...(179?–104? BC). Therefore more and more constellations were constructed in the sky to represent a real celestial society. The Signs in the Heavens could be interpreted straightforwardly in correlation with human affairs."
Page 24-25: QUOTE: "The cosmology of the Han time developed to a stage which made a better description and even the mapping of the sky necessary. The cosmology of gai tian...(Covering Sky) assumed its most refined form in the book Zhoubi suanjing...(Arithmetical Classic of the Gnomon and the Circular Paths). The sky was a circular cover which was divided into six circular belts by seven circles at different distances to the pole. The middle was the equator. This is the so-called qi heng liu jian...(seven orbits and six belts) diagram...As the sun moved along the ecliptic it stepped into different belts so that the 24 jie qi...(solar periods) were produced. This was mathematically a sophisticated way to explain the seasons. It was said that the earliest star map was in the form of a planisphere which was called gai tu...(Map of the Covering Sky)."
Page 25: QUOTE: "Further development of cosmology during the Han led to the hun tian...(Enveloping Sky) theory with a celestial sphere. This theory coincided with the invention of the armillary sphere. A celestial globe was used to illustrate the daily motion of the sky. The distance of the stars to the pole could be measured by means of the armillary sphere and the sky could be precisely projected onto a celestial globe."

Asterisms of the Three Astronomical Schools

Page 25: QUOTE: "As has been mentioned above the Chinese sky consists of constellations from three astronomical schools. These schools were called the three jia...(families) or the three Shi...(families): Shi Shi...Gan Shi...and Wuxian Shi...as they were respectively named after three historical personages from before the Han: Shi Shen, Gan De, and Wuxian. Shi Shen...and Gan De...were two astronomers from the Zhanguo period (481–222 BC), as we have said, while Wuxian...was a legendary figure from the Yin Dynasty. It is said that both Shi Shen and Gan De wrote books on astronomy and astrology, but apparently the original books were lost by Han times."
Page 26: QUOTE: "As we looked at the constellations of the three schools, we found that quite a lot of them could not have existed before the Han. Some can easily be detected as direct deductions from descriptions in the Tianguan shu. This is true especially for the constellations of Gan Shi and Wuxian Shi. Thus we might say that the total system of constellations of the three schools was developed during the Han."
Page 26: QUOTE: "The constellations of the three astronomical schools were studied and conflated by Chen Zhuo...an astronomer of the Sanguo...(Three Kingdoms) period (AD 220–280). Of all constellations he identified 92 as belonging to Shi Shi, 118 to Gan Shi, and 44 to Wuxian Shi. With the 28 xiu and one star...it amounted to 283 constellations comprising of 1464 individual stars in the Chinese sky. It was said that Chen Zhuo had made a thorough study of the constellations of the three schools, made star maps out of them and added astrological commentaries in which he distinguished constellations of different schools."
Page 26: QUOTE: "The works of Chen Zhuo have long been lost. But fortunately all the information concerning the constellations of the three schools has been passed on to us through the astrological works of the Tang dynasty."

Shi Shi and the Shi Shi Xingjing

Page 37: QUOTE: "First let us emphasize that by Shi Shi we refer to the astronomical school which followed the tradition started by Shi Shen. Shi Shen, according to Sima Qian, was an astronomer of the State Wei...of the Zhanguo period. It is said that he had written eight chapters of Tian wen...(Astronomy). This book certainly existed in the early Han and as usual it was called jing...the Classic. It was probably also available to Sima Qian because he quoted it when discussing the movements of the planets in his Tianguan shu. The jing of Shi Shen (and also of Gan De whom we will discuss in the next chapter) was even more frequently quoted in astronomical works after the Former Han, such as the Han shu tianwen zhi...(Treatise on Astronomy in the Han shu) and the Xu han shu lüli zhi...(Treatise on Harmonics and Calendrical Science in the Xu han shu). But all these so-called 'quotations' were not really from the original jing. New astronomical ideas and knowledge of the Han time were recognizable in these 'quotations'; that means the jing was already developed and supplemented by Han astronomers. This was the common practice of ancient Chinese scholars who expressed their own ideas by enlarging the Classics. The result was that no original jing existed any more."
Page 38: QUOTE: "Simple calcuation of precession immediately shows this material was from the later half of the Former Han. What Shishi xingjing says was not from Shi Shen's time at all. This example illustrates how the Shishi xingjing must be understood. It contained a body of knowledge which has been continuously updated and which was claimed to be from Shi Shen."
Page 38: QUOTE: "Shi Shi has played an important role in astronomy of the Han time. Astronomical discoveries were attributed either to Shi Shi or to Gan Shi at that time. The group of astronomers who were working during the Taichu...calendar reform were probably members of the Shi Shi. The introduction of the ecliptic (huang dao...) into astronomical measurements was made by Shi Shi. In the second year of the reign of Ganlu (52 BC), Geng Shouchang...suggested to use an instrument called yuan yi...in a Memorial to the throne. With this instrument the solar and lunar positions were to be measured along the ecliptic and not along the equator as in former practice. The Shi shi xingjing discussed the same subject. But it was as late as the fifteenth year of the Yongyuan...reign (103 AD) that the widths of the Xiu were really measured along the ecliptic. This was one of the achievements by Shi Shi. Remarkably enough, in the second year of the reign of Yuanhe...(85 AD) an imperial edict was specifically issued saying that the system of Shi Shi was indispensable for astronomical studies...This shoes how predominant Shi Shi was at the time."
Page 38-39: QUOTE: "During the Later Han there were some astrologers who began to attribute their work to Wuxian; thus three main astronomical schools were active then. After the collapse of the Han empire, China was split up into warring states. That provided a fertile soil for all kinds of astrological publications. Again most of these works were attributed to the three schools. The result was that the jing of Shi Shen was even further enlarged. The original jing was no longer recognizable. But still these later books continued to 'quote' Shi Shen."

The SSXJ Star Catalogue

Page 39: QUOTE: "The Kaiyuan zhanjing of the Tang 'quoted' prodigiously from Shi Shi. For convenience historians simply gave all these 'quotations' a collective title 'Shi shi xingjing,' the Astrological Treatise of Master Shi Shen (hereafter to be abbreviated as SSXJ). It should not be mistaken for the original Shi Shi xingjing as mentioned in the Xu han shu lüli zhi. The SSXJ is not a book, it is a title used by historians to refer to all astronomical source material from Shi Shen's time up to the Tang. It was attributed to Shi Shen. The most interesting material for our present study is that from the Han period."
Page 39-40: QUOTE: "Chen Zhuo identified 92 constellations as belonging to Shi Shi, 118 constellations as belonging to Gan Shi and 44 constellations to Wuxian Shi. This allocation has been accepted by astronomers of later times. In the Kaiyuan zhanjing the constellations of the three schools and the 28 xiu were dealt with most thoroughly in the astrological sense. Moreover, for the constellations of Shi Shi and the 28 xiu, the Kaiyuan zhanjing provided coordinates for their leading stars. This has become known as the SSXJ star catalogue. The study of this star catalogue is critical for the study of the constellations of Shi Shi."

Star Map of 100 BC and the Identification of the Leading Stars

Page 61-62: QUOTE: "As we have seen above, the main activities of Shi Shen's school were during the Former Han. In books before Sima Qian's Shi ji only Shi Shen's name was mentioned. Astronomical information was usually very vague. It was only after Sima Qian that there were frequent 'quotations' of Shi Shen. But these 'quotations' contained astronomical knowledge which could only be related with Han philosophy and technology. The QJD of the leading stars of the constellations of Shi Shen's school were apparently observed during the Han."
Page 62: QUOTE: "Making calendars was one of the most important purposes of astronomical measurements in ancient China. But for this purpose the measurement of the qu ji du...(Distance to the Pole) was not definitely necessary. The measurement of the jiu du...(Width of the xiu) and of the ru xiu...(Degrees into the xiu) were enough for the basic calendrical calculations in the ancient si fen...calendar. Only the difference in Right Ascensions was of importance. The measurement could be done with the gnomon and the water clock. It seems that before the Han there was no interest in the measurement of the QJD of stars. Only when people became interested in star maps or celestial globes to illustrate the whole sky did it become necessary to measure the QJD with a meridian instrument or armillary sphere. This modernization was stimulated by the important Calendar Reform of 104 BC, during the Former Han."
Page 62: QUOTE: "From the astronomical chapter of the Han shu...(History of the Former Han Dynasty), we know that Xianyu Wanren...organized a group of 22 astronomers to do observations to verify the validity of the new calendar about 30 years after the Reform. Typical for the astronomical activities of those days are the remarks made by the philosopher Yang Xiong...(53 BC – AD 18) who mentioned in his book Fa yan...(Admonitory Sayings):
- QUOTE: "If somebody asks me about the theory of hun tian...(Enveloping Sky) and about the armillary sphere, I would say Luoxia Hong...constructed it, Xianyu Wanren...used it for observation and Geng Shouchang...illustrated it with a celestial globe."
Page 62: QUOTE: "We know that all three persons were active between the Calendar Reform and the end of the Western Han."
Page 62-63: The authors go on to say that using this information and info about the 28 xiu and 92 leading stars of the SSXJ, they were able to reconstruct via a computer program what a Han Dynasty star map from 100 BC at 34° N. Lat at Chang'an would have looked like, based on the Yale Catalogue of Bright Stars.
Page 64-65: It was 78 BC when Xianyu Wanren's group of 22 astronomers made large scale observations to check the reliability of the Taichu Calendar of 104 BC. For the original Taichu Calendar of 104 BC, the group of astronomers was organized by Sima Qian, a team which included Luoxia Hong. According to Yang Xiong, Xianyu Wanren made observations by using an armillary sphere and according to the Book of Han this observation took place between 78 and 76 BC.
Page 68: QUOTE: "There were about 783 individual stars mentioned in the 120 constellations of Shi Shen's school. These stars include most bright stars visible on the northern hemisphere. Number of stars, shapes and positions of stars and constellations were described in the SSXJ. In the Tianguan shu Sima Qian gave a systematic description of the celestial position of the constellations. He even gave the number of stars in many constellations. His system was essentially the same as that presented in SSXJ. Moreover, in the Han shu (History of the Former Han) there is an astronomical chapter in which it is stated that: 'There are up to 780 bright stars which are grouped in 118 constellations.' We are therefore certain that the constellations of Shi Shen's school presented the main aspects of the Chinese sky as seen during the Han...The additions made by Gan De's and Wuxian's Schools apparently were supplements to illustrate in detail various aspects of ancient Chinese culture according to the philosophical and astro-mythological views of the Han time."

Gan De

Page 75-76: Gan De, who allegedly penned eight volumes on astrology, lived in the State of Qi (eastern Shandong) during the Warring States Period, according to the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian. However, other sources claim he came from the State of Lu, while others state he came from the State of Chu.
Page 76: QUOTE: "The exact contents of the eight volumes of his astrological work are not known today. We assume most of it was on planetary astrology. Planetary astrology was very popular during the Zhanguo period; prognostications based on the motion of Jupiter were abundant in books from this period, for example in the Zuo zhuan and the Guo yu. When Sima Qian made comments in his Shi ji on the motion of the planets, he referred to Gan De but not to his constellations. No literature before Shi ji mentioned any star names of Gan Shi."
Page 76: QUOTE: "Since the Han, however, there appeared many 'quotations' form Gan De's work...But the contents of these 'quotations' already reflected astronomical and philosophical ideas during the Han...The case was identical with that of the Shi Shi. Thus we use the title Ganshi xingjing for all astronomical material attributed to Gan De."

Wuxian

Page 77-79: Basically, all you need to know is that Wu Xian, supposedly an astronomer and diviner from the Shang Dynasty, was most likely a legendary personage used to represent ancient shamans. Astronomers in the Later Han Dynasty began to pen works in the name of Wu Xian, thus the particular astronomical school called Wuxian Shi evolved. Perhaps even Chen Zhuo, who was the taishi ling at the court of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms (and after 280 AD at the Jin Dynasty court), wrote in the name of Wu Xian, since it was Chen Zhuo who fixed different constellations to the work of the three different schools.

Demarcation of the constellations of the Three Schools

Page 79: QUOTE: "Although Chen Zhuo's allocation of the constellations to the three schools has been accepted by astronomers of later times, it would be erroneous to believe that each of these groups of constellations were exclusively the constellations of each of the three schools before Chen Zhuo, or during the Han. It seems incredible to assume that Wuxian Shi, for example, studied only 44 small constellations in the sky without looking at others. Most probably all three schools investigated the total sky and some constellations were studied by all three. That would mean that the constellations of the three overlapped. What we believe to be the groups of constellations specifically attributed to one of the three schools was only Chen Zhuo's allocation."
Page 79-80: However, in books written after the Han (such as the Treatise on Astrology of the Kaiyuan Era) which quote the three schools, it becomes apparent that the three schools' astrological commentaries on certain stars did overlap each other. Sun and Kistemaker write:
- QUOTE: "of 92 constellations of Shi Shi, 61 have also been commented on by Gan Shi; and 56 by Wuxian Shi.
- QUOTE: "of 118 constellations of the Gan Shi, 11 have also been commented on by the Shi Shi; and 19 by the Wuxian Shi."
- QUOTE: "of 44 constellations of Wuxian Shi, 4 have also been commented on by Shi Shi; and none by Gan Shi."
- QUOTE: "The 28 xiu were the basis of the Chinese sky; they certainly were commented on by all three schools."

Divination, Mythology, and Philosophy

Csikszentmihalyi's Book

Csikszentmihalyi, Mark. (2006). Readings in Han Chinese Thought. Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. ISBN 0872207102.

Introduction

Page 167: QUOTE: "The Han universe was filled with different kinds of correspondences. The correspondences between the three realms of the Cosmos, the Earth, and Human society were a major feature of writings that advocated matching human society to the patterns of the Way...The three realms were all seen to be subject to the same natural cycles, and, as a result, understanding these cycles provided insight into the workings of everything in the universe."
Page 167: QUOTE: "Among the natural cycles was the alternation between the yielding and hard principles of yin 陰 and yang 陽, corresponding to shade and sunlight, feminine and masculine, and moon and sun, respectively. The binary pair of yin and yang fills the three realms and alternates with the four seasons. Another key cycle is the five phases (wuxing 五行), which usually succeeded one another in one of several fixed rotations: wood (mu 木), fire (huo 火), earth (tu 土), metal (jin 金), and water (shui 水). The phases correspond to other sets of fives, including the five organs in the body (wuzang...liver, heart, spleen, lungs and kidneys) and the five tastes (wuwei...sour, bitter, sweet, spicy, and salty), and they were even applied to historical periods. The calendar provides other sets of cycles, inlcuding the sexagenary cycles of sixty terms that were used as a relative scale for dates and years alongside more absolute scales like dynastic reign periods and unique historical events. The sixty terms were each made of a stem (gan 干) and a branch (zhi 支). The stems went through their own cycle every ten days or years, whereas the twelve branches did so every twelve days or years, with the association of each branch with an animal becoming the basis of a popular horoscope system."
Page 167-168: QUOTE: "Taken together, the material cycles of alternating yin and yang and the revolving five phases connected up to the temporal cycle of the seasons and the two cogs of ten stems and twelve branches inside the larger wheel of the sexagenary cycle, resembled nothing more than a giant clockwork. A clockwork might be a good metaphor for Han cosmology, were it not for the fact that a clockwork only begins to tell the story of the [sic] how the world was thought to work. For whereas Chinese medicine and divination utilized the universe of correspondences to construct a wide variety of technical disciplines, the foundation on which they were built included a pantheon of the celestial spirits, assumed the exceptionality of the sage kings, and relied on etiologies of illness featuring demons."
Page 168: QUOTE: "An early example of the mixture of natural-cycles theory and the belief in powerful forces normalized into these cycles—in this case, demons and spirits—is the late-Warring States Chu Silk Manuscript...excavated in Hunan Province in 1942. The manuscript contains twelve fantastic hybrid spirits arrayed in a square around two blocks of text. The spirits are thsoe of the twelve months, and notes next to them list days and months that are auspicious or inauspicious for certain activities. The blocks of text are rhymed accounts of the origins of the calendar, emphasizing the importance of sacrifice to secure the protection of Heaven and its agents, the spirits. On one level, the manuscript continues the classical attitude to the spirits already seen in the pre-Han period...On another level, it foreshadows the way that the spirits would become integrated into the orderly cycles of early imperial correspondence schemes. Marc Kalinowski has written that the Chu Silk Manuscript 'outlines a mode of management of the relations between humans, nature, and the gods based on cultic practices and calendrical observations,' and his description could easily be applied to some of the major technical disciplines in the Han, too."
Page 168-169: QUOTE: "The readings in this chapter show how medical texts made connections between particular organs, tastes, seasons, and days and, more generally, how many different kinds of texts argued that events in human society and in the Cosmos corresponded with each other through natural cycles. Discoveries in tombs excavated over the past few decades have shown the popularity of technical disciplines. The chapter will focus on two major technical disciplines, divination and medicine, which are introduced below. Judging from the number of works in diverse areas int he catalogue of the Han imperial library, however, these were just a few of the many disciplines of this nature. An example of these diverse arts, from a handbook of meteorological portents discovered in the Han, is the first selection."
Page 169-170: QUOTE: "The distinction in English between reading omens and divination is the absence of presence of a divinity, respectively. Given the complexity of the world of demons and spirits in Han China, the question of what qualifies as a 'divinity' is not an easy one to answer. Perhaps this is why the most famous 'divination system' of early China really does not depend in any way on a divinity. Yet the presence of responses (ying...) in nature, and images (xiang...) with which the Cosmos responds to human events, indicates that the reading of omens was very important in the early empire. In addition to the celestial response to a world-unifying general translated in this chapter, we have seen omen theory in numerous other selections in this book. Phenomena that make use of the idea of cosmic 'responses' include Lu Jia's...(fl. 210–157 B.C.E.) explanation that the Cosmos 'reformed [living creatures] through disasters and sudden changes, and explained things to them using signs of auspiciousness' (4.1 'The Basis of the Way'); the unicorn, phoenix, Yellow River chart, and Luo River writings that may or may not signal the rise of a sage king (Chapter 5); and Xiang Kai's...(fl. 165–184 C.E.) memorial to the throne that states eclipses and other celestial phenomena are evidence of the ruler's misconduct (6.3 'Memorial to Emperor Huan'). At least by the late-first century B.C.E., being able to interpret omens was a boon to an official career, and major figures such as Liu Xiang 劉向 (77–6 B.C.E.; see 7.2 'Discriminating Things') were very concerned with such arts. Besides this interest in omens that grew alongside correspondence theory, other systems survived that are often, but not always accurately, labeled as early Chinese divination."
Page 170-171: QUOTE: "The earliest written records in China are divination records, statements inscribed on cattle scapulae and tortoise plastrons that were heated until they cracked, with the cracks being read as communications from the ancestors. Although versions of this kind of divination were used throughout the Warring States period and into the early empire, systems using basic symbolic elements over time eclipsed them in popularity. The sixty-four hexagrams (gua...) of the Classic of Changes as part of a Zhou dynasty divination method that determined the natural potential of the moment of divination by casting milfoil stalks and numerically manipulating the result to determine the lines of a hexagram or hexagrams. The six lines are either solid (yang) or broken (yin), and the symbolic system of the Classic of Changes was considered complete in the sense that it corresponded to all possible kinds of change that might exist at any given moment. The practices of divining with shells and stalks continued in the Han, but perhaps even more profound was the impact of the Classic of Changes as a symbolic system on the culture as a whole. An important example of a Han philosophical/cosmological essay based on that notion is the Appended Phrases (Xici...) commentary. On the popular level, divination was more concerned with hemerology, the art of divining auspicious days for different activities using almanacs (rishu...), also called hemerology. As Donald Harper has written, in the late Warring States, people 'still sought guidance in turtle and milfoil divination, but hemerology routinized decision making in ways that older forms of divination had not.' The division between the world of elite Confucian officials and poor hemerologists is at the heart of the third reading in this chapter."
Page 171: QUOTE: "As practiced today, Traditional Chinese Medicine uses elaborate maps of circulatory routes for the body's pneumas, which are the basis of the methods of acupuncture and moxibustion. Pneumas circulate like blood and lymph but travel through a unique set of conduits: channels (jing...), collaterals (luo...), and vessels (mai...). So, for example, the Hand Great Yin (Taiyin...) channel associated with the lungs originates at the zhongfu...point in the chest, ends at the shaoshang...point near the thumbnail, and contains eleven points along the way. Each channel is associated with illness in certain parts of the body, and problems with its circulation are indicated by certain symptoms. In the case of the channel just mentioned, these indications include lung-related complaints like cough or asthma. The fourth reading below shows that already in the Han, major elements of this model were in place, embedded in a robust natural-cycles theory."
NOTE: I've included more information on medicine from this chapter in User:PericlesofAthens/Sandbox6.
Page 171-172: QUOTE: "Both medicine and divination techniques exploit the correspondence schemes that became ubiquitous in the Han. The Han understanding of the universe implied that by mastering principles of change and alteration one could enhance any techniques that already existed, whether it deals with pneumas, demons and spirits, or vitues and social hierarchies. It illustrates the later Warring States and early imperial periods' faith in the efficacy of 'natural procedures' (tianshu...)."

On the texts

Page 172: QUOTE: "The first of the four selections below is a single reading from an augury, an omen based on events in nature. We have seen the importance of the unicorn augury for one tradition of classical scholars (see 5.2 'The Hereditary House of Kongzi' and 5.3 'Asking Questions about Kongzi'). Han 'Cosmological patterns' (tianwen 天文, the modern word for astronomy) texts were concerned with the stars and with omenological readings of astronomical and meteorological phenomena. This reading is concerned with a particular kind of cloud called the 'Dipper Cloud', which portends the rise of a great general. The general, interestingly, has a birthmark on his left thigh, the same place where the founder of the Han dynasty had one. The reason that such a portent arisesis that phenomena in the realms of the Cosmos and human society, linked by the medium of pneumas, correspond with one another."
Page 172: QUOTE: "Turning to divination, the third of the four readings highlights a social dimension of that technical art. An anecdote from the Records of the Historian (Shiji 史記) portrays an encounter between Confucian officials and a hemerologist. The underlying tension between elite and popular divination practices is explained by Li Ling..."
- Page 172-173: QUOTE (of historian Li Ling): "Although the [Classic of Changes] has been read as a freestanding text by both ancient and modern researchers into the principles of change, as a divination text that people consult, it has always been connected to the casting of stalks. Separate it from the casting of stalks, and it loses its divinatory significance. However, texts for selecting auspicious days and calendrical prohibitions arrange the days to engage in or abstain from each kind of activity, so that from the moment the text is laid out the auspicious and inauspicious are immediately visible and there is no need to rely on the cosmic board. As a result, a person can master it without special training."
Page 173: QUOTE (back to Csikszentmihalyi): "Differences in divination methods may, as the reading implies, be strongly connected to social class."
Page 173: QUOTE: "The second and fourth readings are applications of the five phases to political and medical contexts, respectively. One interesting aspect of these two works is the similarity of their explanations of the five phases. Both relate each phase to a season, although the way they do so is different. In the case of the second reading, from the Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals (Chunqiu fanlu 春秋繁露), the four seasons are aligned with the five phases by making one phase exempt because of its grave importance. The fourth reading instead adds a fifth season, that of 'long summer' (changxia 長夏), the sixth month of the traditional agricultural calendar. Turning back to the 'wheels within wheels' analogy for Han correspondence theory above, it is clear that sometimes making everything come out evenly was a difficult task. But these works illustrate the degree to which the five phases were used to explain things as different as hierarchies in Confucian ethics and why particular tastes could cure particular illnesses."

Dipper Cloud

Page 173-174: QUOTE: "The Miscellaneous Readings of Cosmic Patterns and Pneuma Images (Tianwen qixiang zazhan 天文氣象雜占) is a chart that was excavated at Mawangdui 馬王堆 in the 1970s. Prior to its discovery, the tomb had been closed since 168 B.C.E. The chart provides a number of divinations related to the appearances of natural phenomena influenced by pneumas such as clouds, comets, and haloes around stars."
Page 174: QUOTE: "The following section is only one of dozens of illustrations on the chart, each of which is accompanied by a short interpretation. Sometimes there are multiple interpretations of the same phenomenon, attributed to different diviners. The importance of the spirit of the Dipper as a celestial ruler (as in two of the Chapter 9 talismans) is echoed here, where the descent of a cloud shaped like, or perhaps lightly covering, the constellation is taken as a sign of a great leader. Particularly interesting is the birthmark on the leader's left thigh, in light of the Records of the Historian's account that Emperor Gao 高 was born with a face like a dragon's and...'seventy-two balck moles on his left thigh.' This indicates either that both texts are alluding the same earlier prophecy, or that the augury chart is alluding to Emperor Gao."
- Page 175: QUOTE (of the Mawangdui manuscript): "If a Dipper Cloud descends there is a worthy general who has not yet been established. Once established, he will wreak great destruction on [enemy] armies. He will have birthmarks on his left thigh; they will be black and irregular."
- Page 175: QUOTE (of the Mawangdui manuscript): "The states where [the cloud] is visible will establish [the general] as hegemon over their people. Those in the shadow under [the cloud] will, because of their anxiety over opposing the flow of the river, come to meet [the general]."

The Meaning of the Five Phases

Page 175-176: In regards to "The Meaning of the Five Phases" (Wuxing zhi yi 五行之義), the 42nd chapter of the Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals, QUOTE: "This essay is attributed to Dong Zhongshu...but it was probably actually written in the first century B.C.E. The application of the 'five phases' scheme to ethics and politics is clearly documented as early as the third century B.C.E., so it is not impossible that Dong wrote it. Some of the internal clues indicate that this essay might have been written at the same time of Liu Xiang 劉向 (79–8 B.C.E.) or Liu Xin 劉歆 (d. 23 C.E.)."
Page 176: QUOTE: "'The Meaning of the Five Phases' has two different goals: to argue for earth as the supreme phase, and to argue for the behavior of the five phases as a model for the behavior in the human realm. The former goal is consistent with the late-second and first-century B.C.E. identification of the Han with the earth phase (prior to 104 B.C.E. it aligned itself with water, and after 26 C.E., with fire). The latter goal justifies filial piety and loyalty as 'natural' and uses the sequence of the five phases to justify hierarchies among officials. Like Lu Jia's...(d. 178 B.C.E.) derivation of the Human Way from Nature's Way (see 4.1 'The Basis of the Way'), this essay 'naturalizes' older elements of Confucian ethics."

Traditions Surrounding the Diviners of Auspicious Days

Page 179: This part of the chapter deals with the third text under study, the "Traditions Surrounding the Diviners of Auspicious Days" (Rizhe liezhuan 日者列傳), the 127th chapter of the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian. QUOTE: "The Records of the Historian has been introduced...but many scholars have speculated that the chapter selected here is actually a later work. The chapter centers on a visit by Song Zhong 宋[?] and Jia Yi 賈誼 (see, e.g., 1.2 'Protecting and Tutoring') to a market, where they encounter a diviner who delivers an astonishing polemic on divination and the Way."
Page 179-180: QUOTE: "With the exaggerated tone of a person telling a hard-luck story, Sima Jizhu 司馬季主 (literally 'Sima who controls the seasons') delivers a defense of his occupation as a diviner. The account itself reads more like it was written by the kind of scholar to whom Sima is lecturing, albeit one with a fondness for the Laozi 老子. This selection, which begins with Kongzi and ends with Laozi, talks about the social importance of the diviner, and argues that the diviner actually has the characteristics of a good Confucian."

Discussion of How Pneumas of the Five Organs Model on the Seasons

NOTE: Moved to medicine section

Loewe's Book

Loewe, Michael. (1994). Divination, Mythology and Monarchy in Han China. Cambridge, New York, and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521454662.

First, an interesting tidbit from Loewe's preliminary notes

Page 29: QUOTE: "The line of uited defences that Han had inherited from Ch'in was not strong enough to prevent incursion as far as the close vicinity of Ch'ang-an in 166 BC. The extension of the defence lines into Central Asia, which was accompanied by the establishment of four commanderies in the north-west (between 112 and 104 BC) allowed for the safter conduct of merchandise, principally in the silk laden caravans that were wending their weary way to the West. It was also possible to exercise a more effective control over travellers and potential deserters wishing to move in or out of Chinese territory; patrols and observation of enemy activity could be maintained more regularly. These and other activities are testified in the newly found documents, which include a signals' code and a signals' log, reports of patrols, and records of travellers and goods admitted through points of control. Such material makes possible a new appreciation of the professional standards and procedures of the Han forces, between c. 100 BC and c. AD 100."
Page 30: Dubs' theory (1957) that it was Roman soldiers from the Mediterranean fighting in Central Asia who were mentioned in the Book of Han is not widely supported by scholars.

Man and Beast: The Hybrid in Early Art and Literature

Page 38: QUOTE: "Our knowledge of Chinese religion and mythology rests on the evidence of art, archaeology and literature, which may be considered very generally in two types. There is the evidence of a natural, romantic and free tradition, sometimes associated with the south, and that of a formal, classical and inhibited tradition, sometimes associated with the north. Of these two major traditions, that of the north came in time to predominate over that of the south. For it was in the north that China's political and dynastic authorities emerged, and from thence that they extended their sphere of influence to the east, and then to the centre and the south. While this extension may be seen most clearly in political terms, it also affected cultural developments. The regimes of the north required intellectual conformity and support; there set in a tendency whereby the temporal masters and officials of the north were wont to mould and exploit the independent arts and mythology of the south so as to satisfy their own immediate political needs; and in the course of such treatment some elements of the southern tradition became subject to scorn and even suppression."
Page 38-39: QUOTE: "From about the beginning of the Christian era, standardisation was affecting Chinese literature, both in the choice of material that was sponsored for preservation and in the interpretations that were put on early writings in order to propagate orthodox beliefs. In studying early mythology, then, we must fasten on such evidence as preceded the move towards uniformity, and on that which survives from the live cultures of the south...The inscriptions made on bones and shells tell us something of the aspirations of early Chinese monarchs of the Shang-Yin (c. 1700–c. 1045 BC), and of the processes for consulting divine powers; but they carry little information that bears on the specific nature of those beliefs. Although some of China's literature may date back to c. 1000 BC, the versions which we possess today must be carefully examined; for we must sift the grain from the chaff, rejecting the results of the subsequent editing that suited the needs of the imperial dynasties founded from 221 BC onwards."
Page 39: QUOTE: "Luckily, evidence of a less orthodox frame of mind survives elsewhere, despite the efforts of the officials of the north to deprecate its importance. It derives from the once-thriving cultures of the south, and is seen in the art motifs and literature that emanated from the valley fo the Yangtse River and beyond. These areas encompassed a terrain that was very different from that of the north, giving rise to the characteristic rice cultivation, and including large regions of swamp, forest and mountain. Such lairs lay beyond the reach of the Chinese official, who tended to regard them as the home of the untutored barbarian. It is from the artistic creations of such peoples, who were free of the northern mandarins' discipline, that we may learn something of China's early mythologies."
Page 39: QUOTE: "The Chinese believed in the existence and powers of a number of deities. Ti, or Shang ti, or God on high, was venerated by the kigns and possibly the peoples of Shang; he was conceived as a unity, probably in anthropomorphic terms; and he was thought to possess supreme powers over man and nature. The kings of Chou, who supplanted those of Shang from perhaps 1045 BC, believed in a different supreme deity, known as T'ien, or Heaven. T'ien may also have been conceived in human terms; and along with the institutions and moral examples ascribed to the kings of Chou, T'ien was adopted as an object of veneration by the imperial dynasties, who worshipped him right up to 1910. Both ti and T'ien, it seems, existed on a higher plane than the shen, or holy spirits. These were conceived in multiplicity, often being attached to specific sites on earth. The holy spirits would respond to prayer, invocation or, if the occasion demanded, to exorcism. For they were capable of actions which could help or harm man; and they were conceived in animal, hyrbid, semi-animal or semi-human form. Finally, account must be taken of the kuei, the demons who originated as manifestations of deceased human beings. They too were capable of benefitting or injuring man; they responded to prophylactic observances of man, and their presence could be invoked by specialist intermediaries. That the holy spirits and demons existed on an inferior plane to that of ti or T'ien is show by references in literature in which they follow ti in order of precedence or carry out behests at his command."
Page 39-40: QUOTE: "A number of changes may be discerned in the concepts of these deities. In the earlier stages, of the Shang-Yin period, it was thought that the souls of the deceased ancestors of the kings shared the abode of ti, and that they acted as intermediaries between ti and the world of mankind. This office was also partly filled by mythological animals who served to link the two worlds. In later stages, i.e. during the early centuries of the first millennium BC, the importance of ti had declined; his replacement by T'ien bore a number of social implications; and the veneration for the holy spirits may have been growing stronger. In addition, whereas hitherto it had been the souls of the deceased ancestors who had acted as intermediaries, from now on contact with sacred powers was affected by specialists drawn from the human, living world, who may variously be described as priests or shamans."
Page 40: QUOTE: "This development was accompanied by a change of treatment in Chinese art, as may be seen principally in the decoration of bronze vessels. In the initial stages, from perhaps 1600 to 950 BC animals are shown in full vigour, whom man treats with affection, reverence and awe. They are creatures whose powers are all too manifest, and there is little room for human beings beside them save in a minor, subordinate capacity. However, in the bronzes which may be dated from c. 900 BC, man is shown wielding strong powers with which he is capable of challenging, fighting and even conquering the animal world; for by now the animals are monsters which can harm man. Similarly, in Chinese mythology, the all-powerful animals of the early stages yield place to the human hero, who is depicted possessing strength, courage and nobility with which to defeat the monsters who withstand him."
Page 40: QUOTE: "Evidence for hybrid forms in Chinese art and mythology appears in objects and literature that date from the fifth or fourth centuries BC and later. Such evidence must be considered in full recognition that it had been preceded by earlier, formative stages of cultural growth, and that those stages had lasted for a millenium [sic] and longer. Two contradictory principles may possibly be discerned. The first was that of identification of man with the animal world. Tribal ancestries were traced to an animal; divination was conducted through the medium of animal bones and shells; and attempts were made to make a contact with the animal spirits of another world by means of physical assimilation (for example, the consumption of an animal's flesh, or wearing part of an animal's fur or skin). The second principle which may be seen operating in the Chinese treatment of the animal world is that of euhemerisation, whereby the myths and gods of an earlier origin were transformed into beings of authentic history, and animal figures were portrayed in anthropomorphic terms."
Page 40-41: These can be seen in the material of the Shan Hai Jing (Classic of the Mountains and the Lakes) that is dated to the 5th or 4th centuries BC, a book which represents to a great degree the southern tradition. The book describes the various plants, animals, and minerals that can be found in various locations in China, yet it also describes freakish hybrid animals at holy places, where if one were to wear their furs or eat their flesh, one could be benefitted with children and grandchildren, and other various results. In fact, there are 400 of these shen or holy spirits, 80 described in detail, who may take the hybrid form of a bird and a dragon, a horse and a dragon, a swine and a snake, and very often with a human face mounted on the body of a dragon, horse, ox, sheep, snake, bird, or pig.
Page 42-43: There is a famous silk manuscript dated c. 400 BC from the State of Chu which provides some details about the creation of heaven and earth, the emergence of natural processes like the sequence of the seasons, and the participation of the holy spirits in these processes. Furthermore, it showws influence of the Five Phases or Wu Xing that dictated the cycle of creation, decay, and rebirth. The manuscript also has twelve illustrated figures which may be shamans or intermediaries wearing masks, but may also be twelve guardian gods or holy spirits for each one of the seasons as their descriptive notices hint. Their forms are also similar to the holy spirits described in the Shan Hai Jing.
Page 45: QUOTE: "The twelve figures of the silk manuscript, including some hybrids, may thus perhaps be taken to represent twelve spirits, or twelve shamans able to contact them and to drive away evil influences. The suggestion compels us to take a brief look at what may be said of the practice of exorcism in China. Probably the most clear evidence, albeit for some 500 years later than the time of the silk manuscript, is that of a description of a ceremony held at the imperial court; this was the Great Exorcism, practised for the emperors of the Later Han dynasty (AD 25–220), and probably stretching back to considerably earlier beginnings. At this ceremony the chief exorcist of state performed the main rites. He was clothed in a bearskin which was furnished with four eyes, presumably to ensure that it could command all-round vision. The object of the ceremony is defined as being the expulsion of pestilence and evil demons from home, court and palace; and the climax of the ceremony was reached in an invocation to twelve named spirits, who were summoned to devour the 'ten baleful influences.'"

Page 45-46: QUOTE: "We therefore ask whether the twelve figures of the silk manuscript from Ch'u may be symbols of those twelve spirits who are defined by name for the ceremony of the Later Han court; or whether they may be the intermediaries sent to summon them. It may also be asked whether the twelve figures are prototypes of other series of creatures which appear at other stages of Chinese thought; for example, the twelve divisions of the cosmos, the heavens or the day, who were later to be symbolised by twelve special animals; or the twelve guardian spirits of heaven, who may possibly be seen on some early Chinese diviner's boards; or the twelve protective spirits of the household, invoked to procure domestic safety."
Page 46: The hybrid ceatures are also seen in paintings on the coffin lids of the Mawangdui tombs; these include the elflike creatures, antlered human-animal hybrids and snake-devouring monsters. The snake-devouring monster is also mentioned in the poem "The Summons of the Soul" from the Songs of the South, a poetry collection dated perhaps to the 3rd century BC. In this particular poem, it mentions Tubo, the 'Lord of the Earth' (or rather, the underworld), who is nine-coiled, has horns on his forehead, and expels demons and devours snakes before they had a chance to eat and consume the deceased body of a person.
Page 49: Hybrid creatures are also associated with the xian, or immortal, spirits who could fly through the universe. It was thought that the deceased could become xian if people on earth provided the deceased with jujubes and juice distilled from jade, as well as placement of talismans near the dead. From literary sources and artwork, it is known that the Chinese believed that hybrid creatures (resembling the cherub, seraph, and Icarus in Western mythology), with a combination of either a bird's body with a human face or a human figure with wings, would escort the dead through their journey into the afterlife and becoming one of the xian.
Page 50-52: QUOTE: "The heyday of the hybrid in Chinese art and literature may be placed in the fifth or fourth centuries BC; its home region seems to have been centred on the great kingdom of Ch'u, that bestrode the valley of the Yangtse River. But before long China became unified under Ch'in, the first of the imperial dynasties, which was founded in 221 BC. Uniformity and standardisation were promoted in art, literature and mythology. If the lively, vivid styles and the strange tales of the south were not entirely suppressed, there was a sufficiently strong impetus from the north to propagate other art forms; with the propagation of the 'Confucian' cosmology, shorlty after 100 BC, the attention of Chinese artists was directed to other symbols, as befitted the new orthodox modes of thought. The snake-cum-tortoise, to which reference has been briefly made above, derived from just such developments."
Page 52: QUOTE: "The hybrid creature fell out of fashion. When we meet him again, he does not spring live from an artist's intuitive imagination; he is a creature of a secondary order. It has been observed above that the extant text of the Classic of the Mountains and the Lakes probably originated as explanations which were intended to accompany a series of ancient paintings. By the Later Han period (AD 25–220), those paintings had long since perished, although the explanatory text survived. We find that artists of the day were portraying creatures of fancy which may have been inspired by that text or which were intended to clarify it. Hybrids appeared once more, by now in stone reliefs, carved deliberately to illustrate concepts which were known second-hand, from literary sources; they perhaps lack the immediate appeal to the sub-conscious that is carried in some of the hybrids of an earlier age."

Water, Earth and Fire: the Symbols of the Han Dynasty

Page 55: It was originally held that once a leader eliminated rivals, he established his legitimacy of political authority as the new ruler. By the reign of Wang Mang, the right to rule had become tied with the superhuman power of Tian and its besotwal of a Mandate of Heaven on one who was favored by heaven to succeed as ruler of the empire. By this point, this idea had become accepted as orthodox. This is consistent with the gradually higher level of emphasis given by Chinese scholars to the cosmic elements associated with dynasties, or the Wu Xing, which were linked with the future destiny of the dynasty and its protection. The element of Water was chosen by both Qin and Western Han, until it was replaced by Earth in 104 BC during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. Wang Mang also adopted Earth as his symbol, which was succeeded by the Fire element of Emperor Guangwu of Han. Some scholars in the late Western Han had already been pushing for a change from Earth to Fire.
Page 56-57: The Lüshi Chunqiu offers one of the earliest statements linking these elemental symbols with particular rulers. The text states that the element Earth was the symbol of the Yellow Emperor, Wood was the symbol of the Xia Dynasty of Yu the Great, Metal was the symbol of King Tang of Shang, and Fire was the symbol of King Wen of Zhou. The text then claimed that the element to succeed the Fire of Zhou would be the Water element of a succeeding dynasty. From the Records of the Grand Historian it is known that the Qin Dynasty adopted water as its element. Around 180 BC, the statesman Jia Yi (d. 169 BC) argued that Han's Water should be changed to Earth, to show that the rulers of the dynasty were confident that a permanent dynastic change had occurred after Qin, secured by symbolic recognition. A similar suggestion was made in 166 BC by Gongsun Chen of Lu, a man who eventually became an Academician. Both Jia Yi and Gongsun Chen's proposals were rejected by the Han court.
Page 57: It was not until 104 BC that the element was changed from Water to Earth, to recognize the material blessings that were seemingly bestowed on the dynasty for its political zenith under Emperor Wu of Han, who expanded the realm and scored many victories over China's enemies along its borders. QUOTE: "So too must the dynasty recognise that Earth had conquered Water, the element of Ch'in."
Page 57: QUOTE: "Almost a century elapsed before the question of the appropriate dynastic element next arose. In the meantime a change had overcome the predominant attitude towards the universe, man and the state. This change is sometimes described as the victory of Confucianism, and derived partly from the philosophy of T'ung Chung-shu (c. 179 to c. 104). The practical or realistic view of the state and its purposes that had been modelled on the Ch'in empire had given place to a respect and longing for a state that was based on the ethical ideals and the less harsh dispensation that was ascribed to the kings of Chou; and in religious matters, the worship of the Five Powers (ti) and other deities was giving place to that of T'ien or Heaven. Quite consistently the attitude towards the Five Elements, or Phases, also changed. A new view of the principle whereby the Five succeeded one another was witnessed in the opinions of philosophers, and put to practical effect in the hands of politicians. The change afffected the choice of element by Wang Mang, Kung-sun Shu and Kuang-wu-ti; and it engendered the retrospective view that the appropriate element for Western Han had been neither Water nor Earth, as had been maintained, but Fire."
Page 57-58: QUOTE: "Hitherto it had been held that the elements succeeded one another by virtue of conquest. It was now put about, on the basis of earlier thinking, that an element rose to a position of dominance by natural growth from its predecessor (hsiang sheng). The protagonists of the new opinion included formative personalities such as Liu Hsiang (79–8 BC) and Liu Hsin (c. 46 BC to AD 23), who observed that the true sequence should proceed from Wood to Fire, without any interloper. They also cited an anecdote that concerned Liu Pang, before the establishment of the Han dynasty. According to the full account of this story, Liu Pang once put a large serpent to death; at the time it was said that the serpent was the incarnation of the power of White, and that it was as an incarnation of the power of Red that Liu Pang had succeeded in killing it; and it is further related that when, some time after the incident, Liu Pang had risen to be king of Han, he made the point of according precedence to Red among the colours."
Page 58: QUOTE: "This association of Liu Pang and the protection of Red, the colour of Five, is related in identical terms in the Shi-chi and the Han shu. The sole corroborative statement to suggest that Western Han paid any special attention to Red is seen, rather curiously, in the record of Kung-sun Ch'en's proposal of 166 BC. Following the rejection of his proposal, the emperor made a progress to pay his respects to the five Powers (ti) at Yung, and the colour Red was given precedence in the robes of the officiants at the ceremony. The absence of further corroboration has led some scholars to the conclusion that the story of Liu Pang's slaughter of the serpent was an invention of the first century BC."
Page 58: QUOTE: "In a somewhat strange incident of 5 BC the view was seriously put forward that the Han dynasty had reached the end of its allotted span and that its authority required renewal. The idea had indeed been propounded during the previous reign, of Ch'eng-ti (33–7 BC), when the lack of an imperial heir had given rise to dynastic problems, political intrigues and religious controversy. The opinion which was voiced in 5 BC won acceptance to the point of persuading the emperor and his government of the need to effect certain changes, as a symbolical means of seeking renewal of authority. A new regnal title was adopted, together with a new title with which the emperor was styled; and a formal change was made in the divisions of the day, for purposes of calculating time. It is evident that those who believed that they were witnessing the end of a dynastic cycle saw that cycle in cosmic terms, and it is perhaps surprising that no direct suggestion was made for adopting a new element as patron of the dynasty. There was, however, one allusion to the growing power of Fire; the revelation that the end of the cycle was approaching was ascribed to Ch'ih ching tzu, who is described as a mystic of a very advanced degree; the term Ch'ih ching tzu may be rendered as 'The essential spirit of Red'."
Page 58-59: QUOTE: "The documents and procedures that attended the accession of Wang Mang as emperor of the Hsin dynasty apparently assume that the elements succeed each other naturally rather than by conquest; and they accept that Han had existed under the patronage of Fire, which was due for displacement by Earth. One of Wang Mang's own statements (6 January AD 9) refers specifically to the incident of 5 BC and its prophecy of the neeed for dynastic renewal. There is also a definite statement in the proclamation that was circulated throughout the empire in the autumn of AD 9, seeking to prove how earth had already taken the place of Fire, and how the Mandate of the Han dynasty had thereby become exhausted. Wang Mang's choice of Earth as his patron is specified in the proclamation issued immediately after his accession, on 10 January AD 9."
Page 59: QUOTE: "The duty of adopting a patron element next fell on those who sought to found imperial regimes after Wang Mang's death, i.e., Kung-sun Shu and Liu Hsiu, the future Kuang-wu-ti. In both cases the theory of the natural succession of the elements was accepted without demur. Kung-sun Shu declared himself emperor on the strength of the possession of territories in west China, in AD 25; as he regarded himself as the natural successor to Wang Mang and his element Earth, he gave out that his dynasty would thrive under Metal, the element of the west. Liu Hsiu, however, who chose his element in the year after his accession (i.e. in AD 26) based his decision on a somewhat different set of assumptions. By choosing Metal, Kung-sun Shu had accorded Wang Mang a rightful place in the sequence of dynastic authorities. When Liu Hsiu chose Fire, he was resuming what he believed to be the appropriate element for the Han dynasty. In doing so he not only sought to unite his regime, in cosmic terms, with that of Former Han; he was also branding Wang Mang as an usurper who had never possessed a legitimate right to rule."
Page 59: QUOTE: "In two key passages of the Han shu it is asserted that Han, i.e. Former Han, had served the tutelary element of Fire. One features in the historian's appreciation of Kao ti; here the statement is linked with the legitimate succession of Han from Yao, who had been blessed by Fire, and with the omen of Liu Pang's success, as seen in the story of his encounter with the serpent. The second passage occurs in Pan Piao's all-important essay on the nature of kingship, where the same points are made. Han is also assigned to the protection of Fire in another chapter of the Han shu, which is based on the writings of Liu Hsin. This is the treatise on measurements and astro-calendrical science; in accordance with the order of the natural succession of the elements, Fire is denoted as the element of Yen ti and of Yao, before the cycle had brought it round to Han."

The Han view of comets

Page 61: Thanks to a strip inscription in tomb no. 3 of Mawangdui, the tombs at that site can be confidently dated to 168 BC, while the tomb no. 1 built for the Countess of Tai (with the famous painting interred with her as a talisman) was built shortly afterwards. Besides the already mentioned silk manuscript from the State of Chu, the silk texts at Mawangdui rank among the oldest known existent silk texts from China. It is one of these manuscripts, one that focuses on science and divination, which will be studied in detail here by Loewe.

Silken manuscript now entitled Tianwen qixiang za zhan

Page 61: One of the silk texts at Mawangdui covers, in about 300 different entries comprised of diagrams and texts in red and black ink, climatic and astronomical features and the prognostications that were associated with each phenomena of the sky. These included clouds, mirages, rainbows, stars and constellations, and comets.
Page 61-62: This particular silk text, since it mentions the states of Han, Wei, and Zhao, cannot be older than 403 BC when these states were carved out of Jin, and written at no time later than 168 BC when it was interred in tomb no. 3 of Mawangdui.
Page 62: Loewe suspects that this text was originally written in the State of Chu before the foundation of the Qin Dynasty.

Place of manuscript in Chinese astronomy and divination

Page 65: QUOTE: "Apart from the forty diagrams of physical exercises or callisthenic postures of another manuscript, this document under study is the only record fo the period found so far which includes illustrations of a nature that would now be regarded as scientific. That such diagrams not infrequently formed parts of early Chinese writings may be seen from the entries in the bibliographical list of the Han shu, and in the references of much later catalogues to the survival of a text but the loss of its accompanying illustrations. Whereas the diagrams of callisthenics include no more than a title or caption, the texts that accompany the illustrations of meteorological and related phenomena, of stars and of comets are considerably longer and more informative."
Page 65-66: QUOTE: "The manuscript may be considered together with a further text found at Ma-wang-tui, also on silk, which reports the times and locations of the rising and setting of the planets over the years 246–177 BC. The two documents constitute the earliest surviving original Chinese writings on astronomical matters; for the works that are ascribed to the two famous astronomers Kan and Shih, of the Chan-kuo period, have long since disappeared, except for the citations preserved in later writings. The basic evidence of the observations and calculations made by Han, or earlier astronomers may otherwise be found in the lengthy treatises of the Standard Histories, and in a few diagrams painted on the walls or ceilings of tombs."
Page 66: However, Loewe asserts that, with the many careful and meticulous recordings found in this silk manuscript, there is no way that it was all compiled by a single observer, and must have drawn on many sources from Chinese observers throughout the centuries. The Spring and Autumn Annals even states that the Chinese had observed comets as early as 613 BC, and both the Records of the Grand Historian and Book of Han cite allegedly earlier texts from lost works of the Zhou era.
Page 66-67: In geomancy (feng shui), there is an intuitive seer who "divines the existence of the unperceived properties that inform a site," as well as an observer "whose graticulated compass enables him to relate a site and its qualities to the measured rhythms and changes of the universe." Loewe compares this to the functions of the astronomical/divinatory silk text found in Mawangdui tomb no. 3, since it QUOTE: "presents the results of observation together with guidance with which to interpret the inherent meaning therein," i.e. prognostication about astronomical phenomena viewed in the Chinese sky.

Terms used to denote comets in the manuscript and Standard Histories

Page 67: For the Mawangdui manuscript, QUOTE: "The text that accompanied 28 of the 29 diagrams of the comets is in general of the same form, comprising the name and title of the particular type of comet that is displayed, short remarks about the duration of its appearance, and a general prognostication of the events likely to ensue. A number of the names are botanical terms. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly some of the names are used to define two or even three different types fo comet; in these cases the prognostications, though phrased somewhat differently, are largely identical in purport. At least eight of the total number of 20 different names appear in literature. A large proportion of the prognostications concern military fortunes, as do those for comets whose observation is recorded in Han literature. It may also be remarked that, certainly at a later date, divination which depended on another type of natural feature (i.e., the behaviour of the winds: feng-chiao) was also largely linked with military matters. Some of the prognostications of the manuscript are attributed to named masters or seers, i.e. Pei-kung or Yao; these are otherwise unknown."
Page 67-69 (table on page 68 of the names of the comets in the Mawangdui manuscript, such as "red drops," the "flute of heaven", the "bamboo broom," the "pheasant," etc.): Moving on and away from the Mawangdui manuscripts, Loewe writes, QUOTE: "The compilers of the Standard Histories for the Han period noted the appearance of comets in two different ways. They feature in the chapters of Imperial Annals, along with accounts of other phenomena, in so far as they were thought to have a bearing on imperial destinies and dynastic continuity. The references in these chapters are terse, and they are not usually accompanied by comment or prognostication. Comets are however treated more fully in the special chapters that concern the movements of the heavenly bodies or the strange phenomena of the universe. In those chapters the reports of comets' appearances are frequently followed by interpretation or comments submitted by notable or distinguished men of letters."
Page 69: QUOTE: "The observations that are reported for the Former Han period are not always dated precisely. Sometimes two or more references may pertain to one and the same incident. In some cases it is not always possible to determine whether observations which were separated by a short period were in fact concerned with the same event; and it is possible that some reports may have derived from purposeful fabrication that was undertaken for political motives. For these reasons it is difficult to count the number of different appearances that were recorded, but it may be estimated that possibly as many as thirty separate incidents featured and were observed between 204 BC and AD 22. One of the observations (for 12 BC) can be identified with confidence as Halley's comet, and the sighting of 87 BC was probably concerned with its immediate preceding occurrence. Two other cases (for 135 BC and 44 BC) may perhaps be linked with observations of comets recorded in other cultures, i.e., in one case for the comet said to have attended the birth of Mithridates, and in the other for the one that appeared close to the murder of Julius Caesar. A sighting of AD 13 may correspond to a report mentioned by Dio Cassius; one for AD 185 has been identified as a supernova."
Page 69-70: QUOTE: "A variety of terms, which will be discussed immediately below, were used in the Standard Histories to denote these events. Whichever term is used, such details as are given in the record are of the same type, i.e., they concern the constellation in or near which the phenomenon was seen; its subsequent movements; its color, and its size. This last detail is given either by measurements in feet, however that may be interpreted, or by comparisons with material objects. How far the Chinese were able to distinguish at this stage between comets, novae and supernovae must remain open to question; but the basic identification of the phenomena as comets can be accepted, by reason of the attendant details that are reported, the correspondence between some of the Chinese reports with those from elsewhere and the evidence of the manuscript from Ma-wang-tui."

Treatment of comets in the Standard Histories

Page 75-76: QUOTE: "When the chapters of the Shih-chi and the Han shu report the appearance of a comet, they note its position in the heavens and the direction in which it was moving; the length of time for which it was visible; its color and its size, either in the general terms or 'extending over all or half the heavens,' or, more precisely in terms of feet; such terms of measurement have yet to be fully explained. The treatises of the Han shu which concern astrology and strange phenomena include statements that are ascribed to famous figures such as Tung Chung-shu (c. 179 to c. 104 BC), Liu Hsiang, Liu Hsin (46 BC to AD 23), or Ku Yung (fl. c. 9 BC), as comments made on the appearance of a comet. Curiously enough no comments are included from Ching Fang in this connection. Elsewhere in the Han shu his views are frequently quoted in relation to other strange occurrences; and citations from his works in the Chin shu show that he had certainly not excluded comets from his investigation of natural phenomena. Sometimes the Han shu simply relates a subsequent historical event, leaving it to the reader to draw the obvious inference that the comet's appearance foreshadowed the incident in question, which was usually of a dynastic or political nature. In addition the Han shu includes on at least three occasions a general statement to the effect that 'comets eliminate the old and inaugurate a new order'. There are also a few tantalising citations from works that are now lost, such as the Hsing chuan, or the opinions of Shen Hsü [or Ju]. The question may naturally be raised whether such writings included material of the same form as that of the manuscript under study."
Page 76-77: In the treatise on astrology in the Xuhan zhi (Hsü Han chih), commented on by Liu Zhao (fl. 510 AD), the following report is given about the appearance of a comet in the eleventh month of 22 AD:
- QUOTE: "Disrupting stars [po hsing] are the product of evil exhalations and give rise to disorder and violence, by which they disrupt [po] natural qualities of good [te]; a disruption of such qualities is a sign of violence, a manifestation of darkness [pu ming]. In addition [eight characters not understood]...hence they are termed 'disrupters', an expression which implies that something has been injured and that something has been obstructed. Sometimes they are called 'broom-stars' [sui hsing], the means of eliminating corruption and inaugurating a new order."

Banner of Chi You

Page 77: QUOTE: "The diagram that forms part of entry number 639 of the manuscript is identified there as 'the Banner of Ch'ih-yu', and the prognostication that was appropriate to this particular type of comet reads: 'armies are without; they will return.' There is no further information about this comet in literary sources."
Page 77: QUOTE: "Ch'ih-yu himself features as a hero, or a villain, of Chinese mythology who was involved in a number of escapades. Sometimes he is cited as a byword for the outbreak of violent conflict; sometimes he is described as one of the ministers who served Huang-ti, the Yellow Emperor; at a later stage he became accepted as the God of War."
Page 77: QUOTE: "The term 'Banner of Ch'ih-yu' is used to denote certain types of exhalation (ch'i) as well as a comet of a particular definable type. In the Lü shih ch'un-ch'iu the term appears among a number of others that denote clouds or exhalations; but although the same passage refers to comets, the Banner of Ch'ih-yu does not feature in that connection."
Page 78-79: The Book of Han states of the 'Banner of Chi You', QUOTE: "while being like a comet [sui] is curled at the rear, in the shape of a flag; when it is seen, those who are kings will undertake military expeditions in all directions."

Chinese view of the origin of comets

Page 79: QUOTE: "Reference has been made above to the statements of the Shih-chi and Han shu to the effect that certain named comets were produced thanks to the aberrations of the planets. A similar concept is voiced by Liu Hsiang (79–8 BC), whose interpretations of comets and their significance in dynastic terms are included in the Han shu. In a separate work, the Shuo yüan, he describes some of the features of the heavens in connection with prognostication. He names five comets which he regards as being the product of the waxing and the waning of the five planets, but he does not relate individual comets to particular planets. We have already encountered two of the comets which he names, i.e., the Banner of Ch'ih-yu and Ch'an-chiang."
Page 79: QUOTE: "The treatise on astrology of the Chin shu carries a long citation that is ascribed to Ching Fang, a famous contemporary of Liu Hsiang who has good cause to be named among the foremost of Han scientific observers. The passage refers to a number of comets by name, eight of which appear in the manuscript from Ma-wang-tui. Ching Fang attributes their origins to the planets, and lists the Banner of Ch'ih-yu among the products of Mars. The same chapter of the Chin shu also carries a citation from a source which is named as Ho t'u Here the comets are said to originate from the dissipation (san) of the planets; it is also suggested that the essence (ching) of the planets may become comets; and the Banner of Ch'ih-yu is variously ascribed to Mars and Saturn. In a comment to the Han shu, Meng K'ang (fl. c. 180–260) likewise identified the Banner of Ch'ih-yu as the essence of Mars. The same concept is repeated in two short citations in the T'ai-p'ing yü-lan, from a work which is entitled Ho t'u ch'i yao kou. According to one of these passages the five planets produce the five comets by a process of dissipation; the other passage states that the Banner of Ch'ih-yu originated in this way from Mars."

The Authority of the emperors of Ch'in and Han

Page 85: QUOTE: "A deep contrast may be drawn between the concepts of imperial sovereignty that were accepted in 221 BC and AD 220. At the outset of the Ch'in empire (221–207) the right to rule needed no greater defence or explanation than that of successful conquest, achieved by force of arms; by the end of the Han empire (202 BC – AD 220) a new dynasty was obliged to demonstrate that it had received Heaven's command to rule and Heaven's blessing on its undertaking. The first Ch'in emperor formulated and assumed his title by arbitrary action; in AD 220 Ts'ao Pi (187–226) went through a form of reluctantly accepting nomination after receiving an instrument of abdication from his predecessor, the last of the Han emperors. While the governors of Ch'in had been content to take material wealth and strength as the objective of their rule, by the third century AD it had become firmly established that a new dynasty could only claim support if it could show that its purpose lay in the unfolding of cosmic destiny."
Page 86-87: There were only a handful of emperors during the Han, such as Emperor Wu of Han, who used the force of their personality to wield greater influence over government, but there were often minors installed on the throne, thus necessitating the guidance of senior statesmen who would assume geater power over governmental affairs. If the emperor was not very active in political affairs, he was still expected to be the chief of state cults and serve as a link between Heaven and man. Parallel to this was the gradual rise in importance of religious values and ethics in ruling an empire. Statesmen at the court of Emperor Jing of Han began to question even the founding of the Han Dynasty, since Emperor Gaozu of Han seemingly unified China by using the same methods of brute force that Qin Shi Huang had used in establishing the Qin Dynasty. Emperor Jing halted this scholarly debate, but the question was raised again in 46 BC by the statesman Yi Feng, who pleaded that the Han should move its capital from Chang'an to Luoyang, since the latter was the seat of the Zhou Dynasty, a dynasty which he deemed ideal in comparison to the corrupted Han which had been established by lesser means of military force. The historian Ban Biao (3–54 AD) rejected this and asserted Emperor Gaozu used more than just force to unite the empire.

Imperial Sovereignty: Dong Zhongshu's Contribution and His Predecessors

Introduction

Page 121-122: When the Qin Dynasty forcefully united the land in 221 BC, Qin Shi Huang legitimately ruled by might, but when Emperor Xian of Han abdicated to Cao Pi in 220 AD, the transfer of imperial sovereignty had become steeped in more religious and intellectual concepts thanks to the renewed worship of Tian, or Heaven, which willed a mandate. The early Han emperors were largely influenced by the Qin regime, but as Han progressed, the ideals of the Zhou Dynasty became favored. Emperors of the Han became essential as religious heads of state who theoretically wielded supreme power, but in fact the ministers exercised a great deal of authority. This was especially so when a weak emperor or child emperor sat on the throne and thus yielding power to others.
Page 122: The man said to be most responsible for this intellectual change in the concept of imperial sovereignty was Dong Zhongshu, although he had predecessors from which to draw inspiration for his thoughts. As Loewe notes, QUOTE: "Thanks to Tung, the exercise of the imperial government was regarded as an integral part of a universal system; the powers of T'ien were reconciled with the rhythm of the Five Phases (wu hsing) and both were seen to affect the destiny of kings. The imperial regime of Han was shown to be a descendant of the regimes of the remote past; a new force was given to the teachings of Confucius as a paragon master of ethical and political values. In addition, Tung Chung-shu's writings and his reputation carried two further results. In the first place, officials could subsequently make a practice of fastening on the less frequent occurrences of nature and on untoward disasters as a means of criticising the throne; secondly, Tung's attention to literature, history and education exerted a formative influence on the training of Chinese officials, for better or for worse."
Page 122: Dong Zhongshu (c. 179 – c. 104 BC) was a chancellor of the small Jiangdu Kingdom in what is now Jiangsu province, yet his career faltered as he accepted the position of counsellor of the palace. He was saved with an imperial pardon in 135 after he was almost sentenced to death for his writings of omens concerning a recent fire that broke out in the provincial shrines dedicated to Emperor Gaozu of Han. His enemy was Gongsun Hong, who became the most senior official in imperial government from 124 to 121 BC. Thus, Dong could only secure a job as chancellor ot the distant Jiaoxi Kingdom in Shandong. He later retired and died of illness.
Page 122-123: Although Dong was given only a short biography in the Records of the Grand Historian, he was given a lengthy biography in the Book of Han which incorporated three of his memorials to the throne which were responses to imperial edicts. Loewe writes that these memorials form the basic evidence of Dong's philosphy and can be trusted as more authentic than the statements in the Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals.
Page 124: QUOTE: "In the early decades of the Han dynasty, the idea and practice of imperial government as the sole authority that could command recognition was still comparatively new. Examples could be cited of the general respect accorded to the kings of Chou and of the moral leadership that they were expected to exert. However, such examples could be matched by the realisation that the actual powers of government wielded by those kings had been considerably limited when compared with those of the several co-existent kings of the Warring States period. Moreover, the sole example of a single imperial power had been demonstrably short-lived and it had been brought down by the force of insurrection and warfare. Furthermore, the years from 187 to 180 had seen the manipulation of imperial power by a woman, in defiance of the agreed loyalties to the house of Liu, and the accession of Liu Heng as Wen-ti in 180 had not been accomplished without controversy and challenge. A large-scale but unsuccessful rebellion against the central government took place in 154 BC."
Page 124: QUOTE: "In such circumstances it could well be asked whether the house of Han could expect to survive with greater success than Ch'in. If the Han emperors wished to ensure the continuity of their line, they would need to demonstrate not only that this could be achieved in practical, administrative terms; they would also need to show that there were greater reasons, on moral and intellectual grounds, why Han had a better chance than its predecessor. However, the establishment of such a claim involved some difficulty or even contradiction. If it was to be shown that, despite the recent shortcomings and moments of crisis, an imperial form of government could be established for all time, it must also be clearly explained why Ch'in had failed to achieve this result and why Han could hope to do so."
Page 124: QUOTE: "Difficulties would arise because the similarities between Ch'in and Han were all too obvious. Han, no less than Ch'in, owed its rise to the successful use of military force. Neither of the two regimes could lay claim to the moral sanctions ascribed to the dispensation of the kings of Chou. Han had adopted, and was using, the administrative institutions of Ch'in with little change, and Han's penal measures to preserve law and order were to some extent, but not markedly, less severe than those of Ch'in. In matters of state worship, the Han emperors had inherited and elaborated observances to the same gods that had commanded the services of Ch'in."
Page 124-125: QUOTE: "In these early decades, at least some statesmen of Han were aware of the need to lend support to the exercise of imperial government. But while the Shih-chi and Han shu show some recognition of the problem, there is little evidence of an objective analysis of the issues, such as had already given rise to sophisticated political theory in the West. The statements and actions recorded in the histories derived more from the practical needs of the situation or from exercises in propaganda, than from a deliberate attempt to evolve political principles."
Page 125: QUOTE: "Tung Chung-shu succeeded in presenting imperial government as a legitimate means of organising man in a manner and in a place that fitted with other elements of the universe. His success drew on the application of wu hsing theory to human institutions, and on the acceptance of ethical norms praised by Shu-sun T'ung (fl. 200 BC) and Lu Chia (c. 228 to c. 140 BC). Before his time several voices had drawn attention to the practical reasons for Ch'in's failure; Tung Chung-shu emphasised the moral shortcomings of that regime. Exceptionally, some thinkers (described as being of the Huang-Lao group) had drawn on rudimentary metaphysics and on mythology to explain the growth of human culture and the place of government within the cosmic order. Tung Chung-shu established his own cosmic system and invoked the intellectual authority and ethical precepts of a highly acclaimed teacher, Confucius, with a new degree of emphasis."
Page 125: QUOTE: "In the following pages attention will first be paid to some of the intellectual characteristics of the age immediately preceding Tung Chung-shu; thereafter we shall proceed to examine some aspects of his own contributions."

The Five Phases

Page 125: QUOTE: "In perhaps the fourth or third century BC an important advance had been made in Chinese thought by the combination of the theory of the Five Phases (wu hsing) with the concept of Yin–Yang. This theory was basically an attempt to explain the operation of the observed world of nature according to a cyclic scheme of stages. As far as may be told, the first application of the theory to man-made institutions may be traced to a famous passage in the Spring and Autumn Annals of Mr. Lü (Lü shih ch'un-ch'iu) which was compiled some two to three decades before the establishment of the Ch'in empire in 221 BC. The passage is of the utmost significance to the growth of the concepts of imperial sovereignty. By linking the theory of the Five Phases with the active participation of Heaven in human destinies and with the symbolic importance of omens, the writer was expressing ideas which do not seem to have been taken up again in earnest until the time of Tung Chung-shu. In accepting that human institutions are subject to universal laws of nature, the contributor to the Lü shih ch'un-ch'iu was suggesting a new context within which temporal power should be placed, and he was separating its rise and decline from the sole arbitration of human will-power and force. The passage runs as follows:"
- Page 125-126: QUOTE (of the Spring and Autumn Annals of Mr. Lü): "Whenever a sovereign or king is about to rise to power, Heaven will certainly manifest a favourable sign to mankind in advance. At the time of the Yellow Emperor, Heaven had displayed creatures of the earth, such as worms, beforehand. The Yellow Emperor said that the energy of the earth was in the ascendant; and in those circumstances he singled out yellow for prominence among the colours and modelled his actions on earth. In the time of Yü, Heaven had displayed grasses and trees that were not killed off in autumn or winter. Yü said that the energy of wood was in the ascendant; and in those circumstances he singled out green for prominence among the colours and modelled his actions on wood. In the time of T'ang, Heaven had first shown how metal blades were produced from liquid. T'ang said that the energy of metal was in the ascendant; and in those circumstances he singled out white for prominence among the colours and modelled his actions on metal. In the time of king Wen, Heaven had displayed fire, with scarlet birds holding texts inscribed in red in their beaks, and assembling at the altars of Chou. King Wen said that the energy of fire was in the ascendant; and in those circumstances he singled out red for prominence among the colours and modelled his actions on fire."
- Page 126: QUOTE (of the Spring and Autumn Annals of Mr. Lü): "It will of course be the energy of water that must displace that of fire, and Heaven will make a display of water in advance, so that the energy of water will come into the ascendant. When that occurs, the ruler will single out black for prominence among the colours and model his actions on water."
Page 126: QUOTE (back to Loewe): "Tung Chung-shu fastened especially on the relationship between Heaven and the cycle of Yin–Yang and its phases, as may be seen below; but the Han shu does not include any allusion to his deliberate association of either the Ch'in or the Han dynasty with the predominance of a particular phase in the cycle. In the meantime there is reason to believe that even the highly practical rulers and officials of Ch'in had paid some attention to the theory, by claiming that their power existed under the aegis of water. During the Han period a more pronounced interest is evident, with definite attempts to claim that the emperors were exercising their authority in accordance with the pre-destined sequence of the Five Powers. During the second century BC there were several abortive attempts to persuade the emperors that their power was blessed no longer by the symbol of water, as had been inherited by Han, but by the next symbol or phase in the sequence, i.e. that of earth; in 104 BC the change was duly introduced. Considerable importance was laid on this aspect of imperial authority at subsequent moments of dynastic change, for example by Wang Mang, who re-adopted earth in AD 9, and by Kuang-wu-ti who chose fire (AD 26)."
Page 126-127: QUOTE: "The implications of this determined act of symbolism were far reaching. In declaring which element was its patron, a dynasty both claimed to exist as part of the pre-determined order of nature and defined its relationship to its predecessor. By changing from water to earth in 104, Former Han was staking its claim to exist as the conqueror who had legitimately displaced Ch'in. By re-adopting earth, Wang Mang was deliberately claiming that his dispensation had come into being not by way of conquest but by way of natural processes. In addition, both Wang Mang and the first of the Later Han emperors, who declared that his dynasty existed under the protection of fire, were exhibiting their belief that they were the normal and legitimate successors not of the emperors of Ch'in but of the kings of Chou. Kuang-wu-ti was also branding Wang Mang as an illegitimate usurper."

Huang-Lao Thought

Page 127: QUOTE: "Until recently the expression Huang-Lao was little more than a term seen in a few passages of the Standard Histories. That it was a mode of thought which appealed to some of the most highly placed persons in the land was clear, but its implications were unstated. The position has been changed by the discovery of manuscript copies of hitherto unknown texts at Ma-wang-tui, and the identification of some of these as expressions of Huang-Lao thought."
Page 127: QUOTE: "One of these documents (Ching fa) appears to be a handbook of guidance for a ruler of mankind, with a description of some of the techniques required for his task. The government of man is justified on the grounds that it is part of a universal order of being (tao). The book refers to Yin–Yang and to the belief that correspondences (kan-ying) exist between phenomena manifested in different parts of the universe. But there are apparently no references to wu hsing. The essential point is that in this hitherto lost text temporal rule is seen as part of the cosmic order, and the concept of that order is very different from that which was adopted by Tung Chung-shu. The same principle is brought out in two of the other documents found at the site."
Page 127-128: QUOTE: "Huang-Lao thought saw tao, which one is tempted to translate as 'ultimate reality' as the origin of all things and the home to which all things return. The authority of a sovereign derived from his responsibility for seeing that his subjects' lives conformed with tao. For this purpose he must, by his issue of orders, establish suitable norms and patterns of behaviour. He must also practice the technique of observation (kuan) so as to acquire an insight into the inner workings of the universe and the relationship between man, heaven and earth. In so far as tao comprehends models that are to be imitated and their prescriptions, Huang-Lao thought provided a framework for laws that was utterly different from that of the tradition of Ch'in. The purpose of a sovereign's commands thus varies fundamentally from that of the rulers of Ch'in, whose orders were intended to achieve obedience to a human will and the attainment of man-made ambitions. Huang-Lao thought also varied from the view of man of the Chuang-tzu that saw no place for the organisation, let alone the compulsion, of mankind."
Page 128: QUOTE: "These texts also include a view of human evolution and of the growth of civilisation that varies from the one traced to Confucius and his disciples and taken over by Tung Chung-shu. One document sets out a metaphysical framework that included the categories of wu (matter), hsing (form), and ming (name). According to another text, the four orders of chi (discipline), hsing (form), shih (seasonal distinction) and ming (name) had been created deliberately by the servants of the Huang-ti, the Yellow Emperor, for the benefit and improvement of mankind. By these means man was enabled to achieve moral progress and to raise his state of existence from chaos to order."
Page 128: QUOTE: "These concepts and ideals vary considerably from those that grew up as a result of Confucius' teaching, and the idea that human amelioration is achieved by attention to li, jen, and i. The texts also call on a mythology that differs from that enshrined in the Confucian canon, where the paragon rulers are named as Yao and Shun. The Huang-Lao texts invoke the splendid victory of Huang-ti over Ch'ih-yu at a crucial stage in the advance of mankind from barbarism to civilisation, from a state of anarchy to one of ordered and recognised government. Although the texts do include at least one reference to the t'ien ming there is a conspicuous absence of reference to Confucius' ethical values or to his contribution as a teacher."
Page 128: QUOTE: "The ideas of Huang-Lao thought were current in China before 168 BC. Although it cannot be told how widely they had been acclaimed, the influence exercised by one devotee, the Empress Dowager Tou, who died in 135, may have been significant. But however influential this mode of thought and its view of imperial sovereignty may have been in the early decades of the Han period, it was due to be eclipsed by other ideas, for reasons which may be suggested, rather than proved, as follows."
Page 128-129: QUOTE: "In 139 BC the Huai-nan-tzu was presented to the throne. The work derived from the speculations and discussions of a number of writers, and it set out to present a highly systematic explanation of the universe. As far as may be said, in the absence of full source material, the scheme of the Huai-nan-tzu was of a more comprehensive and persuasive nature than the ideas of Huang-Lao thought, and it is hardly surprising that subsequent interest in tao fastened on the Huai-nan-tzu rather than on other writings. When, several centuries later, a new thrust was given to 'Taoism' by religious motivation, it was Lao Tzu rather than Huang-ti who formed the ancestor to whom the new practices were ascribed. Thereafter there was little impetus to revive the texts of Huang-Lao thought."
Page 129: QUOTE: "A further reason for the eclipse of Huang-Lao thought may perhaps be seen in the change that was affecting the image of Huang-ti. Huang-Lao thought saw him as an ancestral figure from whom the government and organisation of man, among other things, derived. However, he features in a different capacity in the state cults of both Ch'in and Han, as one of the four, and then five, powers (ti) to whom worship was seasonally due. A further change of emphasis may have taken place in 104 BC, when Huang-ti was invoked as an intermediary who could procure immortality. This cult probably did not last for long and it does not seem to have made much of an impact; but it may well have detracted from the image of Huang-ti as a forerunner of human sovereignty, at a time when other ideals were being propagated for this purpose."
Page 129: QUOTE: "It is perhaps more likely that the replacement of Huang-Lao thought by other views was partly due to the growing ascendancy of ethical ideas, as espoused by Shu-sun T'ung, Lu Chia and Tung Chung-shu, and the place taken by these ideas in the training of officials. The principal steps to develop that training were taken in 141, 136, and 124 BC."

Shusun Tong and Lu Jia

Page 129: Around 201 BC, Shusun Tong 叔孫通 wrote a guideline for correct court procedure which promoted cultural refinements over crude military lifestyles, in order to bring about the prominence of civilized values over other concerns.
Page 130: Lu Jia, in his book of brief essays called Xinyu, argued that a successful government followed ethical considerations and did not act too harshly or greedy, lest it incur the wrath of popular opposition to tyranny and excess like in the case of the Qin Dynasty. QUOTE: "In the course of his writings, Lu Chia recognises the existence of a relationship between Heaven and Earth, and he points out the importance of phenomena and omens as a voice of warnings. He stresses the value of moral virtues, as espoused by the sages, arguing that cultivation of jen and i leads the way forward to ordered government (chih). Lu Chia observes the failure of the Ch'in empire, following the exercise of punishments and other intensive activities. The arrogance and extravagance that had been involved forms a strong contrast with the ideal of achieving ordered government by taking as little an active part as possible. The Hsin yü notes that the best type of ruler should conform with the seasons ordained by Heaven, and so control his movements that they accord with the rhythm of Yin and Yang. Lu Chia deprecates eremetism as a form of escapism from public duties, and he stresses the need to recognise talent among human beings. In pleading for a consistent single-mindedness, he asks his ruler to concentrate on matters of principle and to avoid attention to material profit. In discussing the need for good faith and trustworthiness, he argues that the decline of a dynasty is due not to Heaven but to the faults and shortcomings of man. The book does not mention the t'ien ming."

The Awful Example of Qin

The Needs of Empire

Dong Zhongshu's Contribution

Page 134-135: QUOTE: "Tung Chung-shu is usually described as a syncretist and as the founder of Han Confucianism. While it may be true that he drew on a number of ideas that had already been expressed, and that in this sense he is less of an innovator than has sometimes been believed, he went considerably further than his predecessors in taking some of their ideas to a logical conclusion and in formulating a systematic view of the universe. In doing so he played a crucial role in reconciling ideas that were contradictory. Possibly he was aware of a conflict between faith and reason; between belief in the power of revelation through omens or by divination, and an explanation of the universe in rational terms according to the principles of the Five Phases."
Page 135: QUOTE: "The three memorials that are included in the Han shu were submitted in direct response to questions raised in imperial edicts. Those questions were concerned directly with the nature of imperial sovereignty. The first of the edicts took note of the way in which ideal methods of government had been practised in the past, to the general benefit of mankind, and proceeded to enquire on what basis such results had been achieved, with the blessing of Heaven. In his second edict the emperor enquired why the steps that he had been taking to govern China responsibly and appropriately had failed to produce adequate results. The third edict referred to the relationship between Heaven and man; it pointed out that the style and methods of government adopted by the ideal kings of the past were by no means identical, and sought the reasons for such obvious discrepancies."
Page 135: QUOTE: "These questions provided ample scope for long replies. Attention will be restricted here to four major matters of principle to which Tung referred, i.e., (a) the cosmic view of the universe; (b) the role of Heaven, Yin-Yang and the Five Phases; (c) omens and their significance; and (d) the critique of Ch'in."
Page 135: QUOTE: "(a) Towards the end of his third memorial, Tung wrote:"
- Page 135: QUOTE (of Dong's third memorial): "The grand co-ordinating unity (ta i t'ung) that is mentioned in the Spring and Autumn Annals is a thread which runs constantly through Heaven and Earth, and it forms the principles of action that have been generally accepted in past and present. At present our teachers propagate strange principles; our fellow human beings hold to unusual practices; the many schools of thought have idiosyncratic methods, and the conclusions to which they point are not identical. It is for these reasons that the upper reaches of society have no means with which to up-hold the co-ordinating unity; and as the models for behaviour and institutions have been frequently changed, the lower reaches of society do not comprehend what is being preserved."
Page 135: QUOTE: "Elsewhere Tung re-iterates the same belief, in a single organised system which formed the constant everlasting principle of Heaven and Earth, of past and present alike. Within this scheme man was playing his part as but one of several elements in the system. Tung seems to have been in advance of his contemporaries in recognising a unitary system with a place for Heaven, Yin–Yang and the Five Phases, for the exercise of temporal government and for the maintenance of the approved ways of a cultured existence."
Page 136: QUOTE: "(b) The passage from the Lü shih ch'un-chi'iu which is cited above (pp. 125f) explains the incidents of dynastic succession in terms that involve three agents, i.e. Heaven, the symbols of the Five Phases and the occurence of omens. It would seem that the passage is of unique importance in combining these three elements together at an early stage of Chinese thought, i.e., the middle of the third century BC. As far as may be told, we must wait until the time of Tung Chung-shu before this synthesis could be taken up and expanded, despite its inherent contradictions."
Page 136: QUOTE: "It need hardly be recalled that t'ien had occupied a central place in the religion and political thought of the kings of Chou. T'ien was a god to be worshipped and the fountain-head of authority. As the idea was propagated, so was the king of Chou styled the Son of Heaven, and recognised as the sole arbiter of human destinies. But with the emergence of the self-styled kings (wang) in different parts of China, the unique position ascribed to the kings of Chou became a fiction, respected in theoretical but hardly in practical terms. As none of the kings of the Warring States could claim that their authority derived uniquely from Heaven, the concept of the 'Son of Heaven' became less and less meaningful and the worship of Heaven grew more and more tenuous as a means of uniting temporal rule with the authority of a supreme power. By the time that the Ch'in empire was founded, the official cults of state were being directed to other deities, which were likewise adopted by the new emperors of Han. Heaven took little or no place in the religious cults patronised by the Han emperors until c. 31 BC."
Page 136: QUOTE: "In the same way, the idea of the heavenly mandate, which had made its appearance in the Chou period at least, could hardly be valid in the centuries of the Warring States. These were the years when several kings were exercising comparable powers of government simultaneously, on the basis of the principle that might is right. No single one of the rival kings could claim that his authority effectively drew on the blessing of Heaven."
Page 136-137: QUOTE: "In addition there was a fundamental conflict between this concept and the application of the Five Phases to political destinies. The one doctrine held that Heaven deliberately chose a person or a house for investiture with responsibility for the government of man; the choice depended on that person's or that house's possession of qualities that were adequate for the task of bearing temporal authority. But according to the theory of the Five Phases, there is a fundamental and inescapable rhythm which underlies all activities and movements and regulates change according to successive and predetermined stages. This theory provided for changes of temporal power to be brought about either by one regime's conquest of another, or by a process of natural succession."
Page 137: QUOTE: "As has been seen, the writer of the Lü shih ch'un-ch'iu saw no difficulty in reconciling the part of Heaven with the predetermination of natural sequences. Tung Chung-shu accepts and re-inforces this compromise in a number of ways, and in doing so he is following earlier writings. The opening passage of the Hsin yü of Lu Chia cites a statement that attributes to Heaven the creation of all things. It proceeds therefrom [sic] to the regulation of Yin and Yang and the establishment of the Five Phases in their due order. The same idea, that Heaven is responsible for the adjustment of Yin and Yang, appears in a splendid passage of a writer with a different point of view, in the Huai-nan-tzu. Tung Chung-shu elaborates the idea as follows, in the first of the three memorials:"
- Page 137: QUOTE (of Dong's first memorial in the Book of Han): "A major element of the order of Heaven lies in Yin–Yang, with Yang constituting bounties and Yin constituting punishments. While punishments control slaughter, bounties control living. For these reasons Yang constantly takes its place in the depths of winter, being concentrated in places that are void and of no practical application. We may thus observe that Heaven deputes its charge to bounties and not to punishments."
- Page 137: QUOTE (of Dong's first memorial in the Book of Han): "Heaven commands Yang to appear without, and by spreading its benefits above, to bring about the successful completion of the year's work. Heaven causes Yin to go within, and by concealing itself below, to emerge at due seasons to assist Yang. For if Yang does not receive the help of Yin it cannot by itself complete the work of the year. Ultimately it is Yang that achieves renown by completing the work of the year. Such is the intention of Heaven."
Page 137: QUOTE (back to Loewe): "The passage proceeds to draw the analogy between the role of Heaven and that of an earthly ruler. The same point, i.e., Heaven's creation of matter and its control of Yin-Yang, is explained at considerable length in the third of Tung's memorials, with an elaboration in terms of the seasonal changes whereby the Five Phases are manifested."
Page 137-138: QUOTE: "Later in the third memorial Tung seeks to explain why there are apparent differences in the principles adopted by the sage kings of old. In doing so, he insists that throughout their regimes there was no deviation from basic principle; it was only their application, by way of expedient, that varied, as required by circumstances. He stresses that it is from Heaven that the major principles of the world's order (tao) proceed: 'The main origin of tao comes from Heaven; Heaven does not change and tao likewise does not change.' This view is at variance with a statement in one of the ancillary texts of the Book of Changes, to the effect that it was the holy men of old who 'in making the Changes sought to accord with the principles of nature and destiny, and for this reason established the order of Heaven, namely Yin and Yang, and established the order of earth, namely pliant and adamant.'"
Page 138: QUOTE: "On several occasions Tung Chung-shu refers to the t'ien ming, but in somewhat vague terms as compared with later passages that allude to this idea. In imperial times it is necessary to wait for the time of K'uang Heng (d.c. 30 BC) and Pan Piao (AD 3–54) before the idea of t'ien ming can be seen to be making an impact on the ideas of imperial sovereignty."
Page 138: QUOTE: "Parallel with the concept of t'ien ming is the view of the king who forms the essential link that binds the three estates of Heaven, Earth and Man together and acts as a channel for communication. This idea is set forth in a famous passage of the Ch'un-ch'iu fan-lu that explains the form of the character wang as symbolising the monarch's role; the Han shu does not include a reference to this symbol. If it can be accepted that that part of the Ch'un-ch'iu fan-lu stems from Tung Chung-shu himself, it could also be accepted that further definition had been given to the concept of sovereignty in the second century BC."
Page 138: QUOTE: "(c) The passage from the Lü shih ch'un-ch'iu that is cited above (pp 125f) draws a specific association between the appearance of certain signs, which may be termed omens, and the succession of temporal powers. Here again, although omens are taken as indications of personal destinies, it is necessary to wait for some decades before they are linked with the fate of an imperial house."
Page 138: QUOTE: "In personal terms, omens formed a salutary warning to the empress Lü, who recognised them as signals. An eclipse that was reported for 178 BC formed the mainspring of an edict in which the new emperor searched his conscience and tried to identify his errors. Thereafter a number of edicts sought to explain untoward events in the light of the practices or malpractices of officials, or the material circumstances of the empire."
Page 138-139: QUOTE: "Perhaps the first deliberate attempt to exploit an unexplained event as a means of arousing faith in the dynasty may be seen in the retrospective adoption of the regnal title Yüan-ting, for enumerating years from 116 BC onwards. In this instance the fortunate discovery of bronze tripods was commemorated and exploited as a sign of the blessing that the house of Han had merited."
Page 139: QUOTE: "It was precisely at this time that Tung Chung-shu had been enunciating this view on omens, their association with dynastic destinies, and the value of the Spring and Autumn Annals in enabling a comprehensive view to be taken of events past and present. His view that omens were warnings sent by Heaven to direct an earthly ruler to reconsider his policies and his treatment of man is certainly reflected in the edicts of the next few years taht refer to such events. But perhaps the clearest examples of a deliberate attempt to exploit omens in a dynasty's favour, and thus to demonstrate that it was in receipt of the blessing of Heaven, are seen in the years 65 to 51 BC, when no less than nine edicts each singled out events such as the felicitous behaviour of birds or the fall of honeydew, and coupled them with announcements of bounteous acts. This series was followed by a similarly striking series of edicts which fastened on strange events that bore implications of the opposite type. From 48 to 42 BC nine edicts referred to disasters or events that had upset the balance of nature, thereby highlighting the inadequacy of the emperor and his dispensation. It would seem that from 65 BC onwards Tung Chung-shu's view of omens as a sign of Heaven's concern with the destiny of a dynasty, either for good or for ill, had received some measure of acceptance."
Page 139: QUOTE: "(d) In the early part of Former Han a number of statesmen had criticised the regime of Ch'in. It has been shown above, for example, how Lu Chia, Chia Yi and Chia Shan attempted to explain Ch'in's dynastic failure in practical terms, on the grounds of excessive and self-defeating measures that had been imposed on the population; they had also made some allusion to the principles that were involved. The same style of criticism had been raised in the Huai-nan-tzu."
Page 139: QUOTE: "With Tung Chung-shu a new type of criticism enters in with a far sharper emphasis on Ch'in's moral failings and on the measures taken to destroy the cultural basis of Chinese civilisation. Ch'in's practice of imperial sovereignty is not being examined in the hope of ascertaining where it had been at fault, as it was by Chia I. Tung sees Ch'in as an example of an unjust dispensation and of the unjustifiable use of temporal authority. Ch'in is accused of trying to eliminate the traditional values and values of the past."
Page 139-140: QUOTE: "It may be asked to what extent, if any, Tung's strictures were really being directed against the contemporary regime which he witnessed and with whose policies he was by no means entirely in sympathy. If he did in fact choose this method of commenting on the government of his own day, he may have rendered a profound disservice to the study of Chinese history, by drawing attention away from the faults of Han and exaggerating those of Ch'in. But whatever Tung Chung-shu's intentions may have been, he set new standards for judging the quality of dynastic achievement."

Summary and Conclusions

Page 140: QUOTE: "In the foregoing pages an attempt has been made to trace how ideas of sovereignty developed during the first century of the Former Han period. Some ideas of earlier origins, such as those of the Five Phases and the t'ien ming, were elaborated and formed into part of a cosmic system; some, such as the philosophy of Huang-Lao, failed to mature in the face of competition; and a sense of purpose was lent to imperial rule by the claim that the emperors were following ethical guide-lines rather than relying solely on force. Within this framework, Tung Chung-shu both leant on some of the ideas of his predecessors and added his own characteristic emphasis."
Page 140: QUOTE: "Comparison with Lu Chia adds force to Tung Chung-shu's contribution; for although no more than a few decades separated the two men and their writings, the difference in intellectual terms is striking. Tung Chung-shu stands out with a degree of sophistication, a power of sustained argument and a power of analysis that had hardly been seen previously. He shows a deeper sense of Heaven's personal part and its devotion to man's interests than Lu Chia; he expresses a clearer concept of Heaven's power of warning. He draws a subtle discrimination between human motives and qualities, whiel insisting on the pre-eminence of man over other creatures. Tung Chung-shu also demonstrates a more subtle view of the past, by distinguishing between the constant value of certain principles and the need to adopt expedients from time to time in order to preserve such principles. He points out that it is up to man to apply the correct tao to his behaviour and government; it is not tao that glorifies man. By contrast with Lu Chia's rather simple references to Ch'in and its demise, he argues on rational grounds why kings and emperors should refrain from exacting undue punishments and from indulging in other excesses. Tung Chung-shu also treats the Ch'un-ch'iu, compiled by Confucius, with a new type of respect; he recognises that it may be used as a source for the study of man and his relationship with Heaven; and he pays careful attention to the wording of the book, in the belief that its formulae conceal basic truths and moral lessons."
Page 140-141: QUOTE: "Attention should be paid briefly to some of the developments that followed Tung's own time. At the close of his life he may have witnessed the symbolical changes that added dignity to the imperial structure and proclaimed that the start of a new age was being envisaged. These changes were not limited to the adoption of earth in place of water as the symbol of the Five Phases. In addition, a new calendar was introduced as a means of ensuring that the regulation of mundane matters would accord more accurately with the major cycles of the universe, and the adoption of the new regnal title T'ai-ch'u (The Grand Beginning) from 104 BC stands as a public measure that was designed to enhance imperial prestige at that juncture."
Page 141: "Some decades later there followed the introduction of the imperial cults to Heaven, finally accepted in the Later Han dynasty, and the revival of the attention due to the Mandate of Heaven. Under Wang Mang's rule and that of the Later Han emperors, omens played a more significant part than hitherto in demonstrating the link between Heaven and the imperial dispensation. Tung Chung-shu's encouragement of education as a means of training civil servants soon achieved noteworthy results; these were particularly impressive in the Later Han period."
Page 141: QUOTE: "In one respect, however, Tung Chung-shu's influence is not so evident. The Yen-t'ieh lun is an account of the debate held at court in 81 BC, being compiled perhaps some two or three decades subsequently. The dialogue records a number of instances in which the regime of Ch'in was criticised and even cursed. However, such strictures were by no means always acceptable. For the dialogue also includes occasions when spokesmen sprang to the defence of Ch'in's methods; or they may have praised the basic policies of Shang Yang, as being the way that led forward to the successes of the Ch'in empire. In addition, those who are shown as defending Ch'in in the debate attributed the fall of that dynasty to the failures of the individual officials or advisors who served the second emperor. Tung's arguments that Ch'in's ruin followed from ideological causes evidently did not command universal agreement."
Page 141: QUOTE: "In later ages, Ch'in has been criticised for pursuing 'Legalist' theories and Han has been characterised as the champion of 'Confucianism'. As need hardly be stressed, the situation was in fact far more complex, with varying degrees of compromise being achieved between the extreme rigours ascribed to Ch'in and the idealistic ethical approach to government that is attributed to the Han Confucians. It was one of the achievements of the Han age to have operated imperial government within a framework that was acceptable to both parties and that was backed by religious and intellectual support."

The Cult of the Dragon and the Invocation for Rain

Page 142: In their attempts to curtail drought and the resulting suffering of the people, the rulers of China sought various methods which reveal the association of the Chinese dragon with the coming of rain and relief. Surviving works which reveal Chinese attitudes and beliefs about dragons and the rain include the Huainanzi presented to the throne in 139 BC, the Chunqiu fanlou allegedly written by the philosopher Dong Zhongshu (c. 179 – c. 104 BC), and the Lunheng written by the philosopher Wang Chong (AD 27 – c. 100).
Page 144: The Chunchiu Fanlou states that a Great Rain sacrifice took place in 707 BC during the Eastern Zhou period. The Zuo Zhuan writes that the rain ceremony is conducted when the dragon appears, which could mean either of two things: (1) that the ceremony was only conducted during the right season of the year during the fourth or fifth month, or (2) the dragon means a constellation or planet, and thus when the Dragon Star (Jupiter) rises there should be a ceremonial sacrifice to invoke rain. The Shan Hai Jing states that the winged dragon deity Yinglong, after he defeated and killed the mythical Chi You, was unable to climb back up Mount Xionglituqiu, thus there were many droughts until men put up images of Ying the Dragon which would then produce rain showers and relieve the land of its dry spell. As written later by Guo Pu (276–324), he wrote that the old Chinese tradition of making clay dragons to attract the rain can be traced to this story about the deity Yinglong. Guo Pu also wrote about the tale that a divine dragon aided Yu the Great in his efforts to control the water, QUOTE: "by marking on the ground with his tail those watercourses that required to be left unblocked."
Page 144-145: The reason that there is an archaeological absence for this type of clay dragon is because of two reasons: (1) after the rain came such objects would be discarded and left to disintegrate out in the open, and (2) most archaeological finds come from Han graves and tombs; in terms of Han burials, QUOTE: "these were hardly situations that called for a talisman that would bring about a downpour."
Page 145-146: Although the Xunzi, Zuo Zhuan, and Zhou li described the rain invocation ceremony, none of these texts mentioned the clay dragons used for the ceremony. Other texts, such as the Huainanzi, did make some mentioning as to their appearance and history. The Huainanzi states that the tradition was founded by King Tang of Shang, founder of the Shang Dynasty, who created dragon-shaped talismans in times of drought in order to bring about a rainfall to the relief of the people. The Huainanzi also says that these models were made by holy men. The Huainanzi compared the clay dragon models with the straw figures of dogs used to seek good fortune and defend against evil, in that both were decorated in green and yellow, both were bound in figured or embroidered silk and clothed in scarlet silk, and both were discarded after use as being valueless.
Page 146-147: From the fragmented writings of the rationalist philosopher Huan Tan (43 BC – AD 28) we know that Liu Xin (46 BC to AD 23) made such clay dragon figurines (and other objects) in order to inoke a rainfall. Liu Xin allegedly said, QUOTE: "When dragons make their appearance, winds and rain rise up to welcome and escort them; so clay dragons are made to stimulate the phenomenon."
Page 147: The rationalist philosopher Wang Chong (AD 27 – c. 100) mentioned in six occasions in his Lunheng that the philosopher Dong Zhongshu (c. 179 – c. 104 BC) used clay dragons for the purpose of bringing about rain. Since Wang Chong usually asserted that the systematic order of nature was not affected by the insignificant intervention of man and was not controlled by some higher authority, it is surprising that he deems Dong Zhongshu's use of clay dragons to be an honest practice. Some scholars call into question the validity of such remarks in Wang's book as not being authentically written by Wang (i.e. interpolation), but Huang Hui (1935) points out that Wang Chong was perhaps merely presenting opinions that he personally did not hold but nevertheless wanted to set out the case fully for his readers.
Page 151-152: Loewe now turns to the elaboration of the cult of rain as described in a chapter of the Chunqiu fanlou. QUOTE: "The chapter describes the steps that should be taken to procure rain for each of the four seasons of the year and also for the fifth point of chi-hsia, the final part of summer. For each of these five occasions the chapter sets out a list of items of procedure. While the purpose and type of activity is identical (for example, prayer and sacrifice), the details that are prescribed in each of the five cases vary according to the characteristics of the particular season for which provision is being made. In this way the prescriptions are made to accomodate the major view of the five stages or phases of the major process of birth, death, and rebirth. Thus, the colours of the robes that are worn, the number of participants in the rite and their age, and the measurements of the dragons accord with the characteristic colours, numbers, and other details associated with each particular phase of the wu hsing. Similarly, certain activities are banned, so as to avoid running counter to the natural features of a particular phase; and the rites are carried out in the appropriate position or quarter of the site."
Page 152: QUOTE: "The ceremony for the spring is the fullest to be treated, including more items than those recorded for the other seasons. It is therefore taken as a basis for the following account of the principal features of the invocation for rain that is described in the Ch'un-ch'iu fan-lu."
Page 152: QUOTE: "Prayers are offered by the inhabitants of a locality to its deities, which may include the gods of the soil and the grain, and the lords of the mountains and the rivers. A ban is imposed on felling specially named or well-known trees, and on chopping timber from the mountains; this is matched in other seasons by other prohibitions, such as that on raising fire in the autumn. Next, a shaman (or shamaness) is exposed to the heat of the sun. Attention has been paid above to the possible motives for this practice, which attracted the attention of Wang Ch'ung. In one passage he suggests that it was due to the way in which shamans were imbued with Yang and the need to eliminate excess Yang at a time of drought. But Wang Ch'ung seems to question the efficacy of the action, and the explanation may be no more than an anachronistic rationalisation."
Page 152: QUOTE: "As the next step, altars were erected at an appropriate part of the site and prayers were offered to other deities of a more universal nature, such as Kung Kung in the spring (outside the east gate) and Ch'ih-yu in the summer (outside the south gate). On these occasions, offerings were made of fish, alcoholic spirits, or dried meat; a specially gifted shaman, distinguished for his or her purity, ability to speak, and powerful delivery, was chosen to recite the prayer of intercession. For three days the shaman would keep vigil and fast by way of preparation. Thereupon, clothed in appropriately coloured robes for the season (for example, green for spring), he or she would make obeisances and kneel, praying as follows:"
Page 152: QUOTE: "Almighty Heaven that hath given growth to the five crops in order to sustain mankind, the withering of these crops by drought that we now suffer is such that they are unlikely to grow to their due fulfilment. We reverently bring out offerings of pure wine and dried meats and twice prostrate ourselves in entreaty for the rain, praying that it may fall in abundance in its due season."
Page 153: QUOTE: "The next part of the ceremony took the form of the dance of the dragons. These were fashioned in varying sizes, with one major dragon set up at the centre of the site and several minor ones being arrayed in one of the four quarters. The size, number, and colour of the dragons, and other details, were specified as follows for the five occasions of the year:"
- Loewe presents a table at this point, which I will not reproduce here but will simply include what I think is the vital information from that table.
- Spring: An 80 ft, green-colored major dragon accompanied by seven minor dragons (all 40 ft in length) all face in the eastern direction.
- Summer: A 70 ft, red-colored major dragon accompanied by six minor dragons (all 35 ft in length) all face in the southern direction.
- Midsummer: A 50 ft, yellow-colored major dragon accompanied by four minor dragons (all 25 ft in length) all face in the southern direction
- Autumn: A 90 ft, white-colored major dragon accompanied by eight minor dragons (all 45 ft in length) all face in the western direction.
- Winter: A 60 ft, black-colored major dragon accompanied by five minor dragons (all 30 ft in length) all face in the northern direction.
Page 153: QUOTE: "It will be noted that for the midsummer the position specified for the four acolytes of the yellow dragon was at the south of the site, and not, as might have been expected, at the centre. Possibly this detail may imply that the central part of the site was too confined to accommodate the dance, which was regulated by precise prescriptions. It was performed by eight youths in the spring, seven able-bodied men in the summer, five adults in midsummer, nine widowers in autumn and six elderly men in winter. Prior to the dance, all the performers would fast for three days, after which they would don robes of the appropriate colour of the season. Specifically designated officials, such as the overseer of the fields (t'ien ssu-fu) were commissioned to set up the dragons for the purpose."
Page 153-154: QUOTE: "At the next stage of the rite holes are dug in the shrine dedicated to the soil so as to connect the watercourses that lie outside the gates of the village. Thereafter frogs are collected and deposited within the shrine dedicated to the spirit of the soil, being introduced into tanks that were prepared carefully, with due account of the numbers appropriate to the season. For the spring, summer, and possibly winter, five frogs were collected. They were set in tanks made to measure for each season, being respectively eight, seven, five, and nine feet square for spring, summer, midsummer and autumn; for the winter the text merely writes 'as in spring'. Each tank was to be one foot deep."
Page 154: QUOTE: "Frazer draws attention to a widespread connection established between frogs and toads, and rainfall. He suggests a number of explanations, to which may be added the generally held belief that croaking frogs foretell a shower of rain. This is found in a number of sources and cultures. For the Roman world, the belief is mentioned by Cicero, who writes to Atticus (44 BC) 'Besides, I am afraid that it is going to rain, if there is any truth in prognostication; for the frogs have been talking like orators.'" There are also examples from African cultures.
Page 154-155: QUOTE: "The rite proceeds with offerings, fasting and prayers. For the spring ceremony, three year old cocks and three year old pigs are chosen and burnt at the shrines of the four quarters. Orders are given to close the southern gate of the settlement or village and water is placed outside; the northern gate is opened. One of the pigs is placed outside the northern gate and another in the market-place, and at the sound of the drum's beat their tails are set alight. The ceremony for summer was similar, but no prescriptions are given for midsummer, autumn, or winter."
Page 155: QUOTE: "In the spring, unburied human bones are collected and buried. The belief here would seem to be that unburied bones suffer unduly from rainfall and are wont to complain so vociferously that the souls which once inhabited them intercede with higher authorities so as to prevent further showers. Burial of the bones would preclude such suffering and the need for intercession, and a possible cause of drought would be eliminated."
Page 155: QUOTE: "The final steps for the spring include opening the springs on the mountains and collecting firewood, which was then set alight. All obstructions to free passage at bridges are removed and blocked watercourses are freed. If by then the rain has happily begun to fall, further offerings are made of a pig, wine, salt and grain; and finally mats are woven of thatch; on no account should this be severed."
Page 155: QUOTE: "The chapter of the Ch'un-ch'iu fan-lu ends by specifying two observances which were to be kept for each of the four seasons. On appropriate days, dragons were to be made from pure clay and exposed; and married couples, whether officials or commoners, were to mate together in sexual intercourse. This final injunction can readily be explained as a means of inducing natural harmony between Yin and Yang forces, and thus procuring the seasonal fall of rain. It may be contrasted with injunctions found elsewhere to abstain from sexual intercourse at the vernal equinox and at the summer and winter solstices; these last two occasions were characterised at times when Yin and Yang were in active contention to achieve dominance."

Divination by Shells, Bones, and Stalks during the Han Period

Page 160: Unlike the Shang Dynasty period, where there is abundant evidence of the actual oracle bones used but no contemporary literature describing their use, there is a good amount of existing Han Dynasty literature discussing divination shells, bones, and stalks but no surviving specimens of the latter three types of specimens from the Han period.
Page 161: The Records of the Grand Historian, Book of Han, and Book of Later Han all records instances of divination and its performance. Of Sima Qian's work (with an appended supplement to two different Shiji chapters by Chu Shaosun, who lived from c. 104 to c. 30 BC), QUOTE: "Chapter 127 sets out to vindicate the profession of diviners and their standards of honesty. Chapter 128 gives a short historical note on the practice, followed by a considerable body of technical information concerning the qualities and properties of turtles, and a few anecdotes. The chapter also includes catalogues of the types of crack that appear on the shells during divination and the types of question that may be put to this source of occult wisdom."
Page 162: Sima Qian's Shiji asserted that kings of the past had always established their legitimacy of taking the throne by first consulting with the answers received from performing the divination rights involving the oracle bones. The Classic of Rites states that the kings of old relied on divination practices involving oracle bones, while the text also QUOTE: "refers to the powers of the shells and the stalks as instruments which may communicate the will of the holy spirits of heaven and earth. Elsewhere the same book refers specifically to the way in which the rise or fall of a state may stand revealed in these objects' signs; as this passage occurs in the 'Chung-yung' chapter, its message found a prominent place in the regular curriculum of Chinese education during the imperial era. A reference in the Ta Tai li-chi points out that the powers of prognostication that the turtle, the most refined of all creatures, possesses depend on the application of fire. In regulations for setting out items of equipment or other goods for banquets, or those brought as items of tribute, the turtle was sometimes given priority, owing, it was claimed, to its gift of prior knowledge. In a completely different type of writing that may well date from pre-imperial times, turtles are cited as possessing prophylactic powers against deafness or curses."
Page 163: QUOTE: "A number of references may be found in Han writings to the belief that the turtles' ability to prophesy depends on their great age and their accumulated store of wisdom. A general statement in the Huai-nan-tzu explains that turtles are used for prognostications and that other types of bone are not used for this purpose, owing to the turtles' longevity; elsewhere in this book this is stated to extend to 3000 years. In a note to the Li-chi, Liu Hsiang (79–8 BC) is recorded as remarking on the age of turtles' utterances, and adding that they acquire numinous powers (ling) after living for 1000 years. The same reason is cited in the Lun-heng, in an answer given by K'ung-tzu or Tzu lu, and again in the Po-hu t'ung."
Page 163: QUOTE: "The Shih-chi writes that turtles with divine (shen) powers are to be found in the waters of the Yangtse River. They are taken alive regularly each year in Lu-chiang commandery; as many as twenty specimens measure one foot and two inches, such a length being attained only after 1000 years; while those of a mere seven or eight inches, when caught by the local inhabitants, are prized highly."
Page 163: The Shiji also says that some people who ate turtles believed that it would entice the vital energy (qi) of the elderly and decrepit.
Page 163: The Shan Hai Jing, which Loewe says originates from as far back as the fourth century BC but was still being compiled by the end of the Western Han period, states that QUOTE: "a particular type of animal like a turtle which may be worn as a prophylactic against deafness and calluses; another creature may be used as a preventative against fire. Consumption of parts of a special type of three-legged turtle will act as an antidote for major diseases and tumors; consumption of parts of another three-legged turtle, described as pieh, will provide protection against imprecation or disease."
Page 163-165: As written by Chu Shaosun in his appendixes to chapters 127 and 128 of Sima Qian's Shiji, the Han Chinese also divined with the stalks of the root of the yarrow plant. Chu stated that if one ate the allegedly 1000-year-old stalk of a yarrow root, QUOTE: "you will not die." By divining with either the turtle shells or the yarrow stock, one can determine good or bad fortune. However, according to the Classic of Rites, the turtle shells held a prestigious position as objects of divination by the Son of Heaven, who does not divine with yarrow stalks, but the leaders of lesser states use the stalks. As if to contradict this, the Rites of Zhou states that major decisions of state were first discerned by divining with stalks and then with turtle shells.
Page 165: Whatever the case, QUOTE: "the value of the turtles and their particular qualities [were] linked with the idea of permanency, as seen in the turtle's own age and the connection with the heavenly bodies, whose lives outlast those of generations of human beings. The source of truth, the vehicle for divination must be seen to transcend the brevity of human life, and it will be found in creatures believed to live longer than any others..."
Page 168: QUOTE: "A number of opinions regarding the practice and validity of divination may be found in literature dating from the Han period and immediately previously. These vary from deliberate recommendation, acceptance or guarded tolerance to positive censure. Criticism is expressed on the grounds that the practice is inexpedient or ineffective, or because it is neither rational nor consistent. A few writers protest for moralist reasons; some criticise the way in which the practice was misused or abused, or attracted undue reliance."
Page 168: While the Book of Changes states that the sages of old respected the prognostications of turtle-shell divination results, the Hanfeizi states that trusting the messages indicated by divination can lead a state to ruin, since these answers on the shells and bones are often inconsistent and that it is absurd to trust them with the exclusion of practical or tactical considerations.
Page 169: The Huainanzi, since it represents the thoughts and writings of many different scholars and authors, naturally reflects a diversity of opinions on oracle bones, whether the opinion be full rejection, slight rejection, acceptance, or strong acceptance of the practice of divination.
Page 170: Both the Classic of Rites and Records of the Grand Historian were virtually in favor of the use of divination with oracle bones.
Page 172: The Book of Han warned that if a precautionary vigil was not held before divination ceremonies, then satisfactory answers would not be given to diviners by holy spirits on stalks and shells. However, the Book of Han, much like the Records of the Grand Historian, defends the profession of the diviner as a worthwhile pursuit which can influence and civilize society, even though the profession was still considered lowly in the social hierarchy.
Page 173-174: Skepticism about divination with stalks and shells was on the rise during the Eastern Han period, as some officials began to question its validity. The philosopher Wang Chong (27 – c. 100 AD) was perhaps the most vocal critic. He rejected the idea that turtle shells and yarrow stalks were imbued with special or holy qualities, and came to the conclusion that it did not matter if the ceremony was conducted by a first-time diviner or a career diviner: if someone had good fortune, they would receive good signs; if bad fortune, then bad signs, but not because the shells or stalks themselves had some divine capability of comprehending human fortune.
Page 174-175: Although Zhang Heng (78–139 AD) was against prognostication literature of his day, he admitted that there was some use for divination. Wang Fu (philosopher) (90–165 AD) accepted divination only for matters that were subject to doubt; he deemed its use anywhere else to be inappropriate and castigated those who he viewed as misusing divination or relying on it too heavily. Finally, Zhongchang Tang (c. 180–220 AD) was completely against divination, arguing that full emphasis should be given to human values and achievements while trust in unseen powers should be curtailed. He argued that appointments to office should be made on practical grounds of merit, that diviners and shamans were of a low stature in society, and that a ruler should not be subject to the whim of omens from turtle shells and yarrow stalks.
Page 175-176: As for the types of questions asked in divination ceremonies involving shells and stalks, they usually involved the outcomes of military campaigns, the meaning of strange phenomena, the bestowal of gifts, the chances of arrival of expected persons, the chances of rainfall, and the chances that one would become ill.
Page 184: QUOTE: "In describing the types of crack that are formed on turtle shells, the addendum to chapter 128 of the Shih-chi lists twenty-three topics that may form the subject of enquiry. These are illness and its outcome; the demonic nature of an illness; the possibility of the release of detained persons; the acquisition of wealth; success in the sale or purchase of slaves and livestock; the advisability of attacking robber bands; the advisability of undertaking journeys; the likelihood of encountering robbers either in an expedition to attack them or in one designed to find them; the reliability of reports of robber activity; the advisability of leaving official service on transfer; the advisability of remaining in office; the fortunate or unfortunate ouctome of taking up a residence; prospects for the year's harvest; the chances of an outbreak of epidemic during the year; the likelihood of armed violence during the year; the results of an interview with highly placed persons; success in addressing requests to others; the chances of finding a lost person or persons; the results of fishing and hunting; the likelihood of meeting robbers when on a journey; the prospects of rain; the likelihood of rain ceasing."
Page 189: QUOTE: "From the foregoing it may be seen that many Chinese of the Han period retained a deep faith in the powers of divination. Deliberate attempts to search for guidance in this way possessed a significance and a validity that was no less forceful than that of other intellectual or religious activities undertaken in like manner to plumb the secrets of the universe. The act of divination depended on a belief in the unitary nature of the universe. It sought communication with unseen powers through the medium of material objects that were thought to be inspired with numinous qualities. It could be used to ensure good fortune for the living and the dead; it could solve problems that affected human destiny on earth; it could serve as a means of ensuring that the holy spirits were being worshipped in an effective manner."

The Oracles of the Clouds and the Winds

Page 191: QUOTE: "It is being realised that in the imperial age deliberate acts of divination, in which man takes positive steps to cause certain signs to appear in material form, and the consultation of oracles, where man seeks to interpret messages that are inherent in natural phenomena, were still an important means of enquiry or search for information."
Page 192: QUOTE: "The following pages will concern the oracles of the clouds and the winds and the ways they were thought to carry advice or provide answers to enquiries."
Page 192: QUOTE: "Two recently discovered manuscripts depict the clouds and the images that can be recognised therein, accompanied by short texts which interpret these signs and the activities that they were thought to foretell. Both the illustrations of the manuscripts and the texts of the captions bear remarkable affinities to references to the subject in the Shih-chi, Han shu, Chin shu, and Sui shu. The appearance of certain types of cloud was explained, perhaps by way of a rationalisation, as an emanation of ch'i, unseen vital energy; and these phenomena were thought to apply directly to military depositions and fortunes. Consultation of the clouds engaged the interest of the emperors and their officials and took place regularly at certain key points of the year. The present chapter will look at the evidence that has recently become available in the two manuscripts, one of the Former Han period and one dating from perhaps the tenth century. This evidence extends our knowledge of augury from the clouds and shows the maintenance of a traditional approach to the subject with a number of identical features and characteristics that survived through a period of at least a thousand years."

The Oracles of the Clouds

Page 192-193: QUOTE: "One of the manuscripts found in tomb no. 3 Ma-wang-tui, which may be dated at some time before 168 BC, takes the form of a large sheet of silk, measuring c. 48 by c. 150 cm. The manuscript was divided into six horizontal registers, each one of which included a number of separate entries for phenomena or features of the heavens. Of a total of some 350 surviving items, which include illustrations of these phenomena, over 300 also bore texts that gave the phenomenon a title and provided an interpretation or prognostication of what its result would be."
Page 193: Like the Mawangdui manuscript for comets, this manuscript also provides prognostication for events of a military nature. The text states that if a cloud shaped as a dog appears over a city, it will not be taken by a besieging force. If a cloud shaped as a pig appears over an army, the general leading it will die. If a cloud shaped as a horse appears over an army, that army will score a victory in battle. If a cloud shaped as an ox appears over an army, that army will suffer a defeat in battle. If a cloud shaped as a deer appears over the army QUOTE: "it will take [or be taken]."
Page 193: Loewe writes that a passage in the Zuo Zhuan in reference to an event in 645 BC is the earliest known reference to this subject of interpreting the shapes of clouds. The Lüshi Chunqiu also makes a reference to this.
Page 194-195: In a passage found in both the Records of the Grand Historian and the Book of Han, types of vital energy or qi are distinguished in the clouds by their appearance or color, their topographical location near a mountain or river, and the shape of the clouds. The passage also says that prognostications can be made by judging the shape of the clouds, which could take on the form of spindles, axles, ladles, domestic animals, tents, ships, or banners. There are only a few statements in the passage which correlate cloud prognostication with yin and yang and Wu Xing cosmology. QUOTE: "The way in which this passage depicts clouds and their imagery as animals or artifacts is remarkably similar to their treatment in the manuscript from Ma-wang-tui."
Page 195-196: It is known that in AD 59, 78, and 93, the emperor came to the observatory to examine the shapes of clouds. Loewe writes that this rite seems to have corresponded with the seasonal beginning of spring. Clouds were also judged at the time of the winter solstice, QUOTE: "in order to determine the fortunre of the incoming year."
Page 196: An observer of vital engergies under Wang Mang's regime was mentioned by name as Su Bo E in once incident.
Page 197: Derk Bodde suggests that Jing Fang (79–37 BC) and Yang Xiong (53 BC – 18 AD) may have been concerned QUOTE: "with formulating the theory and technique of watching the progress made by vital energy and measuring its passage in time by means of the twelve pitch-pipes." This type of measurement was described by Cai Yong (133–192) in the 2nd century AD, so it was certainly practiced by then. QUOTE: "These developments arose from the idea that ch'i played a part in the cosmic process and that the timing of its manifestations was a matter of profound significance; for if these could be observed and charted it would be possible to understand the movements of the world of nature and to harmonise human reactions accordingly. Observations of the progress made by vital energy had therefore become subject to a regularised procedure at court which was carried out with considerable attention to detail. The implications of the movements which were observed to take place subtly in the pitch-pipes bore a distinct message for the ruler of the empire and his conduct of the government of man."

The Oracles of the Winds

Page 201: After the passage on the oracles of the clouds in both the Records of the Grand Historian and Book of Han, there is a passage on the prognostication for the harvest, which is concerned with the oracles of the winds. Along with the oracles of the clouds, the oracles of the winds are mentioned in the introduction to the biographies of specialists in the occult arts in the Book of Later Han.
Page 201: QUOTE: "Statements on the theory and practice of consulting the oracles of the winds may be found for the second half of the first century BC, and the degree of formalisation seen there perhaps suggests that the practice originated in a much earlier period. It may perhaps be asked whether a development took place from an original type of naturalist prediction, based on observation of the direction, force and timing of the winds, to a combination of such ideas with the theories of the cosmos and its operation which were being formulated during the Former Han period. By the eighth century the theory and practice had reached a highly stylised form. During Han, it was accepted as respectable by men with such diverse approaches to life as Chang Heng (78–139) and Ts'ai Yung (133–92)."
Page 202: As mentioned in the Shiji and Han shu, the winds were patiently observed in order to gather signs of what to expect from a coming agricultural harvest. There were appropriate days at the start of the year and the seasons when this prognostication was to take place. In regards to the eight major directions which wind could blow, the following was believed (all of this on page 202):
- Wind blows south --> prediction of a major drought
- Wind blows southwest --> prediction of a minor drought
- Wind blows west --> prediction of impending warfare
- Wind blows northwest --> Prediction of the ripening of rong beans, a slight rainfall, and a levy to arms
- Wind blows north --> prediction of a harvest of medium quality
- Wind blows northeast --> prediction of a harvest of good quality
- Wind blows east --> prediction of major floods
- Wind blows southeast --> prediction of pestilence and poor harvest
Page 202-203: QUOTE: "The passage then lists the predictions attendant on winds blowing at various periods of time during daylight; for example, winds blowing for that one of the twelve two-hour periods which starts at dawn will be followed in due course by a crop of hemp. Next, the text discusses how different combinations of rain, cloud, wind and sun during the day permit a prognostication of the quantity of the harvest, as if the weather conditions of the day in question were a micro-image of the weather for the whole of the year to come and could thus form a basis for prophecy. The passage then observes that prognostication follows the colour of characteristics (se) of the clouds and notes that the appropriate crop should be planted. It continues 'If the rain and snow on that day are icy, the harvest will be poor; if the day is bright and clear, the sound of the people fo the cities is heard.' The type of harvest will be in accordance with the note of that sound, i.e.:" (these following bullets are on page 203 alone):
- kung --> indicates a good and fortunate harvest
- shang --> indicates that there will be warfare
- chih --> is a sign of drought
- yü --> is a sign of floods
- chiao --> indicates a poor harvest
Page 203: QUOTE: "This final detail is the sole connection with the system of the wu hsing that is drawn in the passage."
Page 203-204: The Reformist statesman, academician (boshi), and advisory counsellor Yi Feng of Emperor Yuan of Han's (r. 49–33 BC) reign period, who rejected the realist, materialist outlook of Emperor Wu of Han's reign in favor of the ideals of the Zhou Dynasty (to the point where he suggested that the capital should be moved east to Luoyang, the old capital of Zhou), wrote of prognostication involving the winds. Yi Feng classified the days of the year according to the Earthly Branches, noting which activities should be avoided or were deemed fortunate for each day. Yi Feng QUOTE: "illustrated this theory by reference to the violent winds that had arisen from the south-east in the first month of the year just passed (47 BC), and he interpreted their timing as an indication of excessive Yin manifested in the unseen influence that was being brought to bear upon the sovereign and those around him."
Page 204-205: Jing Fang (78–37 BC), a contemporary of Yi Feng, coordinated observations of the wind, rain, cold and heat with the cycle of the 64 hexagrams of the Yijing. He also wrote a book about the prognostication involving the observations of winds.
Page 205: QUOTE: "During the Later Han period the staff of forty-two men awaiting appointment who were attached to the observatory included three who were specially responsible for watching for the winds. A further hint that official notice was taken of the need to do so may be seen in Chang Heng's construction of equipment designed not only as a seismograph but also as a wind-watcher (Huo feng ti tung i)."
Page 206: As seen in a couple of illustrative examples given by Loewe, oracles of the winds also believed that they could determine when fires were to break out at specific locations, such as in the capital city.
Page 207: Observations of the winds were also associated with amnesties granted by the government to those accused of crimes. In the 27th chapter of the Records of the Grand Historian, it says that if winds from the northwest spring up five different times in one autumn, there will be a major amnesty issued by the government. If the winds spring up three times in the same autumn, then there will be a minor amnesty issued by the government. When Zhang Cheng, an oracle of the winds during the reign of Emperor Huan of Han (r. 146–168), used his skills to predict when amnesties would occur, he encouraged several people to commit murders in anticipation of the government forgiving their crimes.
Page 207-208: From texts written in later times after the Han, it is apparent that, like the prognostications of the clouds, the prognostications of the winds were also used to foretell fortunes or misfortunes in battle and military-related events.

The Failure of the Confucian Ethic in Later Han Times

The Imperial Tombs of the Former Han Dynasty and their Shrines

Medicine

Ramsey's article

Ramsey, John T. "Mithridates, the Banner of Ch'ih-Yu, and the Comet Coin," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 99, (1999), pp. 197-253.

Sivin's article

Sivin, Nathan. "State, Cosmos, and Body in The Last Three Centuries B.C.," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 55, No. 1 (Jun., 1995), pp. 5-37.

Page 12-13: Traditional Chinese medicine was holistic. The Chinese, who were not very interested in structural systems, viewed the human body as a series of circulation tracts for fluid to pass through and as a series of parts with certain functions. Each part was seen as being useful for a certain diagnosis and were aligned with the greater features of the macrocosmic universe.
Page 13: Since the Chinese were not very interested in structure, it is no surprise that only one pre-Song-Dynasty dissection (of 16 AD) is known. There were autopsies from the 3rd century BC onwards (ones that did not entail dissection, though) when foul play was suspected in the death of a person. However, the persons performing the autopsies were artisans and not physicians.
Page 14-15: QUOTE: "The body was not only an ensemble of functions, but a microcosm. The Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor is explicit: 'The subject of discourse, briefly put, is the free travel and inward and outward movement of the divine ch'i. It is not skin, flesh, sinews and bones.' As we have seen, the body was defined not by what sets it apart but by its intimate, dynamic relation with its environment. This was certainly true in medical contexts: 'Covered over by heaven, borne up by earth, among the myriad things none is more noble than man. Man is given life by the ch'i of heaven and earth, and grows to maturity following the norms of the four seasons. Whether sovereign or common fellow, everyone desires to keep his body intact. But the disorders to which the body is subject are too many for anyone to know them all.' In the body as in the political world, dysfunction is disorder." NOTE: The latter was quoted by Sivin from the Basic Questions of the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor, or Huangdi neijing taisu.
Page 15: QUOTE: "Since the body is a dynamic system interacting with the cosmos, the permeability of its boundaries was an important issue in medicine. The ch'i that permeates the universe permeates the body as well: 'Since ancient times [it has been understood that] penetration by [the ch'i of] heaven is the basis of life, which depends on [the universal ch'i of] yin and yang. The ch'i [of everything] in the midst of heaven and earth and in the six directions, from the nine provinces and nine body orifices to the five visceral systems and twelve joints, is penetrated by the ch'i of heaven.'" NOTE: Sivin also obtained this quote from the Huangdi neijing taisu.
Page 15: QUOTE: "To sustain life, the body can be neither completely open nor completely closed. Food and ch'i must enter without admitting agents of disease; wastes must be excreted without allowing the body's vitalities to leak out. This is not a matter of conscious control but of spontaneous vital processes, all the more so because the normal route by which sources of disorder enter is not the bodily orifices but the pores of the skin over the whole surface of the body. This understanding has important consequences for both prevention and therapy. Regimen pays close attention to the tightness of the pores (and of the orifices as well). The most common remedy when agents of febrile disorders have just entered the body is using a sudorific to flush them back out the pores with perspiration. As in the humoral medicine of the West, the Chinese physician tried to keep healthy fluids in and force unhealthy substances out."
Page 15: QUOTE: "Because the circulation is fundamental not only to the body's growth but to its maintenance, its failure is a major determinant of disease. Somatic blockages are paralleled by failures of circulation in Nature and the state, as we will see below (p. 20)."
Page 16: QUOTE: "The physiological processes on which medical doctrines focus are largely metabolic. As we have seen, however, life is maintained not merely by the internal circulation of ch'i, but by a continuous dynamic interchange between body and cosmos. Shared vital rhythms make the body correspond to heaven and earth, and keep them in accord."
Page 18: QUOTE: "A few examples of resontant connections, some of them numerological, tell us about Chinese views of parallel universes, large and small. First is part of a chapter from the Inner Canon. The original versions of this book were probably assembled in the first century BC. This long enumeration, as two excerpts will show, carries to an extreme what was by that time a well-established type of correlation. In one dialogue, when the Yellow Emperor inquired of Po-kao...'I would like to hear how the limbs and joints of the body correspond to heaven and earth,' Po-kao replied:"
- Page 18-19: QUOTE: ". . .In the year there are 365 days; human beings have 365 joints. On the earth there are high mountains; human beings have shoulders and knees. On the earth there are deep valleys; human beings have armpits and hollows in back of their knees. On the earth there are twelve cardinal watercourses; human beings have twelve cardinal circulation tracts. In the earth there are veins of water; human beings have defensive ch'i. On the earth there are wild grasses; human beings have body hair. On the earth there are daylight and darkness; human beings have their [times for] lying down and getting up. In heaven are the stars set out in constellations; human beings have their teeth. On the earth there are little hills; human beings have their minor joints. On the earth there are boulders on the mountains; human beings have their prominent bones. On the earth there are groves and forests; human beings have their sinews. On the earth there are towns and villages in which people gather; human beings have their bulges of [or thickened] flesh. In the year there are twelve months; human beings have their twelve major joints. On the earth there are seasons when no vegetation grows; some human beings are childless. These are the correspondences between human beings and heaven and earth."

Hsu's introduction

Hsu, Elisabeth. (2001). "Part 1: Mai and qi in the Western Han," in Innovation in Chinese Medicine, 13–18. Edited by Elisabeth Hsu. Cambridge, New York, Oakleigh, Madrid, and Cape Town: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521800684.

Page 13-14: Mai, meaning channel, and qi, meaning vital energy, were two key concepts of traditional Chinese medicine. The mai concept is embodied in numerous works which can be called 'Cauterisation Canons' or 'vessel texts' which were found in a tomb of Mawangdui, which was closed in 168 BC. These describe routes that run through the body, from the extremeties to the trunk or head. QUOTE: "Thematically, these texts consist of two parts. The first informs on the course of the mai, and the second part attributes to each mai a series of illness conditions that are said to be alleviated by cauterising the mai. In these 'acumoxa-related writings' the mai thus have a primarily classificatory function for therapeutic intervention."

Lo's chapter

Lo, Vivienne. (2001). "The influence of nurturing life culture on the development of Western Han acumoxa therapy," in Innovation in Chinese Medicine, 19–50. Edited by Elisabeth Hsu. Cambridge, New York, Oakleigh, Madrid, and Cape Town: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521800684.

Page 19-20: The medical texts of tomb no. 3 at Mawangdui, Changsha, sealed off in 168 BC and discovered in the early 1970s, has revolutionized modern knowledge of ancient Chinese medicine. QUOTE: "Evidence from Mawangdui has filled gaps in our knowledge of the relationship of spirit mediums or shamans and their magical practices and incantations to early Chinese medicine. Recipe texts such as 'Wushi'er bingfang'...(Recipes for Fifty-two Illnesses), the largest text of the medical finds, give detailed instructions of how to prepare treatments for specific, named illnesses. Remedies might include cautery, the preparation of herbal and animal substances, often selected for their magical properties. Many specify incantations and exorcism of the kind that would require the help or tuition of a specialist intermediary. Among the Mawangdui medical manuscripts there is also important evidence of a new medicine in its infancy—a medicine related to correlative cosmology and its theories of yinyang. Central to the new medicine are texts which conceptualise the body in mai (channels) and an examination of the mode of construction of this concept of mai is the basic task of this chapter."
Page 20 (FOOTNOTE 7): QUOTE: "Huangdi neijing is a corpus now extant in three recensions, the Taisu (...Great Basis), the Suwen (...Basic Questions), and the Lingshu (...Numinous Pivot)...Each of these is a compilation of small texts dealing with separate topics which may reflect the thinking in a distant medical lineage. It is thought that the earliest texts were set down during the first or at the earliest the second century BC. Collectively they represent the kind of debate through which classical medical concepts matured. In this respect they act as a convenient marker against which to assess the form and content of the excavated texts."
Page 20-21: QUOTE: "Both tombs, at Mawangdui and Zhangjiashan, have provided manuscripts that change our understanding of the mai, which were fundamental to the development of classical medical theory first formulated in Han times. Their titles and descriptions bear similarities to the jingmai...(conduits, circulation tracts) of later acu moxa theory and the texts are therefore early examples of a textual genre that we can trace to later compilations such as Huangdi neijing Lingshu...(Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon: the Numinous Pivot). The Mawangdui medical manuscripts include two such texts; their Chinese editors have given one of the texts the title of 'Zubishiyimai jiujing'...(Cauterisation Canon of the Eleven Foor and Arm Channels; hereafter, 'Zubi jiujing') and the other they have called 'Yinyang shiyimai jiujing'...(Cauterisation Canon of the Eleven yin and yang Channels; hereafter, 'Yinyang jiujing'). Two editions of this latter text were found at Mawangdui, yet another edition was found at Zhangjiashan as part of a compilation titled 'Maishu'...(Channel Document). 'Maishu', I shall argue, is the earliest treatise to set down explicitly the theory and practice of acu moxa."
Page 21: QUOTE: "Among the manuscripts which were folded together in a rectangular lacquer box at Mawangdui there was a significant amount of writing that set out the philosophy and techniques of nurturing life (yangsheng...). I use the term 'nurturing life' to refer to those techniques broadly aimed at physical cultivation and longevity which formed a part of elite culture during the Western Han period. The yangsheng practises documented in the Mawangdui and Zhangjiashan medical manuscripts include therapeutic gymnastics, dietics, breath- and sexual-cultivation. The Zhangjiashan manual of therapeutic gymnastics (daoyin...literally 'guiding and pulling'), known as 'Yinshu'...(Pulling Document), and parts of the Mawangdui manual 'Shiwen'...(Ten Questions) are of particular significance to this study."
Page 21-22: QUOTE: Both 'Shiwen' and two further works from Mawangdui that I shall cite, the 'Tianxia zhi dao tan'...(Discussion of the Highest Way Under Heaven) and 'He yinyang'...(Harmonising yin and yang), specialise in sexual cultivation. In these three texts sexual-cultivation practice is often combined with elements of breath-cultivation, a combination which later Daoist and medical literature preserves alongside other yangsheng practices. Yangsheng focuses on preserving and strengthening the body, and the Mawangdui texts give fine detail of technique and practice. It is therefore a significant branch of medicine and was viewed as such by the book collectors who placed yangsheng literature together with other texts that concentrated more specifically on the treatment of illness. The full range of medical practices represented in the Mawangdui medical manuscripts is also reflected in the 'Recipes and Techniques' (fangji...) section of the 'Yiwen zhi'...(Record of Literary Pursuits), the bibliographical treatise in the Han shu...(Document of the Han)(AD 32–92)."
Page 22: QUOTE: "A comparison of language and concepts evident in early descriptions of the mai with the body as it is revealed in yangsheng literature will demonstrate the differences between these two genres of medical literature. At a time when literature describing the mai barely recognised an organised movement of qi...through the body, when it made no clear reference to acumoxa points, when correspondences with yin and yang were barely elaborated, the yangsheng literature reveals all of this and more. Can we then see a link between yangsheng culture of the late Warring States to the early Imperial period and the medical theory and practice foundin the acumoxa canons? To answer this question I shall refer extensively to the Huangdi neijing compilation, the title most famous for its exposition of classical acumoxa theories."
Page 22: QUOTE: "This paper, for the first time, will begin to explore the contribution that the observation and recording of a phenomenological experience of 'own' body, unique to yangsheng literature, made to classical Chinese medical thought."

A yangsheng culture

Page 22-23: QUOTE: "In describing the body in its relationship with the macrocosmos, early Chinese yangsheng literature brings a metaphysical language into the realm of human physical experience. With its focus on longevity rather than pathology, it sets down a standard physiology of the internal environment of the body. Yangsheng techniques, then, describe many ways to assert control over this physiological process. The primary object of the present study is to examine the dynamic between the medical fields of yangsheng and the newly emerging medical models of the body based upon the mai."
Page 23: QUOTE: "The criteria for defining exactly which kind of activity came under the umbrella of nurturing life varies according to the period. By the time of the tenth-century Japanese medical work Ishinpō...(Recipes at the Heart of Medicine), a compilation that preserves a great deal of early Chinese material, the 'Yangsheng' chapter includes such diverse topics as sleep, clothing, and propriety of language. Five of the practices listed in the Ishinpō are already represented in the literature of Mawangdui and Zhangjiashan. Mawangdui practices also include the daily ingestion and application of mineral drugs, ingestion of talismans, and ritual interdiction. Recognised as coming under the general rubric of yangsheng are contemporary callisthenic exercises in revived form such as taiji quan...and qigong...the therapeutic movement practised by young and old in Chinese city parks in the morning."
Page 23: QUOTE: "The preponderance of nurturing life texts among the burial goods in the tombs at Zhangjiashan and Mawangdui suggests that the courtly elite of Chu were familiar with the way of life advocated in the texts. I argue elsewhere that a figurine, buried five hundred miles away in south-west China, also testifies to the more general spread of nurturing life culture. [FOOTNOTE 15 says this: The figurine is made of black lacquered wood and has red lines which run from head to foot. An analysis of the lines and how they relate to the channels of acumoxa theory as well as other medical practices such as yangsheng can be found in He Zhiguo and Lo (1996).] Burial goods were similar in design and quality, so it seems likely that the rich culture in the Chu tombs, which was once thought to be exclusive to the southern kingdom, is representative of the central core of elite society in the provincial courts and military outposts of the empire in the early Western Han period."
Page 23: QUOTE: "Despite the fact that yangsheng is an evolving category during the Warring States period and does not, by itself, refer to all the practices it later embraces, it is still relevant to consider the emergence of different types of physical activities for enhancing life as a distinctive trend. The above mentioned 'Record of Literary Pursuits' (Yiwen zhi) in the Han shu lists eight sexual-cultivation works which testify that they formed a significant part of mainstream medical literature."
Page 23-24: QUOTE: "Many Warring States writers also seem to know pracices akin to nurturing life culture. Breath-cultivation and meditation are particularly common. References to nurturing life practice emerge incidentally in comment or as a more conscious part of a health care regime. The references are not always complimentary. Zhaungzi...(fourth—second centuries BC) criticises people who nurture the body (yangxing...) as falling short of the true dao...(the way):"
- QUOTE: "To huff and puff, exhale and inhale, blow out the old and draw in the new, do the 'bear-hang' and the 'bird-stretch', interested only in long life—such are the tastes of the practitioners of 'guide-and-pull' exercises, the nurturers of the body, Grandfather Peng's ripe-old-agers."
Page 24: QUOTE: "His is a transcendent, less physical approach to life that is reminiscent of the cults of immortality. We can, perhaps, view immortality cults as an extreme extension of yangsheng culture."

'Maishu'

Page 27: QUOTE: "The newly-excavate Western Han textual sources that describe the mai have already altered our perception of the early development of acu moxa's channel theory. Physiological speculation is primitive when compared to received medical literature. The excavated texts do not reveal the networks of channels systematically associated with the internal organs or a network of acumoxa points that we know as the mature acumoxa system. Their channels proceed in more parallel fashion along the limbs to the torso and head. They sometimes cross, but they do not join at the ends to form a continuous ring. The practice of lancing the body is mainly associated in these texts with abscess bursting, and the principles of practice related to the channels are extremely basic. These early texts document a first systematic attempt at the kind of physiological speculation that we see in later medical literature. When we come, for example, to examine references to qi in the excavated texts, we shall see that the authors of the early acumoxa texts did not conceive of a complex circulation or physiology of qi."
Page 27-28: 'Maishu', a manuscript excavated at the Zhangjiashan burial site, is the most complete and comprehensive of the works that describe the mai and is, in my view, the earliest extant treatise to set out theories and practice of acupuncture, wherein an implement is used to pierce the skin in order to influence the movement of qi in the body. It comprises 65 slips. Harper divides the document into six core texts which he describes as 'Ailment List', 'Eleven Vessels', 'Five Signs of Death', 'Care of the Body', 'Six Constituents', and 'Vessels and Vapor'. Three of these—'Eleven Vessels'; 'Five Signs of Death'; and 'Vessels and Vapor'—are editions of texts in the Mawangdui medical manuscripts. Harper's titles indicate well the content of each text. I shall adopt his divisions, numbering the texts (1)–(6). Gao Dalun...using a different schema, conflates the last three."
Page 28: QUOTE: "'Maishu' (1) is a lexicon of illnesses and illness characteristics. It is organised by superficial anatomy listing sixty-seven illnesses beginning from the head and moving down to the soles of the feet. In part, the text constitutes an early attempt at differential diagnosis which bears a relationship to some of the categories worked out in the recipe text 'Wushi'er bingfang'. It does not define the illnesses according to the kind of physiology that we will see in the remaining 'Maishu' texts."
Page 28: QUOTE: "'Maishu' (2) is an edition of the Mawangdui 'Yinyang shiyimai jiujing'. It describes the course of eleven different channels that run between the extremities and the head. The route of each channel is followed by a list of symptoms associated with a pathology of that channel."
Page 28: QUOTE: "'Maishu' (3) is an edition of the Mawangdui 'Yinyang mai sihou'...(Death Signs of yin and yang Vessels). It differentiates between yin and yang pathology in recognising terminal conditions."
Page 28: QUOTE: "'Maishu' (4) 'Care of the Body', recommends movement and moderation as the secret to long life. This suggests the same philosophy evident in 'Yinshu's daoyin regimen. It is a statement which is repeated in Lüshi Chunqiu."
- QUOTE: "Now flowing water does not stagnate, when the door pivots there wil be no woodworm because of their movement. When there is movement then it fills the four limbs and empties the five viscera, when the five viscera are empty then the jade body will be benefited. Now one who rides in a carriage and eats meat, must fast and purify themselves in spring and autumn. If they do not fast and purify themselves then the mai will rot and cause death."
Page 28: QUOTE: "'Maishu' (5) is peculiar to Zhangjiashan. It provides early analogies for six different parts of the body: bone (gu...), sinew (jin...), blood (xue...), channel (mai...), flesh (rou...), and qi. It follows by attributing a particular quality of pain to each part. Pain indicates the onset of serious physical decline and this text serves as a warning to those who do not take positive action to counteract this deterioration."
Page 28-29: QUOTE: "'Maishu' (6) is a complex piece of writing that may constitute three separate texts. The first part describes the movement of qi and how to influence its flow. This is followed by a very practical guide to abscess lancing. 'Maishu' ends with the earliest extant record of pulse taking. Together these elements add up to the most basic principles of acu moxa practice."
Page 29: QUOTE: "Harper concludes that the combination of these final texts in 'Maishu' is indicative of the influence of macrobiotic hygiene (i.e. yangsheng nurturing life practice) in the development of vessel (i.e. channel) theory. The aim of the present study is to test this hypothesis using source material from 'Maishu' and the yangsheng manuscripts from Mawangdui."
Page 29-30: QUOTE: "The following passage from 'Maishu' (6) will form the key extract upon which I identify the incidence of acupuncture in the excavated texts. Another edition of this passage exists among the Mawangdui medical manuscripts and has been assigned the title of 'Maifa'. But key lacunae in the 'Maifa' obscure the meaning of the passage which in its recovered state refers to 'cautery' and not to body piercing. In the following extract we will find the most sophisticated and physiological ideas represented in 'Maishu' and the earliest extant treatise to document a link between body piercing and a formal movement of qi. For the first time, a text describes qi as a medical phenomenon subject to control by another."
- QUOTE: "The channels are valued by the sages. As for qi, it benefits the lower body and harms the upper; follows heat and distances coolness. So, the sages cool the head and warm the feet. Those who treat illness take the surplus and supplement the insufficiency. So if qi goes up, not down, then when you see the channel that has over-reached itself, apply one cauterisation where it meets the articulation. When the illness is intense then apply another cauterisation at a place two cun above the articulation. When the qi rises at one moment and falls in the next pierce it with a stone lancet at the back of the knee and the elbow."
Page 30: QUOTE: "On the evidence of the excavated texts alone there is very little to suggest that qi in the body is present only in the channels, let alone that it travels in a particular direction along only those channels."
Page 30: QUOTE: "In this passage from 'Maishu' (6), qi is understood to move downwards and to the extremities and this is borne out in contemporary texts that describe the practices of breath-cultivation and daoyin. The following exercises taken from the 'Yinshu' demonstrate this principle in daoyin:"
- QUOTE: "Ailing from lao li...liquor. The prescription for pulling is: grasp a staff in the right hand, face a wall, do not breathe, tread on the wall with the left foot, and rest when tired; likewise grasp the staff in the left hand, tread on the wall with the right foot, and rest when tired. When the qi of the head flows downwards, the foot will not be immobile and numb, the head will not swell, and the nose will not be stuffed up."
Page 30: QUOTE: "Similarly qi can be projected into the arms:"
- QUOTE: "When suffering with there being less qi in the two hands, both the arms cannot be raised equally and the tips of the fingers, like rushing water, tend to numbness. Pretend that the two elbows are bound to the sides, and vigorously swing them. In the morning, middle of the day and middle of the night. Do it altogether one thousand times. Stop after ten days."
Page 30-31: QUOTE: "Downward movement of qi is not a feature of the 'Jingmai' treatise of the Lingshu where qi travels through the channels in the direction of the anatomical references which are arranged in an order that forms a circuit. No such circuit is evident in the way the channels are formed in 'Zubi jiujing' and 'Yinyang jiujing', the excavated channel texts, where the anatomical references are given in an order that begins at the extremities and travels to the head. If qi were travelling in this direction it would be contrary to the natural movement given in 'Maishu' (6) quoted above. On the evidence of this passage and 'Maishu' (2), the text that contains descriptions of the route and direction of the channels, we can, therefore, dismiss the concept of circulation as a feature of the excavated texts."

Classical Medical Writings

Page 31: QUOTE: "From Huangdi neijing we can see that within two centuries following the closure of the Western Han tombs, the body was conceived as a complete microcosm of the external environment. A regulated flow of qi, the vital substance of life, was as basic to physical health as it was to the harmony of heaven and earth, and the channels through which it flowed were as carefully mapped as the waterways of the empire. The yin and yang viscera or the solid and hollow organs of the body (zangfu...), were also described as officials of state with responsibility for the various ministries—for economy, for planning, and for upright judgments."
Page 31-32: QUOTE: "In Huangdi neijing correspondences with yin and yang have transcended the basic sequence of opposites of light and shade, heaven and earth to become fundamental principles in human physiology, as well as in the classification of different physical substances and conditions, both normal and pathological. Stages of yinyang transformation explain states of health as well as the aetiology of disease. The acu moxa channels themselves even have acupoints that reflect the construction of the universe, the structure of the Empire, the Imperial palace, and the geography of China in their names. Amongst the acupoints are the heavenly pivot (tianshu...), body pillar (shenzhu...), sun and moon (riyue...), spirit hall (shenting...), and illuminated sea (zhaohai...). The body is an intricately mapped out mirror of the macrocosm."

Landscaping the Body

Page 33: QUOTE: "By comparing 'Maishu' and 'He Yinyang' we can begin to see how images of the social world were first brought to the surface of the body. In 'Maishu' (2) the body is described in simple terms inspired by superficial anatomy. In contrast, the lyrical descriptions of the sexual arts landscape the body with images of the natural and human world, with mountains and seas, bowls and stoves. The same perception of the body can be traced to the names of the acu moxa points in later medical classics such as Huangdi neijing Lingshu or Zhenjiu jiayi jing...(AB Canon of Acumoxa)(AD 256–82). I do not intend to privilege a knowledge of acupoints in interpreting the position or meaning of any of the anatomical locations in the excavated texts. I simply wish to demonstrate that a metaphorical language for describing the exterior body developed first within the context of a culture of self-cultivation and that its imagery was retained in classical medical theory by the authors of the acupoints who invoked a similar landscape for the body."
Page 34: QUOTE: "The description of each channel in 'Maishu' (2) begins with a title such as 'Forearm great yin channel'...or 'Foot great yang channel'...followed by a description of the somatographic space occupied by the channel. Each location is linked by verbs of movement. The channel moves in a number of ways. It can go up (shang...), down (xia...), come out (chu...), enter (ru...), pierce (guan...), among similar verbs. Each verb is then followed by an anatomical location. Two lists of symptoms then follow each of the channel descriptions. The edition known as 'Zubi jiujing' rounds up with the simple directive to cauterise it."
Page 34: QUOTE: "On the routes around the body taken in 'Yinyang jiujing', all the anatomical terms are visible structures on the surface of the body, except the great yin channel, which travels to the stomach, and the forearm lesser yin channel, which passes to the heart. Most of the graphs contain radicals of the physical body, such as flesh (rou...), foot (zu...), bone (gu...), or eye (mu...):"
- QUOTE: "The shoulder channel arises behind the ear, descends the shoulder, comes out at the inner surface of the elbow, comes out on the wrist at the outer surface of the forearm, and mounts the back of the hand."
Page 34-35: QUOTE: "The nomenclature for the channels themselves, foot and arm, greater and lesser yang and yin, yang illumination and ceasing yin signifies the dark and light anatomical planes of the body i.e. an inner/outer, upper/lower distinction—meanings associated with the earliest known references of yin...'the dark side of the hill' and yang...'the sunny side of the hill'. A few exceptions such as the fish thighs (yugu), a location that appears to be a more lyrical and less visual representation of the body, in fact only describe shape—in this case the fish-like shape of the quadriceps above the knee. And this simple rationale is retained in the names of a number of acupoints described, for example, in Zhenjiu jiayi jing. Prostrate hare (futu...) is still the name of an acupoint on the stomach channel known in modern acumoxa theory as stomach 32. Its location is given as '6 cun...above the knee on the anterior prominent muscle of the thigh'. Seen from a lateral angle the acupoint is on the eye of a prostrate hare that is formed by the seams of the muscles of the lateral, anterior thigh. An acupoint on the central anterior channel, known as ren...15 in modern acumoxa theory, was also first seen named dove tail...Its location is given as '0.5 cun below the xiphoid process'. This is the end of a bone structure which, taking in the rib cage and the sternum gives a skeletal impression of a spreading dove's tail. Calf nose...later known as stomach 35, is 'on the border of the patella in the depression beside the large ligament'. When the knee is bent and seen from an anterior view the acupoint forms the calf's nostril."
Page 38-39: QUOTE: "'Maishu', 'Yinshu', and 'He yinyang' are educational treatises on the body. The former is devoted to the interpretation and treatment of symptoms, the second is a daoyin manual, and the latter a treatise on health-promoting sexual practice. Together they may all represent the activities of the same social class, but the nature of the human relationships between the observer and the observed revealed by each text is different."

Manipulating qi in sexual-cultivation

Page 43: QUOTE: "Moxibustion, like regulated sex, improves the qi...Sections of 'He yinyang' and 'Tianxia zhi dao tan' are devoted to observations of the signs of female sexual arousal. The signs are an anticipated sequence of physical responses to actions taken by the man and provide the cue for the next step in a formal procedure. In the pre-coital massage sequence the aim is to stimulate the woman by stroking her body along a course concentrated on strategic points. Completing this stage in the procedure alone is said to lead to nourishment and joy for both male and female bodies. Both works then document the moment when penetration is prescribed:"
- QUOTE: "When the qi rises and her face becomes hot, slowly exhale (warm) breath. When her nipples become hard and her nose perspires, slowly embrace her. When her tongue spreads and becomes slippery, slowly press her. When below secretions moisten her thighs, slowly hold her. When her throat becomes dry and she swallows saliva, slowly rock her. These are called the 'five signs', these are called the 'five desires'. When all the signs are ready then mount."
Page 42: QUOTE: "In 'He Yinyang' the same moment is described as when 'the signs of the five desires' manifest. We can see that actions like holding...pressing...and rocking...deliberately stimulate the next prescribed response in the woman's body. Interpreting the condition of inner body qi is one guide to action. With sexual arousal, rising qi and heat are, exceptionally, not signs of pathology, but simply an anticipated stage in the whole sequence. Ways of moving and distributing qi at the moment when it accumulates are also specified in the next passage, which clearly anticipates the language of needle technique common to later acumoxa therapy." (NOTE: The following quote is on the next page, page 43):
- QUOTE: "Stab upwards but do not penetrate in order to stimulate qi, when the qi arrives (qizhi...) penetrate deeply and thrust upward in order to distribute the heat. Now once again withdraw so as not to cause its qi to dissipate and for her to become exhausted."
Page 43: QUOTE: "Of the sets of principles to follow in sexual union, the eight ways (badao...) detail eight different movements of the penis to respond to different states of female arousal. We cannot ignore the recurring motif of penetration in the care taken with thrusting the penis and the manipulation of the needle as ways to reveal change in the inner body. Harper has already drawn an analogy between the use of the burning wooden poker to crack the tortoise's plastron in the pyromantic arts and the use of cauterisation and needle on the mature acumoxa system."
Page 44: QUOTE: "Breath-cultivation literature also describes beneficial effects of working on qi. The overall aim of the retention of semen, the skill of successful sexual-cultivation for the male, can also be compared with adjusting the qi. In one stage of the sexual procedure ten movements (shidong...) are described."
- QUOTE: "If there is no orgasm in the first movement, the ears and eyes will become keen and bright, with the second the voice becomes clear, with the third the skin gleams, with the fourth the back and flanks are strengthened, with the fifth the buttocks and thighs become sturdy, with the sixth the waterways flow freely, with the seventh one becomes sturdy with strength, with the eighth the patterns of the skin shine, with the ninth one gets through to an illumination of the spirit, with the tenth the body endures: these are called the ten movements."
Page 45: QUOTE: "At the culmination of 'He Yinyang', we find a sequence that continues a description of the woman's body as she approaches and achieves orgasm. The passage is unusual in that self-cultivation literature is written for the empowerment of educated men as was most written works of this period. But the description is certainly a continuation of a sequence that records physical responses of the female body. Orgasm is completed at the point when qi extends throughout the body bringing the now familiar inner transformation:"
- QUOTE: "The symptoms of the great death (grand finale) are: the nose sweats, lips are white, the hands and feet all move, the buttocks do not touch the mat, rise and withdraw, if it becomes flaccid then there will be weakness. At this point the qi extends from the middle extremity (zhong ji...), the essence and spirit enter the viscera and an illumination of the spirit is born."
Page 45-46: QUOTE: "In the culmination of 'He yinyang' we come across the image of the middle extremity zhongji in its incarnation as the uterus. Eventually the same terminology is used for the acupoint on the anterior, central channel known today as ren 3, located just below the skin on the lower abdomen—an acupoint which has a powerful effect on acute urogenital problems. But at this earlier time, or at least in the particular medium of the sexual-cultivation literature, it is either the womb itself or a physical source in either male or female, where sensation accumulates and then radiates around the body in the form of qi. Here we also have an early description of how the movement of qi influences the capacity of the viscera to store essence and spirit—an important theme in the medical canons."

Hsu's chapter

Hsu, Elisabeth. (2001). "Pulse diagnostics in the Western Han: how mai and qi determine bing," in Innovations in Chinese Medicine, 51–92. Edited by Elisabeth Hsu. Cambridge, New York, Oakleigh, Madrid, and Cape Town: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521800684.

Page 52-53: This chapter focuses on the 105th chapter of the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian, a chapter which contains two memoirs on the medical doctors Bian Que and Canggong who belonged to a 'lineage' or 'tradition of learning' in the field of pulse diagnostics.
Page 54-55: The memoir of Bian Que, who supposedly lived during the Zhou Dynasty and was active in the states of Zhao and Qi, reads much like a folk tale (while his historical authenticity is questionable). In contrast, the memoir of Canggong, a Western Han doctor during the middle 2nd century BC who had a clientele in Qi and neighboring kingdoms, reads more like a "punctilious" report that is full of technical terminology. In this chapter, Hsu will first focus on Canggong.
Page 55: QUOTE: "From a historical and philological viewpoint, the 'Canggong zhuan' may be divided into two parts: an introductory summary rendered in the voice of the historian and the main part of the chapter which is given in the voice of a subject answering to an Imperial decree...Then there follows a more comprehensive account of Canggong's personal history and medical learning, twenty-five case histories, and eight interview questions and answers."
Page 59: The Zuo Zhuan describes episodes of illness organized into narratives, but the 'Canggong zhuan' of the Shiji is not only more comprehensive and has a distinct technical vocabulary, but it also is QUOTE: "innovative insofar as it is the first known text to record medical reasoning in the form of individual case histories."
Page 75: Pulse diagnostics were used to determine where the qi came from within the body (i.e. either from the liver, heart, lungs, kidneys, spleen, etc.) and what type of qualities it had, in order to determine the disorder the patient suffered from.

Csikszentmihalyi's Chapter

Csikszentmihalyi, Mark. (2006). Readings in Han Chinese Thought. Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. ISBN 0872207102.

Page 181: In its bibliographical chapter, the Book of Later Han lists the Han medical texts of the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic (Huangdi neijing) and the Yellow Emperor's Outer Classic (Huangdi waijing). Here Csikszentmihalyi is concerned with "A Discussion of How Pneumas of the Five Organs Model on the Seasons," a chapter of the Basic Questions of the Yellow Emperor's Classic. QUOTE: "Scholars generally believe that the Basic Questions of the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic (Huangdi neijing taisu...) is not one of those two texts but that its content likely overlaps with that of those two lost works. Paul Unschuld's recent study of the text follows Donald Keegan in concluding that the language and ideas in the text date to between 400 B.C.E. and 260 C.E."
Page 182: QUOTE: "This chapter contains a dialogue between the Yellow Emperor and his advisor Qi Bo...a narrative structure that was likely added to lend authority to the contents of the text. The subject matter is an introduction to the organs of the body. Each organ has two circulatory channels, and 'rules' a season and two days out of every ten. If there is a problem with the circulation of pneumas connected with that organ, it may be counteracted by eating something that rebalances it. So, for example, the heart may cause sluggishness. Since the heart is associated with the fire phase, ingesting something sour (associated with wood) will be a counterbalance because wood promotes fire. The following selection is only the first part of the chapter. The conversation continues to cover diseases associated with each organ, correlating treatment outcomes to particular seasons, days, and times of the day."