Technical Arts in the Han Histories: Tables and Treatises in the Shiji and Hanshu (SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture)

While cultural literacy in early China was grounded in learning the Classics, basic competence in official life was generally predicated on acquiring several forms of technical knowledge. Recent archaeological finds have brought renewed attention to the use of technical manuals and mantic techniques within a huge range of discrete contexts, pushing historians to move beyond the generalities offered by past scholarship. To explore these uses, __Technical Arts in the Han Histories__ delves deeply into the rarely studied Treatises and Tables compiled for the first two standard histories, the __Shiji__ (Historical Records) and __Hanshu__ (History of Han), important supplements to the better-known biographical chapters, and models for the inclusion of technical subjects in the twenty-three later Standard Histories of imperial China. Indeed, for a great many aspects of life in early imperial society, they constitute our best primary sources for understanding complex realities and perceptions. The essays in this volume seek to explain how different social groups thought of, disseminated, and withheld technical knowledge relating to the body, body politic, and cosmos, in the process of detailing the preoccupations of successive courts from Qin through Eastern Han in administering the localities, the frontier zones, and their numerous subjects (at the time, roughly one-quarter of the world's population). Contents Acknowledgments Introduction I. On the “Technical Arts” (shu 術) and “Ordering” (zhi 治) II. On the Shiji and Hanshu Projects III. Synopses of the Chapters in the Volume Notes Asian-language Bibliography Western-language Bibliography 1 Land Tenure and the Decline of Imperial Government in Eastern Han I. The Produce of the Land II. The “Orders of Honor” (jue 爵) III. The Large Estates IV. Gong tian, Ming tian, and Si tian V. The Vagrants VI. Inheritance and the Terms of a Will VII. Deeds of Purchase (quan 券) VIII. Officials’ Salaries IX. Size and Spread of the Population X. Conclusion Appendix I: The Extent of the Land Appendix II: Examples of Deeds for the Sale of Land Known Examples Notes Asian-language Bibliography Western-language Bibliography 2 Water Control and Policy-Making in the Shiji and Hanshu I. The Annals Story: The Zhang River, Loyalty, and Choosing the Best II. The Shiji Treatise III. The Hanshu Treatise IV. Water Control Redux Appendix 1: Summary, Shiji “Treatise on the Yellow River and Canals” Appendix 2: Summary, Hanshu “Treatise on Ditches and Canals” Notes Asian-language Bibliography Western-language Bibliography 3 The Hanshu Geographic Treatise on the Eastern Capital Preliminaries I. On the Documents Postface/Chapter Prefaces (xu 序) II. What’s in a Graph? Luo 雒 or Luo 洛 III. On Siting Cities in the “Zhou Writings” 周書 Documents’ Section Further Complications: ChengZhou, near the Old Luo City Site? IV. The “Two Capitals” Model Promoted in the Hanshu Geographic Treatise a. Overview of the Model b. Later Influence of Ban Gu’s “Two Capitals” Model V. Archaeological Evidence for Luoyang Conclusion Appendix for Chapter 3 Notes Asian-language Bibliography Western-language Bibliography 4 Celestial Signs in Three Historical Treatises I. Readers of Celestial Signs in History in the “Celestial Offices” II. The “Wuxing zhi” and Its Classical Models III. The “Wuxing zhi” Chronicle of Comets IV. Etiology, Chronology, and Classicism in the “Celestial Patterns” V. Linking Signs to the Classics in the “Celestial Patterns” VI. The “Celestial Patterns” as a Dynastic History VII. Conclusion Appendix A: Organization of the Shiji “Celestial Offices” and Hanshu “Celestial Patterns” Appendix B: Comparison of Planetary Correspondences Notes Asian-language Bibliography Western-language Bibliography 5 On Hanshu “Wuxing zhi” 五行志 and Ban Gu’s Project I. Hanshu on Omen Experts II. Structure and Contents of the Hanshu “Wuxing zhi” a. Preliminaries b. Organization of the Hanshu Omen Treatise c. Discrepancies between the Great Plan and the Hanshu “Wuxing zhi” III. Probable Authorship, Dating, and Motivation: Speculations IV. On Dong Zhongshu and Liu Xiang as Omen Experts V. Final Conundrums and Conclusions Appendix: A Brief Think Piece on Resonance Theory Notes Asian-language Bibliography Western-language Bibliography 6 Western Han Sacrifices to Taiyi I. Early Sitings of Taiyi a. Taiyi before Han Wudi’s Reign b. The Establishment of the Western Han Cult to Taiyi c. Reasons for the Great Altar at Ganquan (Sweet Springs) Palace Complex II. Cult Ceremonies at the Great Altar at Sweet Springs 甘泉泰畤 a. The Material Form of the Ceremonial Site b. The Liturgies and Ceremonies at the Great Altar Erected to Taiyi III. The Shiji and Hanshu Treatises on Sacrifice a. The Nature of the Sacrifice at the Great Altar b. Discrepancies in the Shiji and Hanshu Accounts IV. Conclusion Notes Asian-language Bibliography Western-language Bibliography 7 Writing Abstractly in Mathematical Texts from Early Imperial China Introduction I. Abstraction as a Commentator’s Category a. Evidence for Ancient Actors’ Expectation of Abstraction b. Abstraction from a Wider Perspective: Elements of a History of the Term Kongyan II. A Form of Abstraction as Actors’ Category in The Nine Chapters a. Examining Features of a “Universal Procedure” in The Nine Chapters b. Interpreting Kongyan in The Nine Chapters c. The Characteristic Features of Abstract Procedures III. The Form of Abstraction Identified and the Excavated Manuscripts IV. Conclusion Notes Asian-language Bibliography Western-language Bibliography 8 Commentarial Episodes in Early Chinese Medicine: An Experiment in Decentering the Standard Histories I. Definitions and Contexts II. The Wuwei Manuscripts: A Case for a Hidden Commentary III. Social Context IV. Conclusions Notes Asian-language Bibliography Western-language Bibliography 9 Narratives of Decline and Fragmentation, and the Hanshu Bibliographic Taxonomies of Technical Arts I. Lost in Transmission: A Diminishing Classical Legacy II. The “Tianxia” 天下 and the Techniques of the Way III. The Simas 司馬氏 and Expertise in the Way IV. Technical Knowledge as the End Stage of Classical Knowledge in the “Yiwen zhi” V. Bibliography and Administration VI. Conclusion Notes Asian-language Bibliography Western-language Bibliography Contributors Index