Books of Fate and Popular Culture in Early China : The Daybook Manuscripts of the Warring States, Qin, and Han

Books of Fate and Popular Culture in Early China is a comprehensive introduction to the manuscripts known as daybooks, examples of which have been found in Warring States, Qin, and Han tombs (453 BCE–220 CE). Their main content concerns hemerology, or “knowledge of good and bad days.” Daybooks reveal the place of hemerology in daily life and are invaluable sources for the study of popular culture. Eleven scholars have contributed chapters examining the daybooks from different perspectives, detailing their significance as manuscript-objects intended for everyday use and showing their connection to almanacs still popular in Chinese communities today as well as to hemerological literature in medieval Europe and ancient Babylon. Contributors include: Marianne Bujard, László Sándor Chardonnens, Christopher Cullen, Donald Harper, Marc Kalinowski, Li Ling, Liu Lexian, Alasdair Livingstone, Richard Smith, Alain Thote, and Yan Changgui. Contents 6 List of Maps, Tables, Figures, and Plates 10 Acknowledgments 16 Tables 0.1–0.9 18 Map 0.1 27 Introduction 28 Hemerology 29 Technical Occult and Scientific Literature 31 Codicology of Daybook Manuscripts 33 Daybook Studies and Ancient Chinese Hemerology 34 Conventions Used in this Volume 36 Chinese Terms and Translations 36 Latin, Medieval Vernacular, and Cuneiform Sources 37 Chinese Conceptual Terms and Hemerological Terminology 37 Chapter 1 Daybooks in Archaeological Context 38 Daybooks in Tombs 38 Manuscript Sources 39 A Phenomenon Embedded in Time and Widely Diffused 39 First Hypotheses 43 The Four Tombs 44 Jiudian Tomb 56 44 Fangmatan Tomb 1 48 Shuihudi Tomb 11 52 Kongjiapo Tomb 8 56 Other Tombs Containing Daybooks and Daybook-Related Manuscripts 61 Manuscripts in Tombs 64 Conditions of Preservation 64 A Marginal Phenomenon 65 The Mingqi Question 66 What Types of Manuscripts? 74 Who Was Involved? 75 Conclusion 82 Chapter 2 Daybooks: A Type of Popular Hemerological Manual of the Warring States, Qin, and Han 84 Content and Defining Features of Daybooks 84 Overview of Fully Published Daybooks and Daybook-Related Manuscripts 93 Manuscripts of the Daybook Text Type 93 Daybook-Related Manuscripts 97 Hemerological Slips, Slip Fragments, and Tablets Discovered at Han Sites in the Northwest 102 Unpublished or Partially Published Hemerological Material 103 Comparison of Daybooks to Related Technical Literature in Excavated Manuscripts 106 Daybooks and Other Hemerological Texts 107 Daybooks and Calendars 108 Daybooks as One among Multiple Sources of Technical Occult Knowledge 109 Daybooks from the Perspective of the Bibliographic Treatise of the Book of Han 111 “Tianwen” (Heaven Patterns) 113 “Lipu” (Calendars and Chronologies) 113 “Wuxing” (Five Agents) 113 “Shigui” (Milfoil and Turtle) 114 “Zazhan” (Miscellaneous Divination) 114 “Xingfa” (Form Structures) 114 Daybooks and Later Hemerological Texts 114 Conclusion 116 Chapter 3 Daybooks in the Context of Manuscript Culture and Popular Culture Studies 118 Hemerology and Hemerological Literature through the Lens of Late Han Historiography 121 Makers and Users of Daybooks 124 Literacy 124 Who Made Daybooks? 131 The Form and Function of Daybook Manuscripts 137 Making the Manuscript and Textual Strategies 138 Writing the Text and Lexical Strategies 143 Daybooks in Everyday Life 154 The “Spellbinding” Prologue 156 The Pace of Yu 157 Orphan-Empty Hemerology 160 Hemerology and Cultural Memory 163 Conclusion 164 Chapter 4 Hemerology and Prediction in the Daybooks: Ideas and Practices 165 Daily Activities and Life Expectations in the Daybooks 165 General Hemerologies 166 Topical Hemerologies 169 Predictions and Predictive Systems 172 The World of Rishu: Representation and Reality 175 Techniques and Systems 179 The Year Cycle and Its Subdivisions 180 The Sexagenary Cycle 187 The Twenty-Eight Stellar Lodges 191 The Five Agents 195 Day Qualifiers 198 Diagrams 203 Conclusion 219 Supplement 4.1 220 Supplement 4.2 221 Supplement 4.3 225 Supplement 4.4 226 Supplement 4.5 227 Chapter 5 Daybooks and the Spirit World 234 The Spirit World 235 Levels of the Spirit World 235 The Appearance and Traits of Spirits 241 Spirit Origin and Background: Explanation of the “Death Corpse-Ghost” Diagram 243 Controlling and Expelling the Spirits 247 Controlling Spirits: Spirits in the Illness Hemerologies 247 Expelling Demons and Spirits: Techniques of Exorcism in “Spellbinding” 252 Spirits in the Context of Hemerology 258 Conclusion 270 Supplement 5.1 271 Plates 276 Chapter 6 The Zidanku Silk Manuscripts 278 Discovery of the Zidanku Silk Manuscripts and the History of Ownership 279 The Zidanku Silk Manuscripts: Physical Description and Contents 288 Zidanku Silk Manuscript 1: Sishi ling (Ordinances of the Four Seasons) 289 Zidanku Silk Manuscript 2: Wuxing ling (Ordinances of the Five Agents) 295 Zidanku Silk Manuscript 3: Gongshou zhan (Divination for Attack and Defense) 296 Additional Manuscript Fragments 296 The Zidanku Silk Manuscripts and Ancient Chinese Hemerological Literature 296 Hemerology and Hemerological Literature 297 Shi-Method Writings 299 Seasonal-Ordinances Writings 303 Daybook Writings 303 Conclusion 306 Chapter 7 Calendars and Calendar Making in Qin and Han Times 307 Looking at a Calendar 307 Month Lengths 309 Number of Months and the Year 309 Marking the Seasons 311 Hemerological Markings 311 Calculating the Calendar 318 Cycles and Quarter-Remainder Calculations 318 Constants and Cycles after the 104 BCE Reform 319 The Six Systems 320 Identifying the Qin and Han Systems: Textual Evidence 321 Identifying the Qin and Han Systems: Calculating Back 323 Who Calculated the Calendar? 325 The Traditional View: The Ruler “Grants” the Calendar 325 The Abortive Reform under Emperor Wen 326 The Origins and Nature of the Reform under Emperor Wu 327 The Case of Lang Yi: A Non-Official Center of Astronomical Learning 332 Conclusion 332 Chapter 8 Daybooks in Qin and Han Religion 334 The First Tiller Cult: Public and Private Rites 335 Local Cults of the Qin and Han 342 Mountain and River Cults 343 Long-Life Practices 352 Private Rituals in the Daybooks 354 A Heterogeneous Pantheon 357 The Pace of Yu 359 Levels of Complexity of Ritual Behavior 361 Conclusion 363 Chapter 9 The Legacy of Daybooks in Late Imperial and Modern China 365 Brief Overview of Calendars and Almanacs from the Tang through the Ming Dynasty 366 State-Sponsored Cosmology in the Qing 371 The State Calendar and Its Derivatives 376 Qing Dynasty Almanacs 382 Concluding Remarks 396 Chapter 10 Hemerology in Medieval Europe 402 Hemerology and Daybooks 403 Hemerology and the Study of Time 405 Divination, Commemoration, and Natural Philosophy 412 Hemerology as Divination 413 Hemerology as Commemoration 415 Hemerology as Natural Philosophy 418 Hemerological Practices 419 Auspicious Hours for Bloodletting 420 Dog Days 421 Egyptian Days and Egyptian Hours 421 Journey Hemerology 425 Lunaries 426 Mansions of the Moon 429 Miraculous Birthdays 431 Moonbooks 431 Perilous Days 432 Unlucky Days 432 Zodiacal Lunaries 432 Conclusion 435 Chapter 11 Babylonian Hemerologies and Menologies 437 Research Background 437 Textual Context 438 Cultic and Magical Background and Context 439 Religious Context 440 The Babylonian Cultic Calendar 440 The Hemerologies 441 “Babylonian Almanac” 442 “Offering Bread Hemerology” 443 “Prostration Hemerology” 444 “Hemerology for Nazimaruttaš” 446 “Eclipse Hemerology” 448 Fruit, Lord of the Month 449 The Therapeutic Release of Animals 451 The Menologies 452 “Cult Menology 1”: Babylon 452 “Cult Menology 2”: Uruk 456 “Bilingual Menology” 458 Use of the Hemerologies 461 Retrospect: A Scientific Experiment in Hemerology 462 Extispicy 463 Legal Activity 463 Appendixes 466 Appendix A Survey of Excavated Daybooks, Daybook-Related Manuscripts, and Other Hemerological Material 468 Appendix B Summary of Published Daybooks and Daybook-Related Manuscripts 472 Appendix C Description of Select Hemerologies and Classificatory Systems in Daybooks 489 Bibliography 506 Index 531 "Books of Fate and Popular Culture in Early China is a comprehensive introduction to the manuscripts known as daybooks, examples of which have been found in Warring States, Qin, and Han tombs (453 BCE-220 CE). Their main content concerns hemerology, or "knowledge of good and bad days." Daybooks reveal the place of hemerology in daily life and are invaluable sources for the study of popular culture. Eleven scholars have contributed chapters examining the daybooks from different perspectives, detailing their significance as manuscript-objects intended for everyday use and showing their connection to almanacs still popular in Chinese communities today as well as to hemerological literature in medieval Europe and ancient Babylon. Contributors include: Marianne Bujard, László Sándor Chardonnens, Christopher Cullen, Donald Harper, Marc Kalinowski, Li Ling, Liu Lexian, Ala." ... Provided by publisher