State and Local Society in Third Century South China: Excavated Administrative Documents from Zoumalou, Hunan (Sinica Leidensia, 159) 9004535225, 9789004535220

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State and Local Society in Third Century South China

Sinica Leidensia Edited by Barend J. ter Haar In co-operation with P.K. Bol, D.R. Knechtges, E.S. Rawski, W.L. Idema, H.T. Zurndorfer

Volume 159

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/sinl

State and Local Society in Third Century South China Administrative Documents Excavated at Zoumalou, Hunan

By

Brian Lander Ling Wenchao 凌文超 Xin Wen 文欣

LEIDEN | BOSTON

Cover illustration: The cover image depicts labels that were attached to documents related to granaries (中倉 068439) and storehouses (庫 068444), two of the key institutions in the Zoumalou documents. Neither has yet appeared in the official publications and these are the numbers used to classify them in storage. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Lander, Brian, author. | Ling, Wenchao, 1982- author. | Wen, Xin  (Historian) author. Title: State and local society in third century south China :  administrative documents excavated at Zoumalou, Hunan / by Brian Lander,  Ling Wenchao, Xin Wen. Other titles: Administrative documents excavated at Zoumalou, Hunan Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2024. | Series: Sinica Leidensia,  0169-9563 ; volume 159 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2024002763 (print) | LCCN 2024002764 (ebook) |  ISBN 9789004535220 (paperback) | ISBN 9789004549654 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Manuscripts, Chinese—China—Changsha Shi. | Inscriptions,  Chinese—China—Changsha Shi. | Changsha Shi (China)—Antiquities. |  China—History—Three kingdoms, 220–265. Classification: LCC DS797.52.C434 L358 2024 (print) | LCC DS797.52.C434  (ebook) | DDC 931/.215—dc23/eng/20240221 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024002763 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024002764

Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 0169-9563 isbn 978-90-04-53522-0 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-54965-4 (e-book) DOI 10.1163/9789004549654 Copyright 2024 by Brian Lander, Ling Wenchao, and Xin Wen. Published by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Schöningh, Brill Fink, Brill mentis, Brill Wageningen Academic, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Böhlau and V&R unipress. Koninklijke Brill NV reserves the right to protect this publication against unauthorized use. Requests for re-use and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV via brill.com or copyright.com. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.

Contents Acknowledgements vii List of Illustrations viii Conventions Used in Transcriptions ix Introduction 1 1 The World of the Zoumalou Documents 10 1 Ecology and Economy of Changsha 10 2 Political History of Changsha 17 3 The Time 20 4 The People 23 5 Households 30 6 Official Ranks and Hierarchies 32 7 The State Apparatus 38 8 Taxation 44 9 The Xu Di Embezzlement Case and the Limits of State Control 52 10 The Story of Xia Long 55 11 Zoumalou in Chinese History 58 2 The Excavation and Collation of the Wu Slips 61 1 Excavation 62 2 The Indoor Phase: Cleaning, Sorting and Publishing 67 3 Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents 72 1 Conventions 76 2 The Tianjia Certificates ( Jiahe limin tianjia bie 嘉禾吏民田家莂) 77 2.1 The Taxation System 79 2.2 Examples of the Tianjia Certificates 85 3 Records of Households 94 3.1 Official Household Registers 95 3.2 Household Register Records 96 3.3 Registers of the Numbers of Upper, Middle and Lower Grade Households 104 4 Name Registers 108 4.1 Registers of Inspections of Newly Registered People 108 4.2 Registers of the Transfer of Artisans 112 4.3 Name Registers of Coin Payments of Households by Grade 115

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4.4 Registers of Farmer Households Working on Quota Fields 121 4.5 Registers of Recommended Privately Educated Men 123 4.6 Registers of Male Relatives of Provincial and Army Officials 130 4.7 Registers of the Male Relatives of Officials Who Fled 134 Treasury Account Registers 136 5.1 Treasury Coin Account Registers 137 5.2 Register of Personal Names and Land Rent Coins 149 5.3 Registers of Market Taxes on Slaves 152 5.4 Treasury Cloth Account Registers 154 5.5 Registers of Skins Entered and Received 163 5.6 Registers of the Receipt of Requisitioned Hemp 165 Granary Account Registers 167 6.1 Registers of Various Rice Collected in Taxes 167 6.2 Registers of Grain Distributed and Lent 175 Other Account Registers 177 7.1 Registers of Inspection of Irrigated Fields 177 7.2 Field Area Type Registers 184 7.3 Registers of State-Owned Cattle 193 7.4 Registers of the Skin and Hooves of Sacrificial Cattle 198 Files on the Case of Xu Di 199 Ancheng County Documents 201 9.1 Jiahe 2nd Year Ancheng Registers of Area of Zu Tax Fields of Provincial, Commandery and County Officials 201 9.2 Overall Registers of Cloth Purchased by Ancheng County Officials 206 Conclusion 210

Appendix: Contents of Each Published Zoumalou Volume 212 Glossary 218 Bibliography 226 Index 240

Acknowledgements This book originated when Brian Lander applied for a Henry Luce Foundation/ ACLS Program in China Studies Collaborative Reading-Workshop Grant to read the materials from Zoumalou. Maxim Korolkov suggested inviting Ling Wenchao, who agreed to participate, and the application was successful. In September 2016 Lander and Ling led this workshop at the Harvard University Center for the Environment (HUCE), which provided the administrative support and the space. More generally, HUCE also provided Brian Lander with a salary for two years of a productive postdoctoral fellowship that allowed him to begin this project. Without the support of Luce/ACLS and HUCE, this book would not exist. This book also benefitted greatly from a subsequent workshop funded and hosted in April 2017 by the Tang Center for Early China at Columbia University that focused on the potential of these documents for studying economic history. Ling prepared a collection of documents for the Harvard workshop that included the second chapter of this book and the beginnings of the third. The participants in the workshop were Andrew Chittick, Chris Foster, Luke Habberstad, Wen-yi Huang, Ren Li, Michael Lüdke, Terry Kleeman, Keith Knapp, Charles Sanft, Griet Vankeerberghen, Matthew Wells and Xin Wen. This group spent three days translating these documents, providing a basis for the translation chapter. Afterwards, Lander asked Xin Wen if he would like to contribute to this project. Wen drafted the “World of Zoumalou Documents” chapter, and in doing so turned what had been conceived as a long article into a book. The book is therefore a collaboration in which each member contributed very differently. Lander is listed as first author because he led the project from beginning to end and crafted the structure and language of the book. Chapter One is primarily the work of Wen, with contributions from Lander. The second and third chapters are the work of Ling, translated and expanded by Lander. We thank Daisy Yuk Ping Wan 温玉冰 for her skillful proofreading, Maxim Korolkov for helpful corrections, and Lynn Carlson and Robert Bemrose for the maps. All three of us would like to thank our employers (Brown, Beijing Normal and Princeton Universities) for their support. Brian Lander would also like to thank the Centre de recherche sur les civilizations de L’Asie orientale (CRCAO) in Paris for hosting him while he finished the manuscript. The illustrations used in this book and permissions to use them were generously provided by the Changsha Bamboo Slips Museum. We are also grateful for the enthusiastic help of Li Equan 李鄂權, Song Shaohua 宋少華, and Xiong Qu 熊曲.

Illustrations Diagrams 1 2 3

Administrative distinctions between fields for determining tax rates 81 Administrative categories of fields in the tianjia certificates 84 The registers of inspection of irrigated fields 179

Figures 1 Tablet recording the embezzlement trial of Xu Di 4 2 Well number 22 during excavation 61 3 Archaeologists recovering Zoumalou materials from the dump site 63 4 Position of the four areas of the well 64 5 Archaeologists excavating clumps of slips from the well 66 6 Slips in basins 67 7 Archaeologist separating the slips 68 8 Example of a cross-section diagram 69 9 Tianjia certificate 4.1 86 10 Tianjia certificate 4.463 88 11 Document 4.4523 111 12 Document 5.1616 118 13 Document 4.4850 127 14 Report sent to superiors by Farming Promotion Attendant Ou Guang 132 15 Labels 156

Maps 1 2

Map of the Three Kingdoms 2 Map of the Changsha region 12

Tables 1 2 3

Taxation in the Zoumalou documents  Tax rates on different categories of fields in the tianjia certificates  Pan Diao’s land tax 

Conventions Used in Transcriptions Parentheses ( ) are used to indicate missing information that we have added. Square brackets [ ] indicate uncertain content. A white square □ indicates a single missing graph (a.k.a. a Chinese “character”). Note that this is different from kou 口 (mouth), the word used to indicate the number of individuals. A black square ■ indicates that several graphs are missing, often because the slip is broken. An ellipsis … indicates missing content. A graph written inside angle brackets ⟨ ⟩ indicate a graph that is not visible on the slip but which we can infer was written there. This is often possible because some traces of writing remain and because many of the slips contain identical vocabulary. Question marks ? indicate unknown information, so “2?5” means two hundred and (unknown number of tens) five, and “Wang ?” means that the family name is Wang but we do not know the given name. Text in bold indicates writing that is written larger or darker than the text on the rest of the document. This usually indicates that it was written by a different hand than the rest. A dot • represents a mark written on the original document, sometimes to signify a summary of previous information. Hyphen bullets ⁃ are used to indicate marks written on documents by officials who were checking them. The ※ symbol indicates lines written across documents, often stretching across tablets that were subsequently split into two or three documents with the same text.

Introduction Until recently most of what we knew about the administration of early China’s empires came from histories written by officials of their central governments in the Yellow River valley, but administrative texts excavated from dozens of sites far from the capitals now allow scholars to study how these empires worked at the local level. The earliest discoveries of these texts were excavated in the early twentieth century from Early Imperial military colonies in the arid northwest. Since the 1970s thousands of documents have been excavated from tombs and wells in South China, providing detailed information on local society in a region that the standard histories rarely touched on. In particular, we now have an abundant and varied array of documents from Hunan and Hubei in the central Yangzi Region, since this region’s waterlogged soils preserved the bamboo and wood they were written on. These texts reveal whole fields of historical reality that were not depicted in the transmitted histories, and make it possible to study the society, administration, and economy of a region whose ancient history is still largely unknown. We wrote this book to introduce English readers to the largest of these finds, namely the administrative documents from the Three Kingdoms state of (Sun 孫) Wu 吳 (ca. 190–280) that were excavated from a well at Zoumalou 走馬樓 in downtown Changsha, Hunan, in 1996. With 76,552 pieces with legible writing and 20,000 more with traces of writing, it is the largest single discovery of ancient documents in China, and it makes possible a detailed understanding of the previously poorly documented kingdom of Wu. However, both their sheer numbers and the complexity of their contents make them very difficult to study, and very little has been published on them in English. This book seeks to help scholars understand these materials by describing their historical context, explaining how they were excavated and published, and providing explanations and annotated translations of the various types of documents. The Three Kingdoms period (ca. 190–280) often seems more like a myth than reality. The stories of Cao Cao, Liu Bei and Sun Quan, whose armies fought over the disintegrating Han empire with the help of men like Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang, have been romanticized for centuries in literature and more recently in films and video games.1 Guan Yu has even become one of China’s most popular gods, his statue visible in Chinese restaurants around the world. Despite the 1 The Chinese names and dates of these men are: Cao Cao 曹操 (155–220), Liu Bei 劉備 (161–223), Sun Quan 孫權 (182–252), Guan Yu 關羽 (d. 220), and Zhuge Liang 諸葛亮 (181–234).

© Brian Lander, Ling Wenchao, and Xin Wen, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004549654_002

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Map 1

Introduction

The “Three Kingdoms” in the 230s. Numbers indicate Sun Wu administrative centres discussed in the text. Wu had its capital at Jianye from 229 to 280. It was at Wuchang before 229 and then again briefly from September 265 to December 266 Base map by Lynn Carlson

fame of these leaders, we know very little about how the states of the Three Kingdoms actually worked. The standard history of the period, the Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo zhi 三國志), is mostly composed of biographies of men who held political and military power. It is also disproportionately focused on the state of (Cao 曹) Wei 魏, which took over the heartland of the Han empire. There is less information on the southern states of (Shu 蜀)

Introduction

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Han 漢—more often called Shu than Han to avoid confusion—and Wu, generally known as Sun Wu 孫吳 (sometimes Eastern Wu 東吳).2 Sun Wu was the first of the dynasties that ruled the middle and lower Yangzi Basin independently of the north for most of the 350 years following the fall of the Han, paving the way for the subsequent Southern Dynasties that played such an important role in China’s cultural history.3 The Zoumalou documents are the bureaucratic “paperwork” of Linxiang 臨湘 Marquisate (houguo 侯國) in Changsha, mostly from the years 232–237. Although it was nominally a fief rather than a standard administrative unit, the marquisate was effectively the same as a county (xian 縣), the main administrative units of the empire, and we will sometimes refer to it as a county. There are also a few documents from nearby Ancheng 安成 County. The Zoumalou documents are records of the county government that were thrown in a well, presumably simply to dispose of them when they were no longer needed. These documents date from the very beginning of Sun Wu’s control of the region. Wu defeated Liu Bei, ruler of Shu Han in the first years of the 220s and took control of the whole Central Yangzi region. In 223 Sun Quan enfeoffed his general Bu Zhi 步騭 (d. 247) with Linxiang Marquisate, which gave him the tax income from that county but did not require him to administer it. Bu was the Commander of the Xiling army at this time (dudu Xiling 都督西陵) in the Zoumalou documents is referred to as Marquis Bu (Bu Hou 步侯). Political power in ancient China was based on controlling the taxes and labour service provided by farmers, so it is not surprising that many of the Zoumalou documents were created to keep track of people and the resources they produced. They include records of the members of each household and

2 Confusingly, each of these three states took its name from states that had existed before, so the addition of “Cao,” “Shu,” and “Sun” serves to distinguish them from their predecessors. For overviews of the history of these kingdoms, see the first three chapters of Dien and Knapp, The Cambridge History of China. Volume 2, The Six Dynasties, 220–589. Incidentally, the fact that those chapters mostly concern events before 220 CE, when the book supposedly begins, reveals the difficulty of periodization in this period. Although the Han empire began to disintegrate in 189–190 CE, the nominal rule of the Han dynasty (i.e., the ruling family) was accepted by the various kingdoms until 220 CE. Influenced by the idea of the “Mandate of Heaven”—which posits that only one man could legitimately hold the throne at one time—traditional Chinese historiography puts enormous emphasis on the 220 date. However, it is arguably more important to historians than it was to people at the time, who recognized it as a purely symbolic event that occurred three decades into the warfare that divided the empire, before many of them were born. 3 Dien and Knapp, The Cambridge History of China. Volume 2, The Six Dynasties, 220–589; Andrew Chittick, The Jiankang Empire in Chinese and World History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020).

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Figure 1

Introduction

A tablet recording the embezzlement trial of Xu Di, transcribed and translated on page 200. The entire document is on the left and a close up is shown on the right. The text on the lower left indicates the date it was reported, while the squiggle at the top left was written by a higher official to indicate that they have read and confirmed the document. 25 × 7.9 cm.

Introduction

5

their landholdings. These records were essential for taxation and to ensure that men did labour and military service. There are also thousands of tax registers, storehouse ledgers, records of the collection and distribution of grain and coins, documents related to military farming colonies, records of trials, and so on. All of them concern some aspects of administration and law, allowing for a detailed reconstruction of the Wu state at the local level. These documents were written by and for officials 1800 years ago and some of their technical terminology perplexes even the best modern scholars. Moreover, they are often fragmentary or faded. While complete records were sometimes written on larger wooden tablets, most of them were written on scrolls of bamboo slips attached by strings that have long since rotted away, making it difficult to establish their original order. Their study is a specialized field restricted to a few dozen Chinese and Japanese scholars. But now that the materials have been almost completely published, we believe the time is ripe to introduce Western scholars to the basics of these documents and how to use them for research. The most obvious importance of these texts lies in what they reveal about local government, and how the state interacted with people and resources. The documents reveal that Wu inherited most administrative practices from the Han, which is not surprising considering that the men most capable of running a state were those who had served under the Han. Moreover, when Sun Quan took the region from Liu Bei, he kept many of the same officials in place, so there was no break in administration.4 It is likely that Sun Wu devoted more attention to this region than the Han government had done. Because Wu’s territory was concentrated in the Yangzi valley, which had been a peripheral region of the Han empire, it had a much greater incentive to attempt to mobilize as much of the region’s population and resources as possible. Of course founding a separate state able to compete with two formidable rivals also required administrative changes. Direct access to the administrative documents of local government allows us to explore a variety of previously unknown topics. For example, the population records are invaluable for understanding the makeup of families, revealing many details about the legal and social position of women and other commoners who are virtually never mentioned in the standard histories. They also provide unparalleled records of people’s names for onomastic inquiries.5 4 Rafe de Crespigny, Generals of the South: The Foundation and Early History of the Three Kingdoms State of Wu (Canberra: Australian National University, 1990), 403. 5 Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual (Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2013), 124, 174.

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Introduction

Taxation records mention the types of crops people grew and non-agricultural objects that were submitted as tax payments, such as deer skins. In addition to allowing us to write the history of a previously unknown region, their study will provide a whole new perspective on the North China-centred historiography written by previous scholars and reveal the changing relation between political centres and peripheries over time.6 The Zoumalou cache is just one batch of administrative documents found in the region. Other administrative or legal documents found in ancient Hunan and Hubei include the Chu materials from Xiyangpo 夕陽坡,7 Sanyanjing 三眼井 and Baoshan 包山;8 Qin documents from Shuihudi 睡虎地,9 Longgang 龍崗,10 and Liye 里耶;11 Western Han slips from Zhang­ jiashan 張家山,12 Zoumalou, Fenghuangshan 鳳凰山,13 Huxishan 虎溪山,14

6 7 8

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10 11

12 13 14

On excavated texts that reveal the northern bias of the early histories, see Brian Lander, “State Management of River Dikes in Early China: New Sources on the Environmental History of the Central Yangzi Region,” T’oung Pao 100, no. 4–5 (2014), 325–362. Hunan sheng Changde shi wenwuju et al.,Yuanshui xiayou Chumu 沅水下游楚墓, (Beijing: Wenwu, 2010). The Sanyanjing texts are not yet published. Where possible we will cite English works on these various documents because they include full references to the original publications and to secondary scholarship. On Baoshan, see Susan Weld, “Chu Law in Action: Legal Documents from Tomb 2 at Baoshan,” in Defining Chu: Image and Reality in Ancient China, ed. Constance A. Cook and John S. Major (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999), 77–98. A.F.P. Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law: An Annotated Translation of the Ch’in Legal and Administrative Rules of the 3rd Century B.C. Discovered in Yün-Meng Prefecture, Hu-Pei Province, in 1975 (Leiden: Brill, 1985); Chen Wei 陳偉, ed., Qin jiandu heji 秦簡牘合集 (Wuhan: Wuhan Daxue, 2014). Zhongguo wenwu yanjiusuo and Hubei Sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo, Longgang Qin jian 龍崗秦簡 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2001). Hunan sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo, Liye Qin jian 里耶秦簡, 2 vols. (Beijing: Wenwu, 2012, 2017)；Chen Wei 陳偉, ed., Liye Qin jiandu jiaoshi 里耶秦簡牘校釋, 2 vols. (Wuhan: Wuhan daxue, 2012, 2018); Robin D.S. Yates, “The Qin Slips and Boards from Well No. 1, Liye, Hunan: A Brief Introduction to the Qin Qianling County Archives,” Early China 35 (2012), 291–329. Anthony J. Barbieri-Low and Robin D.S. Yates, Law, State, and Society in Early Imperial China: A Study with Critical Edition and Translation of the Legal Texts from Zhangjiashan Tomb No. 247, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 2015). Yi-tien Hsing, “Qin-Han Census and Tax and Corvée Administration: Notes on Newly Discovered Texts,” in Birth of an Empire: The State of Qin Revisited, ed. Yuri Pines et al. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013), 155–186. Hunan Sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo, Yuanling Huxishan yi hao Han mu 沅陵虎溪山一 號漢墓 (Beijing: Wenwu, 2020).

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Songbai 松柏,15 Shuihudi,16 Hujiacaochang 胡家草场;17 Eastern Han materials from Gurendi 古人堤,18 Dongpailou 東牌樓,19 Shangdejie 尚德街,20 Jiuruzhai 九如齋 and Wuyi Guangchang 五一廣場,21 and Sun Wu and Western Jin slips found at Zoumalou and Suxianqiao 蘇仙橋.22 In addition, documents from several of these periods were excavated at Tuzishan 兔子山.23 Administrative or legal texts were found at all these sites. Together they provide an unprecedented mass of materials to study local government and society in early south China, though it will take collators many years to publish them all. The Zoumalou texts were among the first routine administrative documents discovered in the region, and most of them have now been published. Archaeologists began by publishing the 2141 large wooden tablets under the name “Certificates of the farming families of officials and commoners of the Jiahe era” ( Jiahe limin tianjiabie 嘉禾吏民田家莂) hereafter referred to as “tianjia certificates.”24 The remaining documents, over 70,000 bamboo slips, were 15 16 17

18 19 20 21

22 23 24

Jingzhou Bowuguan, “Hubei Jingzhou Jinan Songbai Han mu fajue jianbao” 湖北荊州紀 南松柏漢墓發掘簡報, Wenwu 4 (2008), 24–32. Hubei sheng Wenwukaoguyanjiusuo, Yunmeng xian Bowuguan, “Hubei Yunmeng Shuihudi M77 fajue jianbao” 湖北雲夢睡虎地 M77 發掘簡報, Jianghan kaogu (2008.4), 31–37. Jingzhou Bowuguan, “Hubei Jingzhou shi Hujiacaochang mudi M12 fajue jianbao” 湖北荊州市胡家草場墓地 M12 發掘簡報, Kaogu 2 (2020), 3–20. Jingzhou bowuguan, Wuhan daxue jianbo yanjiu zhongxin, Jingzhou Hujia caochang Xi Han jiandu xuancui, 荆州胡家草場西漢簡牘選粹 (Beijing: Wenwu, 2021). Hunan sheng Wenchaokaoguyanjiusuo, Zhongguo Wenwuyanjiusuo, “Hunan Zhangjiajie Gurendiyizhi yu chutu jiandu gaishu” 湖南張家界古人堤遺址與出土簡牘概述, Zhongguo lishi wenwu (2003.2), 68–71. Yang Lu, “Managing Locality in Early Medieval China: Evidence from Changsha,” in Early Medieval China: A Sourcebook, ed. Wendy Swartz et al. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013), 95–107. Changsha shi wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo, Changsha Shangdejie Dong Han jiandu 長沙尚德 街東漢簡牘 (Changsha: Yuelu shushe, 2016). The texts from Jiuruzhai remain unpublished, while six volumes of the Wuyi Guangchang volumes have been published: Changsha shi wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo, Qinghua daxue chutu wenxian yanjiu yu baohu zhongxin, Zhongguo wenhua yichan yanjiusuo, Hunan daxue Yuelu shuyuan. Changsha wuyi guangchang dong Han jiandu 長沙五一廣場東漢 簡牘 (Shanghai: Zhongxi, 2018–2023). Hunan sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo, Chenzhou shi wenwuchu, “Hunan Chenzhou Suxianqiao yizhi fajue jianbao” 湖南郴州蘇仙橋遺址發掘簡報, Hunan kaogu jikan, vol. 8 (Changsha: Yuelu, 2009), 93–117. Hunan Sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo and Yiyang shi wenwu chu, “Hunan Yiyang Tuzishan yizhi jiuhao jing fajue jianbao” 湖南益陽兔子山遺址九號井發掘簡報, Wenwu (2016.5), 32–48. Changsha shi wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo et al., eds., Changsha Zoumalou Sanguo Wu jian: Jiahe limin tianjia bie 長沙走馬樓三國吳簡：嘉禾吏民田家莂, 2 vols. (Beijing: Wenwu, 1999).

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Introduction

published in volumes titled Changsha Zoumalou Sanguo Wu jian: zhujian 長 沙走馬樓三國吳簡·竹簡, which we will call the zhujian volumes.25 In total there are nine of these volumes, each of which is comprised of three separate books, two containing pictures of the documents and the other containing transcriptions without annotation or explanation. There is also a forthcoming volume of bamboo and wooden tablets.26 In this book we will cite documents from the zhujian volumes by their volume and document number, so “1.9831” means volume 1, document number 9831. The image and transcription can both be found using this number, and we will not provide page numbers. The first chapter of this book is an overview of the world revealed to us by these documents. It describes the dating of the documents, the region, the various kinds of people mentioned in them, the classification of households, status categories, social hierarchies, the administrative structure, taxation, the administration of households and landholdings, commercial taxes. It also discusses an embezzlement case fortuitously preserved among these documents. We also examine a few instances in which they include information that has parallels in received texts. The second chapter briefly reviews how these documents were excavated and collated. This is essential knowledge for reconstructing the documents. Scholars can make use of the Zoumalou materials without being able to reconstruct documents themselves, but it is important to understand how other scholars have reconstructed the documents because these reconstructions are often speculative. The chapter will thus describe how these documents were excavated and the system of numbering the documents that is the basis for all 25 All of the Zhujian volumes are entitled Changsha Zoumalou Sanguo Wu jian: Zhujian 長沙走馬樓三國吳簡·竹簡 and all are published by Wenwu Chubanshe in Beijing. They were all authored by the Zoumalou jiandu zhenglizu 走馬樓簡牘整理組 (Zoumalou slips and tablets ordering group), which has been composed of people from 1) the Changsha Municipal Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute (Changsha shi wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo 長沙市文物考古研究所), which later became the Changsha slips and tablets museum (Changsha jiandu bowuguan 長沙簡牘博物館); 2) the Chinese Cultural Relics Institute (Zhongguo wenwu yanjiusuo 中國文物研究所), which was renamed the Chinese Cultural Heritage Research Institute (Zhongguo wenhua yichan yanjiuyuan 中 國文化遺產研究院); 3) Peking University History Department (Beijing Daxue lishixuexi 北京大學歷史學系) and 4) The Imperial Palace Research Bureau (Gugong yanjiuyuan 故宫研究院). Vol. 1 was published in 2003, vol. 2 in 2007, vol. 3 in 2008, vol. 4 in 2011, vol. 7 in 2013, vol. 8 in 2015, vol. 6 in 2017, vol. 5 in 2018 and vol. 9 in 2019. 26 According to an article that came out too late for us to consider its contents in this book, these volumes will contain 429 tablets, of which 132 are official documents and 171 are account books: Wang Su 王素 and Song Shaohua 宋少華, “Changsha Zoumalou San Guo Wu jian ‘zhu mu du’ neirong zongshu” 長沙走馬樓三國吳簡《竹木牘》內容綜述. Wenwu (2022.12), 58–65.

Introduction

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reconstructions. Once one understands how these materials were excavated and published, it becomes clear that there is a remarkable amount of information contained in all the numbers, and that these materials will become more useful over time as scholars arrive at better reconstructions of the documents. The third chapter, which constitutes the second half of the book, reviews all the main categories of documents found in the Zoumalou cache and provides annotated translations of example documents.

Chapter 1

The World of the Zoumalou Documents Twenty-seven years of research on the Zoumalou documents have revealed the world of an early third century community in south China that had previously been lost in the mists of time. These sources are both extremely detailed and uniquely partial. Because of the large number of documents found at Zoumalou and other sites in the region, we possess an unprecedented opportunity to write a detailed local history of one county. Yet these documents focus primarily on governmental affairs. The tax records, household registers, governmental documents and legal records reveal important aspects of the social lives of the residents of Linxiang County, but this information is filtered through the eyes and hands of state officials, and the private lives of the people of Zoumalou are only occasionally touched upon. Therefore, the world of the Zoumalou documents is one that centred on the dynamic relations between the Wu state and its residents in Linxiang, and, more specifically, on how the state attempted to exert control over and extract resources and labour from its population. This chapter will outline what we know about the community and government that produced these documents. This brief portrait of the world of the Zoumalou documents does not pretend to be comprehensive, because much is still unclear about these documents. Instead, it is intended to lay a foundation for understanding the texts translated in the third chapter, and for more detailed future research. 1

Ecology and Economy of Changsha

The Zoumalou documents mostly depict the world around the town of Changsha, which has been an administrative centre for two millennia and is now the provincial capital of Hunan. They contain abundant information on the region’s people and the taxable resources that they produced. But the state was only interested in a few key species of plants and animals, and left few records of those it could not tax, so the Zoumalou documents leave most of the region’s ecology and economy unrecorded. This section will use other evidence to review the region’s geography and ecology in order to emphasize the contrast between the way people lived in their ecosystems and the very limited range of resources the state was able to extract from that economy.

© Brian Lander, Ling Wenchao, and Xin Wen, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004549654_003

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Changsha is located on the lower course of the Xiang 湘 River, one of the largest tributaries of the Yangzi River. The region is mostly hilly, but there are also some larger mountains and areas of flat alluvial land that makes particularly good farmland (Map 2). The name Linxiang means “overseeing the Xiang River,” both in the sense of overlooking it and having political authority over it. The Xiang River flows due north and forms a natural transportation route between the Yangzi Valley and the Pearl River system to the south. This made it the main corridor to the southern parts the empire and its distant outposts, the most important being the Red and Pearl River deltas, around the modern cities of Hanoi and Guangzhou. To the north of Changsha lies the extensive central Yangzi Basin, which was composed of seasonal wetlands and lakes. From there, the Han River is a natural transportation route to North China’s Yellow River valley, one reason it was frequently fought over in this period. Changsha is situated at 28 degrees latitude, similar to New Delhi and Tampa, Florida. It has a relatively wet subtropical climate, receiving about 140 cm of precipitation per year. The region has the cool winters and hot rainy summers typical of East Asia’s monsoon region. The monsoons are somewhat unpredictable, so people built dams to collect water in reservoirs that they used to irrigate their fields. Before human activity substantially modified it, the Changsha region was blanketed by dense and biodiverse subtropical forests. The large size of the trees in those forests can be seen in the huge Cunninghamia timbers used to build the coffin excavated at Mawangdui (186 BCE) in Changsha.1 By the time of the Three Kingdoms the mature forests of Changsha’s lowlands had probably mostly been cleared, though there were surely extensive old-growth forests remaining in the mountains. We can expect that the state concentrated its administration in the arable river valleys, and devoted little attention to the remote mountains. As will be seen below, the Wu state imposed a heavy burden of taxation and labour service on its subjects, providing people with a good reason to escape state control by fleeing to the mountains. However, by taking control of the best farmland in the lowland valleys and guaranteeing private ownership of that land to those willing to pay taxes, the state forced people to choose between paying high taxes and living precariously on less productive mountain land. Surrounding the villages and their fields and orchards were woodlands where people gathered firewood and other resources. Because they were 1 The tomb also included items made of the wood of catalpa, wingnut, hibiscus and Chinese toon. Hunan nongxueyuan and Zhongguo kexueyuan zhiwu yanjiusuo, Changsha Mawangdui yi hao Han mu chutu dongzhiwu biaoben de yanjiu 長沙馬王堆一號墓出土動植物標本的 研究 (Beijing: Wenwu, 1978), 89–103.

12

Map 2

Chapter 1

Physical geography of the Changsha region. The rectangle indicates the approximate location of the town walls at the time of Sun Wu Map by Robert K. Bemrose

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regularly cut for wood, they were probably composed of scrubby vegetation, bamboo, and smaller trees. The population was sparse enough that there was surely no scarcity of trees and bamboo for people to use for heating, cooking, and building. Oaks and other members of the beech family are particularly common in the forests of the Yangzi River valley, and their nuts provided an important source of food for people if crops failed, and for pigs and deer if they did not. People surely foraged in these forests for edible plants and mushrooms, as well as a variety of medicinal materials.2 The enormous variety of materials mentioned in later Chinese medical texts should be understood as the long-term accumulation of vernacular medicinal knowledge. The increasing human population had probably eliminated large native animals such as elephants and rhinoceros from core regions, but there was still plenty of wildlife in the hills and mountains.3 Hunan continued to send rhinoceros horns to the capital as tribute until the Tang, suggesting that its fauna remained relatively intact until that time, at least in remote mountains.4 There were tigers and leopards in Hunan into the twentieth century, which would have added an element of danger to any trip into the forest, and there is a record in the Zoumalou documents of someone who was killed by a wild animal. The Yangzi valley is home to a remarkable diversity of deer species, and they were particularly important to communities across East Asia because they thrive in the patchy landscape of disturbance ecosystems created by relatively sparse populations of farmers. Deer were so abundant that the Wu state taxed people in their skins, as discussed in Chapter 3. People would also have hunted a variety of furry animals for their skin and meat that are not mentioned in the texts. Leather, sinews, bone, and antlers were used to produce a variety of daily use items. The monsoon climate of the region brings plenty of rain in the summers which are followed by dry winters. This meant that lowland areas naturally flood every summer, creating seasonal wetlands that would have stretched all 2 Scholars identified several spices, medicines, and aromatics from Mawangdui tomb #1, namely manna grass Hierochloe odorata, lesser galangal Alpinia officinarum, ginger Zinziber officinale, wild ginger Asarum fargesii, camphor Cinnamomum chekiangensis, Sichuan (rattan) pepper Zanthoxylum armatum, Magnolia denudata, Ligusticum jeholense, and Eupatorium fortunei. Hunan and Zhongguo, 21–42. Some of these were probably cultivated, others foraged. 3 On wild animals that have been excavated in the region, see Yuan Jing 袁靖, Zhongguo dongwu kaoguxue 中國動物考古學 (Beijing: Wenwu, 2015), 164–165. 4 Wen Huanran 文煥然, ed., Zhongguo lishi shiqi zhiwu yu dongwu bianqian yanjiu 中國歷史 時期植物與動物變遷研究 (Chongqing: Chongqing, 1995).

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along the rivers and into low-lying parts of the river valleys. To the north were the vast lakes and wetlands of the Dongting region.5 These provided plenty of fish and other aquatic creatures such as turtles. They also attracted large flocks of migratory waterfowl, providing plentiful ducks and geese for those able to hunt them. People would also have used wet areas to raise domesticated ducks and geese. In the well-preserved tomb of a Han aristocrat at Mawangdui, Changsha, zoologists identified the remains of dabbling ducks (such as mallard and domestic ducks), geese, mandarin ducks, bamboo partridges, pheasants, cranes, doves, and sparrows.6 While only elites could feast on all of these animals at one sitting, commoners surely hunted them all. Fish were surely an important source of protein, as they remain in the region today. It is possible that carp were raised in ponds from early times, in which case fish should be understood as part of the agricultural system, not only as the capture of wild animals.7 Fish identified at Mawangdui—where they were provided as food for the dead—include common carp, goldfish, bream, yellowcheek and Chinese perch.8 In the Zoumalou documents, the term “salary coins for perch” fengguiqian 奉鮭錢, refers to coins given to the officials by the government in lieu of directly providing fish and other food items.9 This seems to suggest that at some earlier time they had been paid in fish. Fish are mentioned in other texts excavated at Changsha, but it is impossible to be sure what kinds of fish they refer to.10 5 6 7

8

9

10

Brian Lander, “From Wetland to Farmland: How Humans Transformed the Central Yangzi Basin,” Asia Major 35, no. 1 (2022): 1–21. Hunan and Zhongguo, Changsha Mawangdui yi hao Han mu chutu dongzhiwu, 43–73. We do not know if these ducks and geese were domesticated. Based on the ages and species composition of carp excavated at Jiahu, Henan, it has been argued that people were already raising fish in ponds in the Neolithic by modifying natural waterways to isolate fish in ponds. Tsuneo Nakajima et al., “Common Carp Aquaculture in Neolithic China Dates Back 8,000 Years,” Nature Ecology & Evolution 3, no. 10 (2019): 1415–1418. Hunan and Zhongguo, Changsha Mawangdui yi hao Han mu chutu dongzhiwu, 74–82. The scientific names of these species used in the original publication are Cyprinium carpio, Carassius auratus, Acanthrobrama simoni, Elopichthys bambusa, and Siniperca sp. The tomb also included Xenocypris argentea, a member of the carp/minnow family. Zhuang Xiaoxia 莊小霞, “Zoumalou Wu jian suojian ‘fengguiqian’ shijie” 走馬樓吴簡 所見 ‘奉鮭錢’ 試解, Jianbo yanjiu 2008 (2010). It is impossible to identify what kind of fish a gui was, but the Grand Ricci dictionary (Pleco digital ed.) indicates that one possibility is the Chinese perch (Siniperca), which are valued for eating. Zhang Rui 張蕊, “Mawangdui san hao Han mu qiance suo zai shiwu kaoshu” 馬王堆三 號漢墓遣策所載食物考術, Shoudu shifan daxue xuebao (shehui kexue ban), 2011, 21–25. Thanks to Daisy Yuk Ping Wan for informing me of this article and sharing her unpublished work on fish in the Wuyi Guangchang texts.

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The most important ecosystems from the state’s perspective were farming villages and their grain fields. Rice was the main source of calories for the state and the labourers and soldiers that it employed, but its centrality in the administrative system should not lead us to assume that it was the main grain crop consumed by everyone. Other crops mentioned in Zoumalou documents include millets, beans, and taro. Rice was categorized into different types, but we have no way of being sure what many of the specific terms for rice mean. One way rice was divided was into good quality “white rice” (baimi 白米) and average quality rice ( jianmi 葌米).11 Since a reliable source of water was essential for supporting crops if rains failed, another major area of investment for the government was irrigation. The hilly landscape was ideal for building small dams across the courses of streams to collect water that could later be released to water crops. The documents on the examination and the maintenance of dams attests to the rigorousness of the Linxiang government’s attention to irrigation. Some damaged reservoirs required more than 30,000 days of labour to repair, showing the magnitude of the work involved in the maintenance of the irrigation system.12 One aspect of the agricultural economy that is barely seen in the texts is the planting of fruit and nut trees, which would have been scattered around the landscape. The tombs at Mawangdui included seeds of jujubes, pears, yangmei, and sour plums.13 Farmers probably also planted peaches, loquats, cherries, pomelos, and oranges. Chestnuts may have been grown as well. People employed a wide variety of other plants. Unless they are picked with their seeds, most vegetables leave few seeds for archaeologists to recover and are too common to be mentioned in texts of the period, so we know little about which ones people grew. The tombs at Mawangdui included the seeds of musk melon. The landscape was full of planted trees, shrubs, and bamboo. The wide variety of bamboos in the region have traditionally provided people with a wide variety of everyday goods.14 People surely propagated certain varieties for their edible shoots and for their stems, which could be used whole or split and woven into a wide variety of objects from fences to chairs. Grasses, tree shoots, and bamboos were woven into baskets, fences, and a wide variety of other objects. Grasses were also used to thatch buildings. People cultivated 11 12 13 14

For examples, see 8.3031, 8.3028, 8.3030. On these types of projects more generally, see Brian Lander, “Small-Scale Water Control Works in Early Imperial China,” Water History 14.2 (2022), 233–246. Hunan and Zhongguo, Changsha Mawangdui yi hao Han mu chutu dongzhiwu. For an idea of the variety of uses, see Emmanuel Poisson and Trong Hieu Dinh, Le bambou au Viêt Nam: Une approche anthropologique et historique (Paris: Hémisphères Editions, 2020).

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Chapter 1

hemp and ramie and wove them into rope, cloth and other goods. This cloth was treated as a kind of currency and was one of the main goods stored in government treasuries. People raised a variety of animals. Dogs, pigs, chickens, ducks, and geese roamed freely in villages. Cattle and sheep grazed in surrounding areas. Cattle pulled carts and ploughs, but since most farmers could not afford to keep them, the local government lent them to help raised agricultural yields, as previous governments had done.15 Cattle were also sacrificed in official ceremonies. Cattle were valuable commodities, as is clear from the way officials kept lists of them, as translated in Chapter 3. It is not yet clear when domesticated water buffalo arrived in the Yangzi valley, but there are references from this era that may refer to them.16 There are very few records of horses in the Zoumalou documents, and since they are the type of animal that the government would be interested in, we can assume that there were few horses around. Villages were ecosystems in themselves. Apart from the animals that humans intended to keep there was a wide variety of insect life, such as fleas that lived on people and livestock. And the bodies of all these creatures are full of microscopic life that can move between species, which surely resulted in the spread of various disease-causing viruses and bacteria. Sparrows and doves lived around villages because they were good food sources while mice and rats tried to get into people’s grain supplies. In turn, wild predators such as cats, mongooses and hawks frequented villages to catch them. Similarly, cultivated fields were full of weedy plants and insect pests that had evolved to specialize in agricultural ecosystems, to the chagrin of farmers. All of this lay far outside of the political economy, but agrarian ecosystems were its foundation.

15

16

Brian Lander, The King’s Harvest: A Political Ecology of Early China from First Farmers to First Empire (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2021), 61–72, 180–182; Éric Trombert, Le glaive et la charrue: Soldats et paysans chinois à la conquête de l’ouest: L’histoire d’un échec (Paris: Collège de France, Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises, 2020), 253–261. The single appearance of the term “Wu cow” (Wu niu 吴牛) in the second chapter of the fifth century Shishuo xinyu is often taken as evidence of water buffalo. The term shuizi 水牸 “water cow” appears in Sun Wu-era documents excavated in southern Hunan and may well refer to water buffalo: Hunan sheng wenwu kaoguyanjiusuo and Chenzhou shi wenwu chu, “Hunan Chenzhou Suxianqiao J4 sanguo Wu jian” 湖南郴州蘇仙橋 J4 三 國吴簡, Chutu wenxian yanjiu 7 (2005), 152. Only archaeologically excavated domesticated water buffalo remains can definitively solve this question.

The World of the Zoumalou Documents

2

17

Political History of Changsha

As far as we know, the Changsha region had never been under the control of any state until it was colonized by the state of Chu during the Warring States Period (ca. 475–221 BCE). Chu was one of the most powerful states in the world at this time, and after it established its capital in the city of Jingzhou 荊州, 250 kilometres north of Changsha, Chu settlers gradually moved southwards into the region and established Qianzhong Commandery.17 The core population of Chu spoke a Sinitic language, so this may mark the beginning of the process whereby the region’s people came to speak a Chinese language. After Qin conquered Chu’s capital at Jingzhou in 278 BCE, the Changsha region became contested ground. Qin fully conquered Chu in 223 BCE and briefly established Changsha Commandery.18 In its early decades the Han empire enfeoffed allies and relatives with distant territories, one of which was Changsha Kingdom. This feudal ruling structure was replaced with direct rule in 37 CE, when Changsha Kingdom was converted to a commandery. Changsha was a part of the broader area of Jingzhou, one of thirteen supervisory regions into which the Han empire was divided in 106 BCE.19 Han-era Jingzhou encompassed much of modern Hubei and Hunan provinces. The Zoumalou documents, and indeed other caches of documents from the early centuries CE, such as those from Dongpailou, Shangdejie, and Wuyi Guangchang, were all found during construction work in the urban heart of the modern city of Changsha, the modern administrative centre of both Changsha municipality and Hunan province. Its central location then and now shows that the administrative core of the Changsha area has not shifted much for two thousand years. It has also been called Changsha (“long sands”), among other names, for this entire period. Many of the most dramatic struggles of the 208–222 wars between Wei, Shu and Wu occurred in Jingzhou. In the declining years of the Later Han, Jingzhou was governed by the warlord and Han imperial relative Liu Biao 劉表 (142–208). Liu’s death in 208 triggered Cao Cao’s southward campaign to Jingzhou that resulted in his disastrous defeat at the Red Cliffs. Jingzhou then became the border between the territories of the Wei kingdom of Cao Cao in northern Jingzhou, Sun Quan’s Wu in eastern Jingzhou, and Liu Bei’s Shu in western 17

18 19

Maxim Korolkov, The Imperial Network in Ancient China: The Foundation of Sinitic Empire in Southern East Asia (New York: Routledge, 2022), 45–53; Zhongguo wenwuju, Zhongguo wenwu dituji: Hunan fence 中國文物地圖集：湖南分册 (Changsha: Hunan ditu chubanshe, 1997). On Qin’s southern expansion see Korolkov, The Imperial Network in Ancient China. Ban Gu 班固, Hanshu 漢書, (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1962), 6.197.

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Jingzhou. The famed general Guan Yu, then Shu’s governor of Jingzhou, used it as a base for military campaigns to the north. But he was ambushed by the supposedly allied Wu state, losing both Shu’s section of Jingzhou and his life. Liu Bei tried to retake Jingzhou but was defeated by Wu at the Battle of Yiling 夷陵 (222), which gave Wu control over the core region of Jingzhou in the Jianghan Plain and marked the end of the decades-long struggle for Jingzhou. Shu was confined to the greater Sichuan region and Wei kept much of the Han River valley. In the 230s, Jingzhou was administered by Lu Xun 陸遜 (183–245) and Pan Jun 潘濬 (d. 239). These wars were a disaster for many in the region, though fortunately for Changsha the main battles took place to the north within the modern province of Hubei. The battles of the Red Cliffs and Yiling (later was renamed Xiling 西陵) both occurred about 240 kilometres north of Linxiang. Bu Zhi, the Marquis of Linxiang, was stationed north of Linxiang in Xiling, a military stronghold at the heart of the Wu–Shu rivalry in the 220s (Map 1). Bu’s collection of Linxiang’s tax revenue and his continued engagement with military affairs in the north exemplify this close yet indirect relation between the world of the Zoumalou documents and the military actions that came to define this era. From the perspective of officials in the capitals of the early empires, including Sun Wu, Changsha was relatively remote, and was less important than the other main towns in the central Yangzi valley, namely Jingzhou and those situated to the east in the region of modern Wuhan. But although Changsha was not of particular strategic importance, it held a special symbolic place to the state of Wu because it had been the early power base of Sun Jian 孫 堅 (155–191), the founder of the Wu state and father of its ruler Sun Quan. It was from Changsha that Sun Jian raised his army in opposition to late Han magnate Dong Zhuo 董卓 (d. 192), in a campaign that earned him the title of “General Who Smashes the Enemy” (polu jiangjun 破虜將軍) and launched his illustrious military career that would make his sons the rulers of much of South China.20 This explains why, in the mid-220s, Sun Quan ordered a shrine constructed for Sun Jian in Linxiang.21 There was also a shrine to Sun Ce 孫策 (175–200), Sun Jian’s son and Sun Quan’s older brother, who led the state after Sun Jian died. Upon Sun Ce’s death in 200, he was given the posthumous title 20 Sanguo zhi, 46.1095–1096. See also Rafe de Crespigny, Fire over Luoyang: A History of the Later Han Dynasty 23–220 AD (Boston, Leiden: Brill, 2016), 463–465. 21 See the story of how the shrine was constructed by opening the tomb of Wu Rui (d. 202 BCE), an early Han “King of Changsha” and reusing the bricks. In his commentary to Sanguo zhi, Pei Songzhi writes that this story was recorded in a text called Shiyu 世語: Chen Shou 陳壽, Sanguo zhi 三國志 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1959), 28.771.

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of “King Huan of Changsha” (Changsha huanwang 長沙桓王).22 Both shrines were maintained by the Linxiang government.23 The dramatic military events of the Three Kingdoms period do not appear directly in the Zoumalou documents, but they loom large in the background. These are administrative records of a state in reconstruction after the tumultuous years of war. The threat of large-scale war was not imminent, but military mobilization never ceased. After the end of inter-state warfare, the Wu kingdom faced a different kind of frontier, those with the indigenous peoples in the mountains to the southwest. The major local military foe of the Wu state in the Zoumalou documents is neither Wei in the north nor Shu in the west, but these indigenous people in the mountains to the southwest, known in Chinese as the “Wuling Man” 武陵蠻. Man was the derogatory term used for non-Han people in the south, essentially “barbarians.”24 By the third century, however, this term was also used to refer to non-Han people from other areas, not just the south. Wuling was, like Changsha, a Commandery belonging to the Province of Jingzhou.25 Its seat was located in the lowlands west of Dongting Lake near modern Changde (Map 1), but it officially held jurisdiction over the mountainous Yuan 沅 River valley to the west. The violence in this area was very different from the political struggle in the northern frontier. This was the southwestern frontier of Han Chinese colonization, part of a long-term process in which powerful political organizations based in the lowlands sought to expand into the mountains and met the resistance of the indigenous peoples.26 The lowlands of Hunan had first been systematically colonized by Chu in the Warring States period, and during the 400-year Han empire, large numbers of northern people had moved into Hunan. Han settlers tended to prefer arable lowlands like those around Changsha, forcing indigenous peoples to assimilate or retreat to less productive land. While the indigenous peoples survived in the mountains, the populations of the lowlands became relatively culturally 22 Sanguo zhi, 46.1112. 23 See Wang Su 王素 and Wang Ligong 汪力工, “Zoumalou Sun Wu ‘Huanwan miao’ jian yu Changsha ‘Sun Jian miao’” 走馬樓孫吴 ‘桓王廟’ 簡與長沙 ‘孫堅廟’, in Wu jian yanjiu 1, 131–142. 24 Taniguchi Fusao 谷口房男, Kanan minzokushi kenkyū 華南民族史研究 (Tōkyō: Ryokuin Shobō, 1997) 33–55. 25 See Sima Biao’s treatise included in Fan Ye 范曄, Hou Hanshu (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1965), zhi 22.3484. 26 Korolkov, The Imperial Network in Ancient China; Richard von Glahn, “The Country of Streams and Grottoes: Geography, Settlement, and the Civilizing of China’s Southwestern Frontier, 1000–1250” (PhD thesis, Harvard University, 1987), chap. 7; Peter Perdue, Exhausting the Earth: State and Peasant in Hunan 1500–1850 (Cambridge: Harvard University Council on East Asian Studies, 1987).

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homogeneous, and can be considered to have been “Chinese” since the Han. The struggle between the Wu state based in the lowlands and the indigenous peoples in the mountains is one of the most interesting events touched on in the Zoumalou documents. 3

The Time

After much debate, a consensus has been largely reached that most of the Zoumalou documents were produced by the administrative offices of Linxiang Marquisate (houguo 侯國), though a few were produced in Ancheng County, which also belonged to Changsha Commandery.27 A Marquisate was a county level administrative unit nominally governed by a Marquis (hou; in this case general Bu Zhi), but in fact governed by a Chancellor (xiang 相), who was no different from a county Magistrate (xianling 縣令) except that he had a more exalted title because he was nominally the head of government of a Marquisate rather than a county. Bu was awarded the Marquisate of Linxiang in 223 in recognition of his military success, which is why Linxiang was officially changed from a normal county to a Marquisate.28 Linxiang Marquisate was under the jurisdiction of Changsha Commandery ( jun 郡) which was itself subordinate to Jingzhou (Jing Province). Because Linxiang was the capital county of the Changsha Commandery, the government offices of both the marquisate/county and commandery were in the same town. The dates on the Zoumalou documents range from 185 and 238, but most of them were written during a few years in the mid-230s.29 The reign periods mentioned in the documents are Jian’an 建安, the last reign title of the Han dynasty (officially 196–220) and the Huangwu 黄武 (222–229), Huanglong 27 Ling Wenchao, Wujian yu Wuzhi 吴簡與吴制 (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 2019). 28 San guo zhi, 52.1237. 29 The earliest reign titles in these documents are Han Jian’an 建安 years 25–27 (220–222), but these were written later in reference to those years. For a general overview of the dates of the materials and their connections with events mentioned in the standard histories, see; Luo Xin 羅新, “Zoumalou Wu jian zhong de Jian’an jinian jian wenti” 走馬樓 吴簡中的建安紀年簡問題, Wenwu (2002.10), 92–95. For the argument that these documents come from the fields and households bureaus (田曹 and 戶曹) of the Linxiang marquisate, see Sekio Shirō 関尾史郎, “Shiryōgun to shite no Chōsa Gokan: shiron” 史 料群としての長沙呉簡：試論, Mokkan kenkyū 木簡研究 27 (2005), 250–266. The archivists (zhu bu 主簿), recording clerks (zhujishi 主記史), and secretary officers (gongcao 功曹) working in county offices (xiang menxia 縣門下) mentioned in the documents were presumably the ones who dealt with records coming from various bureaus within the government.

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黃龍 (229–231), and Jiahe 嘉禾 (232–238) reign periods of the Wu kingdom under the rule of Sun Quan. Most of the corpus dates to the Jiahe reign, and the largest number of documents are dated between its first and fifth years (ca. 232 and 236). Therefore, the Zoumalou documents date squarely to the period of the “Three Kingdoms” (ca. 190–280).30 This period did not have a clear beginning and overlaps with the end of the Han dynasty. Its beginning is often dated to 190, when warlord Dong Zhuo seized the Han court and took the Xiandi emperor from Luoyang as his puppet. Eventually, Cao Cao managed to take control of the government and the puppet emperor, but his attempt to reunify the empire was foiled, as mentioned above, at the famous battle of the Red Cliffs in 208. When Cao Cao died in 220, his son Cao Pi 曹丕 (187–226) dispensed with the pretence of the Han dynasty, forced emperor Xiandi (181–234, r. 189–220) to abdicate and declared himself the emperor of the new Wei dynasty. Sun Quan continued to maintain nominal allegiance to Wei and in 222 Cao Pi gave him the title of “king of Wu” (Wu wang 吴王) and named his domain “kingdom of Wu” (Wu guo 吴國). The king of (Shu) Han declared himself “emperor” (huangdi 皇帝) in 221, thereby claiming equal status with Wei, and Wu did the same in 229.31 This transitional decade of the 220s thus marks the institutional affirmation of a tripartite political division that had been in place well before the Battle of the Red Cliffs. Shu Han leader Liu Bei and Wu leader Sun Quan formed a fragile alliance to counter the shared threat from Cao Cao, but it did not last long. After Liu Bei took over the Sichuan Basin, Shu and Wu fought over Jingzhou for a few years around 220 and Wei launched successive campaigns against Wu (222–225). Wu prevailed on both fronts and even conquered the part of Jingzhou previously occupied by the Shu kingdom. The always cautious Sun Quan waited until 229 to declare himself emperor, thus achieving equity among the three states in political rhetoric. The tripartite equilibrium among Wei, Wu, and Shu would continue until Wei finally conquered Shu by in 263. In Wei, the Sima family seized power from the Cao dynasty and in 266 declared itself a new dynasty, the Jin 晉, which conquered Wu in 280. Jin briefly controlled both the Yellow and Yangzi River valleys, but soon lost power in the north and moved its capital to Jiankang (Nanjing), where it found itself in a similar geographical position as Wu had occupied few decades earlier. 30

For a recent overview of this period, see Dien and Knapp, The Cambridge History of China. Volume 2, The Six Dynasties, 220–589. 31 Mark Edward Lewis, China between Empires: the Northern and Southern Dynasties (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009), 36.

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Apart from one document dated to 185 and another to 200, the earliest Zoumalou documents date to 220–222.32 Documents from these years are few and bear the reign name of 25th to 27th year of the Jian’an reign. This is noteworthy because the Jian’an reign actually ended in the 10th month of the 25th year (220 CE) when Cao Pi deposed the last Han emperor. Wu leaders had been fine with using Han reign titles but adopting those of their rival Wei was obviously distasteful, so Wu officials seem to have continued to use the Jian’an reign name because they simply had no other alternative. Therefore, Zoumalou slips anachronistically refer to the 25th to 27th year of the Jian’an reign (220–222).33 In 222 Sun Wu solved this problem by adopting its own reign title of Huangwu 黄武. This transition is visible in Zoumalou documents that bear both the date of the 27th year of the Jian’an reign and that of the first year of the Huangwu reign.34 Some scholars have argued that these references to Jian’an years 25–27 are retrospective in nature and that Sun Wu did actually use Cao Wei’s Huangchu 黃初 reign titles at the time, only later switching to the Jian’an reign titles when referring those same years that were now several years in the past.35 The Zoumalou documents come to an abrupt end after the sixth year of the Jiahe reign (237). There are plenty of documents dating to the sixth year Jiahe reign but none to the following year, the first year of the Chiwu reign (238). Such clean break indicates that these documents may have been thrown in the well in 237, or they were kept for a few years and then thrown in the well to clear office space once they were no longer required for administration. No additional documents were dumped after this cache, indicating that almost all Zoumalou documents, including those that bear no dates, can be safely dated before 238. Having elucidated the geographical and temporal context of the Zoumalou documents, the rest of this chapter follows different social units—from individuals and households to social groups by profession and status and finally 32

33 34

35

The first is document 1.9831, which contains virtually no legible writing apart from the date. The second is a bamboo tablet that will be published in the forthcoming bamboo and wooden tablets volume (竹木牘) of the Zoumalou series. See Wang Su 王素, “Changsha Zoumalou Sanguo Wu jian shidai tezheng xinlun” 長沙走馬樓三國吴簡時 代特征新論, Wenwu (2015.12), 61. Wang Su 王素, Song Shaohua 宋少華, and Luo Xin 羅新, “Changsha Zoumalou jiandu zhengli de xin shouhuo” 長沙走馬樓簡牘整理的新收穫, Wenwu (1999.5), 26–44. One such slip, for instance, reads “thus enters the discounted and reduced rice (zhejian mi 折咸米) of the Boat Master He Chun from the twenty-seventh year of the Jian’an reign prepared by the clerk Fan Guan.” See the image in Changshan Zoumalou Sanguo Wu jian: Zhujian, 1a, 164; text in Changshan Zoumalou Sanguo Wu jian: Zhujian, 1c, 941. Luo Xin, “Zoumalou Wu jian zhong de Jian’an jinian jian wenti.”

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institutions from different levels of Wu government—and explains what the Zoumalou documents reveal about them. These different units together organized the world of the Zoumalou documents as we know it. We will begin with the most basic unit: individuals. 4

The People

In contrast to the elite focus of transmitted historical texts, the Zoumalou documents provide a glimpse into the lives of thousands of common people living in early third century south China. Although there is a lot that they do not reveal, the Zoumalou documents provide a nearly unparalleled amount of information on the population of a rural region far from the centres of power. Most people recorded in the documents were farmers and soldiers of the Linxiang marquisate and adjacent regions. For obvious reasons, they are particularly informative about people serving as officials of various statuses. This was a period of recovery from major wars that had decimated the region’s population. A century earlier, around the year 140, the Changsha Commandery had 255,854 households and a registered population of 1,059,372.36 As the Changsha Commandery included 13 counties, this means that the average population of a county was 81,490. Considering that the Linxiang County was the seat of the Changsha Commandery, its population was presumably higher than other more peripheral counties. Thus, an estimate of around 100,000 should not be unreasonable. By the 230s, however, the registered population was well under 15,000 according to the Zoumalou documents, a precipitous drop from the number in 140.37 We can assume that this is partly due to many people not being registered, but the population decline was probably real, caused by people fleeing the region or dying during periods of warfare. Only a handful of the people mentioned in the Zoumalou documents are also recorded in transmitted texts. The most prominent among them is undoubtedly Bu Zhi, the marquis of Linxiang. Bu was originally from Huaiyin, on the Huai River in modern Jiangsu, but he fled south of the Yangtze to escape political chaos and found his way into the entourage of Sun Quan. After serving in areas of modern Zhejiang and Jiangxi, Bu made his name as the Prefect of 36

37

The population data is drawn from the treatise on geography from Sima Biao’s Xu Hanshu, whose treatises (zhi 志) were incorporated into Fan Ye’s Hou Hanshu. See Hou Hanshu, zhi 22.3485. The data contained here represents the household and population number of the year 140. See Ge Jianxiong, Zhongguo renkoushi: Daolun, Xianqin zhi Nanbeichao shiqi, 401. See documents 6.2014 and 6.2016.

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Jiaozhou 交州, a huge domain that stretched from the lower Pearl River to the Red River delta. He led an army to vanquish a regional ruler appointed there by Liu Biao and helped incorporate the south into the domain of Wu. After his reassignment back north to the Changsha region, Bu’s army met Liu Bei’s invasion of Jingzhou in 221. Soon after Wu general Lu Xun defeated Liu Bei, Wu became involved in conflicts with the indigenous Wuling Man population to the west, and with forces in Lingling 零陵 and Guiyang 桂陽 Commanderies to the south. Bu Zhi was sent with his army and defeated them. Because of these accomplishments, he was awarded the title Marquis of Linxiang in the second year of the Huangwu reign (223). After Sun Quan was enthroned as emperor in 229, Bu was stationed in Xiling about 400 kilometres to the northwest of the Linxiang County and remained there in charge of the Wu army defending against Shu for some twenty years. This means that the nominal head of Linxiang marquisate ruled in absentia during the period when the Zoumalou documents were produced. This explains why Bu appears in the background of the Zoumalou documents but does not directly engage with the governance of Linxiang.38 The day-to-day authority of the marquisate rested on the Chancellor of Linxiang marquisate.39 Because a marquisate was theoretically a semiindependent fief, its head was called “Chancellor” (houxiang 侯相), a more prestigious title than “Magistrate” (ling 令), the standard title for the head of a county. This additional layer of bureaucratic nomenclature adds more complexity to the Zoumalou documents than those from a standard county, but it also allows us to examine the exact nature of a marquisate, whose administration seems to have differed very little from a normal county. The fact that Bu Zhi served the entire time in absentia also reveals the relation between the marquis and his fief. The career of official Lü Dai 呂岱 (161–256) compliments that of Bu Zhi in an interesting way.40 When Bu was the governor of Jiaozhou, Lü Dai was stationed in Changsha; but when Bu came back north to the Changsha area, Lü succeeded him as the governor of Jiaozhou, with the title of “General Suppressing 38 See, for instance, bamboo slip 1.1556, which refers to the “returned commoners of Marquis Bu” (步侯還民). Bu’s biography can be found in Chen Shou, Sanguo zhi 52.1236–12340. 39 The chancellors that appear in these documents include: Zhao Jing 趙靖, men surnamed Guo, Zhu and Guan, and one whose surname is lost. For the identification of Zhao Jing see Luo Xin 羅新, “Zoumalou Wu jian zhengli gongzuo de xinjinzhan” 走馬樓吴簡整理工 作的新進展, Beida shixue (2000.1), 338–340. Ling, Wenchao, “Huang Gai zhi xian: Cong Wu jian kan Wu shu zhong de xianzheng” 黃蓋治縣：從吴簡看《吴書》中的縣政, Zhongyang yanjiuyuan lishi yuyan yanjiusuo jikan 91, no. 3 (2020), 495–496. 40 For the life of Lü Dai, see Chen Shou, Sanguo zhi 60.1383–1387.

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the South” (zhennan jiangjun 鎮南將軍).41 After the “land of the south was stabilized” (nantu qingding 南土清定), he was again summoned back to the Changsha area to suppress the Wuling Man. It was during this period that he appears in the Zoumalou documents, because the Linxiang region supplied grain to Lü Dai’s army. The closely intertwined nature of officials serving both in the deep south and in Jingzhou within the Wu state is significant and will be discussed below. Other officials, such as Gu Yong 顧雍 (168–243) and Pan Jun, are also mentioned in the Zoumalou documents in the context of the suppression of the Wuling Man, although only their title Taichang 太常 appears directly.42 The Zoumalou documents include several other personalities known from the standard history of Wu, the Wu shu 吴書 in San guo zhi 三國志. It is often impossible to be sure if these are the same people because the Wu shu uses people’s surnames and given names (such as Bu Zhi), but the Zoumalou documents refer to them using their surnames plus their titles (Bu hou), or just their titles. In cases where the full name is not given, identification is obviously tentative. None of the well-known figures from transmitted historical records were directly involved in daily governance in the Zoumalou documents. Instead, their names appear as superiors of the officials in the Linxiang government, those who send orders and receive letters and goods. The Zoumalou documents generally focus only on affairs at the level of the county and, sometimes, the commandery. Only during major military events or significant administrative cases did the Zoumalou documents implicate affairs and personalities beyond the confines of the local, thus crossing path with events recorded in transmitted sources. Warfare such as the campaign against the Wuling Man connected the central and the local in the Wu state, and consequently linked transmitted sources produced by the centre with excavated sources produced in Linxiang. Most of the people mentioned in the Zoumalou documents do not appear in any other texts. Broadly speaking, they can be categorized into two overlapping groups: 1) people who worked for the state, and 2) subjects of the state. Let us begin with the first group. People who actively participated in the functioning of the governmental affairs in Linxiang included officials at the county, commandery, and provincial levels as well as commoners who were employed in governmental matters. In the documents, these officials are often recorded 41 See documents 1.2303 and 1.2354. 42 Sanguo zhi, 52.1225–1228 (Gu Yong); 61.1397–1399 (Pan Jun); Wang, Song, and Luo, Xin shouhuo, 29–31.

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sending various reports, petitions and orders to various branches of the local government or conducting surveys and inspections of certain segments of the population. For example, Farming Promotion Attendant Guo Song delivered a list of names of newly registered people, while Ou Guang inspected male relatives of officers in the military.43 Since the documents are direct records of their activities, they tell us about the work of these officials. In the case of Sun Yi 孫儀, it is possible to reconstruct his career path through at least four different government positions between 232 and 237.44 Some commoners were also involved in these bureaucratic activities, like commoner Guo Ke 郭客, who collected commercial taxes from the sale of enslaved people, or the commoner Sun Zhi 孫直, who delivered coins to the treasury.45 These commoners played essential role in making Linxiang’s administration work by connecting the bureaucracy to the non-governmental elements of the Linxiang society. These officials and commoners are visible because they tended to make these documents about their own activities. Such visibility, however, is limited to their official lives and their activities within the bureaucracy, and rarely extends to their personal lives, except for the composition of their households. Most people in the Zoumalou documents are the subjects of administration, not the administrators, though officials could find themselves in both positions. For instance, in the report by Guo Song mentioned above, he quotes another report that says “Today (Wu) Jing reports: provincial officials Yao Da, Cheng Yu and commoner adult male Zhao Shi; these three households have 13 household members living within the borders of the district.”46 While this report allows us to know the official activities of Guo Song and Wu Jing, it also reveals private information about officials Yao Da and Cheng Yu, namely where they lived. The Zoumalou documents were made because the Wu state wanted to know and keep records about certain information about their population, and for this reason, they reveal exactly what was considered important for the state, such as population number, name, age, gender, health, property (in land, coins, and grain), professional capability and skills (as soldiers, artisans, and scholars) and relation with the state (registered or escaped). The focus here in these official documents was the extraction of taxes and labour from the population. 43 44

See Translation, Section 3.1 and 3.6 respectively. Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Yige ouran zouru lishi de Sun Wu xianli” 一個偶然走入歷史的 孫吴縣吏, Du shu, no. 6 (2021), 65–70. 45 Documents that mention these men are included in the translation chapter. See Sections 4.3 and 4.1.1 respectively. 46 See document 4 4523 in Chapter 3.

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One exceptional type of information from these documents are the given and family names of common people. The most common surnames found in the Zoumalou documents include ones that were (and are still) popular among people from the Central Plain, such as Li 李, Zhang 張, Chen 陳, Liu 劉, Zhu 朱, Wang 王, Zheng 鄭, and Sun 孫. But other surnames may have been used more often by indigenous people, such as Hu 胡, Shi 石, Tian 田, Lu 魯, Xiang 向, Wen 文 and Mei 梅.47 The mixture of surnames reveals two important demographic processes: northern immigration into the Changsha area and the intensifying bureaucratic registration of previously unregistered local people, many of whom probably had some degree of ancestral or cultural ties to local indigenous people, precisely the types of subtleties that can rarely be traced through administrative records. This process of bureaucratic registration may also account for the curious fact that, unlike other contemporary sources where given names appear in both disyllabic and monosyllabic forms, the tens of thousands of people found in the Zoumalou documents, without exception, have monosyllabic given names. As Wei Bin perceptively argues, since monosyllabic names were routinely preferred by government officials, when previously unregistered local people in the Changsha region became increasingly incorporated into the bureaucratic system, they were also registered with monosyllabic names. In other words, these names were possibly chosen not by the bearers of the names themselves, but by the bureaucrats who registered them.48 This observation reminds us that even though the Zoumalou texts reveal information about many people, we are seeing with the eye of the state. Also relevant to the taxability of the population—and thus making its way into our documents—is the information about the age of individuals. The data include specific age of a person registered, thus allowing us to meet a woman who was 102 sui (101 years) old, possibly the oldest registered person in Zoumalou.49 Collectively these datapoints also reveal certain broader features of the population. Yu Zhenbo’s analysis showed that the average age of people recorded in the Zoumalou documents is not drastically different from that of 47 Wei Bin 魏斌, “Wu jian shi xing: zaoqi Changsha bianhu yu zuqun wenti” 吴簡釋 姓：早期長沙編戶與族群問題, Wei Jin Nanbeichao Sui-Tang shi ziliao 24 (2008), 23–45. On non-Sinitic surnames, see Takashi Mitsuda 滿田剛, “Changsha Zoumalou limin tianjiabie suo jian de xing” 長沙走馬樓吏民田家莂所見的姓, in Changsha Wu jian yanjiu hui 長沙吴簡研究會, ed., Jiahe limin tianjiabie yanjiu: Changsha Zoumalou Wu jian yanjiu baogao di yi ji 嘉禾吏民田家莂研究：長沙吴簡研究報告第 1 集 (Tokyo, 2001). Both Han and non-Han people used the surname Zhang 張. 48 Wei Bin 魏斌, “Danming yu shuangming: Han-Jin nanfang renming de bianqian jiqi yiyi” 單名與雙名：漢晉南方人名的變遷及其意義, Lishi yanjiu (2012.1), 36–53. 49 Document 8.5477.

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people in Hunan in 1990, though of course the infant mortality rate in the earlier period was probably higher, something that was not recorded in the documents. The difference in the population break-down according to age groups is also informative. Compared to Hunan’s 1990 population, there were 10% fewer adults between 15 and 59 years of age in the Zoumalou documents, but 7% more children under 14 (35.56% versus 28.04% in 1990) and 2% more people over 60 (10.92% versus 8.66% in 1990). In addition to revealing the surprising fact that life expectancy did not drastically change over seventeen centuries, these differences also reveal the difficulty the Wu government faced in registering adult population.50 Within the adult population, women outnumbered men by 10 percent, while the opposite was true among children under 14. Adult women account for 58.7% of all females while adult men account for 48.7% of all males. Children under 14 make up 29.4% of all females and 41.3% of all males. The percentage of women is slightly higher among those over 60, but the different is not as dramatic. Clearly, something happened at the junior-to-adult threshold that changed the structure of the population. Yu suggests that the relatively low numbers of adult males was a combined result of early death as well as the fleeing of male population to avoid being conscripted for warfare and corvée labour. The low number of female children might have been a result of late registration rather than parental abandonment. Lin Yide noticed the extraordinarily high number of children between the ages of 7 and 15 in the household registers and argued that this was the result of fabrication on the part of the Linxiang officials. Because the status of these young people changed in the official registration when they reached these ages, officials had the incentive of inflating the number of people of these age groups.51 In these cases, the population numbers are another reminder of the bureaucratic bias in the Zoumalou documents. From these numbers we can surmise that the “real” population numbers of the Linxiang residents underwent two parallel processes of distortion before they made their way into the Zoumalou documents. First, adult men found ways to avoid being registered because it required them to pay taxes and do labour and military service. Second, when the officials recorded these numbers, they manipulated them to advance their

50

Yu Zhenbo 于振波, “Cong Changsha Zoumalou Sanguo wujian kan qi huji zhong de xingbie yu nianling jiegou: jian lun hu yu li de guimo” 從長沙走馬樓吴簡看其戶籍中的性 別與年齡結構：兼論戶與里的規模. Taida lishi xuebao 34 (2004), 329–380. 51 Lin, Yi-Der 林益德, “Zoumalou Wu jian suojian ertong xingbie yu nianling jiegou fenxi” 走馬樓吴簡所見兒童性别與年齡結構分析, Luojia shiyuan (2014.4), 55–68.

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own agenda. Therefore, the numbers we can see reflect negotiation between the state and its subjects, as well as deception. This demographic information provides us with a useful insight on the relationship between the documents and reality. Reading the documents gives us the impression that the state successfully managed and controlled numerous different aspects of the economic and social lives of the people of Linxiang County. The failure of state control and the various types of resistance to it only occasionally appear in our documents. One tantalizing example in this regard has to do with the runaway population. In our records, this group of people were predominantly male and mostly younger, which is likely the combined effect of the state’s overwhelming interest in this group and the pressure such interest placed on them. Many absconded at the age of 15, the age at which a person was considered an adult, and thus liable for heavier taxes and labour duties.52 The large number of such records indicates the agency exerted by the population under the control of the Wu state—they managed to escape state control just at the right time. Another issue was that the ill or disabled could not pay tax or perform labour. More than twenty different symptoms are recorded in the Zoumalou documents from bodily mutilations to deafness and blindness.53 Many of these symptoms were debilitating and may have been caused by schistosomiasis and malaria. These diseases not only reduced the taxpaying population, but may also have been responsible for the relatively low life expectancy among men compared to women and the relatively high death rate of boys under the age of fifteen.54 These records of disease did not come to us from doctors or the patients themselves, but from the state, presumably for the purpose of knowing the availability of labour and applicability of taxation. It is therefore unclear, beyond mere visual observation and/or self-reporting from the Linxiang residents, how these different types of diseases were determined. It is worth noting that administrative records of disease reflect a state-sanctioned system of knowledge that is a different source than medical texts for the study of illness in early China.55 Far more of the registered sick and disabled pop52 See Chapter 3, section 3.7. 53 Fukuhara Akirō 福原啟郎, “Chōsa gokan no shōbyō hyōki no tokuchō” 長沙吴簡の傷 病表記の特徵, in Itō Toshio 伊藤敏雄, Kubozoe Yoshifumi 窪添慶文, and Sekio Shirō 関尾史郎, eds., Konan shutsudo kandoku to sono shakai 湖南出土簡牘とその社会 (Tokyo: Kyūko Shoin, 2015), 197–216. 54 Gao Kai 高凱, “Cong Wu jian lice Sun Wu chuqi Linxiang houguo de jibing renkou wenti” 從吴簡蠡測孫吴初期臨湘侯國的疾病人口問題, Shixue yuekan (2005.12), 24–30. 55 Ikai Yoshio 豬飼祥夫, “Chōsa Sōmarō sangoku Gokan to Shōkanron” 長沙走馬樓三國 吴簡と傷寒論, Nihon ishigaku zasshi 51.2 (2005), 312–313.

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ulation were male than female (203 male versus 54 female, according to the statistics by Yu Zhenbo), a phenomenon that cannot be regarded as reflecting a “real” gender divide with regard to illness. Because registering as ill or disabled helped the Linxiang population avoid corvée and military labour service, which was overwhelmingly levied on the male population, there was a much greater incentive to report male illness and disability. As female residents were rarely liable for such work, their sickness and disabilities were less rigorously recognized and recorded. But of course, the corvée and works themselves could have been the reason for some of these illnesses and disabilities in the first place. Similarly, many men must have been killed and injured in the wars of the previous decades. 5 Households The division of society into nuclear family households for the purpose of registration and taxation had been a key element of imperial administration since the days of Qin. In the third century there was a trend whereby governments increasingly focused their administration on households rather than individuals. The government of Wu levied certain types of taxes on households rather than individuals, but they kept records of every member of each household to keep track of future taxpayers, soldiers and corvée labourers. Since a household was one of the most fundamental units of governmental administration, we have a lot of information on households in the Zoumalou documents. Based on household registers and other types of documents, scholars have determined that the average number of peoples in a Zoumalou household was around five.56 Transmitted histories from the Han era also tend to refer to five as the average number of people in a household.57 Therefore, the Zoumalou numbers seem to confirm what we already know. What the Zoumalou documents reveal in detail is how households were structured in the Changsha region. Most households found in the Zoumalou documents had between three and six members, not including enslaved people. These were typically nuclear families, meaning parents and their children. The second largest group were households with seven or more members, usually because the parents of the head 56 57

Sun Wenbo 孫聞博, “Zoumalou ‘liminbu’ suojian Sun Wu jiating jiegou yanjiu” 走馬樓 ‘吏民簿’ 所見孫吴家庭結構研究, Jianbo yanjiu 2007 (2010), 246–261. See Li Genpan 李根蟠, “Zhanguo Qin Han xiaonong jiating de guimo jiqi bianhua jizhi: weirao ‘wukou zhijia’ de taolun” 戰國秦漢小農家庭的規模及其變化機制：圍繞 ‘五口之家’ 的討論, in Zhang Guogang 張國剛 and Li Zhongqing 李中清, eds., Jiating shi yanjiu de xinshiye 家庭史研究的新視野 (Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 2004), 1–30.

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of the nuclear family lived with their child and grandchildren, thus expanding the household by one or two members. More notable is the phenomenon of adult brothers living within a single household, even when these brothers already had their own family. Such cases highlight the distinction between a nuclear family and a household. If a man died or moved away then his brother would often take in his children, producing households that included nephews and nieces of the heads of households. The head of a household was known in the Zoumalou documents as huren 户人, literally “person of the household.” The huren was not always the oldest male member of the household. In some cases, the uncles of heads of household would be recorded in the registers. Presumably, such cases occurred because the father (and the previous head of the household) died, and the son succeeded him as the new head, even when his uncle still lived in the household. These cases indicate that the status of the head of the household was inherited from father to son rather than from older brother to younger brother. Most familial relations were organized around a patriarchal and patrilineal order, and an “uncle” in a household register means the uncle of the male household head. Occasionally, however, relatives of the wife of the head of the household were also included, using terms such as “wife’s father” and “wife’s mother.”58 A particularly interesting phenomenon found in the Zoumalou documents is when a woman served as the head of a household. Such households were called “female households” (nühu 女户). Unlike statutes from the early Han period four centuries earlier, which stipulated that only households without a man could have female household heads, the Zoumalou documents include many cases of women serving as the head even with male members still alive.59 In several such families the males were adults. Such household structure was likely produced when the previous male head of household died and his widow succeeded him as the head when the son was still a junior. It is curious that after the son became an adult, the head remained the mother and this title was not given to the son. In one example, an 83-year old woman was the head of the household that included her 61 year old son.60 This practice is unique because a few centuries later, in the Tang household registers, female heads of households only appeared when there was no male member in the household, 58 Jia Liying 賈麗英, “Cong Changsha Zoumalou Sanguo Wu jian kan Sanguo Wu de jiating jiegou” 從《長沙走馬樓三國吴簡》看三國吴的家庭結構, Zhongguoshi yanjiu (2010.3), 171–174. 59 Zhao Chongliang 趙寵亮, “Zoumalou Wu jian suojian ‘nühu’” 走馬樓吴簡所見 ‘女户’, Shijiazhuang xueyuan xuebao 18.5 (2016), 26–34. 60 See document 2.1818.

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which mirrors the practice of the early Han statutes.61 The fluctuation of the legal status of women during the era between the Han and the Tang in the eyes of the state is one example of the rich details provided by the Zoumalou documents, which allow us to see changes where once we assumed continuity over a millennium. For the purpose of taxation, households were divided into different “grades” (pin 品). In theory, the households in Zoumalou documents were grouped into three grades: upper, middle, and lower. About 80 percent of households belonged to the lower grade. The drastic difference in property tax among different households suggests an equally startling inequity in property.62 Since most households were classified at a lower grade, in practice, an even lower grade was added in order to further differentiate among the households on the bottom. This grade was literally called “below the lower grade” (xiapin zhi xia 下品之下) or “below the lower household” (xiahu zhi xia 下户之下). These households often included those with only elderly, handicapped or female members, rendering them unable to provide corvée labour. Another distinction within the fairly crude three-tier system was the division between “old households” guhu 故户 and “new households” xinhu 新户. Old households would be taxed at a lower rate than the new ones of the same grade, thus turning the three official grades into six in practice. This system presaged developments in later periods, when a nine-tier system emerged from the three-tier system as each of the three grades was divided into three (upper-upper, upper-middle, upper-lower, etc.).63 In this sense, the Zoumalou documents also served as a key point of reference in understanding the history of local governance. 6

Official Ranks and Hierarchies

In addition to household grades, people appear in our documents within a complicated web of social hierarchy. There are many terms found in the Zoumalou documents, in particular documents related to household registration, that reveal such hierarchy. Some of these terms are found in transmitted texts, others appear only in excavated documents. In either case, their 61 62 63

Deng Xiaonan, “Women in Turfan During the Sixth to Eighth Centuries: a Look at their Activities Outside the Home,” Journal of Asian Studies 58.1 (1999), 85–103. Yu Zhenbo 于振波, “Cong Zoumalou Wu jian kan qishi Changsha minhu de pinfu chabie” 從走馬樓吴簡看其時長沙民戶的貧富差別, Shixue yuekan (2008.6), 90–93. See Wang Zengyu 王曾瑜, “Cong Beichao de jiudeng hu dao Songchao de wudenghu” 從 北朝的九等户到宋朝的五等户, Zhongguoshi yanjiu (1980.2), 49–63.

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interpretations are difficult, and views are varied. Terms that appear in both the Zoumalou documents and transmitted sources such as the Sanguo zhi do not always mean the same thing. Two examples of terms that are used differently in different contexts are gongsheng 公乘 and shiwu 士伍. Both terms are richly attested in transmitted and excavated Han sources. The term gongsheng denoted a rank ( jue 爵; a.k.a. “order of merit”) in the twenty-rank system established in the Qin, and specifically the highest rank attainable by a commoner in the Later Han dynasty. The term shiwu, on the other hand, seems to have meant those who lost official ranks or began to serve as soldiers.64 In the Zoumalou documents, however, both terms were used by a vast number of commoners, suggesting that their role as a status-marker had declined. According to one calculation, almost 87% of the heads of household in Zoumalou household registers had the rank of gongsheng. There were even some women with the gongsheng rank.65 In contrast, shiwu seems to have been used as a hereditary marker of social status among males, being especially common among young boys.66 Two other titles similarly attached to personal names in household registers seem to have derived from rotational corvée duties lasting for a month (yuewu 月伍) or a year (suiwu 歲伍). The yearly duty involved guarding borders while the monthly duty involved serving local governments.67 The fact that people with these titles seem to have been involved with the management of local affairs indicate that these titles combined the functions of, and blurred the divide between, official titles and status markers. If such inherited terms are of little significance as actual markers of social hierarchy, then where can such distinction be observed? According to the different relations with the state, the population of Linxiang can be divided into several groups: officials (li 吏), commoners (min 民), soldiers, and unfree people. Each broad category was then further divided into smaller, overlapping units according to different principles depending on the context of the 64 See Ling Wenchao, “Qin Han Wei Jin bianhu min shehui shenfen de bianqian: cong ‘shidafu’ dao ‘limin’” 秦漢魏晉編戶民社會身份的變遷：從 ‘士大夫’ 到 ‘吏民’, Wenshizhe 347, no. 2 (2015), 73–89. 65 Su Junlin 蘇俊林, “Jiahe limin tianjiabie yu Sun Wu shenfen dengji tixi” 嘉禾吏民田 家莂與孫吴身份等級體系, Wenshi (2015.3), 25–45; Su Junlin, Sun Wu jicheng shehui shenfen zhixu yanjiu 孫吴基層社會身份秩序研究 (Hunan Daxue, Dissertation, 2015), 108–109. 66 Ling Wenchao, “Zoumalou Wu jian suojian ‘shiwu’ bianxi” 走馬樓吴簡所見 ‘士伍’ 辨 析, Wu jian yanjiu 3 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2011). 67 Li Shisheng 黎石生, “Zoumalou Wu jian suojian ‘shiwu’ ‘suiwu’ ‘yuewu’ kao” 走馬樓吴 簡所見 ‘士伍’ ‘歲伍’ ‘月伍’ 考, in Zoumalou Wu jian yanjiu lunwen jingxuan 走馬樓 吴簡研究論文精選 (Changsha: Yuelu, 2016), 67–71.

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documents, producing a complex web of identities. Confusingly, the term “officials and commoners” (limin 吏民) was used to refer to the majority of the population, meaning that the officials included in this category ranked so low that for many purposes, such as taxation, they were effectively commoners. The Zoumalou documents often refer to commoners in terms of their status with regard to the state, such as “absconded commoner” (pan min 叛民) vs. “demobilized commoner” (i.e., ex-soldier; huan min 還民), and “newly registered commoner” (xinzhan min 新占民) vs. “officially registered commoner” (zhenghu min 正户民). These distinctions reflect the mobility of post-war society, in which registered people regularly left the place where they were registered for various reasons, then returned and re-registered. People from other regions, some hailing from as far as north China, would arrive and find themselves categorized as “newly registered” people in Linxiang. The government was particularly concerned with the newly registered residents, producing registers such as “registers of inspection of newly registered commoners” (yinhe xinzhan min bu 隱核新占民簿; translated in Chapter 3). Sometimes, commoners were also referred to by the level of local government with which they were affiliated in the specific context of that document, such as “commoners of the commandery” ( junmin 郡民), “commoners of the county” (xianmin 縣民), or “commoners of the district” (xiangmin 鄉民). These terms were used when officials made documents to keep records of commoners associated with a particular administrative level.68 Another way in which we find these commoners is when they were referred to by their different occupations, such as “reservoir commoner” (tanger min 溏兒民), “metal commoner” ( jin min 金民), and “boat commoner” (chuan min 船民). For officials it made a much bigger difference which level of government they were affiliated with.69 In general, the higher the administrative level, the better officials were treated. Officials were referred to in terms of which branch of government employed them, for example Personnel Bureau Clerk (gongcao shi 功曹史), Household Bureau Clerk (hucao shi 戶曹史), and Bandit Bureau Clerk (zeicao shi 賊曹史). These bureaus were in charge of various different governmental projects, and the officials serving there were often also known by the actual work they engaged in, which is the meaning of terms such as Field Management Official/Attendant (diantian li/yuan 典田吏/掾), granary official (cangli 倉吏), treasury official (kuli 庫吏), and market official (shili 市 吏). The existence of registers listing the male relatives of officials shows that 68 Su Junlin, Sun Wu jicheng shehui shenfen zhixu yanjiu, 168–202. 69 E.g., “Commandery official” ( junli 郡吏), “county official” (xianli 縣吏) and “district official” (xiangli 鄉吏).

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while officials enjoyed a higher social status than commoners, the government also kept an especially watchful eye over them and their family members, and was mindful of the possibility that they could desert to rivals where their knowledge of Wu’s governance would be valued. Beside commoners and officials, another major category of people was that of soldiers, who were often referred to in Wu documents as shi 士, a term that has referred to a variety of different status groups over the centuries. There were no separate household registers for soldiers, but when they were listed in regular household registers they were called “army official” ( jun li 軍吏). The official status of these army officials was not shi. Instead they were officials (li 吏) subordinate to the Military Bureau of the Linxiang Marquisate. Because military affairs were so important during this time, commanderies and counties often established Military Bureaus responsible for military affairs. These were separate from the Military Bureaus within the army. Soldiers and their families generally paid lower taxes, or none at all, though they were sometimes taxed more heavily during critical periods of war. This lower tax burden suggests that military families might have been part of the state-sponsored military-agricultural colonies known as juntun 軍屯.70 Despite their preferential tax rates, soldiers did run away, in which case they were called “deserted soldiers” (panshi 叛士; we translate pan as “abscond” for civilians and “desert” for soldiers). There are many documents that list army and provincial officials together, which shows that the government sometimes managed them as a group.71 Soldiers in the Wu state sometimes came from the non-Han populations known as Wuling Man or Mountain Yue 越. In the Zoumalou documents, terms like “barbarian soldiers” (yi bing 夷兵) seem to refer to these.72 The term zu 卒, which can mean “soldier” in other contexts, refers in these texts to men required to serve government offices, such as commanderies, for a specified amount of time, probably similar to gengzu 更卒 and zhengzu 正卒 in the Han. Other special categories of people include various kinds of artisans who were known as “master” (shi 師) and their “assistants” (zou 佐). There was a large group of master artisans who worked on materials as diverse as iron/steel 70

Jiang Fuya 蔣福亞, “Wu jian zhong de ‘shi’ yu juntun” 吴簡中的 ‘士’ 與軍屯, Xuchang xueyuan xuebao (2007.3), 19–25. 71 Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Zoumalou Wu jian yinhe zhou, jun li fuxiong zidi bu zhengli yu yanjiu: jianlun Sun Wu li, min fenji ji zaiji renkou” 走馬樓吴簡隱核州、軍吏父兄 子弟簿整理與研究：兼論孫吴吏民分籍及在籍人口, Zhongguo shi yanjiu (2017.2), 81–104. 72 Luo Xin 羅新, “Wanghua yu shanxian: Zhonggu zaoqi nanfang zhu Man lishi mingyun zhi gaiguan” 王化與山險：中古早期南方諸蠻歷史命運之概觀, Lishi yanjiu (2009.2), 4–20.

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(gang shi 剛師), brocade ( jin shi 錦師), animal hide (pi shi 皮師), and boats (chuan shi 船師).73 In certain fields, such as coin casting, different masters were in charge of different steps of production: the coin master (qian shi 錢師) minted the coins, the polishing master (lü shi 鑢師) polished the coins, and the threading master (guanlian shi 貫連師) threaded the coins onto strings with cords. These same artisans also worked on other metal goods, most notably weapons. Even though we do not have a detailed record about what exactly these masters did, the mere presence of their names and the names of their family members in the registration of the state is a testimony to the variety of artisans employed and controlled by the Wu state. And this was not particular to Wu, as it was quite common in early China for states to directly employ artisans to produce goods.74 Artisans appear in our documents most often when they were being transferred between different agencies of the government, in particular because of the preparation of war. In these activities, they were being transferred not as individuals but as households.75 Since most of them were not recorded in household registers, they might have been treated by the Wu state as specialized corvée labour. Because of the significance of these skilled workers for military and revenue purposes, the Wu state provided them with benefits not enjoyed by commoners, but also placed them under particularly tight state control.76 A curious category of people in the Zoumalou documents is sixue 私學, which refers to educated men. While the meaning of the term is still being debated, it is clear that most of these people were not registered as regular residents and probably came from places other than Linxiang. Because they were educated, they appear in the documents as being recommended by officials in Linxiang to serve in the government.77 These recommendations sometimes include brief but interesting biographical narratives, which are rare in other types of documents.78 These private scholars represented a valuable subset of the mobile people who came into interaction with the authorities represented 73 Han Shufeng 韓樹峰, “Changsha Zoumalou Sanguo Wu jian suojian shizuo ji kao” 長 沙走馬樓三國吴簡所見師佐籍考, Wu jian yanjiu 1 (Wuhan: Chongwen shuju, 2004), 167–189. 74 Anthony J. Barbieri-Low, Artisans in Early Imperial China (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2007). 75 See, for instance, document 1.6006/12. 76 Shen Gang 沈剛, Changsha Zoumalou Sanguo Wu jian yanjiu 長沙走馬樓三國竹簡研 究 (Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian, 2013). 77 See Translation. For an example of a privately educated man from another place, see J22-2617. 78 See Translation, Section 3.5.

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in the Zoumalou documents from elsewhere, and again shows the movement of people between different regions of the Wu state. Further down the social ladder we find unfree people who attached themselves to private households or government offices and were euphemistically referred to as “guests” (ke 客). The category of “guest” included an array of different dependent statuses. The most commonly attested categories were “farming guests” (dianke 佃客), “guests of officials or leaders” (li shuai ke 吏帥客), who worked at government-owned agrarian colonies (tuntian 屯田), and “guests on quota field” (xiandian ke 限佃客), who cultivated land for the government. The government had other “guests” such as “servant guests” (tongke 僮客), an alternative name for government-owned slaves, and “provisional guests” ( jike 給客), a term whose meaning is unclear, but may have denoted temporarily conscripted labour.79 How “guests” functioned in the government is not entirely clear. Additionally, there were also “guests” who belonged to private individuals, including “food and clothes guests” (yi shi ke 衣食客), who depended on their owners to feed and clothe them. Prominent figures in the Wu state often had such “guests.” For instance, farming tenants of the Chamberlain of Ceremonies (taichang dianke 大常佃客) worked for Pan Jun 潘濬, the Chamberlain of Ceremonies.80 The lowest ladder of the social hierarchy was held by enslaved people, for some reason known as “alive ones” (shengkou 生口). People became slaves when captured during wars or when condemned to that status by government officials. Pan Jun, who appeared in our documents, was said to have “beheaded or captured as slaves” about 10,000 people in his campaigns against the Wuling Man.81 Through warfare, the Wu state acquired many slaves who they could sell for a profit, a practice that was common across Eurasia. A number of documents record what seems to be sales of government owned slaves, and the price of the slave was directly transferred into governmental treasury.82 The “alive-ones,” when incorporated into the households, become properly known as slaves “under the household” (male slaves: hu xia nu 戶下奴; female slaves hu xia bi 戶下婢).83 These “slaves under the household” were not considered prop79 Shen, Changsha Zoumalou Sanguo zhujian yanjiu, 200–211. 80 Wang Su 王素, “Changsha Wu jian zhong de dianke yu yishike: jianlun Xi Jin hudiaoshi zhong de ‘Nanchaohua’ wenti” 長沙吴簡中的佃客與衣食客：兼論西晉戶調式中的 ‘南朝化’ 問題, Zhonghua wenshi luncong (2011.1), 1–34. 81 Sanguo zhi, 61.1398. 82 Xiong Qu 熊曲, “Lun Changsha Zoumalou Wu jian zhong ‘shengkou’ ji xiangguan wenti” 論長沙走馬樓吴簡中 ‘生口’ 及相關問題, Zoumalou Wu jian yanjiu lunwen jingxuan vol. 2, 160. 83 Chen Shuang 陳爽, “Zoumalou Wu jian suojian nubi huji jiqi xiangguan wenti” 走馬樓吴 簡所見奴婢戶籍及其相關問題, Wu jian yanjiu 1 (Wuhan: Chongwen, 2004), 160–166.

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erty by the state but rather treated as members of the household; therefore, instead of being taxed as property (zifu 訾賦), the households were required to pay regular poll tax (suanfu 算賦) for them. 7

The State Apparatus

Above the household, we begin to encounter the apparatus of the state more directly. The most basic administrative units of local society in the Zoumalou documents were hills (qiu 丘) and cantons (li 里). These were both administrative units, not geographical features or natural villages. We translate qiu as “hill” simply because that is the original meaning of the word, but they were not actually hills.84 Both units were under the jurisdiction of districts (xiang 鄉), yet there does not seem to have been a clear hierarchical relation between hills and cantons. Instead, they seem to refer to groupings of households of similar sizes. One estimate puts the number of households in a typical canton at around 50.85 After much debate, a consensus about the general relation between the hill and the canton has begun to emerge. The former often appears in slips stating that someone “lives in a certain hill,” whereas cantons appear in official registration documents, such as the one that states “Yiyang canton householder Zhang Jue, of gongsheng rank, age 29.”86 This distinction suggests that a “hill” was where people actually lived, whereas a “canton” was the more abstract administrative unit into which a person or a household was registered. People who lived in the same hill were sometimes registered in different cantons; and people registered in the same cantons likewise often lived in many different hills. The dual system of organization reflects the discrepancy between the often-idealized way of governmental information management and the lived experience of the residents.87

84 We have chosen the word “canton,” originally a French administrative unit, mainly because it is distinctive, which helps the reader in the difficult task of distinguishing between commanderies, provinces, counties, districts, sections, bureaus, hills, and other units. The word “canton” is not ideal since it was once used for Guangzhou and may confuse some readers, but unfortunately, there are a limited number of English words for low-level administrative units, and many of the others are already standard translations of other Chinese terms, including those from different historical periods. 85 See Lian Xianyong 連先用, “Wu jian suojian li de guimo yu Wuchu Linxianghouguo de huji zhengdun” 吴簡所見里的規模與吴初臨湘侯國的戶籍整頓, Zhongguo nongshi (2019.1), 43–56, 23. 86 Document 1.9322, translated in Chapter Three, Section 2.1. 87 See Hou Xudong 侯旭東, “Changsha Zoumalou Wu jian ‘li’ ‘qiu’ guanxi zaiyanjiu ”長沙走 馬樓吴簡 ‘里’ ‘丘’ 關係再研究, Wei Jin Nanbeichao Sui-Tang shi ziliao 23 (2006), 14–27.

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There were no salaried governmental officials in hills and cantons, but residents were given responsibilities and titles such as Canton Chief (likui 里魁) and Head of the Gate (lü zhang 閭長). Their function was primarily to connect higher level officials with households in sub-district level units, the most important of which likely was recording people’s names in various types of registers.88 Suiwu 歲伍 and yuewu 月伍, mentioned above, were responsible for the taxes and levies of the residents of one or two cantons or hills. Since sui means “year,” yue means “month,” and wu 伍 refers to commoners mobilized to do labour service, these titles referred to those appointed leaders of labourers on an annual or monthly basis. They were under the jurisdiction of the Farming Promotion Attendant (quannong yuan 勸農掾). The focus of administration of the county government—and therefore the focus of our documents—were the districts (xiang 鄉), which were the units below the county but above hills and cantons. More than fifty districts are mentioned in the Zoumalou documents, around eleven of which likely belonged to the Linxiang county. These are Metropolitan district 都鄉, Eastern district 東鄉, Western district 西鄉, Southern district 南鄉, Central district 中鄉, Guangcheng district 廣成鄉, Le district 樂鄉, Mo district 模鄉, Ping district 平鄉, Sang district 桑鄉 and Xiaowuling district 小武陵鄉.89 The names of these districts clearly reveal some information regarding their locations, but we can rarely pin down where they were located. What we do know is that each district had official boundaries, something that does not seem to have been the case for hills and cantons.90 Counties delegated many tasks to the districts, and since the Zoumalou documents were produced at the county level, we have many records of these interactions. Districts did not have permanent offices, and the official titles that contain the term “district” were held by officials assigned by the county to administer affairs in the district, not officials based in the districts. Examples of these are the district Farming Promotion Attendant (xiang quannong yuan 鄉勸農掾) and the district Field Managing Attendant (xiang diantian yuan 鄉典田掾). These attendants generally managed two districts. The Metropolitan and Central districts, Minor Wuling and 88

See Sun Wenbo 孫聞博, “Zoumalou Wu jian suojian ‘xiang’ de zai yanjiu” 走馬樓吴簡所 見 ‘鄉’ 的再研究, Jianghan gaoku (2009.2), 112–118. 89 Note that “Metropolitan district” refers to the district located in the same town as the county offices, which means that many counties had a district of that name. Yang Zhenhong 楊振紅, “Changsha Wu jian suojian Linxiang houguo shuxiang de shuliang yu mingcheng” 長沙吴簡所見臨湘侯國屬鄉的數量與名稱, Jianbo yanjiu 2010 (2012), 139–144. Yu Zhenbo, “Zoumalou Wu jian suojian xiangji xingzheng” 走馬樓吴簡所見鄉 級行政, in Changsha jianbo yanjiu guoji xueshu yantaohui lunwenji (Shanghai: Zhongxi, 2017), 107–110. See documents 6.147, 4696, 4823. 90 See the reference to “district border” (xiangjie 鄉界) in name registers translated below and Sun Wenbo, “Zoumalou Wu jian suojian ‘xiang’ de zai yanjiu.”.

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Xi districts, Guangcheng and Ping districts, and Sang and Le districts were combined into one section (bu 部) under the management of the Attendants.91 They were presumably close to one another. Some districts had substantial populations. For instance, a document records “Xiaowuling District lists the 194 households of officials and commoners for the 4th year (of the Jiahe reign). There are 951 household members. We will levy geng, kou, and suan coins, altogether … thousand three hundred and thirty-four coins.”92 Taxation of various kinds and other types of social control (including the examination of population who fled, the construction of dams, the registration of new population) all occurred at the district level. While much administration occurred at the district level, it was at the county level that many decisions were made. It is hard to overstate the importance of counties in early imperial governance, as much of the key administrative decision making and record keeping occurred there. Because the Zoumalou documents are essentially the records of the day-to-day functioning of the Linxiang Marquisate, which was effectively a county, they give us a good sense of the makeup of the county and the ways it functioned in the Wu state. The majority of the Zoumalou documents concern a few of the bureaus (cao 曹) in the county government including the Bureau of Households (hu cao 戶曹), the Bureau of Agriculture (tian cao 田曹), and the Finance bureau ( jin cao 金曹). These were the nexus of the administration in the Linxiang Marquisate. They dispatched attendants (yuan 掾) and officials (li 吏) to conduct various kinds of business, often at the district level. These dispatched officials then would report to the county-level bureaus, which in turn would submit reports to “the office within the gate” (menxia 門下), the administrative centre of the county. Most of the official affairs recorded in the Zoumalou documents are concerned with the county-level units of Linxiang marquisate and the districts it administered. Only in exceptional cases where the situation required authority beyond the jurisdiction of the county did the movement of official documents reach to the level above Linxiang: the Changsha Commandery ( jun 郡). Linxiang was not only connected vertically to the districts below and the Changsha Commandery above, it also maintained active horizontal relations with other commanderies and counties around it, and these are often mentioned in the documents.93 Many of the names of these counties were used 91

Ling Wenchao, “Xinjian ‘quannongyuan liaohe junli fu xiong zi di mudu wenshu’ bushi” 新見 ‘勸農掾料核軍吏父兄子弟木牘文書’ 補釋, Zhongguo zhonggushi jikan 3 (2017), 68–72. 92 Document 1.4985, translated in Chapter Three, Section 2. 93 These include You 攸, Xiajun 下雋, Luo 羅, Liling 醴陵, Liandao 連道, Yiyang 益陽, Chong’an 重安, Ancheng 安成, Chaling 茶陵, Lingdao 泠道, Wuchang 吴昌, Liuyang

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for centuries afterwards and some persist to this day, allowing us therefore to have a general sense of their locations. Most were subordinate to Changsha Commandery but some belonged to neighbouring commanderies such as Lingling 零陵.94 As mentioned above, the Zoumalou documents include the names of many districts, only eleven of which were located in Linxiang County. Most of the rest belonged to the other counties whose names are mentioned in the documents.95 These counties are included in the Zoumalou documents in various scenarios. Often, they preceded people’s names, indicating their geographical affiliation.96 Because the Zoumalou documents belonged to Linxiang, those from other counties would often be clearly marked, signifying that they were not local. In particular, artisans from counties other than Linxiang often appear in the Zoumalou documents. This implies the higher mobility of this group of people over some other groups. Naturally, the names of counties other than Linxiang also appear in records of people who fled to other counties.97 Above the level of counties, many other commanderies are mentioned in Zoumalou documents, including Jianye 建業, Wuchang 武昌, South Commandery 南郡, Runan 汝南, Chenliu 陳留, Lujiang 廬江, Nanyang 南陽, Zhangling 章陵, Wuling 武陵, Lingling 零陵, Guiyang 桂陽, Jiangxia 江 夏, Yidu 宜都, and Qichun 蘄春. Some of these, such as Runan and Chenliu, were under the control of Cao Wei, not Sun Wu. Apart from being officially a marquisate instead of a county, Linxiang was also unusual in that it was located in the same town of commandery that oversaw it, namely Changsha Commandery. Obviously, the county offices had close connections with those of the commandery. At least two Governors of Changsha Commandery appear in the Zoumalou documents, neither of whom is mentioned in transmitted sources. One of them, Yu Wang, is recorded as having “dispatched” someone to carry out a task.98 The other one, who is only known with the surname Zhuge, appears in a document as the recipient of a petition.99 In several other cases, the term “Governor” fujun 府君 was used, 劉陽, Yongxin 永新, Jianning 建寧, Xiangxi 湘西, and Shian 始安. For the approximate locations of many of these, see Tan Qixiang 譚其驤, ed., Zhongguo lishi dituji 中國歷史 地圖集 Vol. 3 (Shanghai: Zhonghua dituxue she, 1975). 94 Some of them were later put under the jurisdiction of newly formed commanderies such as Hengyang 衡陽郡 and Xiangdong 湘東郡, which is important to know when trying to determine their locations. 95 For instance, Ancheng County included Chang 昌 and Xinci 新茨 districts: Xiong Qu, “Changsha Zoumalou Wu jian zhong de shibu ji xiangguan wenti” 長沙走馬樓吴簡中 的市布及相關問題, Zhongguo zhonggushi yanjiu (2021.9), 129–146. 96 For example, 1.6704/12. 97 Such as 1.7454/13. 98 1.7270; 3.1049. 99 7.4107.

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which was an honorific term for the commandery governors in the Han and Three Kingdoms periods.100 The Governor issued commands to officials in the Linxiang County, as seen in documents that starts with “the Fujun commands” ( fujun jiao 府君教).101 The fairly large number of documents that bear the title of fujun seems to suggest his direct, if also limited, involvement in the affairs of the county. In certain other exceptionally grave and particularly egregious cases, such as the Xu Di case discussed below, governors also appear in our documents.102 The office of Postal Inspector (duyou 督郵) stood somewhere between the county and the commandery. It was an office that began, unsurprisingly, with works related to the postal system, but over time came to include supervisory duties. The Changsha Commandery was divided into five postal inspection regions: Central, East, and West and two others.103 Because of the central location of Linxiang, the Postal-Inspector of Central Region (zhong bu 中部) directly engaged in organizing tax collection, among other duties.104 Beyond the Changsha Commandery, other branches of the Wu state were also occasionally mentioned in the archive of the Linxiang marquisate, notably in times of war. For instance, between 231 and 234 Pan Jun led an army of 50,000 to the Wuling area in order to conquer the Wuling Man. This was just over 160 kilometres west of Linxiang. Because of the proximity to the conflict zone, Linxiang was heavily involved in this campaign, the traces of which show up here and there in the Zoumalou documents. A provisional post titled Commandant Supervising Military Provisions (du junliang duwei 督軍糧都 尉) appears as the one in charge of the movement of military supplies.105 This Commandant (duwei 都尉) fell under the jurisdiction of the Commissioner ( jiedu 節度), a provisional yet powerful system that had been created recently in the Wu state to coordinate military supplies.106 The grains transmitted for the military purpose included “rice purchased with sauce” ( jiangjia mi 醬賈米), “rice purchased with salt” (yanjia mi 鹽賈米) and “tax rice” (shuimi 稅米).107 100 7.4108. 101 2.3620. 102 In the Xu Di case, we see the Governor’s signature. See Wang Su, “‘Huanuo’ wenti zongheng tan: yi Changsha Han Wu jiandu wei zhongxin” ‘畫諾’ 問題縱橫談：以長沙漢吴 簡牘為中心, Zhonghua wenshi luncong (2017.1), 121–136. 103 See 5.3207, 5.7382, 6.4704, and 7.3142. 104 Luo Xin 羅新, “Wu jian suojian zhi duyou zhidu” 吴簡所見之督郵制度, Wu jian yanjiu 1 (Wuhan: Chongwen, 2004), 310–316. 105 4.4903/5. 106 Luo Xin, “Wu jian zhong de ‘dujun liang duwei’ jian” 吴簡中的 ‘督軍糧都尉’ 簡, Lishi yanjiu (2001.4), 168–170. 107 Dai Weihong 戴衛紅, “Changsha Zoumalou Wu jian zhong junliang diaopei wenti chutan” 長沙走馬樓吴簡中軍糧調配問題初探, Jianbo yanjiu 2007 (2010), 204–224.

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On a lesser scale, the Linxiang region also supplied grain to the armies of Lü Dai who had arrived in Changsha in 231 and was serving as the General for Supressing the South, as mentioned above.108 There is even a record related to Jiaozhou, in the Red River delta, which is now in Vietnam but was actually the most populous part of the Han empire south of the Yangzi Basin.109 The granaries of the Linxiang county were used to support military activity wherever the government deemed it necessary, even when it was occurring hundreds of kilometres away. This ability to draw on the resources of large regions to fund their militaries is a good example of why the early empires were so successful at conquering territory and defeating any groups that opposed them. The central government of Wu only appears very occasionally in the Zoumalou documents. One interesting document mentions the delivery of goods to the Jianye Palace, at the Wu capital.110 There are other references “private scholars” being sent to a palace (gong 宮), though this probably refers to a palace in Wuchang.111 Wuchang—located about 70 kilometres east of the current city of the same name (now part of Wuhan)—was the capital of the Wu state before 229, when it moved its capital to Jianye (modern Nanjing) eastward along the Yangtze River. After the move of the capital, the heir-apparent Sun Deng 孫登 (209–241) was stationed at the Wuchang Palace. Wuchang also appears in the context of delegates being dispatched there, and is also mentioned with regard to issues of weapons, taxes and loaned rice.112 However, judging from the limited number of documents preserved, these cases of direct contact between Linxiang and the central government of the Wu state were the exception rather than the rule. Because of the nature of the Zoumalou documents, we have a particularly rich amount of information about governmental institution that collected taxes and other resources. The county treasury (ku 庫) took in coins, cloths, and other miscellaneous items such as hides, whereas the granary (cang 倉) was in charge of collecting grain. The main treasury mentioned in the documents was the county/marquisate level treasury. Yet this treasury was not under the jurisdiction of the Linxiang marquisate, but directly answered orders from the Changsha Commandery, or higher institutions including the central

108 109 110 111

1.2303, 1.2354. 8.641. 4.3835. 4.4547, 4.4548, 4.4549. Ling Wenchao, “Zoumalou Wu jian ju sixue bu zhengli yu yanjiu: jianlun Sun Wu de zhanmu” 走馬樓吴簡舉私學簿整理與研究：兼論孫吴的占募, Wenshi (2014.2), 42–43. 112 Wang, Song and Luo, Xinshouhuo, 42.

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government.113 In the process of collecting coins and clothes, documents that record daily entries of goods into the treasury were created as these goods were delivered by commoners or servants (often identified with their name and the name of the hill they resided) to the treasury official (kuli 庫吏). These “certificates” (bie 莂) were produced in triplicate and served as the original record of transaction, and the three copies were given to the treasury or granary officials, the treasury or granary bureau, and to the deliverer, though in fact the latter copy was usually given to the district. For coins collected, we know that on the first day of each month, an accounting of the coins was made that included four categories: 1) the coins that was carried over from the previous month, 2) the newly entered coins, 3) the expended coins, and 4) the remaining coins. These document were called “first day of the month registers” (yuedan bu 月 旦簿). They are the records of the coin paid as regular taxes. Separate from the coin registers, there are also registers of the state temporarily collecting levies of goods like cloth that seem to have been created to summarize the income collected during specific periods.114 The granaries functioned similarly to the treasuries, though they collected different goods. Two granaries are well attested among the Zoumalou documents: a county level granary called the Three Provinces Granary, which we will henceforth refer to by its Chinese name, the Sanzhou 三州 granary, and a larger one known as the Central Provincial Granary (zhouzhong cang 州中 倉), which was a commandery or county level granary. The dige 邸閣 was an institution that managed both granaries. The dige was an oversight institution that controlled the flow of grain in and out of the granary.115 The granaries and treasuries are important because they were the channels through which taxation, a central function of county governments, was managed and mediated. 8 Taxation The Zoumalou collection includes many types of documents, and they touch on different aspects of the lives of residents of Linxiang. But if one were to choose one central theme of these documents, it would be taxation. This is not 113 Shen Gang, Changsha Zoumalou Sanguo Wu jian yanjiu, 72–73. 114 See, for example, documents 7.4820 and 1.8197. 115 Wang Su 王素, “Zhong Ri Changsha Wu jian yanjiu shuping” 中日長沙吴簡研究述評, Gugong xuekan 3 (2006), 528–560. For a reconstruction of the bureaucratic process of grain delivery, see Taniguchi Takehaya 谷口建速, Chōsa Sōmarō gokan no kenkyū: sōko kanrenbo yori miru Songo seiken no chihō zaisei 長沙走馬楼呉簡の研究：倉庫関連簿 よりみる孫呉政権の地方財政 (Tōkyō: Waseda daigaku shuppanbu, 2016).

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surprising since taxation is the basis of political power. As in the Qin and Han empires, people were required to pay some of their harvests to the government in the form of taxes, and then do labour service during the agricultural off season, or military service. In the absence of long-distance grain transport and widespread markets, the grain tax and the labour were both necessary since it was corvée labourers who ate the grain that they paid in taxes. Without the labourers, the state would not have had any use for the grain.116 Most people had very little interaction with agents of the state, and one of the few times of the year when they did interact was when people paid taxes and did labour service. Taxation and labour service connected the population and the government, the two major protagonists of the Zoumalou documents. Since warfare had decimated the population, there was no lack of arable land. Households effectively owned their own land, which they registered with the government. Some scholars have argued that land was state-owned, reading the phrase diantian 佃田 as “tenant fields,” but Hou Xudong has convincingly argued that in the Zoumalou documents it just means “to cultivate fields”117 Registering land guaranteed people’s ownership of it but required them to pay taxes and perform labour service. Although we now know that this was a relatively peaceful period in this region, Wu officials knew that large-scale warfare could break out at any time and prepared for it by collecting as much tax as they could without causing internal unrest. To achieve this goal, Wu taxed many domains of the economic life of its population. The many types of taxes collected by the Wu government could themselves be the topic of a book. There are several ways we could divide Wu’s taxes for the purpose of analysis. First, according to the basis of tax collection, these taxes include ones that were levied on individuals, households, land, and other property, and on commercial transactions. Second, we can consider what forms the state collected taxes in, namely grain, coins, woven cloth, skins, and other goods. Third, a rough distinction can be made between regular taxes and ad hoc collections. These three broad divisions intersected with one another, producing a complicated world of taxation for the residents of Linxiang to navigate. In this section, we will briefly describe the taxation system according to social categories on which taxation was imposed, leaving some of the details to the translation chapter. Table 1 summarizes the major types of taxes discussed below. 116 On taxation, labour service, and state power in early China, see Lander, The King’s Harvest. 117 Hou Xudong 侯旭東, “Zoumalou zhujian de xianmi yu tianmu jilu: cong ‘tian’ de leixing yu ma ‘mi’ leixing de guanxi shuo qi” 走馬樓竹簡的限米與田畝記錄：从 ‘田’ 的類型 與納 ‘米’ 類型的關係說起, in Wu jian yanjiu, vol. 2 (Wuhan: Chongwen, 2006), 158–175.

copper

hide

cloth

grains

coins

Goods

口筭皮

Poll tax in hides

Poll coins paid by adults 大口 and minors 小口; suan 筭, kouqian 口筭錢 and rotation coins gengqian 更錢 quota rice 限米

Individual

Household property 訾

加臧米

shui tax rice 稅米 田畝布

品布

租米

Discounted rice 折減米, added embezzled rice

Zu tax rice

field tax cloth

銅戶品

Copper by household grade

Procedural

Agricultural Materials coins tax paid in 財用錢; sale coins 田畝錢; coins 估錢 hay coins 蒭錢

Land

Household cloth

用錢

Coins paid based Coins paid on household according to grade (戶品出錢); property (zi 訾) materials coins 財

Household grade 品

Taxation in the Zoumalou documents

Taxation Basis

Table 1

牛皮

Skin and hooves of sacrificed cattle 祠祀

Rice paid for: sauce 醬賈米, pond produce 池賈米, salt 鹽賈米, market tax 市租米 market cloth 市布

Coins paid on merchants 賈錢, alcohol 酒租錢, ceramics 陶 租錢, markets 市租錢, renting land 地僦錢, etc.

Commercial transactions

46 Chapter 1

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While some taxes were levied on households, others were levied on individuals. These are called “poll” taxes in English because “poll” originally meant “head,” which is similar to the Chinese use of “mouth” (kou 口) to indicate a taxable person. The most basic kind of individual poll tax was called suan 算, which was levied in coins. Adults aged 15–59 paid 120 coins in suan poll tax. In addition people over 15 were classified as adults (da 大) and paid 28 kou poll tax coins as well as 5 coins for each child under 15 (xiao 小). Such taxes on individuals were so central to a person’s relation with the state that household registers often include information like the following: “of three household members, two should pay adult kou tax; of the two who are supposed to pay suan tax, one is paying it.”118 There is still some debate about the exact meaning of these terms. But the fact that the requirement to pay the poll tax was included in the household registers indicates the central role of poll tax in Wu’s taxation system.119 Related are other forms of poll tax paid in the skins of deer and other animal skins. In addition to tax, corvée labour was the other major kind of burden the Wu state imposed on its population on an individual basis. Officials could convert the corvée requirement to a tax if they did not need the labour. Because corvée labour was imposed on individuals, the tax that was paid in lieu of corvée labour also targeted individuals. Geng 更 (meaning “rotation”) originally signified the corvée labour that the government imposed on the population on a rotated basis, and became the name of a coin payment in lieu of such labour service.120 Since individuals did not all have the same relation with the state, their tax responsibilities also varied. The regularly registered population paid poll-tax in the form of coins. Some had a special relation with the Wu state that required them to pay a different type of tax, namely the requirement to cultivate a certain area of “quota” (xian 限) land and pay a fixed amount of grain as tax on it. Since the amount of grain that the person had to pay was fixed, often at 2 hu per mu, the government assigned a person a fixed amount of land and required a fixed amount of rice in payment, which was called “quota rice” (xianmi 限米). Some or all of this land was on state-owned agricultural colonies (tuntian 屯 田). It was levied on people with certain specific identities, including private 118 口三事二 筭二事一. For examples, see the Household Taxation Registers section (2.2.1) of Chapter 3. 119 Han Shufeng 韓樹峰, “Wu jian zhong de kousuan qian” 吴簡中的口算錢, Lishi yanjiu (2001.4), 171–172. 120 Gao Min 高敏, “Cong Changsha Zoumalou Wu jian Zhujian yi kan Sun Quan shiqi de kouqian, suanfu zhidu” 從《長沙走馬樓吴簡：竹簡-壹》看孫權時期的口錢、算賦 制度, Shixue yuekan (2006.5), 24–27.

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educated persons (sixue 私學), “servant-guests” (tongke 僮客), “sons and brothers” (zidi 子弟), and “deserted soldiers” (pan shi 叛士/zishou shi 自首士). These people were either not registered as households officially or were attached to other households. In the case of the soldiers who deserted and must have been recaptured and brought back into the Wu state, paying quota rice would have constituted a kind of punishment. Therefore, the “quota rice” was imposed on these individuals rather than on land and was considered a serious burden on top of providing other types of services.121 Taxes required from households, rather than individuals, were primarily based upon property. The property (zi 訾) of each household was carefully calculated and listed at the end of the summary slip on the household registers. Households were classified into different grades (pin 品), which were determined on their wealth. Based on the grade of a household, several different types of tax were imposed. First, many documents record the process of “offering coins according to household grades” (hupin chuqian 户品出錢). The three grades of old eligible tax-paying households each were required to pay 12,000 coins (for high grade), 8,000 coins (for medium grade), and 4,400 coins (for lower grade). As mentioned above, there was also a grade below the lower grade for particularly poor households, and it seems possible that they did not pay such tax. Another type of tax paid in cloth was called “household cloth” (lit. “grade cloth” pinbu 品布), meaning cloth tax imposed according to the household grades.122 This topic is much debated because household cloth was closely connected to the kind of tax known as “household levies” (hudiao 戶調), which was to become a significant form of taxation from the Wei 魏 and Jin 晉 dynasties onward. At this time, however, household cloth was mostly likely levied in an hoc fashion. Hay coins chuqian 芻 (or 蒭) 錢 were supposedly paid in lieu of hay, though this tax had been commuted into coins for centuries by this time and probably had no connection with its original purpose.

121 “In all families of officials of five people, three of them must perform corvée labour again, father and his eldest in the capital, sons and younger sons did service for the officials of commanderies and counties. Once they have paid their quota rice, as soon as the army heads out they follow it again. As for family affairs, there was nobody to organize and maintain them. I am aggrieved about it!” 諸吏家有五人三人兼重為役，父兄 在都，子弟給郡縣吏，既出限米，軍出又從，至於家事無經護者，朕甚愍之 San guo zhi, 48.1157. 122 Ling Wenchao, “Zoumalou Wu jian caiji kubu zangbu tixi zhengli yu yanjiu: jianlun Sun Wu de hudiao” 走馬樓吴簡採集庫布賬簿體系整理與研究：兼論孫吴的戶調, Wenshi (2012.1), 53–110.

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These coins were collected according to landholdings.123 Similarly, other types of materials such copper were collected from households. The system of land tax seen in the Zoumalou documents was a mixture of Han imperial practices and recent innovations. Many of the terms that officials employed no longer had any connection with the reason they were originally created. For instance, the distinction between zu 租 tax and shui 稅 tax had existed since the Warring States period. In theory, shui was the standard tax while zu was supposed to be a tax for specific purposes. Such distinctions had blurred over time, but the two terms were still distinguished in Wu.124 The best source on the land tax in the Zoumalou documents are the tianjia certificates.125 Because they were the first group of Zoumalou documents published in large quantities, much research has been devoted to land taxation. We know from these certificates that rice was not the only thing collected, but, at least in theory, coins and clothes were too. The land taxed in the tianjia certificates was distinguished by three standards, the first of which was administrative, the other two related to the physical characteristics of the fields. We will briefly explain the tax system they describe here, but leave the details for Chapter Three. The first division was into two administrative categories. The main one can be translated “two-year routine regular fields” (ernian changxian tian 二年 常限田) , which seems to have indicated a minimum area of land farmers were expected to work and pay taxes on. The other category was “spare labour fire planted fields” (yuli tian 餘力火種田), land that farmers could cultivate if they had already cultivated all of their regular quota fields. This system required people to pay a certain amount of tax, and also encouraged them to produce more by taxing any extra production at a lower rate. The second way of dividing land was according to whether it was irrigated or not. Irrigated fields were simply called “irrigated fields” gaitian 溉田, while non-irrigated fields were called “fire planted fields” huozhong tian 火種田. The third division of land was by harvest. Those with normal harvests were known as “ripe land” (shutian 熟田); because they could be expected to produce fixed amount of rice due to their productivity. They were also known as “fixed rate land” (dingshou tian 定收田). Land whose harvest was reduced by at least 40% because of droughts and other factors was known as “barren land” (hantian 123 Hu Pingsheng 胡平生, “Changsha Zoumalou Wu jian di er juan shiwen jiaozheng” 長沙 走馬樓吴簡第二卷釋文校證, Chutu wenxian yanjiu 7 (2005), 112–133. 124 The meaning of these terms in the Han is not clear: Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 944. 125 See Translation, Section 1.

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旱田). The regular quota fields were taxed more heavily than the surplus land, and the ripe land heavier than the barren land. The specific rate of the 4th Jiahe year can be specified as follows:126

two-year regular quote fields that were ripe: rice: 1.2 hu  +  cloth: 2 chi + coins: 70 two-year regular quota fields with a poor harvest: rice: none + cloth: 6 cun 6 fen + coins 37 spare labour fire-planted fields that were ripe: rice: 0.456 hu  +  cloth: 2 chi + coins: 70 + an additional five sheng surplus charge per hu spare labour fire planted fields with a poor harvest: rice: none + cloth: 6 cun 6 fen + coins 37127 These different rates were applied to each individual household, producing a specific amount for land tax. Linxiang was quite commercialized, and the government collected all kinds of taxes in the form of coins. Generally speaking, a commercial transaction was taxed twice by the government. The first tax was levied on merchants, in particular those who ran businesses in urban markets. They paid coins in the form of “market tax coins” (shizu qian 市租錢). Another potentially similar type of coin payment is called “commercial land coins” (dijiu qian 地僦錢), though the nature of this tax is debated. Some consider it payments by people who rented space in the city for business purposes. But because the amount of this tax in many documents are uniformly 500 coins, it is difficult to imagine such uniformity existing in the real world. Based on the language used that associates these taxes with land gifted to the Marquis of Linxiang, scholars have proposed the more likely scenario that this particular kind of money was paid to the Marquis of Linxiang himself directly as part of his benefit of owning land offered by the government.128 In addition to taxing merchants, the 126 The standard measure of volume was a hu 斛, which was about 20 litres. Each hu was divided into 10 dou 斗, 100 sheng 升 and 1000 ge 合, which means that the latter was about 20 ml. The standard measures of length were chi 尺, which grew from about 23.1 cm in the Han to 24.2 in the Three Kingdoms-Jin period. The standard measure of land area was a mu, which was derived from the chi measure (a mu was 240 square bu 步; each bu was 6 chi) and in the Han was around 457 m². 100 mu made one qing 頃. 127 Hu Pingsheng 胡平生, “Jiahe si nian limin tianjiabie yanjiu” 嘉禾四年吏民田家莂研究, in Changsha shi kaogu wenu yanjiusuo, ed., Changsha Wu jian ji bainian lai jianbo faxian yu yanjiu guoji xueshu yantaohui lunwenji 長沙吴簡暨百年來簡帛發現與研究 國際學術研討會論文集 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2005), 4–21. 128 The language in question is “收責食地僦錢.” Shen Gang, Changsha Zoumalou Sanguo zhujian yanjiu, 121–133.

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second type of taxation targeted commercial transactions and was called 估.129 In cases of slave-trading, for instance, the gu tax was 10% of the price paid. Another, more direct way in which the Linxiang government engaged with the market was as a trading party, as the government sold or loaned out resources, producing various types taxes on commercial transactions (“sale coins” jia qian 賈錢), including “cattle sale coins” (niujia qian 牛賈錢), “hide sale coins” (pijia qian 皮賈錢) and “hoe sale coins” (huajia qian 鋘賈錢). These were not taxes, but like the taxes in coins, they constituted a part of the income of the Wu state and entered its treasury. It is interesting that while the Wu government was paid in coins in exchange for things having to do with cattle and agriculture, its other major governmentally controlled enterprise, the salt monopoly, resulted in income paid in rice (all rice recorded in Zoumalou documents or other Qin-Han slips was unhusked). Therefore, we see records of salt and also the products of ponds being exchanged to buy rice.130 In these cases, the Linxiang government sold goods to obtain rice. A final type of tax seen in the Zoumalou documents is what we call “procedural,” the tax added on top of existing taxation or other administrative processes to offset the cost of maintaining these procedures. For example, “coins used [to obtain] resources” (caiyong qian 財用錢) was supposedly collected to pay for the government’s daily material expenditures including the purchase of writing materials, but may not have been used for that purpose.131 This kind of tax, which we henceforth translate as “materials coins,” was levied on households. Similarly, households paid rice as a procedural tax for the functioning of the government itself, since rice was used in the process of transportation and storage. For instance, “discounted and reduced rice” (zhexian mi 折咸[減]米) indicates rice given to discount the amount expanded in the process of transportation. This type of rice is often associated with masters of boats (chuanshi 船師), implying that rice was often transported by water, befitting Changsha’s location on the Xiang River. Related to this is the term “water-damaged rice” (ze mi 漬米), which may refer not to rice which has suffered water damage, but to good rice provided to compensate for rice destroyed by moisture. “Added embezzled rice” ( jia zang mi 加臧米) indicates rice that was returned after being embezzled. “Confiscated rice” (moru mi 沒入米) indicates rice that was 129 The commercial tax rate is not well understood, but it may have been about 4% for the central government and 6% for the commandery. 130 These were called yanjia mi 鹽賈米 and chijia mi 池賈米 (perhaps referring to fish). Jia 賈 is the same word that later came to be written jia 價, meaning “price, value.” Luo Xin, “Jianchi sima jian ji xiangguan wenti” 監池司馬簡及相關問題, Wu jian yanjiu 1 (2004), 119–130. 131 He Limin, “Qianlun Hunan Changsha Zoumalou Sanguo Wu jian zhong de ‘caiyong qian’” 淺論湖南長沙走馬樓三國吴簡中的 ‘財用錢’, Shijie jingji qingkuang (2011.2), 58–63.

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confiscated from families of rebels and betraying officials. “Interest rice” (xi mi 息米) indicates rice generated as interest of borrowed rice. An intriguing type of tax only found in the Zoumalou material are hehei qian 何(呵)黑錢, which literally means “coins for hollering at night,” and is assumed to have referred to coins used to pay night watchmen. It is clear that the Wu state retained earlier forms of tax while also inventing new ones. These procedural taxes shows that, in addition to the already heavy (and bewilderingly complex) burden placed on the local population, they were also required to provide additional funds for the support of local governments. As large sums of coins, grain, and clothes were collected by the state, we see in the record by the treasury in Linxiang tremendous amounts of coins, exceeding 2 million at a time.132 The Wu state found a wide variety of reasons to extract taxes, and we can be sure that many people found ways to avoid being registered and taxed at all. While many of the documents concern the collection and storage of tax income, we also have some information about how the Wu government used its income. Much of the grain received in tax was used to feed people working for the state. The most obvious avenue of expenditure was the military campaigns and preparations that consumed much of the resources that belonged to the Wu state. Incidentally, this was not simply due to the particularly volatile political situation at the time; pre-industrial states often devoted much of their resources to militaries. Because corvée labour played an important role in the political system, feeding those labourers also used large amounts of grain. Other grain was used to pay (and feed) officials, which is called “salary rice” (bingmi 稟米). And there is evidence that it was even given sometimes to commoners and soldiers.133 The Wu state also regularly spent these coins to buy various types of things.134 But the information about spending is not nearly as comprehensive as that on income. 9

The Xu Di Embezzlement Case and the Limits of State Control

Because most of the documents from the well at Zoumalou are administrative registers, they tell few stories about the people recorded in them. The only narratives in the Zoumalou documents are found in the legal proceedings of two

132 See document 1.1144. 133 See document 1.3085. 134 Gao Min, “Cong Changsha Zoumalou Wu jian Zhujian yi kan Sun Quan shiqi de kouqian, suanfu zhidu.”

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embezzlement cases, those of Xu Di 許迪 and Zhu Biao 朱表.135 Those of Xu Di are particularly detailed. Xu was an official in charge of the management of governmental salt who was found guilty of committing embezzlement of official rice. Since this case touched upon many different aspects of the local government, various different records about it were kept and rediscovered among the Zoumalou documents. Because of their unique nature and the light the case shed on the bureaucratic and legal practices of the time, the Xu Di documents have drawn intense scholarly interest and are among the most studied Zoumalou documents. The Xu Di case itself has been clarified through painstaking collation of different documents. Xu Di assumed his first official post in 216, gradually moved up the bureaucratic ladder and by early 230s was in charge of the official salt monopoly in Lukou 淕口. His responsibility there was to exchange official salt for rice, coins and other various kinds of goods. According to one version of the case, in 231, Xu Di oversaw the payment of 1724.9 hu of salt to obtain 9782.78 hu of rice. Of this, he delivered 9670.1 hu to the granary clerk and embezzled 112.68 hu. The discrepancy in the amount of rice was discovered and reported by a clerk at the granary. In 235, the case was examined by officials from the county, who found him guilty and he was sentenced to death by decapitation. As the county was not allowed to manage crimes involving capital punishment on its own, the case was reported to the commandery level, at which time Xu Di reversed his testimony and argued that he only pleaded guilty after torture, and that the “embezzled” rice was in fact the amount he kept for the cost of transporting and processing the bulk of the exchanged rice. This reversal triggered an investigation from the commandery level that, perhaps ironically, involved more torture, both of Xu Di and of the officials in charge of the original trial. As a result, Xu Di reversed himself yet again and confessed to all of the crimes. In 237, six years after the original crime, the final verdict was determined: Xu Di was sentenced to death by decapitation at the market according to military law, his wife and two sons were to become governmental slaves. His mother, because of her seniority (85 years of age), was spared of any punishment. His two brothers, though not directly involved in the case, were required to repay the price of the embezzled rice in coins. The Xu Di case indicates a strict system of fiscal control that not only metes out punishment for the offenders (and their family members), but also insists on the repayment of embezzled funds 135 Xu Chang 徐暢, “Xin kan Zoumalou Wu jian yu Xu Di ge mi an sifa chengxu de fuyuan” 新刊走馬樓吴簡與許迪割米案司法程序的復原, Wenwu (2015.12), 71–83. Another interesting example concerns a certain Zhu Biao 朱表 who embezzled even more grain in a more complicated case. See Chen Rongjie, “Zoumalou Wu jian ‘Zhu Biao gemi zishou an’ zhengli yu yanjiu” 走馬樓吴簡 ‘朱表割米自首案’ 整理與研究, Zhonghua wenshi luncong 125.1 (2017), 219–260.

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(in the form of coins). Such insistence is also seen elsewhere when the slips refer to the kind repaid rice.136 In the end, the state did win out over one of its misbehaving officials. Apart from providing useful insights into a type of crime that may have often passed unnoticed, Xu Di case also reveals how different levels and branches of the government connected to and interacted with one another. At the time of the breaking of the case, Xu was a commandery level official ( junli 郡吏) in charge of salt monopoly. He took advantage of his position and embezzled a large amount of rice. His misdeed was discovered by a lowly “clerk assistant” (cong shiwei 从史位) and reported to the Linxiang county government. This case was initially handled by the chancellor of the marquisate, the head of the county government. But because Xu Di was a commandery level official, it soon involved the commandery level Postal Supervisor (duyou 督郵), who was in charge of the inspection of governmental matters. The initial sentence of death penalty and Xu Di’s decision to retract his confession further complicated the case and brought in the Governor (taishou 太守) of Changsha commandery himself as well as the Supervising General (dujun duwei 督軍都 尉) dispatched by the Censorate (yushi tai 御史臺) of the central government in Jianye. The references to “palace” that occurs in documents about personnel movements also shows the connection between the capital and the local governmental management in Linxiang.137 In the more complicated Zhu Biao case, even Sun Quan himself was directly involved. These examples show that, when significant administrative incidents like these corruption cases occurred, institutions usually far removed from the world of Linxiang can be implicated and brought into the documents found in Zoumalou. They might even have been brought in to increase the impartiality of the case. These cases also reveal that corruption was not a rare occurrence in the Wu state, and these two cases could not have been the only examples of such phenomena. The cases of corruption more damaging to the revenue of the state, one might assume, should be the ones that were not detected by the state. Indeed, scholars have found evidence of inconsistency in the numbers of the grain tax records that might also point to such undetected corruption.138 136 Wei Bin 魏斌, “Zoumalou chutu Sun Wu ‘jiazangmi’ jian shilun” 走馬樓出土孫吴 ‘加臧 米’ 簡試論, Wei Jin Nanbeichao Sui Tang shi ziliao 25 (2009), 1–18. 137 Ling Wenchao, “Zoumalou Wu jian zhong suojian de ‘gong’” 走馬樓吴簡中所見的 ‘宮’, Chutu wenxian 7 (2015), 254–266. 138 Su Junlin 蘇俊林, “Jiahe limin tianjiabie suojian Sun Wu jiceng Liyuan de wubi shoufa” 嘉禾吏民田家莂所見孫吴基層吏員的舞弊手法, Hunan sheng bowuguan guankan 11 (2014), 395–402.

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This type of routine erosion into the revenue of the state could prove to be of most lasting damage. Xu Di’s capital punishment suggest that corruption was considered a significant problem by the central government. Therefore, even though our sources are extremely biased toward displaying elements of administration that functioned, evidence does indicate certain limits to the power of the Wu state. In addition to the military threats from the Wei and the Shu states as well as from the Man “barbarians,” the Wu state also had to deal with the population that frequently found ways to escape state control, potentially into the mountainous areas to the south and west, and the officials who committed routine or extraordinary practices of corruption. And the Wu state’s preparedness for the external threat was likely threatened by such internal erosion. 10

The Story of Xia Long

The documents summarized above shows a world animated by military threat and organized by bureaucratic regulations and social control. These documents may appear dry and formulaic, but it is important to be reminded that the real world of Linxiang in the early third century was surely more colourful than our administrative documents allow us to see. Occasionally, the fortuitous connection between a Zoumalou document and transmitted sources allow us to recover some of this colourfulness, and to see the distinction between the administrative nature of the documents in Zoumalou and narrative nature of texts in transmitted sources. Among the Zoumalou documents, we find a slip that was the beginning of entry of a household register: 宜陽里戶人公乘夏隆，年卌一，真吏。

Yiyang canton, householder Xia Long, of gongsheng rank, Age 41. Real Official. From the fragments of Xia Long’s household registers that remained, we know that he had three sons who were 11, 8, and 6 years old at the time of the making of the documents. In addition, there were two slaves, one male (42 years old) and one female (13 years old). Altogether, his family consisted of nine members, with a property tax of 100 coins. This is one among hundreds of similar entries of household registers. Even for people who belonged to the same social group: householders with gongsheng rank who were “real officials” (zhenli

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真吏) from the Yiyang canton, Xia Long was only one among over two dozen.139 What makes this record interesting and this person unique is the fact that a man who is probably the same Xia Long is mentioned in a text called Biographies of Old Venerables of Changsha 長沙耆舊傳:140 夏隆，字叔仁，長沙臨湘之人也。丁母憂，居喪過禮。[遂患風濕，   一腳偏枯]。同郡徐元休，弱冠知名，聞而弔焉。旬日積剌盈案。

Xia Long, style name Shuren, was a man from Linxiang County of Changsha Commandery. During the mourning period for his mother, his observance of the mourning exceeded that proscribed by the rituals. Thus, he suffered rheumatoid arthritis and one of his feet became crippled. Xu Yuanxiu from the same commandery, who has been renowned ever since he reached adulthood, heard about [Xia Long’s deed] and went to send his condolence. Within ten days, the name cards of [those who also went to offer their condolences] accumulated so much that they covered his whole desk. 夏隆仕郡時，潘濬為南征，太守遣隆修書致禮。濬飛帆中流，力所 不及。隆乃於岸邊拔刀大呼，指濬為賊，因此被收。濬奇其以權變 自通，解縛，賜以酒食。

When Xia Long served in the commandery, Pan Jun was conducting his campaign to the south. The commandery governor sent Xia Long to compose a letter and provide gifts (for Pan Jun). Pan Jun’s flying sails were in the middle of the river and Xia Long was not capable of reaching him. Long then unsheathed his sword and yelled from the bank on the other side, accusing Jun of being a bandit. Therefore, Xia Long was captured. Afterwards, Pan Jun marvelled at the quickness of his mind to get through (a difficult situation), released him, and offered him wine and food.

139 For a collection of these people, see Han Shufeng 韓樹峰, “Zoumalou Wu jian zhong de ‘zhenli’ yu ‘jili’” 走馬樓吴簡中的 ‘真吏’ 與 ‘給吏’, Wu jian yanjiu 2 (2006), 25–40. 140 The first episode is preserved in the Sui-Tang-era Bei tang shu chao 北堂書鈔, with the sentence “Thus, he suffered rheumatoid arthritis and one of his feet became crippled” supplemented from the citation of this passage in the Song-era Taiping yulan 太平御覽. The second episode is from Taiping yulan. For the relation between these texts and the preserved parts of the Changsha qiujiu zhuan 長沙耆舊傳, See Xiong Ming 熊明, ed., Han Wei Liuchao zazhuan ji 漢魏六朝雜傳集 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2017), 1816–1817.

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We are lucky to have this account because only fragments of the Biographies of Old Venerables of Changsha have been passed down. In this case, instead of being preserved by the oxygen-free waters of a well, passages of the Biographies were copied into encyclopaedias in the Tang and the Song periods. We surmise that this Xia Long may well be the same person from the Zoumalou slips because of the similarities in background, time of appearance, and social activities. When put together, these sources allow us to reconstruct the trajectory of the life of a low-level official in third century south China. Xia Long was from the Linxiang area. Like most men in the Linxiang region at this time, he likely married in his twenties, and had his first son when he was thirty. He subsequently had at least three more sons and a daughter, and by the time he was forty-one, his family grew to include nine members, including two slaves. Because the records of Xia Long’s family are incomplete, we do not know whether the nine members in the register included his mother. Therefore, it is difficult to know if the story of Xia’s mourning of his mother preserved in the Biographies of Old Venerables of Changsha happened before or after this registration of Xia’s family members from Zoumalou. The register does not mention any disability in relation to Xia Long, whereas according to the story, one of Xia’s feet was crippled during the mourning period. On the basis of this admittedly flimsy evidence, one might venture to guess that Xia’s mother was still alive when this register was made and that she was one of the nine members of the household. Both narratives from the Biographies of Old Venerables of Changsha are about the change of Xia Long’s social status. By acting in a way that was unusual, in both cases, Xia Long was noticed by someone with higher social and cultural standing, and therefore raised his own status. While the first case of mourning beyond ritual norms might have been sincere acts not intended to attract admiration, the second case of quick wit in executing an official order certainly shows his own initiative that raised his own profile in the officialdom. Put together, we see someone without much established fame or status trying to achieve something extraordinary in an uncertain world. It does not really matter if these two Xia Longs were in fact the same person, though we think that they were. Rather, we discuss this unique case to demonstrate that there are real people’s lives and stories behind each name that was copied into the formulaic bureaucratic documents in the Linxiang County office. Only in exceptional cases like this one do we see snippets of the lived world of these names in the documents. The life of Xia Long was certainly neither all mundane like the Zoumalou documents nor all narratively dramatic like the stories from the Biographies of Old Venerables of Changsha. The Zoumalou documents allow us to know many things about Xia and other

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people of Linxiang in the early third century. But behind this unprecedentedly rich collection of documents lies a world of stories and lives that we can only imagine. 11

Zoumalou in Chinese History

The picture presented so far is based on the administrative documents from a span of a few years. These provide a kind of snapshot of various communities of people living in Linxiang in the third century. Our description of these communities acquired from such a socially extensive yet temporally narrow window risk sounding a static: one might have to conclude that the Zoumalou documents only allows us to see what these communities were like at this particular moment. Therefore, it is important to emphasize that the groups of people seen in the Zoumalou documents were undergoing fundamental changes on local, regional, and trans-regional scales that had implications for our understanding of Chinese history in general. Even though the Zoumalou documents were written in the span of a few years, such longer-term changes are still often visible. On the most immediate scale, scholars have noticed the change of tax policies between the fourth year of the Jiahe reign and the fifth. The policy in the fifth year was much simplified and resulted in more accurate calculation among the documents.141 It is doubtful whether the change was significant enough to be called a reform. But such change does reveal how the Wu state was constantly shifting the ways it dealt with resources as it was pressed by the military threat from its neighbours. This knowledge of change contributes to a fuller understanding of the taxation history of the Wu state. On the medium scale, many of the governmental and social developments between the Han and the Jin periods have manifestations of varying degrees of clarity in our documents. For instance, the appearance of cloths taxed on the basis of household grades (pin bu 品布) seems to have foreshadowed the development of taxation policy in later periods. Another medium-scale trend has to do with the fluctuating population in the Changsha region. It is clear that there was a period of rapid increase of registered population in the Changsha region between Western Han and Eastern Han, and the number of people registered in the Zoumalou documents represents a reversal of this process of explosive 141 Gao Min 高敏, “Guanyu Jiahe limin tianjiabie zhong zhouli wenti de pouxi” 關於嘉 禾吏民田家莂中州吏問題的剖析, in his Changsha Zoumalou jiandu yanjiu (Guilin: Guangxi shifan daxue chubanshe, 2008), 54–66.

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increase.142 As mentioned above, the registered population dropped significantly after the fall of the Han, which is partly due to the reduced ability of the government to register people, but probably also represents a real population drop. On the broadest scale, the Zoumalou documents reveal a crucial moment in the transformation of south China and the incorporation of non-Sinitic peoples into Sinitic polities, a process that began in the first millennium BCE. The various “barbarian people” and slaves that were recruited, bought and sold were local peoples of the region flourishing long before the arrival of the empires. The Wu state’s effort to bring them under the control of a distant government was a crucial step in the Sinicization of the region, which continued under in its successor southern states, and subsequently continued to the south and west, where it is an ongoing process.143 The Zoumalou collection is just one of many finds of excavated documents from the central Yangzi region. Finds from the Chu, Qin, Han and Jin periods greatly contributed to our understanding of various aspects of the history of early China. Even in the area around Zoumalou, many recent discoveries (Dongpailou, Shangdejie, Wuyi Guangchang) have been made that can be put in dialogue with Zoumalou documents. Placed in the context of existing discoveries, two aspects of the uniqueness of the Zoumalou collection becomes evident. First, while some of the earlier discoveries are quite substantial, the Zoumalou collection is easily the largest group of documents found from early China. Indeed, this level of detail in the knowledge on local administrative practice and social lives allowed by the Zoumalou documents would only reappear in the medieval collections of Dunhuang and Turfan documents several centuries later. Second, the Zoumalou collection is one of the latest finds of wooden and bamboo documents. Dating to the third century, Zoumalou sits at the threshold of the great transition in Chinese writing medium from wood and bamboo to paper, which is significant because paper rarely preserves and very few local administrative documents have survived from subsequent centuries. Paper was already widespread in early third century South China. Famed Wu official and scholar Kan Ze 闞澤 (d. 243), was said to have worked as a copyist in exchange for paper and pen when he was a poor young man in Kuaiji.144 There is also a mention in the Zoumalou materials of the delivery of a paper 142 Wei Bin, “Danming yu shuangming,” 47. 143 See, e.g., Glahn, “The Country of Streams and Grottoes” (PhD dissertation); Perdue, Exhausting the Earth. 144 Sanguo zhi, 1249.

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document between government units higher than the county and a record of levying paper from districts.145 We therefore know that officials wrote some documents on paper, but it of course has not survived. It would be worthwhile to compare the use of documents in Zoumalou with collections of similar administrative documents on paper from several centuries later that survived in the arid northwest to understand the implications of this great transition. This brief profile of the world of the Zoumalou documents is necessarily incomplete given the nature of our documents, and subject to further revision. Our understanding will improve as new research is carried out to better understand the documents, and as research on other documents from the region are published and studied. Nonetheless, it will be clear from this chapter that we already know far more about third century Changsha than we did before the Zoumalou documents were discovered. 145 See documents 6.612 and 7.4670.

Chapter 2

The Excavation and Collation of the Wu Slips It only took a few weeks to excavate the documents, but the process of collating and publishing them is still going on 27 years later. From the initial excavation of the slips and their eventual publication, archaeologists went through several steps of processing and arranging these documents and they carefully recorded them. This resulted in several numbering systems, each of which can be used to reconstruct the excavation and collation process and therefore understand the original positions of the slips. Rather than burden readers with all of these numbers, the authors of the published volumes thankfully chose to simply number the slips in each of the published volumes of bamboo slips sequentially, though this sequence loosely follows the “de-earthing numbers,” which will be discussed below. For example, the 6749th slip of volume 3 is conventionally cited as “3.6749.” The tianjia certificates were published using a separate numbering system. Anyone wanting to use these materials for research should have a general understanding of the other numbering systems and charts, which are published either at the end of each volume or elsewhere. Here we will briefly explain how these documents were excavated, collated and published in order to explain how scholars go about reconstructing documents.

Figure 2

Well number 22 during excavation

© Brian Lander, Ling Wenchao, and Xin Wen, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004549654_004

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1 Excavation The Zoumalou Wu slips were excavated in October 1996 from well 22 at the site known as Zoumalou in Wuyi Square in downtown Changsha, Hunan.1 There were a total of about 100,000 slips. More than 76,000 slips with writing on them have been compiled and will eventually be published. There were also over 20,000 slips and fragments without visible writing and these will not be published. Most of the documents are bamboo slips ( jian 簡), but there are also wooden tablets (du 牘) and labels (qianpai 籖牌). Well 22 was partially destroyed by construction machinery that was digging the hole in which the slips were discovered. The stacks of slips in the northern half of the well were almost completely dug up by the shovel, carried away as waste and discarded at a dump site known the Xianghu fish farming area (Xianghu yuchang 湘湖漁場) five kilometres away. Upon discovering that the well contained written documents, archaeologists rushed to the dump site and were able to salvage many bamboo slips and most of the tianjia certificates. The strata of slips remaining in the south half of the well were not damaged, and were subsequently scientifically excavated by archaeologists. Thus, the Zoumalou documents are conventionally divided into two categories: “recovered slips” (caiji jian 採集簡) from the dump site, and “excavated slips” ( fajue jian 發掘簡) that were excavated from the well. This division is reflected in the publications: the first three Zhujian volumes contain the recovered slips, the other Zhujian volumes contain excavated slips. We will first discuss the search for “recovered” slips from the dump site, and then turn to the excavation of the well. The recovered slips were severely damaged and mixed up by the construction machinery. According to clues provided by the construction units and earth moving crews that had been working at the dump site, archaeologists searched within a radius of three or four li (one li is 500 metres). Because the construction waste had been dumped without any particular order, they had to conduct the rescue operation by looking at the type and color of the soil as well as what was found within it. The managers of the dump site helped with this. Where archaeologists found soil that resembled soil from the Zoumalou site, they dug trenches every one metre apart within 200 square metres and excavated all materials that had 1 On the discovery and excavation, see: Song Shaohua 宋少華, He Xuhong 何旭紅, “Jiahe yijing chuan qiangu: Changsha Zoumalou Sanguo Sun Wu jinian jiandu fajue sanji” 嘉禾一 井傳千古——長沙走馬樓三國孫吴紀年簡牘發掘散記, Wenwu tiandi 4 (1997): 31–34; Changsha shi wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo et al., Changsha Zoumalou Sanguo Wu jian: Jiahe limin tianjia bie, 1–44; Song Shaohua, “Shiji jingqi: ‘Zoumalou jiandu’ faxian qinli ji” 世紀 驚奇：  ‘走馬樓簡牘’發現親歷記, Dazhong kaogu 9 (2014): 32–37.

The Excavation and Collation of the Wu Slips

Figure 3

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Archaeologists recovering Zoumalou materials from the dump site and placing them in basins

come from the well. When they found slips they put them into large basins, and assigned these numbers in the order that they excavated them, so that the recovered slips are all numbered according to basin number (pen hao 盆號).2 Despite having been dug up and dumped by machinery, many recovered slips remained in their original position within large clumps of mud, which is very useful for reconstructing them. Therefore, slips placed in the same basin by archaeologists at the dump site were often located close to one another in the their original context in the well. As for the excavated slips (those remaining in the well), archaeologists began by analyzing the surface that had been exposed by the original construction crew, and divided it into three strata (ceng 層) from top to bottom. After excavation they added a fourth stratum, namely the earth in the square wooden well shaft at the bottom. Most slips were concentrated in the second stratum; only twenty slips were unearthed in the third. While many of the slips in the second stratum remain relatively intact, often in clumps that preserved their original position to some degree, many others 2 The basin numbers of most slips are included toward the end of the volumes in which they were published, but the information of the first three Zhujian volumes are included in Changsha Jiandu bowuguan, Beijing daxue, and Beijing Wu jian yantaoban, eds., Wu jian yanjiu 吴簡研究, vol. 3 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2011), 3–4.

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Figure 4

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Top: view from above showing the four areas of the well. Bottom: side view

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were scattered around. The well may have collapsed in ancient times, which had pressed, sunk and tilted many of the slips into a confusing knot. This, along with the high water table, presented many difficulties to the archaeologists seeking to excavate and transport the slips. They ultimately decided to adopt a “partition and collect” strategy, which we will briefly describe. Looking from above, the slips were located in the southern section of the middle of the well (see Figure 4). They were arranged in a clear order, in stacked layers, as though the arrangement was intentional, though unfortunately this order partially broke down over the subsequent eighteen centuries. There was a bamboo mat on top of the slips that had already rotted away. From a profile view, the overall appearance was that of a thick and high middle part that thinned out to the sides. In order to facilitate sorting out the materials after excavation, archaeologists divided the second stratum (where the slips were) into areas (qu 區) I, II, III and IV. Area I was located in the northeast of the well. After the destruction of the well by construction machinery, some remaining sections fell down and their slips scattered. On the top layer were a few large wooden tablets, the tianjia certificates. Area II was located just to the south of area I, and contained the largest quantities of slips. Its upper part was a mess but the lower part was in good order. Area III was located in east of the well, and large wooden tablets were found on its surface. Below these were bamboo slips, a third of which was compressed by the mud that covered it, and stuck in the mud at an oblique angle. Area IV was in the south of the well and mostly contained large wooden tablets. A small part of it was stacked on top of the bamboo slips of area II. All four areas had been disturbed and compressed to some degree, but area II was relatively well preserved and the archaeologists paid particular attention to it when excavating. Archaeologists first excavated and collated the 228 large wooden tablets found in the well and about 2,000 recovered tablets that they published under the title “Certificates of the farming families of officials and commoners of the Jiahe era” ( Jiahe limin tianjiabie 嘉禾吏民田家莂). Wooden tablets about 50 cm long, these are the largest registers, and are very easy to distinguish from the more common smaller bamboo slips, which are often around 23 cm long and much thinner. Most of these large tablets in the well were found in areas IV and III but a few were piled on top of the bamboo slips and some were scattered in area I. The large wooden tablets in area IV lay in a row with their ends pointing roughly east-west, with only one scroll pointing north-south. The tablets in area III were mostly arranged in a north-south direction.

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Figure 5

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Archaeologists excavating clumps of slips from the well

After the tablets, archaeologists dealt with the clumps of bamboo slips, which they called “bundles” (zha 紮). These were excavated according to the order of the strata and location of compressed slips. Since some segments of slips were too long to be exacavted in one piece, archaeologists had to cut them into more manageable lengths for excavation, so they were divided into both bundles and length segments. They were numbered according to the location and the order in which they were excavated. Each bundle was lifted out and placed into one of many basins, then a record was taken recording excavation area (qu 區), bundle number (zha hao 紮號), and basin number (pen hao 盆號). These slips were orginally attached together with strings and rolled into scrolls. As is usual with ancient Chinese excavated documents, the strings had rotted away. Scholars working to interpret these documents may wish that the excavators had been more successful at maintaining the integrity of the scrolls, but given the conditions of the excavation, they did a remarkably good job. The scrolls had suffered compression, waterlogging and decay and many were destroyed or scattered even before they were discovered. After discovery, the remains were artificially divided into areas and bundles to facilitate excavation, and it is quite possible that scrolls that remained roughly intact until this time were divided during the excavation. The excavators knew that it would be ideal to excavate the scrolls intact, but this was not possible with such fragile materials in China at that time. Instead they focused on minimizing damage to the materials by separating the clumps wherever they would divide most

The Excavation and Collation of the Wu Slips

Figure 6

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Slips in basins

easily, and then carefully recording the excavation context. After separating each clump, they sought to keep it in one piece so that it could be carefully taken apart later on. They then collected the remaining fragments according to where they presumably belonged. Both excavated and collected slips were brought indoors in the basins in which they were collected. The basin number connects the conditions in which the slips were collected in the field with the process of cleaning and sorting them indoors, and thus records important archaeological information. 2

The Indoor Phase: Cleaning, Sorting and Publishing

The indoor cleanup of the slips began with the tianjia certificates. This was primarily because they were large and easy to distinguish, but also because they were well-preserved and were relatively easy to work with. These were published in only three years, remarkably quick by the standards of excavated text publishing, in a work that also included the official excavation report.3 The tianjia certificates were made of Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata), a fast growing tree that is native to the region. 3 Changsha shi et al., Changsha Zoumalou Sanguo Wu jian: Jiahe limin tianjia bie.

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Figure 7

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Archaeologist separating the slips

The original publication included 2,141 of these certificates, of which 228 were excavated slips and the rest were recovered.4 The publication divides the tablets into two groups by the dates on the documents (Jiahe years four and five, roughly 234 and 235 CE), plus a section for the few documents without dates. At the end is a table cross-referencing the numbers, known as the collation numbers (zhengli hao 整理號) that were assigned to the documents by those who sorted out and published them, along with the original de-earthing numbers (chutu hao 出土號).5 The de-earthing numbers of these certificates in the original publication do not distinguish between recovered texts and excavated texts, and the documents are instead arranged according to content, specifically the “hill” (qiu 丘) and surnames mentioned in them. There is still work to be done to reorganize and interpret the tianjia certificates according to their archaeological context and other information. The bamboo slips were much harder to work with than the wooden tablets because each slip is much smaller than a tablet and they were so decayed that they had the consistency of soft noodles. The collaters began with the recovered slips, followed by the excavated slips. They processed the basins in numerical order and assigned each slip an de-earthing number as they removed it from 4 There remain almost 200 more certificates, which will be published in the final volume. 5 It would be more straightforward to translate this as “excavation number,” but we have chosen the more awkward “de-earthing” to prevent confusion, since both “excavated” and “recovered” slips have de-earthing numbers.

The Excavation and Collation of the Wu Slips

Figure 8

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Example of a cross-section diagram. From Changsha jiandu bowuguan et al., Changsha Zoumalou Sanguo Wu jian: zhujian, vol. 4, 768

its clump. Clumps were peeled from outside to inside in various ways: layer by layer from top to bottom, by going around the outside, or by some combination of the two methods. For each slip, they recorded the stratigraphic position, bundle, layer within the bundle, and which side the writing was on. They also recorded objects enclosed between the bamboo slips, such as wooden slips, wooden tags, or the wooden pieces ( fengjian 封檢) that had seals affixed to them. This information was recorded in cross-section diagrams of slip position, colloquially known as the jiebo tu 揭剝圖 (see Figure 8), which depict the relative positions of the slips within the clumps. These are quite straightforward to interpret: the front of each bamboo slip (the side with writing) is depicted in a straight line, while the back is curved. Wooden slips and wooden tags are

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depicted with both sides having straight lines. Many of these diagrams depict broken scrolls still roughly in their original rolled positions. Thus even when the diagram reveals the contents of two or more scrolls mixed together, which is not ideal for reconstructing individual scrolls, it can be used to figure out which scrolls were originally side-by-side in the well. The slip position diagram, along with the basin number and the de-earthing number all provide important information into where each slip came from and what other slips were probably near it, and are thus the basic information for reconstructing documents. Of these, basin numbers are the most fundamental. For excavated slips, each basin’s contents come from a specific section of the well, so their connection with neighbouring basins is a reliable indicator of original position. Recovered slips, on the other hand, were often scattered in their basins. Nonetheless, there is some likelihood that there is some connection between slips in the same, or in neighbouring, basins. As mentioned above, a “de-earthing number” was given to each slip as it was separated from the lump and cleaned. Because of how well slips were stuck together by the sticky mud, there is a strong correlation between neighbouring slips. Since the diagrams of slip positions usually depict a clump of more than ten slips and groups of slips were often stuck together, workers generally cleaned them according to what order they were separated from the clumps, so the slip number given at this time is useful for reconstructing the original order. The authors of the official bamboo slips publications were paying attention to the de-earthing numbers when they chose the order in which to publish the slips, so there is some connection between de-earthing numbers and the numbers in the final publications. Scholars usually cite the published numbers, but sometime also refer to the “de-earthing numbers,” especially those used in the cross section disgrams, because they provide important clues to the original location of a slip and its relation with other slips. For the excavated slips there were four steps from the excavation to the assigning of numbers to individual clumps, which together identify where each slip or group of slips was found. The first are the four areas (I, II, III and IV), discussed above and shown in Figure 4. The next is the division of each of these into sub-areas, which are represented by small English letters, a, b, c, etc. These are sometimes further divided into smaller units, represented with an Arabic number. Finally, circled Arabic numbers represent the specific clump or section of slips. For example, I-c3-⑥ denotes the sixth clump from section c3 of area I. Although this is complicated, it is essential for reconstructing the original documents.

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Scholars of these materials generally use the de-earthing number, the diagrams of slip positions and the basin numbers to understand the general situation of where a slip was recovered or excavated. Especially for the excavated slips, one can use the published information to understand the spatial connection between any two clumps, sections or areas, as well as between any given clump, section or area. The numbering system is the basis of any attempt to reconstruct original document types. Around 30,000 slips and tablets were recovered from the dump site, which constitutes about ⅖ of the slips that will eventually be published. All of the recovered materials have been compiled and published, including most of the Jiahe certificates and all 28,050 slips in Zhujian volumes 1–3. More than 46,000 of the excavated slips have been published in volumes 4–9 of the Zhujian volumes. In addition, the wooden tablets, unpublished tianjia certificates and some very fragmented bamboo slips will be assembled and published in a final volume. Having reviewed how the documents were excavated and published, we will now turn to the contents of the documents themselves. Because the original order of the documents has been lost, it is not always clear exactly what kinds of documents these are, and thus even a basic enumeration of the types of documents requires considerable research and can be controversial.

Chapter 3

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents This chapter will review the main types of documents found in well 22 at Zoumalou. Scholars have been working for years to distinguish and reconstruct the different types of documents. The main types of writing materials are bamboo slips ( jian 簡) which are so narrow that they only include one or two lines of text, and larger wooden tablets (du 牘) that are wide enough to include multiple lines of text. The bamboo slips were usually bound together with cords that have rotted away over the centuries, making it difficult to reconstruct how they originally fit together, though the previous chapter made clear that scholars have plenty of evidence to aid in reconstructing them. The tablets have proven particularly useful for scholars because they often contain entire documents. The collators of the Zoumalou materials divided them into two main groups based on their form and content. The first is a broad category that includes most of the materials, and which is generally called simply “bamboo slips” (zhujian 竹簡), since most of the texts are written on thin bamboo slips. The second are wooden tablets known to Chinese scholars as the “certificates of the farming families of officials and commoners of the Jiahe era” ( Jiahe limin tianjia bie 嘉禾吏民田家莂), but which we will simply call “tianjia certificates.” These make up only a small percentage of the total number of written pieces from Zoumalou, but their form is so distinctive that they are considered separate from all the other materials. Moreover, because they were relatively well-preserved, archaeologists chose to publish them first and this chapter will begin with them. All of the other materials have been published in nine volumes whose titles include the phrase zhujian “bamboo slips,” or will appear in the forthcoming final Zoumalou volume, which will bring together the tablets of wood and bamboo.1 In terms of content, most of the bamboo slips are registers (bu 簿) of various things, essentially lists kept by administrators. Most of the documents excavated at Zoumalou were written on bamboo slips that were tied together with cords that have since rotted away. Slips were arranged vertically and writing began on the right and moved left, which is why “to the right” (you 右) means the same thing as “above” in English books. 1 On the forthcoming volume, see Wang Su 王素 and Song Shaohua 宋少華, “Changsha Zoumalou San Guo Wu jian ‘zhu mu du’ neirong zongshu”《長沙走馬樓三國吴簡：竹木 牘》內容綜述, Wenwu 文物 (2022.12): 58–65.

© Brian Lander, Ling Wenchao, and Xin Wen, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004549654_005

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Because of their fragmentary nature, the bamboo documents require meticulous reconstruction before we can be sure of their original purpose. Scholars continue to debate the categorization of these documents. The system described here employs both archaeological information and the content of the documents. Both sources of information are used to collate and reconstruct the documents, clarifying the types of documents and their structure. The documents contained little punctuation, but we have punctuated the transcriptions to show how we interpret their contents. It should be emphasized that many of our reconstructed documents are composed of slips that were probably originally in multiple documents. The Zoumalou materials originally contained many very similar documents and now that the strings holding them together have disappeared, it is in most cases impossible to be sure which slips belong together in what order. But since there are so many similar texts, those that remain provide us with enough material to recreate documents in the form of the originals. The reconstructions in this chapter represent the work of Ling Wenchao, drawing on the work of other scholars. Generally speaking, scholars of these documents mostly agree with these reconstructions, even though there is still plenty of debate about the details. Many of these documents are essentially lists, so our reconstructions of them requires translating lists of numerous similar entries. The reader will no doubt find this repetitive, but it is necessary for demonstrating the nature of these documents. Only by including full lists can we show which aspects of each text are repeated and which vary. In the early years after only some of the Zoumalou materials had been published, some scholars divided the documents into three categories: 1) tax documents, 2) household registration documents, and 3) official documents. Whereas the former two categories are internal documents of local governments, the latter refers to documents prepared by officials to be sent to other officials, or to their subjects, as well as some legal documents. This distinction is useful for understanding the nature of the different documents, but both internal and official documents were produced for each aspect of administration, so we prefer to divide the materials according to the different tasks for which they were produced.2

2 The importance of the official documents is emphasized in Xu Chang 徐暢, “Changsha Zoumalou Sanguo Wu jian zhengli yanjiu ershi nian redian xuanping” 長沙走馬樓三國吴簡 整理研究二十年熱點選評, Jianbo 15 (2017), translated by Brian Lander as “A review of the hot topics in 20 years of collating and researching the documents from the Three Kingdoms state of Wu excavated at Zoumalou,” Bamboo and Silk 5, no. 2 (2022), 313–348.

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Most of the Zoumalou materials are produced by the Linxiang Marquisate. We will often refer to the “marquisate” as “county” because it was effectively a county. We will use the English term “marquis” for hou because it conveys the intentionally aristocratic flavour of the original. A few of the documents were produced in Ancheng County, and these will be discussed at the end of the chapter. Most of the bamboo slips are account registers. We divide these into six general categories for the purpose of analysis: 1) official household registers (huji 戶籍), 2) name registers (mingji bu 名籍簿), 3) treasury account registers (ku zhangbu 庫賬簿), 4) granary account registers (cang zhangbu 倉賬簿), 5) field account registers (tian zhangbu 田賬簿), and 6) other miscellaneous registers. Most of this chapter consists of annotated translations of reconstructed documents from each of these six categories. As we will see, each of these categories can be subdivided according to their specific functions and the structure of the documents. Let us provide some more detail on these six groups: 1) Household records were made to help the government keep track of its subjects in order to levy taxes and labour service from them. Among other things, these documents record where each household was graded on the official taxation scale, as explained in the first chapter. 2) We categorize as “name registers” all those lists of names that are not basic population records. These include registers of people newly enrolled as taxpayers (bianhu min 編戶民), registers of state-employed artisans being transferred, registers of households paying taxes in coins, registers of tenant farmers, registers of men who had been recommended as suitable for employment as officials, registers of the male relatives of officials (who were recorded essentially as hostages to ensure that those officials did not abscond), and registers of those relatives who had absconded.3 3) Treasury account registers are mostly records of coins, cloth, skins and other valuables being deposited into or withdrawn from the treasury. Some are records of inventories within the treasury. While ku 庫 often means “armoury” or “storehouse,” in this case they were only used to store items of value, so we have translated ku as “treasury.” These documents include registers of coins in the treasury, registers of coins received and entered into the treasury, registers of surplus coins, and records of other income like coins received from taxing the slave market. Given how often “entered” (ru 入) appears in these 3 We translate qian 錢 as “coins.” Sinologists often translate it as “cash,” a relic of the nineteenth century British adoption of a similar sounding word for small coins used in India, which they then used with reference to coins in China. This word is etymologically unrelated to the English word “cash” for currency, and there is no reason to use it to refer to ancient coins.

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documents it is worth noting here that “received” (shou 受) was used when officials received things that they did not previously have, whereas “entered” simply means that they moved goods into treasuries or granaries for any purpose. For example, when they took things out of the treasury, counted them, and then put them back in, they “entered” them but did not “receive” them. 4) Granary account registers consist of registers of various grains collected in tax, loaned out, transported, and inventoried. Rice was the most important element in the political economy, so the records on rice are the most detailed. We frequently see rice in granaries registered by the day, the month, and the season in various kinds of documents, including statistics written on wooden tablets as well as auditing registers and “first day of the month” registers, discussed below. 5) Field account registers are mainly records of various categories of taxable fields and how much grain tax their farmers are supposed to pay on them. 6) Other miscellaneous records are those not included in the other categories, such as registers of the inspection of reservoirs and irrigated fields, state-owned cattle and the skin and hooves of sacrificial cattle. The structure of each of the registers is somewhat different, but there are a few common elements, which we will introduce along with the terms used for them by modern scholars. A title slip (biaoti jian 標題簡) indicated the contents of the documents. The main document (zhengwen 正文) consisted of lists recording various types of information. Summaries (tongji 統計) were often included at the end to add up the information in the main document. The report to superiors (chengwen 呈文) was included when the document was sent to higher officials. The bulk of this chapter consists of analysis of these six categories of registers. Its final section reviews two other types of documents found in smaller numbers. The first of these are records of the legal cases of officials Xu Di and Zhu Biao, who were accused of embezzling grain. There are also some documents from Ancheng County, which give us a useful perspective on how other counties in Wu worked. The reconstructions in this chapter summarize much more extensive analysis and reconstructions of the same categories of documents, mostly from the works of Ling Wenchao. We will not cite them in every case and readers seeking more information are encouraged to consult two of his books.4 Similarly, Shen Gang’s book collecting the various explanations scholars have proposed 4 Ling Wenchao 凌文超, Zoumalou Wu jian caiji bushu zhengli yu yanjiu 走馬樓吴簡採集 簿書整理與研究 (Guilin: Guangxi shifan daxue, 2015); Wu jian yu Wu zhi 吴簡與吴制 (Beijing: Beijing daxue, 2019).

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for difficult terms in the Zoumalou documents has been very helpful and we will not cite it every time we used it.5 1 Conventions Because the slips are often poorly preserved and difficult to read, the transcriptions in the original publications are often tentative, and have often been shown to be incorrect by the later discovery of similar or identical phrases on other slips. Based on this knowledge, and a careful examination of the published images, we have changed the transcriptions in many places, which we indicate in footnotes. Unless otherwise indicated, when a footnote reads “we have changed A to B” it means that an analysis of the image of the original document in the official publication, informed by knowledge of the content of other materials, suggests to us that the graph in the transcription section of the original publication is incorrect and we are suggesting an alternative reading. The officials who wrote most of these documents assumed that they would only be read by a handful of other local officials. To save space they used specialized language and abbreviations, often omitting familiar words and phrases. Our translation seeks to convey the terse bureaucratic style and educated omissions of the original documents. We usually translate numbers using Arabic numerals, though we spell them out in cases where it makes for a clearer translation. The fragmentary nature of these documents makes them particularly difficult to translate grammatically. We often found that the way we translated a complete slip does not work with an almost identical phrase which is missing its beginning or end, and so we have not been able to maintain consistency of translation. Scholars should always look at the images of the original documents rather than relying on transcriptions because factors such as the handwriting and the positioning of text are essential for understanding them. To allow readers to find the original images and transcriptions, we provide in brackets the numbers used in the official publications. For example, 8.3507 means document number 3507 in Zhujian volume 8. If a number is provided afterwards, as in 8.3507/21, the number after the slash indicates the basin number, whose significance was explained in the previous chapter. Some numbers also include a diagram number, indicated with tu 圖, which refers the reader to the diagrams at the end of the volume in question that show where the slip was located in

5 Shen Gang 沈剛, Changsha Zoumalou sanguo Wu jian yuci huishi 長沙走馬樓三國吴簡語 詞匯釋 (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue, 2017).

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relation to others around it. So 8.3507·圖 10–9/21 refers to the 3507th slip in Zhujian volume 8, which is #9 in diagram 10 (at the end of volume 8) and was originally in basin number 21. The tianjia certificates are numbered with a 4 or 5 (meaning the 4th or 5th year of the Jiahe reign) followed by a number, such as 4.463. This could be confusing since it would be the same number as document 463 in volume 4 of the Zhujian volumes, but in this chapter, we only refer to the numbers of the tianjia certificates in the section dedicated to them. Please consult the front matter of the book for explanation of the various symbols used in the transcriptions. In general, we prefer to translate than to transliterate into pinyin, though of course sometimes transliteration is better. For example, we translate the names of places that were presumably chosen for their meaning, such as nan 南 “south.” Where words have no obvious meaning then we can only transliterate, for example the name of the Xiang 湘 River. We also transliterate where it would be unwieldy to translate. For example, Linxiang 臨湘 literally means “overlooking the Xiang,” and figuratively means having jurisdiction over the Xiang River region. Obviously, it is more practical to write “Linxiang” than “overlooking the Xiang.” Because we have often found it difficult to keep track of the terminology employed in these documents, we have not only provided the Chinese the first time a term is mentioned, but have included it wherever we felt the reader might find it useful. We have also included a glossary of key terms used in these documents. Note that in the Three Kingdoms period most of the measures were organized in a decimal system. The following figures are approximate:6 – Volume: 1 hu 斛 (20 litres) = 10 dou 斗; 1 dou = 10 sheng 升; 1 sheng = 10 ge 合 – Length: 1 pi 匹 (96.8 metres) = 4 zhang 丈 (24.2 metres); 1 zhang = 10 chi 尺; 1 chi = 10 cun 寸; 1 cun = 10 fen 分 – Area: 1 qing 頃 (5 hectares) = 100 mu 畝 (506 square metres) 2

The Tianjia Certificates Jiahe limin tianjia bie 嘉禾吏民田家莂

Because the tianjia certificates (tianjia bie 田家莂) were written on long wooden tablets, entire documents are preserved intact, eliminating the difficulties of reconstructing documents encountered with the bamboo slips. However, traces of binding strings suggest that even the tianjia certificates 6 See Wilkinson, Chinese History (Pleco Edition). We do not have weights and measures from the state of Wu, so the metric figures are approximate, especially the mu and qing. See also note 126 on page 50, which shows the Han-era measure for a mu.

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were originally bound together, and the work of figuring out their original order has only begun. The certificates list each household’s landholdings and the taxes they paid on them in grain, coins, and cloth in the 4th and 5th Jiahe years. It seems that three identical versions of the text were probably written on a single board which was then split in three.7 If this was the case, then one was given to the head of household as a record of their land tax payments, another was kept by district offices, and the third was kept by the Linxiang County government. It is these latter copies that were excavated at Zoumalou. We translate bie 莂 as “certificate” because one purpose of these documents was to certify that people had paid their land taxes. As in many other agrarian political systems, the state’s ability to guarantee private ownership of land provided people with a strong incentive to register their land and pay taxes on it. In addition to confirming that farmers had paid their taxes, these documents also served to confirm that the land tax had been fully entered into the granary and treasury. We can divide the tianjia certificates into two main groups, those of “officials and commoners” (limin 吏民), and those of military households (buqu 部 曲).8 Confusingly, “officials and commoners” is actually the standard term for commoners, since it mostly included officials ranked so low that they did not receive any preferential treatment to distinguish them from the common people. Most of the tianjia certificates concern these “officials and commoners.”9 The military tianjia certificates can be divided in turn into two main groups, those of active soldiers (shi 士) and inactive soldiers ( fumin 复民). All of the active soldiers whom we see in these certificates lived in Pu 樸 hill, while the inactive soldiers lived in Jiyou 己酉 hill. Although soldiers and civilians were distinguished in some administrative contexts, it is worth noting that basic household registers, many translated below, did not mention if a man was a soldier. If a county official wanted to confirm where specific households were registered, he would have consulted the district to which those households belonged since that information was recorded the household registers there. 7 We surmise that they were split in three because some of them contain the first graph written more than once at the top. For example, the wen 文 graph written at the junction of the edges of the top of nos. 4.25 and 4.253. 8 It is worth noting that the breakdown of imperial control at the end of the Han saw the formation of private armies under the control of independent generals, and that the formation of more centralized militaries by Sun Wu and its rivals required gradually extending state control over these groups. The status of the military households in the Zoumalou documents is unclear. 9 The phrase “millet fields of officials and commoners and soldiers” (吏民、部曲粢田) on zhujian 6.113 refers to these two different groups.

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However, neither active nor inactive soldiers were recorded on these registers, and we are not sure where they were registered, though we can guess that the Military Bureaus of the county government may have kept their records. 2.1 The Taxation System The Zoumalou documents include taxation terminology that is not mentioned in received texts and does not seem to have been very widespread or long-lasting. We must therefore explain it in some depth. Each field was categorized in several ways. According to their physical conditions, fields were divided into irrigated or non-irrigated and into “ripe” (i.e., normal harvest) or dry (meaning a bad harvest). They were also divided into various administrative categories. The division between “quota” or “extra labour” fields was based on whether they were the source of the household’s main tax payment for the year, or were additional to it. The division between shui 税 and zu 租 tax was based on the status of the taxpayer. These distinctions are so complicated that we have not found a way to express them all in a single chart. Instead, we have provided two charts to explain two different ways fields were classified (Diagrams 1 and 2, below). Irrigated fields were straightforwardly called “irrigated fields” (gai tian 溉田), while non-irrigated fields were called “fire planted fields” (huo zhong tian 火種田).10 Irrigated fields were the main kind of taxable land, and are usually what is meant when “fields” (tian 田) are mentioned without any description. Irrigation increased yields and mitigated against famine, but it was not uncommon for irrigated fields to be declared “dry,” which reveals that the irrigation systems were not particularly dependable. As will be discussed below, the water was often stored in small reservoirs that could dry out in dry years or if their enclosing embankments were poorly maintained. Fields without irrigation were entirely at the mercy of seasonal rains, and the name “fire planted fields” may indicate that these fields were fallowed long enough for a good amount of vegetation to grow on them, which was then burned before planting to fertilize the fields. Government officials apparently inspected fields annually. Fields found to have healthy crops were classified “ripe” (shu 熟) while those whose yields were deemed to be at least 40% below normal were classified “dry” (han 旱), in which case they paid no rice tax. After surveying the land, the government determined the taxable area of ripe fields by subtracting the area of dry fields 10

Some documents list the area of these types of land, such as “The county, in the first year, has jurisdiction over 400 qing, 29 mu, 141 bu of irrigated land of officials and commoners” ⟨縣⟩⟨元⟩年領吏民溉田四百頃廿九畝一百卌一步 (5.1513; see also 5.1929).

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from the total area. This then “fixed” (ding 定) the number of ripe fields for the year, so these were also known as “fixed rate” (lit. “fixed collection” dingshou 定收) fields. In the fourth Jiahe year 75% of crops were classified as having failed due to drought, but the fifth year had better harvests and this figure fell to 40% or 43%.11 The government did not levy either coin or cloth tax from drought fields in the fifth year, presumably because the better harvest meant that it gained adequate income from the increased number of ripe fields. The ability of government officials to decide every year whether fields were “ripe” or “dry” suggests that it was an active government in which officials worked to ensure that the state got as much of the surplus each year as possible. The most difficult of the land distinctions, from the perspective of modern scholars, was the division of land into either the “regular quota” (chang­ xian 常限) or the “extra labour” (yuli 餘力) categories. “Quota” seems to have meant that the state stipulated a certain area of land that each household was required to farm and pay taxes on, and since the state also fixed the tax rate, this meant that they had to pay a fixed amount of grain. Given that land was abundant in the postward context, and people might not have felt the need to farm intensively, the state clearly developed this system to ensure that every family had to pay taxes. If families had extra energy and could work even more land in addition to the regular quota fields, the additional fields were categorized as “extra labour” fields and taxed at a lower rate, thus encouraging people to work harder and pay more tax. The area of quota mu a farmer was supposed to work was set according to their official status (a mu was around 506 square metres) and they had to pay a corresponding amount of grain tax on this land. For example, surrendered soldiers were later required to pay 40 hu of quota rice, which means that they worked 20 mu of quota fields, and privately educated men had to pay 50 hu of quota rice, meaning that they worked 25 mu of quota fields. Yet another distinction was that between shui and zu, which was based not on the condition of the land, but on the status of the taxpayer. These terms had first been used in the Warring States Period to designate two different types of taxes, but they came to be used interchangeably in received texts from the Han empire. In Wu, officials again distinguished them to indicate different grades of taxation. In the tianjia certificates, shui tax was paid by commoners 11 Li Qing calculated 40% and Abe Yukinobu calculated 43%. Li Qing 李卿, “‘Changsha Zoumalou Sanguo Wu jian Jiahe limin tianjiabie’ xingzhi yu neirong fenxi”《長沙走 馬樓三國吴簡·嘉禾吏民田家莂》性質與內容分析, Zhongguo jingjishi yanjiu (2002.1), 130; Abe Yukinobu 阿部幸信, “Kogata chikukan to kampai-ritsu yori mita ‘kyū’” 小型竹簡と旱敗率よりみた「丘」, Chōsa Gokan kenkyū hōkoku 2 (2004), 23.

Zu rice 租米

餘力田

Extra labour

Shui rice 税米

二年常限

Two year regular quota

Shui ��elds 税田

Diagram 1 Administrative distinctions between fields for determining tax rates

Zu rice 租米

二年常限

Two-year regular quota

Zu ��elds 租田

Zu rice 租米

餘力田

Extra labour

(Irrigated) ��elds 田

Quota rice 限米

常限

Regular quota

Quota ��elds 限田

Shui rice 税米

餘力田

Extra labour

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who did not enjoy special treatment, while the lower zu tax was paid by those of special status. Each taxable farm field was assigned to a category, and the grain paid in tax from that field was classified as the same category of grain. Tax received from zu land was called zu rice, that received from shui land was called shui rice, and that received from quota xian 限 land was called “quota rice.” These divisions of fields and rents were based on the status of the cultivators: 1) Common people and lower officials cultivated standard tax land and paid 1.2 hu of rice per mu on ripe fields, which can be considered the standard land tax; 2) Head officials (changli 長吏), provincial officials (zhouli 州吏), and soldiers (both shi 士 and fumin 復民) cultivated zu fields and paid zu taxes, though the amount paid varied by status (note that before the second Jiahe year commandery and county officials were included along with provincial officials);12 3) quota fields were cultivated by officials and soldiers dispatched to agricultural colonies (tuntian 屯田), surrendered soldiers (zishou shi 自首 士), defectors, and some others, all of whom paid 2 hu of quota rice per mu. It is possible that quota fields were a category of land that was found only in agricultural colonies, which may have been common in this postwar period, but this is not mentioned in the documents. Both the “two-year quota” and “extra labour” fields were based on the “regular quota” standard. It seems that households were required to work “quota fields” (xiantian 限田) for a specific amount of time depending on their status. For example, shui. Shui tax requirements probably required a household to work quota fields for two years at a time, and since the shui tax was the standard tax of people of normal status, the “two-year regular quota” tax rates can

12

As shown in Table 2, in the fourth Jiahe year, each mu of ripe “two-year quota” fields was taxed at 12 dou (1 hu 斛, 2 dou 斗) of rice, 2 chi 尺 of cloth and 70 coins per mu 畝 per year. The harvests on the extra labour fire planted fields in the fourth Jiahe year were good, so officials raised the tax rates on it by five sheng per hu. In the fifth Jiahe year the area of ripe fields increased, so the coin tax on dry fields was cancelled, while the coin tax on ripe fields was raised to 80 per mu. The amount of land cultivated and tax paid per mu also varied according to status. For example, in the fourth Jiahe year zhou officials paid 5 dou, 8 sheng, 5 ge, while commandery and county officials paid 1 hu, 2 dou. Active soldiers shi were sometimes entirely exempted from land tax. Zhou officials were required to cultivate no more than 40 mu of zu fields. Extra labour fields were taxed at a lower rate: 4 dou, 5 sheng, 6 ge (4.56 dou) of zu rice per “ripe” mu. The lower rates of commandery and county officials before the second Jiahe year can be seen in documents 4.3785 and 9.3918. These are analysed in Han Shufeng 韓樹峰, “Lun Wu jian suojian de zhou jun xian li” 論吴簡所見的州郡縣吏, Wu jian yanjiu 2 (Wuhan: Chongwen, 2006), 46–48.

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be considered the standard rates.13 If commoners and lower officials cultivated more than 30 mu of “two-year regular quota” shui tax fields, they were eligible for “extra labour” fields, which were taxed at a lower rate that was effectively the same as the preferential tax rates on zu fields. Provincial (zhou) officials enjoyed preferential tax rates on up to 40 mu of zu fields per year. If they cultivated land, then it was taxed at a higher “two-year regular quota” shui tax rate or as “extra labour” zu tax.14 The families of these officials did not enjoy these lower tax rates. Like common people, they could only pay zu taxes if they cultivated more than the regular 30 mu of “two-year regular quota” shui tax fields. The 40 mu preferential tax rate applied only to the official himself. His family cultivated the additional fields, and it was the whole family that was registered to pay land tax. To summarize, if commoners and lower officials cultivated one-year quota fields, zu tax fields, or two-year quota shui fields, they could only additionally cultivate “extra labour” fields and pay lower zu tax rates after they had already cultivated all of the area included in the “regular quota” fields. 13

14

Scholars have different opinions on the meaning of “two-year quota.” Meng Yanhong understands the “two-year quota” as fields cultivated in rotation on a two-year fallow cycle. Zhang Rongqiang believes that the “two-year quota” is a kind of government rent based on various forms of rotating fallow farming systems commonly practiced at that time. Jiang Fuya believes that the “two-year quota” meant a fixed tenancy over a specific amount of land for two years, and this is how we interpret it. Meng Yanhong 孟彦弘, “‘Limin tianjia bie’ suo lu tiandi yu Han-Wei-Jin jian de min tun xingshi”‘吏民田 家莂’所録田地與漢魏晉間的民屯形式, Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan lishi yanjiusuo xuekan (2004.2), 173–192; also published in his Chutu wenxian yu Han-Tang dianzhi yanjiu 出土文献與漢唐典制研究 (Beijing: Beijing daxue, 2015), 35–57; Zhang Rongqiang 張榮强, “Jiahe limin tianjiabie ‘ernian changxian’ jie”《嘉禾吏民田家莂》  ‘二年 常限’解, Lishi yanjiu, (2003.6), 20–30 + 189. Also published in his Han-Tang jizhang zhidu yanjiu 漢唐籍帳制度研究 (Beijing: Shangwu, 2010), 307–328; Jiang Fuya 蔣福 亞, “Ye tan Jiahe limin tianjia bie zhong ‘ernian changxian’ tian de hanyi” 也談《嘉禾 吏民田家莂》中‘二年常限’田的涵義, Shoudu shifan daxue xuebao (2001.5), 7–12; also published in his Zoumalou Wu jian jingji wenshu yanjiu 走馬樓吴簡經濟文書研究 (Beijing: Guojia tushuguan, 2012), 21–37. Based on the 40–50 mu tax rate from an adult man in the later Western Jin and Northern Wei periods, Deng Weiguang has suggested that Wu’s preferential 40 mu quota fields for provincial officials was based on the same logic, namely the amount a healthy adult man could be expected to work. Jin shu 晉書 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1974), 26.790, reads “An adult male’s land tax levy is 50 mu” 丁男課田五十畝. The Wei shu 魏書 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1974), 7.144, reads “One adult male manages 40 mu of land, a young man 20 mu; it is not acceptable for people to do extra work [meaning to work more land], since it will reduce the benefit of the land” 一夫制治田四十畝，中男二十畝，無令人有餘力，地有 遺利. Deng Weiguang 鄧瑋光, “Zhou jun xian li tian de fuyuan yu yanjiu: jianlun Sun Wu diceng xingzheng renyuan de shengcun zhuangtai” 州郡縣吏田的復原與研究：兼論 孫吴底層行政人員的生存狀態, Zhongguo zhonggushi yanjiu 9 (2021), 61–63.

旱田

熟田

Dry fields 旱田

Ripe fields

熟田

Extra labour fields 餘力田

熟田

Ripe fields 旱田

Dry fields

Two-year regular quota fire planted fields 二年常限火種田

熟田

Ripe fields

旱田

Dry fields

Extra labour fire planted fields 餘力火種田

Fire planted fields 火種田

Diagram 2 Administrative categories of fields in the tianjia certificates based on planting conditions and the state of the year’s harvest

Dry fields

Ripe fields

二年常限田

Two-year regular quota fields

(Irrigated) fields (溉)田

Cultivated fields 佃田

84 Chapter 3

85

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents Tax rates on different categories of fields in the tianjia certificatesa

Table 2

Two-year regular quota 二年常限 Jiahe Year

Ripe

Extra labour 餘力

Drought

Ripe

Drought

Rice Cloth Coins Rice Cloth Coins Rice Cloth Coins Rice Cloth Coins 4 5

1.2 1.2

2 2

70 80

0 0

0.66 0

37 0

0.456 2 0.4 2

70 80

0 0

0.66 0

Note: Rice is in hu 斛, cloth is in chi 尺. a Based on Chen Rongjie 陳榮傑, Jiahe limin tianjiabie jiaozhu《嘉禾吏民田家莂》校注 (Chongqing: Xinan shifan daxue, 2018), 4.

Table 2 shows the tax rates for commoners and lower officials. Provincial officials (zhouli 州吏) paid 5 dou, 8 sheng, 5 or 6 ge (5.85 or 5.86 dou) of zu 租 rice tax per mu of “ripe” zu 租 fields (a much lower rate than the general rate), but some also had to add 5 sheng on each hu of the total amount of grain paid in tax. Several documents mention that active soldiers (shi 士) “according to the documents do not pay coin or cloth tax,” and in fact they did not pay rice tax either.15 2.2 Examples of the Tianjia Certificates Before translating the tianjia certificates themselves we will translate a tablet that provides evidence on how officials were expected to produce and summarize them. As the certificates were collected at the county government, a summary tablet was made for certificates of each district and was attached to them as a label. The following is a title slip that lists all the things that officials were expected to record in these documents: 南鄉謹列：嘉禾四年吏民田家別頃畝旱、孰（熟）收米、錢、布，付 授吏姓名，年月都莂。(Tianjia certificate 4.1)

South District respectfully lists a comprehensive certificate, from the 4th Jiahe year, of the farming families of officials and commoners, listing: field area differentiated according to whether their crops were dry or ripe 15 Documents with the phrase “according to the documents do not pay coin or cloth tax” (依書不收錢布) include 4.490, 4.491, 4.492, 4.493, 4.495, 4.496, 4.550, and 4.631.

37 0

86

Figure 9

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Tianjia certificate 4.1. 52 × 2.6 cm

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87

and upon this basis collecting grain, coins, and cloth; the surname and given name of the official to whom the taxes were paid; and the year and month. Overall certificate The certificates themselves generally begin with the status and name of the person, where they are from, and the area of land they cultivated that year. They then break down the area of their various fields and the condition of their crops, which, along with their status, determined the taxes they had to pay on each. They then list how much tax the person paid, and to whom. At the end of the documents, the officials who checked the amount sign their names. Note that the word dian 佃, which came to mean “tenant” in later times, just meant “to farm,” or “farmer” at this time.16 We will translate four of the tianjia certificates. For the first one we have written the titles in bold because they were written larger than the rest of the text at the top, and the given names of officials in bold to indicate that these signatures were added later. “Signatures” were not always written by the person whose name was on the document; rather the same hand often signed for multiple people. ※穀丘郡卒潘調，佃田廿處，合一頃一十九畝。 其廿六畝二年常限。其廿四畝旱，畝收布六寸六分。定收 二畝，畝收米一斛二斗，合二斛四斗。畝收布二尺。 其九十三畝餘力火種田。其五十三畝旱，畝收布六寸六分。定收 卌畝，畝收米四斗五升六合，斛加五升，合十九斛一斗五升。畝收布 二尺。 凡爲米廿一斛五斗五升。其二斛四斗税米，四年十二月十一日付倉 吏鄭黑畢。其十九斛一斗五升租米，四年十二月八日付倉吏鄭黑畢。 凡爲布三匹一尺六寸，准入米六斛八升，四年十二月卅日付倉吏鄭 黑畢。 其旱田畝收錢卅七，其孰（熟）田畝收錢七十。凡爲錢五千卅八 錢，准入米三斛一斗五升，四年十二月九日付倉吏鄭黑畢。 。 17 (Tianjia cer嘉禾五年三月六日，主者史趙野、張惕、陳（通校） 

tificate 4.463)

16 Dian tian 佃田 meant farmed land. This is made clear in how the phrase huo zhong zu mi 火種租米, used in document 9.4222, is written huo zhong dian mi 火佃租米 in document 9.1274, showing that dian was considered a synonym of zhong 種, “to sow,” a standard verb for farming. 17 The name Tong 通 and the word “checked” jiao 校 are not visible on this document, but are written on other documents of this type.

88

Figure 10 Tianjia certificate 4.463. 48.2 × 3.4 cm

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※ Pan Diao, a commandery corvée labourer from Gu hill, cultivated fields in 20 separate places, altogether 1 qing, 19 mu.18 Of those (all the fields), 26 mu are two-year regular quota fields. Of these, 24 mu are dry.19 For each of these mu we collected 6 cun, 6 fen of cloth. Two mu were fixed rate.20 From each of these we collected 1 hu, 2 dou of rice, which totals 2 hu, 4 dou. For each of these fixed rate mu we collected two chi of cloth. Of all the fields, 93 mu are spare labour fire planted fields. Of these, 53 mu are dry. From each dry mu we collected 6 cun, 6 fen of cloth. 40 mu that were fixed rate. For each of these we collected 4 dou, 5 sheng, 6 ge. In addition, we collected 5 sheng per 1 hu. Together this made 19 hu, 1 dou, 5 sheng. For each [fixed rate] mu we collected 2 chi of cloth. These produce a total of 21 hu, 5 dou, 5 sheng of rice. Of this, 2 hu, 4 dou are tax rice.21 On the 4th year, 12th month, 11th day, he paid this to the granary official Zheng Hei in full. Of this, 19 hu, 1 dou, 5 sheng are zu tax rice. On the 4th year, 12th month, 8th day, he paid this to the granary official Zheng Hei in full. In total these produce 3 pi, 1 chi, 6 cun of cloth, which was converted to 6 hu, 8 sheng of rice by official permission. On the 4th year, 12th month, 30th day, he paid this to the granary official Zheng Hei in full. We collected 37 coins from each drought mu and 70 coins from each ripe mu, which is altogether 5,038 coins, which was converted to 3 hu, 1 dou, 5 sheng of rice by official permission. On the 4th year, 12th month, 9th day, he paid this to the granary official Zheng Hei in full. On the 5th year, 3rd month, 6th day of the Jiahe reign, checked by the secretaries who are responsible for it: Zhao Ye, Zhang Ti and Chen Tong. 18 Zu 卒 conventionally meant soldier, but in the Zoumalou documents is used to refer to people required to perform corvée labour. Zu and li 吏 (normally “official”) had once meant very different things, but their statuses became increasingly similar in this period. 19 A much higher percentage of fields was classified as “drought” in Jiahe year 4 than in year 5. Taxes were reduced in the former year because of drought, which shows that the labels “ripe” and “drought” were not permanent categories of land, but changed every year. Since the Qin and Han eras, land rents were levied according to the harvest of the fields, and Sun Wu continued this practice. On the Qin and Han practices, see Zang Zhifei 臧知非, “Shuo ‘shuitian’: Qin-Han tianshui zhengshuo fangshi de lishi kaocha” 說‘稅田’  ：秦漢 田稅徵收方式的歷史考察, Lishi yanjiu (2015.3), 22–39. 20 The “fixed” ding 定 rate refers to the rate at which “ripe” fields were taxed. When the document specifies that two mu were fixed rate this means that officials judged them to be normal ripe fields that paid standard tax, and there were no special circumstances, like drought. 21 From the context it is clear that only rice collected from the “two-year harvest” fields is called tax rice.

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Note that the author of this certificate has made three mathematical errors, which is not uncommon in these documents (the total should be 21 hu, 5 dou, 5 sheng, 2 ge of rice, 3 pi, 1 zhang, 4 chi, 8 cun, 2 fen of cloth and 5,789 coins). Early imperial officials were not always skilled in mathematics.22 For some unknown reason, there are relatively few errors in the tianjia certificates regarding fields and grain, but more errors with regards to cloth and coins. Pan Diao was a corvée labourer (zu 卒) serving the commandery. There were also people of this status at the county and province levels. Pan probably lived at Gu hill, but, similar to the modern hukou system, he would always be registered at a specific canton (li 里) regardless of where he was. The “hill” (qiu 丘) in these documents indicated where a person currently lived or where their fields were located. The canton was a household registration unit, not a specific geographical area. Scholars have identified which canton belonged to which district (xiang 鄉) and suspect that there may be a corresponding relationship between cantons and hills, but have yet to find a clear relationship between hills and districts.23 Pan cultivated altogether 20 pieces of land, amounting to 119 mu. A group of different taxes were collected from these pieces of land. To clarify this group of taxes, we have tabulated the information here: Table 3

Pan Diao’s land taxa

Land (mu) Cloth (in chi) Two-year regular quota fields

Dry

24

Ripe/ Fixed rate

2

0.66 per mu = 15.84 2 per mu = 4

Rice (in hu)

1.2 per mu = 2.4

Coin 37 per mu = 888 70 per mu = 140

a The numbers in brackets are results of calculation while the ones outside are those noted on the document. 22 23

For another example of poor math skills, see Brian Lander, “State Management of River Dikes in Early China: New Sources on the Environmental History of the Central Yangzi Region,” T’oung Pao 100, no. 4–5 (2014), 351. Abe Soichiro 安部聰一郎, “Changsha Zoumalou sanguo Wu jian zhong suojian ‘xiang’ yu ‘qiu’ duiying guanxi de zai yanjiu” 長沙走馬樓三國吴簡中所見‘鄉’與‘丘’對 應關係的再研究, in Changsha jianbo yanjiu guoji xueshu yantaohui lunwenji 長沙簡帛 研究國際學術研討會論文集 (Shanghai: Zhongxi, 2017), 119–132.

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91

Pan Diao’s land tax (cont.)

Land (mu) Cloth (in chi) Extra labour fields

Total amount

Rice (in hu)

Dry

53

0.66 per mu = 34.98

Ripe/ Fixed rate

40

2 per mu = 80

119

3 pi and 1.6 chi 21.55 (21.552) (134.82 chi =  3 pi and 14.82 chi), converted to 6.8 hu of rice

Coin 37 per mu = 1,961

0.456 per mu + 0.05 extra hu per hu = 19.15 (19.152) (this amount is called zu rice 租米)

70 per mu = 2,800

5,038 (5,789), converted to 3.15 hu of rice

Therefore, even though the land tax officially included cloth and coins, they were also converted into rice, thus allowing Pan to pay all his land-tax in rice. He paid 31.5 hu of rice in tax that year. Officials allowed people to convert their taxes to other commodities to facilitate tax payments and possibly make a small profit on the exchange. In the previous example cloth tax was converted to grain payment, while it and the following example show coin income being converted to grain payment. It seems that it was acceptable to convert other taxes to grain, but one could not pay the grain tax in other commodities. This reveals that the state prioritized collecting grain. The following is the tax record of an official who paid taxes at a lower rate. ※湛丘州吏黄楊，租田卌畝。 畝收米五斗八升六合，凡爲米廿三斛四斗四升，收布二尺。 其米廿三斛四斗四升，六年正月十八日付掾孫儀。凡爲布二 匹，准入米五斛，六年二月三日付掾孫儀。

92

Chapter 3 畝收錢八十，凡爲錢三千二百，准入米二斛八斗一升，六年二月十 一日付掾孫儀畢。 嘉禾六年二月廿日，田户曹史張惕、趙野校。 (Tianjia certificate

5.702)

※ Huang Yang, provincial official from Zhan hill, has 40 mu of zu tax

fields. The tax to be collected from each mu is 5 dou, 8 sheng and 6 ge, which totals 23 hu, 4 dou, 4 sheng of rice, as well as two chi of cloth to be received [per mu]. With regard to the rice, he paid 23 hu, 4 dou, 4 sheng to Attendant Sun Yi in the 6th year, 1st month, 18th day. The total sum of cloth is 2 pi. He converted it to 5 hu of rice by official permission, which he paid on the 3rd day of the 2nd month of the 6th year to Attendant Sun Yi. The tax to be collected on each mu was 80 coins, which is altogether 3,200 coins. He converted this to 2 hu, 8 dou and 1 sheng of rice by official permission, which he paid in full on 11th day of the 2nd month of the 6th year, to Attendant Sun Yi. On the 6th year, 2nd month, 20th day of the Jiahe reign, checked by the secretaries of the field and household bureaus, Zhang Ti and Zhao Ye.24

The following example is useful for distinguishing between dry land and ripe land: ※⟨昭⟩丘男子張客，火種田三町，凡廿五畝，皆二年常限。其廿三畝 旱田，畝收布六寸六分。定收二畝，畝收米四斗五升六合，爲米九斗 一升二合。畝收布二尺。其米九斗一升二合，四年十月九日付倉吏 李金。凡爲布一丈六尺，五年三月七日付庫吏番有。其旱田畝收錢 卅七，其孰（熟）田畝收錢七十。凡爲錢九百一十四錢，五年三月一 日付庫吏番有。嘉禾五年三月十日，田户曹史趙野、張惕、陳通校。

(Tianjia certificate 4.300) ※ Zhang Ke, an adult male from Zhao hill, has three plots of fire planted

fields, altogether 25 mu, all of which are two-year regular quota. Of these, 23 mu are dry fields, for each of which we should receive 6 cun, 6 fen of cloth. He has 2 mu of fixed rate land, from each of which we should

24 “Field and household” tian hu 田戶 is an abbreviation of “Field and Household and Recurring Expenses” tian hu jingyong 田戶經用, which is used in some documents such as 4.492 below.

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receive 4 dou, 5 sheng, 6 ge of rice, which totals 9 dou, 1 sheng, 2 ge of rice, as well as 2 chi of cloth per mu. As for the 9 dou, 1 sheng, 2 ge of rice, on the 9th day of the 10th month of the 4th year, he paid it to granary official Li Jin. Altogether this amounted to 1 zhang, 6 chi of cloth, which he paid to treasury official Pan You on the 7th day of the 3rd month of the 5th year. From his dry fields, we were supposed to receive 37 coins per mu. From his ripe fields we were supposed to receive 70 coins per mu. Altogether in coins this made 914 coins, which he paid to treasury official Pan You on the 1st day of the 3rd month of the 5th year. On the 10th day of the 3rd month of the 5th Jiahe year, checked by the secretaries of the field and household bureaus, Zhao Ye, Zhang Ti and Chen Tong. Note that this document seems to also contain two mathematical errors. They should have received 1 zhang, 9 chi, 1 cun, 8 fen of cloth, and the coin total should be 991 instead of 914. As noted above, most of the tianjia certificates concern commoners and lesser officials, but some register the tax payments of active and inactive soldiers. Let us now look at one of the military (buqu 部曲) family tianjia certificates. Here is an example of an active soldier: ※樸丘士吴有，佃田十三町，凡九十四畝，皆二年常限。其七畝孰 （熟）田，依書不收錢布。其八十七畝旱田，畝收布六寸六分。凡爲   布一匹一丈二尺一寸，准入米二斛六斗一升，五年三月十日付倉吏 潘慮。旱田畝收錢卅七，凡爲錢三千二百十九錢，准米一斛九斗 九升，五年三月七日付倉吏潘慮。嘉禾五年三月十日，田户經用曹史 趙野、張惕、陳通校。(Tianjia certificate 4.492) ※ Pu hill soldier Wu You has 13 plots of cultivated fields, altogether 94

mu. All are two-year regular quota. Of them, 7 mu are ripe fields, and according to the documents we do not collect coins and cloth on them. 87 mu are dry fields, from each of which we collect 6 cun, 6 fen of cloth. Altogether this is 1 pi, 1 zhang, 2 chi, 1 cun. Converted into 2 hu, 6 dou, 1 sheng of rice by official permission, which was paid to granary official Pan Lü on the 10th day of the 3rd month of the 5th year. From each mu of dry fields we collected 37 coins for a total of 3,219 coins. Converted into 1 hu, 9 dou, 9 sheng of rice by official permission. Paid to granary official Pan Lü on the 7th day of the 3rd month of the 5th year. On the 10th day of the 3rd month of the 5th Jiahe year, checked by the secretaries of the Field, Household, and Recurring Expenses Bureaus, Zhao Ye, Zhang Ti and Chen Tong.

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Given the details preserved in each certificate, the 2141 tianjia certificates in themselves contain a remarkable amount of information. As mentioned above, they are particularly valuable because they are complete documents in themselves, and thus are free of the many of the problems of reconstruction and interpretation that make the study of the bamboo slips so difficult. We will now turn to those, beginning with the household records. 3

Records of Households

Keeping records of the population was essential for collecting taxes and ensuring that people did their corvée and military service. There are many types of records of individuals and households in the Zoumalou documents, and scholars must divide them into categories for the purpose of analysis. We have chosen to divide them into two main categories. This section (3) concerns the records of households, while the following section (4) groups together various records that collect the names of people for taxation and other purposes. There has been considerable scholarly debate about household registers in the early empires and our understanding continues to evolve as new examples are excavated.25 From the Qin to the Jin periods, the term ji 籍 was generally used to refer to the simple registers of names and households that were kept as a basic record of people and families, while bu 簿 referred to a broad range of documents, especially those used in daily administration. Some scholars prefer to reserve the term “household registers” (huji 戶籍) to refer exclusively to the official state registers that list individual households, but we will call these specific documents “official household registers” and use the term “household registers” more broadly to include any document whose main purpose was to record the members of households. Scholars in China often use the term “household register records” (huji bu 户籍簿) to refer to records that combine information on taxation and labour

25

On these debates, and the justification for the approach followed here, see Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Zoumalou Wu jian yinhe xinzhanmin bu zhengli yu yanjiu: jianlun Sun Wu huji de jiben tili” 走馬樓吴簡隱核新占民簿整理與研究：兼論孫吴戶籍的基本體例, in Tian Yuqing xiansheng jiushi huadan songshou lunwenji 田餘慶先生九十華誕頌壽 論文集, by Beijing Daxue Zhongguo gudaishi yanjiu zhongxin (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2014), 174–201; Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Sun Wu huji zhi queren: yi jiahe si nian Nanxiang huji wei zhongxin” 孫吴戶籍之確認：以嘉禾四年南鄉戶籍為中心, Jianbo yanjiu 2014 (2014), 265–325.

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service with basic household information.26 Although the terminology is confusing, this is a useful distinction because the purpose of the household registers (huji 戶籍) was specifically to keep records of the population, while the “household register records” were created to collect taxes and to ensure that people provided labour to the state. This section is divided into three sections: official household registers, household register records, and the registers of households according to grade. 3.1

Official Household Registers limin hushu, koushi, renming, nianji bu 吏民戶數、口食、人名、 年紀簿

Here we first translate a title slip of a household register and then an example of one household’s record. 南鄉謹列：嘉禾四年吏民户數、口食、人名、年紀簿。(1.9088/14)

South District respectfully lists the number of households, the number of members in each, the names and ages of officials and commoners for the Jiahe 4th year in a register.

宜陽里户人公乘張厥，年廿九。(1.9322/14)

Yiyang canton householder Zhang Jue, of gongsheng rank, age 29.

厥妻大女瞻，年廿一。(1.9408/14) Jue’s wife, adult woman Zhan, age 21. 厥男弟世，年十一，踵兩足。(1.9374/14)

Jue’s younger brother Shi, age 11, both feet swollen.27

世男弟昜，年七歲。(1.9459/14) Shi’s younger brother Yang, age 7.28 26

For more information, see Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Zoumalou Wu jian caiji jian ‘huji bu’ fuyuan zhengli yu yanjiu” 走馬樓吴簡採集簡‘戶籍簿’復原整理與研究, in Wu jian yanjiu 3 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2011), 9–64. 27 Zhong 踵 most likely means zhong 腫 “swollen, tumorous” and some scholars have guessed that it refers to schistosomiasis, beriberi or some other illness. It is mentioned because a disabled person was exempt from labour and military service. 28 People were reckoned to have already entered their first year of life at birth and were considered to increase by a year of age at the turning of the next year, which made the conventional nian 年 “years” a rather poor indicator of the actual age of children. This is probably why sui “years” is indicated for children in these documents. See Wilkinson, Chinese History, section 9.11 “Age.”

96

Chapter 3 昜男弟聞，年四歲。(1.9375/14)

Yang’s younger brother Wen, age 4.

右厥家口食五人。　　中　　訾五十。(1.9366/14) Above, Jue’s family, five people.  Property 50.29 Checked.30

Household Register Records huji bu 戶籍簿 As discussed above, registers that combine information on taxation and labour service with the basic household information are sometimes called “household register records” (huji bu 户籍簿).31 We follow this distinction because the “household registers” were made to keep track of the population while the “household register records” were created to administer taxation and labour service. We will begin with the “household register records” concerning taxation, and will then discuss those concerning corvée labour. 3.2

3.2.1

Household Taxation Registers zhengfu huji bu 征賦戶籍簿 Household Taxation Registers were made to record the geng 更, kou 口, and suan 筭 poll taxes that most households were required to pay. These documents were created by district officials to record taxation information of the canton under their jurisdiction. We will begin by translating the title slip of a document. We then provide two examples of the kind of individual household records that comprised most of the content of these documents, and then provide one that summarizes the households in a canton, document summarizes the households in a district. Note that Jiyang canton was under the jurisdiction of Xiaowuling district. 小武陵鄉⟨謹⟩⟨列⟩：嘉禾四年吏民人名、妻、子、年紀簿。(1.10153· 圖 1-3/14)

29

The meaning of zi 訾 is unclear. It may be an official numbering system used to represent the wealth level of the households. Zi is often understood as a kind of tax (in which case this could mean “property tax 50 coins”), but there is no record in the Zoumalou documents of a zi tax being collected. 30 The “checked” character (zhong 中) was added when an official certified the documents. It was sometimes written in red, sometimes in black. Even though the character appears on the slip before the character zi 訾, it is likely it was added after the rest of the slip was written. Therefore, we place “checked” at the end of the sentence. 31 For more information, see Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Zoumalou Wu jian caiji jian ‘huji bu’ fuyuan zhengli yu yanjiu.”

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97

Xiaowuling District respectfully lists the names, wives and children and ages of officials and commoners for the Jiahe 4th year in a register. 吉陽里户人公乘孫潘，年卅五，筭一。(1.10381·圖 2-130/14) Jiyang canton householder Sun Pan, of gongsheng rank, age 35, one suan tax. 潘妻大女蔦，年十九，筭一。(1.10382·圖 2-131/14)

Pan’s wife, adult female Niao, age 19, one suan tax.

潘子女□，年五歲。(1.10379·圖 2-128/14) Pan’s daughter ?, age 5 years. 凡口三事二，筭二事，訾五十。(1.10380·圖 2-129/14)

Altogether 3 people, of whom 2 must pay adult poll tax. 2 people should pay suan tax. Property 50.

吉陽里户人公乘殷叙，年八十一。(1.10094/14)

Jiyang canton householder Yin Xu, of gongsheng rank, age 81.

叙妻大女妾，年七十一。(1.10093/14)

Xu’s wife, adult female Qie, age 71.32

凡口二事一，訾五十。(1.10092/14)

Altogether 2 people, of which 1 must pay adult poll tax. Property 50. 右吉陽里領吏民卅六户，口食一百七十三人。(1.10397·圖 2-146/14)

Above, Jiyang canton has jurisdiction over 36 households of officials and commoners and 173 household members.33 32

In official documents the word qie 妾 seems to have been used for women with no official name. Qie is usually translated “concubine,” but is less specific here, where it is probably a slightly derogatory term for a woman. 33 Confusingly, the word ling 領 is used in these documents because in several ways. Based on its meaning of “take by the neck,” ling means to lead, manage, and have jurisdiction over (Paul Kroll, A Student’s Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese [Pleco edition]). In this case it had a specific administrative meaning that was interchangeable with lu 錄, meaning both to keep records of and to have jurisdiction over. This provides insight into how people perceived the importance of written records in governance. Ling has a separate meaning of “received” in some contexts, but in these documents also means the opposite, referring to the withdrawal of goods from the treasury to be spent (ling chu 領 出 perhaps meant “directed outwards”).

98

Chapter 3 右 小 武 陵 鄉 領 四 年 吏 民 一 百 九 十 四 ⟨户 ⟩， 口 九 百 五 十 一 人，⟨收⟩⟨更⟩⟨口⟩⟨筭⟩⟨錢⟩⟨合⟩□□一千三百卅四錢。(1.4985/14)34

Above, Xiaowuling District has jurisdiction over 194 households of officials and commoners in the 4th year. There are 951 household members. We will levy geng, kou and suan coins, altogether … one thousand three hundred and thirty-four coins. ■　其八人更人收錢三百，合二千四百。(1.4755/11)35 ■　8 of these people are geng people and from each of them we should

receive 300 coins. Altogether 2,400.

其六百八人大口，々收錢廿八，合一萬七千廿四錢。(1.4464/11)

608 of these people are adults and from each of them we should receive 28 coins. Altogether 17024.

其三百卅四人小口，々收錢五，合一千六百七十。(1.4436/11)

334 of these people are minors and from each of them we should receive 5 coins. Altogether 1,670. 其二百五十二人筭人收錢一百廿，合三萬二百卌。(1.4980/11)36 252 of these people are suan people and from each of them we should receive 120 coins. Altogether 30,240.

3.2.2

Yellow Registers and Registers of Newly Enrolled Households huangbu min, xinzhan min huji bu 黃簿民、新占民戶籍簿 Among the household registration documents on statute labour are “Yellow Registers” (huang bu 黃簿), which concern households that had been registered in the area for a relatively long time. Perhaps they were households that could trace their land ownership to before the recent upheavals and wars. There are also some registers of newly enrolled people (xinzhanmin 新占民).37 34

This slip is poorly preserved, and we have made several modifications to the original transcription based both on the published image, and with parallel passages on slips 3096, 3387, 3939, 9392, 9407 and 9786 of Zhujian vol. 1. In particular, these passages strongly suggest that geng 更 is the correct reading here. 35 We have replaced “吏” with “更.” 36 Document 1.4985 probably summarizes the information on 1.4755, 1.4464, 1.4436 and 1.4980. See Lian Xianyong 連先用, “Zoumalou Wu jian suojian limin bu de fuyuan, zhengli, yu yanjiu: yi fajuejian wei zhongxin” 走馬樓吴簡所見吏民簿的复原、整理 與研究：以发掘簡為中心, Jilin University PhD thesis (2018), 292. 37 See Lian Xianyong 連先用, “Shilun Wu jian suojian de ‘huangbu min’ yu ‘xinzhan min’” 試論吴簡所見的‘黃簿民’與‘新占民’  , Wen shi (2017.4), 89–121.

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99

In most of the household record registers, the documents recording the people on the Yellow Registers and those of newly enrolled households are more or less similar in format. However, there is one household record register from Chunping canton in which the people on the Yellow Registers are listed beginning with the name of the canton while the newly enrolled people are listed beginning with their status.38 The latter may have been the normal format for people newly entered onto household registers. The following documents have been reconstructed based on the slip position diagrams. The title Canton Kui (likui 里魁) from the first document is equivalent to the Canton Zheng (lizheng 里正) of the Han era, both being terms for canton leaders. ⟨春 ⟩平里 ⟨魁 ⟩⟨唐 ⟩升謹列：所主黄簿民户 ⟨數 ⟩、口食、人名簿。  39 (6.1498·圖 15-122/12) Chunping canton leader Tang Sheng respectfully lists the numbers of households, the number of members in each, and the names of people in Yellow Register households under his jurisdiction in a register. 春平里男[子]唐升，年五十六，筭一。40 (6.1557·圖 15-181/12)

Chunping canton male Tang Sheng, age 56, 1 suan tax. 升⟨從⟩兄鄧大，年六十二。(6.1474·圖 15-98/12)

Sheng’s older male paternal cousin Deng Da, age 62.

升從弟急，年十歲。41 (6.1440·圖 15-64/12) Sheng’s younger male paternal cousin Ji, age 10 years. 右升家口食八人。(6.1428·圖 15-52/12) Above, Sheng’s family, 8 people. 魁唐升謹列：所主新占 ……（民人名）、口食簿。(6.1420·圖 15-44/12) Leader Tang Sheng respectfully lists in a register [the names and] the numbers … of newly enrolled households under his jurisdiction. 38 See Cui Qilong 崔啟龍, “Zoumalou Wu jian suojian ‘huangbu min’ yu ‘xinzhan min’ zaitan: yi Jiahe wu nian Chunping li xiangguan buji de zhengli wei zhongxin” 走馬樓吴 簡所見‘黃簿民’與‘新占民’再探：以嘉禾五年春平里相關簿籍的整理為 中心, Chutu wenxian yanjiu 18 (2019), 348–387. 39 We have changed “孺□” to “簿民.” 40 We have changed “所” to “升.” 41 We have added “升.”

100

Chapter 3 大男問皮，年卌六。(6.1606·圖 15-230/12)

Adult male Wen Pi, age 46.

皮妻⟨汝⟩，年卅一。42 (6.1430·圖 15-54/12) Pi’s wife Ru, age 31. 子男畝，年四歲。(6.1436·圖 15-60/12) His son Mu, age 4 years. 皮男弟⟨健⟩，年七歲。43 (6.1565·圖 15-189/12)

Pi’s younger brother Jian, age 7 years.

右皮家口食⟨四⟩人。(6.1432·圖 15-56/12)

Above, Pi’s family, 4 people.

右 一 户 ， 口 食 四 人 ， 本 羅 縣 界 民 ， 以 過 嘉 禾 三 年 ⟨移 ⟩來 ⟨部 ⟩界 ⟨佃⟩種，⟨過⟩年十二月廿一日⟨占⟩上户牒。(6.1424·圖 15-48/12)

Above, 1 household with 4 members. They originally came from within Luo County and arrived within the borders of this district to farm last year in the third Jiahe year. On the 21st day of the 12th month last year, they have enrolled their household in the original register. □宋魁唐升所主春平里新占民合廿户，口食七十八人。 (6.1638 · 圖 15-262/12)

[Above], ? Song (canton) leader Tang Sheng has jurisdiction over 20 newly enrolled households, 78 household members of Chunping canton.

其一户，口食四人，本羅界民，移來部界，已占上户。 (6.1605 · 圖 15-229/12)

Of those there is 1 household with 4 members. They originally came from within Luo County. They have arrived within the borders of this district and have already enrolled their household.

42 43

We have changed “廿” to “卅.” The graph transcribed “健” in the original publication is probably “建.” Document 7.4754 seems to record the same brothers (“子男畝（？ ）年四歲 皮男弟連年七歲”), and we can assume that it is “建” here since “建” and “連” can easily be confused.

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101

3.2.3

Household Registers Concerning Corvée Labour paiyi huji bu 派役戶籍簿 Along with grain tax, labour service (yi 役) was the other pillar of the political economy of early Chinese empires. Much of the grain collected in tax was used to feed these labourers. Officials kept careful records of people not only to ensure they paid their taxes, but to mobilize them to do labour service in the agricultural off-season. The following household registers were made for this purpose.44 The first two documents are title slips, the following four are examples of individual household records. The final document was created to determine the labour requirement of all the households in one li, but unfortunately it is incomplete. We only know of 20 of the 50 households in the village that had to do labour service, five that were unable to provide service, and three that were already providing service to other government offices. This leaves 22 households that were presumably recorded on the rest of the document. The relentlessness of the Wu labour system is evident from the document about Yang Ming, who was still providing service as a postal guard at the age of 86. 廣成鄉謹列：嘉禾六年吏民人名、年紀、口食爲簿。(2.1798·207/16)

Guangcheng District respectfully lists the names, ages and numbers of the officials and commoners from the Jiahe 6th year and makes a register. ⟨廣⟩⟨成⟩里謹列：⟨領⟩任吏民人名、年紀、口食爲簿45 (2.1797·206/16) Guangcheng canton respectfully lists the names, ages and numbers of the officials and commoners under its jurisdiction and makes a register.

44 On these, see Hou Xudong 侯旭東, “Changsha Zoumalou Wu jian Zhujian (er) ‘limin renming nianji koushi bu’ fuyuan de chubu yanjiu《長沙走馬樓吴簡：竹簡〔貳〕  》  ‘吏民人名年紀口食簿’復原的初步研究,   Zhonghua wenshi luncong (2009.1), 57–93; “Changsha Zoumalou Wu jian ‘jiahe liunian (Guangcheng xiang) xian li limin renming nianji koushi bu’ jicheng yanjiu: san shiji chu Jiangnan xiang li guanli yipie” 長沙走馬 樓吴簡‘嘉禾六年（廣成鄉）弦里吏民人名年紀口食簿’集成研究：三世紀 初江南鄉里管理一瞥, in Hsing I-tien 邢義田 and Liu Tseng-kuei 劉增貴, eds., Di si jie guoji Han xue huiyi lunwen ji: gudai shumin shehui 第四屆國際漢學會議論文集 古代庶民社會 (Taipei: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan, 2013) [later published in Hou Xudong, Jinguan Zhonggushi: Hou Xudong zixuanji 近觀中古史：侯旭東自選集 (Shanghai: Zhongxi, 2015), 81–142]; Sekio Shirō 關尾史郎, “Chōsa Gokan rimin-bo no kenkyū (jō), ‘kaka roku (nihyaku sanjū shichi) nen kousei kyō rimin-bo’ no fukugen to bunseki” 長 沙呉簡吏民簿の研究（上）：‘嘉禾六（二三七）年廣成郷吏民簿’の復元と分析, Jinbun kagaku kenkyū 137 (2015), 27–98. 45 Both the first two graphs and those we have transcribed “領任” are unclear. The latter might read “the sixth year” liu nian 六年.

102

Chapter 3 郡卒潘囊，年廿三。(2.1708·70/16)46

Commandery corvée labourer Pan Nang, age 23. 囊妻大女初，年廿六。　　囊父公乘尋，年六十一，苦虐（？ ）病。 (2.1696·57/16)

Nan’s wife adult woman Chu, age 26. Nang’s father Xun, of gongsheng rank, age 61, suffers from a serious (unknown) sickness.

尋妻大女司，年卌四，踵（腫）右足。　　囊男弟公乘祀，年十一。 (2.1694·55/16)

Xun’s wife, adult woman Si, age 44, right foot swollen. Nang’s younger brother Si, of gongsheng rank, age 11.

⁃ 祀女弟□，年二歳。　　尋好（姪？ ）子女陵，年廿六。(2.1655/16)47 ⁃ Si’s younger sister  … age 2 years.  Xun’s (niece’s) daughter Ling, age 26. •右囊家口食八人。(2.1697·58/16) • Above, Nang’s family, 8 people. 民男子楊明，年八十六，給驛兵。 48 　　明妻大女敬，年六十二。 (2.1778·179/16)

Male commoner Yang Ming, age 86, providing service as a postal guard. Ming’s wife, adult female Jing, age 62.

明子公乘禿，年十一。　　明姪子女錢，年十三。(2.1780·181/16)

Ming’s son Tu, of Gongsheng rank, age 11. Ming’s niece Qian, age 13.

•右明家口食五人。(2.1790·193/16) • Above, Ming’s family, 5 people.

46

This group of family records belongs to Xian canton. The others belong to Guangcheng canton. 47 The symbol we have included in the transcription of this slip, and that of some below, represents a mark made on the original document by someone reading it over for inspection or proofreading. It is not a dot like those on some other slips. The “niece” graph is miswritten. 48 Ji 給 means fulfilling the role of postal relay guard (yi bing 驛兵).

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103

民男子朱賢，年六十一，□□。　　賢妻大女□，年五十九，□□。

(2.1768·163/16) Male commoner Zhu Xian, age 61 … Xian’s wife adult female ?, age 59 … ⁃ 賢子女姑，年十六，筭一。　　姑弟公乘狗，年十二。　 ■ (2.1769·164/16) ⁃ Xian’s daughter Gu, age 16, suan tax 1. Gu’s younger brother Gou, of Gongsheng rank, age 12. 右賢家口食四人。(2.1770·165/16) Above, Xian’s family, 4 people.

⟨ 民 ⟩ 男 子 李 ⟨ 兒 ⟩ ， 年 卌 一 。 　 　 兒 妻 大 女 智 （ ？ ）  ， [ 年 ] 卅 八 ， 筭，聾。(2.1707·69/16) Male commoner Li Er, age 41. Er’s wife, adult female Zhi(?), (age) 38. Should pay suan tax. Deaf.

兒子女小，年七歲。　⁃ (2.1695·56/16)

Er’s daughter Xiao, age 7 years. ⁃

•右兒家口食三人。　⁃ (2.1709·71/16) • Above, Er’s family, 3 people. ⁃ 右廣成里領⟨吏⟩民五十户，口食二百九⟨十⟩□⟨人⟩。(2.1671·15/16) Above, Guangcheng canton has jurisdiction over 50 households of officials and commoners, with 29? household members. 其一户給朝丞。(2.1702·63/16) 1 of these households provides service to the court assistant magistrate. 其二户給郡園父。　⁃ (2.1701·62/16)

2 of these households provide service for the commandery gardener. ⁃ •其五户尪羸、老頓、貧窮、女户。(2.1705·67/16) • 5 of these households are crippled or emaciated, old and senile, poor or

led by women.

•定應役民廿户。(2.1704·66/16) • We determine that there are still 20 households required to perform

statute labour service.

104

Chapter 3

Registers of the Numbers of Upper, Middle and Lower Grade Households shang, zhong, xiapin hushu bu 上中下品戶數簿 The registers from Zoumalou are the earliest clear record of an early Chinese empire formally dividing households into different grades based on their wealth. The Qin and Han had levied taxes and conscripts based on the wealth level of the household, but did not divide households into formal grades like we see here. The Zoumalou documents divided households into upper, middle, and lower grades (shang, zhong, xia pin 上, 中, 下品). Wealth (zi 訾) was the basis of the tax amounts that households were supposed to pay, and it also affected their labour obligations. It is likely that families registered as having wealth in the tens were classified as lower grade, those with wealth in the hundreds were middle grade, and those with wealth in the thousands were upper grade. We have placed these documents in the household taxation registers part of this chapter because the household grades were based on the household wealth and were thus mostly created with information from the household registers. Farming Promotion Attendants (quannong yuan 勸農掾) were in charge of collecting the information recorded in these registers. They usually had jurisdiction over two districts, which formed a unit called a section (bu 部). They appointed suiwu 歲伍, rotating annually, and yuewu 月伍, rotating monthly, to collect the information from around two cantons. Suiwu and yuewu were local people granted authority by the Farming Promotion Attendants to carry out household registration surveys and use the information in them to collect taxes and mobilize residents on their local hills to perform corvée labour.49 Employing locals probably saved funds and took advantage of local knowledge. The documents translated here are records from various districts of the grades and members of households under each suiwu.50 These documents make clear that the household (hu 戶) had become a key unit of taxation and labour mobilization, part of a long-term trend away from administration focused on individuals towards one focused on households. We have not yet been able to reconstruct one of these documents so here we list the different types of information recorded on them and divided them into what seem to be different types of documents. Type 1 records the occupational status, number, and grade of households, while type 2a includes status and number but does not include the grade. We can assume that to produce 3.3

49 See slips 4.4523(1) and 8.3342(1). 50 Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Zoumalou Wu jian ‘shang zhong xia pin hushu bu’ zhengli yu yanjiu: jianlun Sun Wu de hu deng zhi” 走馬樓吴簡上中下品戶數簿整理與研 究：兼論孫吴的戶等制, Zhongguo jingji shi yanjiu 3 (2016), 161–175.

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type 1 documents officials needed another document that recorded household grades, and this is the information recorded in type 2b, which are structurally the same as type 2a. Type 3 are similar to type 2b, but are written on slightly shorter slips, so we provisionally treat them as a separate category. – Title slip: ■⟨上⟩中下品户數簿。(2.215/15) ■ Registers of the numbers of upper, middle and lower grade households.

– Slips recording the numbers of households of each grade (hupin hushu jian 戶品戶數簡) type 1: 領歲、月伍五户，下品。　⁃ (2.580/15)

Under our jurisdiction [that of the Farming Promotion Attendants]:  5 households of suiwu and yuewu, lower grade. ⁃

□⟨老⟩頓、窮、獨、女户八户，下品。(2.799/15)

… 8 households of old and senile, poor, childless, women [implying lack of healthy adult men], lower grade.

領縣卒一户，下品。(2.802/15)

Under our jurisdiction: 1 household of a county corvée labourer, lower grade. 領并閭（栟櫚）民一户，下品。(2.803/15)51

Under our jurisdiction: 1 household tasked with collecting materials from palm trees, lower grade.

領鍛佐一户，下品。　⁃ (2.836/15) Under our jurisdiction: 1 household of a casting assistant, lower grade. ⁃ 領軍吏一户，下品。　■ (2.1086/15)

Under our jurisdiction: 1 household of an army official, lower grade.52

51 52

On the palm trees mentioned here, see Zhuang Xiaoxia 莊小霞, “Zoumalou Wu jian suo jian ‘binglümin’ kaoshu: jianshuo Wei-Jin-Nanchao shiqi de zayi hu” 走馬樓吴簡所見 ‘并閭民’ 考述:兼說魏晉南朝時期的雜役戶, Chutu wenxian yanjiu 19 (2020), 398–415. Because the Wu government prioritized military affairs, military officials were generally of higher status than civil ones, but there was not a rigid separation between the two. Military Bureaus (bing cao 兵曹) were established in county governments because the latter had to deal with a lot of military affairs. The officials appointed to these bureaus

106

Chapter 3 領郡吏二户，下品。　■ (2.1138/15)

Under our jurisdiction: 2 households of commandery officials, lower grade.

– Slips recording the numbers of households of each status and no grade, type 2a: ⟨領⟩歲、月伍五户。 53 (2.525/15) Under our jurisdiction: 5 suiwu and yuewu households. 領郡吏三户。(2.561/15) Under our jurisdiction: 3 households of commandery officials. 領郡吏三户。(2.565/15) Under our jurisdiction: 3 households of commandery officials.54 領應役民廿六户。(2.617/15) Under our jurisdiction: 26 households of commoners required to do statute labour service. 領軍吏四户。　⁃ (2.627/15)

Under our jurisdiction: 4 households of army officials. ⁃ 領應役民十九户。(2.660/15)

Under our jurisdiction: 19 households of commoners required to do statute labour service. 領應役民卅户。　■ (2.757/15) Under our jurisdiction: 30 households of commoners required do statute labour service. 領⟨新⟩吏四户。　■ (2.1077/15)

Under our jurisdiction: 4 households of new officials.

53

54

carried out military functions and might have appeared to be regular military officials, but they remained under the authority of local civil government. The original transcription did not include ling 領, but we can make out a bei 貝 on the lower right, and suspect it was a ling graph. This slip is about 22.1 cm long, but is bent and was probably originally longer, probably long enough to be included in the category of longer slips, as were the next seven slips. The two identical slips come from different cantons.

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

– Slips recording the numbers of households of each grade, type 2b: 其二户中品。　⁃ (2.553/15) Of these, 2 households are middle grade. ⁃ •其五户下品。(2.570/15) • Of these, 5 households are lower grade. 其三户中品。(2.573/15) Of these, 3 households are middle grade. 其七户中品。(2.590/15) Of these, 7 households are middle grade. •其二户上品。(2.591/15) • Of these, 2 households are upper grade. 其一户上品。(2.593/15) Of these, 1 household is upper grade. 其四户上品。(2.594/15)

Of these, 4 households are upper grade. •其二户上品。(2.631/15) • Of these, 2 households are upper grade. 其六户□品。(2.1103/15)

Of these, 6 households are ? grade. – Slips recording the numbers of households of each grade, type 3: 其六十四户下品。 ⁃ (2.318/15)

Of these, 64 households are lower grade. ⁃ •其一百一十九户下品。(2.529/15) • Of these, 119 households are lower grade. 其一户中品。(2.547/15)

Of these, 1 household is middle grade.

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Chapter 3 其二户下品。(2.618/15) Of these, 2 households are lower grade. 其十七户下品。(2.622/15) Of these, 17 households are lower grade. 其十户中品。(2.624/15) Of these, 10 households are middle grade.

– Summary slips: 右歲伍⟨巨⟩⟨力⟩領吏民八十八户。 55 (2.519/15) Above, suiwu Ju Li has jurisdiction over 88 households of officials and commoners. ■⟨右⟩歲伍番祇領吏民五十五户。(2.619/15)

Above, suiwu Pan Zhi has jurisdiction over 55 households of officials and commoners.

•右歲伍謝⟨黄⟩領吏民七十五户。　■ (2.1105/15) • Above, suiwu Xie Huang has jurisdiction over 75 households of officials

and commoners. 4

Name Registers renming bu 人名簿

In addition to the records listed above, there were a variety of other registers of people. These are registers of: 1) newly registered people, 2) artisans transferred from one workplace to another, 3) one-time tax collections, 4) tenant farmers, 5) “privately educated” men eligible for public service, 6) male relatives of provincial army officials, and 7) male relatives of commandery and county officials who have absconded. Registers of Inspections of Newly Registered People yinhe xinzhanmin bu 隱核新占民簿 In the second year of the Jiahe reign the Household Bureau (hu cao 戶曹) of the Linxiang Marquisate dispatched Farming Promotion Attendants to their subordinate districts where they collected basic information on newly registered people (xin zhanmin 新占民). Most of these people had presumably

4.1

55

We have changed zu ? 卒□ to ju li 巨力.

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come from outside of the county.56 The registers mostly include the name and age of each household member. They do not seem to be official household registers, but rather basic information recorded about newly arrived people, which were intended to form the basis for more detailed registration later on. They reveal what the Sun Wu state considered essential knowledge about households, namely the head of the household’s place of registration and status, the number of people in the household, and the name and age of each household member. They also occasionally include other information about each person. It is worth noting that they lack information on taxation, statute labour service, and the person’s dingzhong 丁中 status (an age-based system). The first three documents are records of individual households, while the fourth is an official document sent by the Farming Promotion Attendant to the county Bureau of Households concerning the registration of previously unregistered people (4·4523). 秋小妻

，年五十一。(4.4428·圖 20-10/5)

Qiu’s concubine ?, age 51

⟨秋⟩子男當，年八歲。(4.4480·圖 20-62/5)57 Qiu’s son Dang, age 8 years. ⟨秋⟩子女推，年六歲。(4.4427·圖 20-9/5) Qiu’s daughter Tui, age 6 years. ⟨秋⟩子女足，年四歲。(4.4481·圖 20-63/5) Qiu’s daughter Zu, age 4 years. ⟨秋⟩子男⟨歎⟩，年一歲。(4.4494·圖 20-76/5) Qiu’s son Tan, age 1 year. ⟨西⟩□⟨從⟩事章陵⟨部⟩張暹□⟨和⟩，年五十一。(4.4518·圖 21-14/5)58 West ? handler from Zhangling section, Zhang Xian (’s wife ?) He, age 51.

56 This is presumably the meaning of fangyuan keren 方遠客人 or fangyuan shoujumin 方遠授居民. Ling, “Zoumalou Wu jian yinhe xinzhanmin bu zhengli yu yanjiu.” 57 The original transcriptions did not transcribe the first graph of this and the following three slips. We think they all read qiu 秋. The same applies to Tan 歎 on 4.4494. 58 We have added several graphs to the transcriptions of these three slips. The first two graphs may be 西部, while the second graph we have transcribed as bu 部 may be a mark rather than a graph, or it could potentially be jun 郡 (commandery). “West ?” is probably an administrative place name. Congshi 從事, which we have translated “handler” is the title of a local official.

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⟨暹⟩子男承，年廿。(4.4514·圖 21-10/5) Xian’s son Cheng, age 20. ⟨承⟩女弟⟨慮⟩，年⟨十⟩五。(4.4476·圖 20-58/5) Cheng’s younger sister Lü, age 15. ■⟨南⟩男子張元，年■ (4.4519·圖 21-15/5) … adult male (from south …), Zhang Yuan, age … 元子男迣，年五歲。(4.4521·圖 21-17/5)

Yuan’s son Chi, age 5 years

右元家口食三人。(4.4522·圖 21-18/5)

Above, Yuan family, 3 people

都 鄉 勸 農 掾 郭 宋 叩 頭 死 罪 白 ： 被 曹 敕 ， 條 列 鄉 界 方 遠 授 59 居 民 占上户籍分别言。案文書，輒部歲伍五亰（京）  、 ⟨ 廖 ⟩⟨ 准 ⟩ 、  60 毛常等隱核所部。今亰（京）關言：州吏姚達、誠裕、大男趙式等 三户、口食十三人 ⟨居 ⟩在部界。謹列人名、口食、年紀右别爲簿如 牒。謹列言。宋誠惶誠恐叩頭死罪死罪。 　　　　　　　 　　　 詣　户　曹。 　　　　　　　 　　 　十二月十八日白。(4·4523①·圖 21-19/5)

Metropolitan61 district Farming Promotion Attendant Guo Song, prostrating and risking execution, reports: upon the Bureau’s order, I have listed people who have arrived from afar and are allowed to live within the district borders and are self-registered. List them separately. According to the document, I immediately deployed suiwu Wu Jing, Liao Zhun, Mao Chang, etc., to inspect the area for which they are responsible. Today Jing reports: provincial officials Yao Da, Cheng Yu and commoner adult male Zhao Shi;62 these 3 households have 13 household members living

59 We have added shou 授. 60 The name transcribed as Liao Zhui 廖准 is unclear. 61 Du 都 is a term used for the administrative centre of any particular area, and is thus often translated “metropolitan.” In this case it refers to the district based at the capital of Linxiang Marquisate, now the centre of Changsha. 62 The term deng 等 (“etc.”) does not seem to add any meaning here, since it seems there are only three heads of households.

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111

Figure 11 Document 4·4523. 23.5 × 8 cm

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within the borders of the district.63 We have respectfully listed the personal names, the number of people and their ages. Separately rewrite it on the right and make a register, as in the accompanying document.64 Respectfully report it. Song, in fear and trepidation, prostrating, risking execution, risking execution.           To the Bureau of Households           Reported on the 18th day of the 12th month Registers of the Transfer of Artisans bingcao xi zuobu gongshi ji qizi bu 兵曹徙作部工師及妻子簿 After Wu conquered the middle Yangzi region in 219–220, it faced resistance from local elites and from indigenous people to the west (the Wuling Man 武陵蠻). Sun Quan appointed Pan Jun 潘濬, who was from Wuling and had previously served Liu Bei, to lead the attack against them, which was successful.65 The following registers are apparently records from that campaign of the transfer of artisans who made metal goods including military equipment and coins.66 These artisans worked for a government-owned handicraft workshop (zuobu 作部).67 The county Military Bureau (bingcao 兵曹) was charged with transferring these artisans westward, along with some of their wives and children. To record this transfer, the military bureau made the following registers, which we will divide into two types. Type 1 are relatively complete records, which have comments like “present” ( jian 見), “serving at another place” (bieshi 别使), “kept” (liu 留), and “the military garrison will transfer” (tunjiang xing 屯將行) written at the bottom. Not all of these comments appear in the 4.2

63 “Within the borders of the section” (bu jie 部界), means the districts under the jurisdiction of the Farming Promotion Attendant. Linxiang had 11 districts under its jurisdiction, and each Attendant had jurisdiction over one or two districts. Du and Zhongxiang districts, Xiaowuling and Xixiang districts, Sang and Lexiang districts, and Guangcheng and Pingxiang districts were combined under the authority of one Attendant. In this case, Attendant Guo Song probably had authority over Du and Zhongxiang districts. See Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Xinjian ‘qinnongyuan liaohe junli fuxiong zidi mudu wenshu’ bushi” 新見‘勸農掾料核軍吏父兄子弟木牘文書’補釋, Zhongguo zhonggushi jikan 3 (2017), 67–72. 64 Die 牒 referred to documents included at the beginning or end of another document, so ru die had a meaning something like “see attachment” does in an email. See Su Junlin 蘇 俊林, “Qin jiandu zhong ‘die’ zi de shiyong ji hanyi” 秦簡牘中‘牒’字的使用及含義, Jianbo 20 (2020), 147–168. 65 Sanguo zhi, 61.1397; de Crespigny, Generals of the South, 404–405, 500. 66 Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Zoumalou Wu jian liangtao zuobu gongshi bu fuyuan zhengli yu yanjiu” 走馬樓吴簡兩套作部工師簿復原整理與研究, Jianbo yanjiu 2008 (2011), 162–237. 67 The Hanyu da cidian 漢語大詞典 (Pleco digital edition) defines zuobu as a department in charge of weapon production.

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113

documents we have included and some of them remain poorly understood. Type 2 record only the information from those Type 1 documents that had “present” and “sent separately” written on them, but without the comments.68 Document J22–2580 is the label affixed to documents to indicate their contents. It says that they are “principal materials” (ben shi 本事), which were a type of documents whose contents had been looked over and confirmed, making them suitable to be kept in the archives for future consultation.69 This reveals a distinction between documents kept as records and those being used for everyday administration. We do not always know which of these categories the various Zoumalou documents fall into. – Registers of the Transfer of Artisans type 1: 鑢師、□師、□師、錦師母、妻、子人名、年紀爲簿如牒。　見 70

(1.5948/12) Record the names and ages of masters of polishing, ?, ?, and brocade, and their mothers, wives and children and make a register, as in the accompanying document. Present.

⟨剛⟩師臨湘楊樔，年□三。　見71 (1.6006/12) 樔妻巨，年卌五。　見 (1.5961/12) 樔子男經，年十六。　見 (1.5966/12) 樔子男節，年六歲。　見 (1.5826/12) Iron master Yang Chao from Linxiang (Marquisate), age ?3. Present. Chao’s wife Ju, age 45. Present. Chao’s son Jing, age 16. Present. Chao’s son Jie, age 6 years. Present. 其師佐廿九人，妻、子五十五人，今見送 (1.5899/12) These masters and assistants are 29 in number. Their wives and children add up to 55 people. They are present and we will send them. 其一人，别使 (1.5916/12)

Of these, one person will serve at another place.

68 Ling, “Zoumalou Wu jian liangtao zuobu gongshi bu fuyuan zhengli yu yanjiu.” 69 Yang Xiaoliang 楊小亮, “‘Ben shi’ qianpai kaosu” ‘本事’簽牌考索, Qi Lu xuekan (2013.4), 50. 70 The first six graphs are difficult to make out and must be considered guesses. 71 We have changed “槕” to “樔” based on the image. Since this is presumably the same person as document 3.1461, □師 is probably iron master (gangshi 剛師).

114

Chapter 3 乾鍛佐安成區承，年廿二。　見 (1.6704/12)72 ⟨承  ⟩妻妾，年卅二。　見 (1.6701/12)73

Steel forging assistant Ou Cheng from Ancheng (County), age 22. Present. Cheng’s wife Qie, age 32. Present. •右師佐四人，母、妻、子十二人，合十六人。(1.5926/12) •右安成⟨師⟩佐四人，妻、子五人。見⟨今⟩送 (1.6725/12) • Above are 4 masters and assistants and 12 mothers, wives and children.

Total 16 people.

• Above are 4 masters and assistants and 5 wives and children from

Ancheng (County). They are present and we will send them now. 觚慰師醴陵侯曹，年廿八。　單身　見 (1.6720/12)74

Sword handle master Hou Cao from Li Ling (County), age 28. Single body. Present. – Registers of the Transfer of Artisans type 2: 剛師臨湘楊樔，年□三。(3.1461/24) 樔妻巨，年卅五　樔子男經，年十八。(3.1334/24)75 樔子男節，年六歲。(3.1332/24)

Iron master Yang Chao, from Linxiang (Marquisate), age ?3. Chao’s wife Ju, age 35. Chao’s son Jing, age 18. Chao’s son Jie, age 6 years. •右臨湘師佐廿八人。(3.2511/25) • Above, the masters and assistants from Linxiang (Marquisate), 28

people.

乾鍛佐安成區承，年廿二。(3.2359·圖 1-69/25) 承妻妾，年卅二。(3.2366·圖 1-76/25)

Steel forging assistant Ou Cheng from Ancheng (County), age 22. Cheng’s wife Qie, age 32. 72 The gang 乾 graph is presumably a loan for gang 鋼. 73 We have added the cheng 承. 74 Dan shen 單身 (lit. “single body”) probably refers to a household with only one adult male. 75 The final graph on this slip looks more like 六 than 八.

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115

•右安成縣師佐四人。(3.2373·圖 1-83/25) 妻子五人。(3.2382·圖 1-92/25) • Above are the masters and assistants from Ancheng County, 4 people.

Wives and children, 5 people.

觚慰師醴陵侯曹，年廿一。　單身 (3.2387·圖 1-97/25) Sword handle master Hou Cao from Li Ling (County), age 21. Single body. 集凡作部師佐□見□□⟨人⟩，合⟨五⟩⟨百⟩人。 (3.2345·圖 1-55/25) 其一百六十六人，丁⟨男⟩。(3.2354·圖 1-64/25) 其二百卌三人，妻、子。(3.2355·圖 1-65/25) 其廿四人，□□⟨姑⟩（？）妻。(3.2351·圖 1-61/25)

Altogether, the total number of masters and assistants of the handicraft workshop … present … is altogether 500 people. Of these, 166 are able bodied men.76 Of these, 243 are wives and children. Of these, 24 are … ? wives.

– Label: 兵曹徙作部工師及妻、子本事。(J22–2580 正)

Principal material regarding the Military Bureau transferring the handicraft workshop’s artisans and their wives and children.

Name Registers of Coin Payments of Households by Grade hupin chuqian renming bu 户品出錢人名簿 Irrigation infrastructure had been neglected during the warfare of the previous decades and the government levied funds to repair it in order to raise agricultural productivity and tax income. We will discuss the surveys of the broken irrigation infrastructure below and will here deal only with the taxes that were levied to pay for the repairs. In the fifth year of the Jiahe reign the government issued a command for Field Managing Attendants (diantianyuan 典田掾) to collect temporary taxes in coins in order to raise 800,000,000 coins 4.3

76 Ding nan probably means healthy men able to work, not just every male within the age bracket of adult. Note that this document is not complete, so the numbers do not add up to 500.

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for this project.77 The following are the records of the collection of those taxes in coins according to the three household grades (upper, middle and lower), which were modelled on registers discussed above. Both “old households” (gu hu 故戶)—households had been established in the area for some time—and new households were included, and each household paid tax according to its tax grade and whether it was an old or a new household. We have what seems to be the title slip of the register made in the Metropolitan District to collect taxes for this purpose: “In the fifth year the metropolitan district respectfully lists and makes a register of the names of the people of the 800,000,000 coins.”78 The “800,000,000 coins” levies and the “Name Registers of Coin Payments of Households by Grade” levies date to the 5th Jiahe year and involve far larger sums than other ad hoc coin taxes, so they are probably the same event. It is worth considering that this is one of the few taxes that Sun Wu levied in Changsha for a project whose benefits would directly benefit the people of that region, which might have facilitated collecting such substantial sums. In the Zoumalou documents there are five different types of register from three districts recording the payment of coins by households. These are the registers of the names of people from the three grades of old households in the Central District, and both old and new households in the Metropolitan and Mo districts. Field Managing Attendant Cai Zhong 蔡忠 oversaw those of the Metropolitan and Central Districts, which were close enough to the county offices in Changsha that people paid their taxes there.79 Each family was given a slip informing them of how much they had to pay, and on the reverse each slip instructed them to bring it to the county office: 入錢畢，民自送牒還縣。不得持還鄉典田吏及 （帥）。

To enter the coins in full, commoners must personally give this slip back to the county. They cannot bring it back to the district field managing officials and headmen.

77

We know that the purpose was to repair dikes from this document: “… how many years dry and waters, how many irrigation ponds, how many people … and new and old coins and rice already entered …” □□枯蕪幾年，波田多少，何人□□□，及新故錢米 已入□ (7218·22/37). 78 都鄉謹列：五⟨年⟩⟨八⟩億錢人名爲⟨簿⟩。■ (1.176/1). 79 We use “oversaw” to mean “to be in charge of and responsible for.”

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

117

This message was written on the back of the slips from the Central and Metropolitan Districts included below. We will only translate the first few words in each case, as they are all the same. Mo District was further away from the county offices, so its slips did not have this message. Instead, their coins and these slips were collected by a specially appointed person who brought them together to the county office. The approval symbol is written on the slips of the households in the Metropolitan District and old households in Mo District, which probably indicates that their payment has been verified by officials at the county.80 4.3.1

Central District Old Household Registers ⟨中⟩鄉謹列：故户人名、□⟨品⟩□⟨爲⟩簿如牒。(5.1624·圖 6-40/6)81

Central District respectfully lists the names of people in the old households … grade … and makes a register, as in the accompanying document. 中鄉大男鄧堇，故户上品，出錢一萬二千。侯相　　嘉禾六年正月十 二日都鄉典田掾蔡忠白。(5.1616 正·圖 6-32/6)

Central District adult male Deng Jin, old household upper grade, paid 12,000 coins (to be checked by) the chancellor of the Marquisate. On the 12th day of the 1st month of the 6th Jiahe year reported by Metropolitan District Field Managing Attendant Cai Zhong.

入錢畢，民自送牒還縣。不得持還鄉典田吏及 （帥） 。(5.1616 背· 圖 6-32/6)

Reverse: To enter the coins in full …

80 This may be a single graph formed by combining the phrase “had entered” 已入: Li Junming 李均明, “Zoumalou Wu jian suo jian ‘yi ru’ and ‘zhong ru’ hewen shishi” 走馬 樓吴簡所見‘已入’及‘中入’合文試釋, Chutu wenxian 10 (2017), 285–287. On these slips, see Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Zoumalou Wu jian san xiang hupin chu qian renming bu zhengli yu yanjiu: jianlun bayiqian yu beitian de xingjian” 走馬樓吴簡三鄉戶 品出錢人名簿整理與研究：兼論八億錢與波田的興建, Wenshi (2017.4); “Sun Wu Linxiang houguo Zhongxiang, Moxiang hupin chu qian bu zonghe zhengli yu yanjiu” 孫 吴臨湘侯國中鄉、模鄉戶品出錢簿綜合整理與研究, Jianbo yanjiu (Spring-summer 2021), 293–342. 81 We have changed ⟨四⟩ to ⟨中⟩ and added ⟨爲⟩.

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Figure 12 Document 5.1616. We have chosen to show this document because the text on the rear (left) is quite clear, but it is worth noting that many of the Zoumalou documents look more like the mostly illegible text on the other side. 23.7 × 1.5 cm.

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

119

右廿六户，故户上品，⟨户⟩出錢一萬二千，合卅一萬⟨二⟩千。(5.2096 正·圖 9-40/6)

Above, 26 households. Old households of the upper grade. Each household must pay 12,000 coins, altogether 312,000 coins.

入錢畢，民自送牒還縣。不得持還鄉典田吏及 (5.2096 背 圖 9-40/6)

（帥） 。  

Reverse: To enter the coins in full …

中鄉大男黄斗，故户中品，出錢八千。侯相　　嘉禾六年正月十二日 都鄉典田掾蔡忠白。(5.2045 正/6)

Central District adult male Huang Dou. Old household, middle grade, must pay 8000 coins. (To be checked by) the marquisate chancellor. Jiahe 6th year, 1st month, 12th day, reported by Metropolitan District Field Managing Attendant Cai Zhong. 入錢畢，民自送牒還縣。不得持還鄉典田吏及 （帥） 。(5.2045 背/6)

Reverse: To enter the coins in full …

右六十九户，故中品，户出錢八千，合五十五萬二千。 (5.1594 正· 圖 6-10/6)

Above, 69 households. Old (household), middle grade. Each household must pay 8000 coins, altogether 552,000 coins.

入錢畢，民自送牒還縣。不得持還鄉典田吏及 （帥） 。(5.1594 背· 圖 6-10/6)

Reverse: To enter the coins in full …

中鄉大男文禁，故户下品，出錢四千四百。侯相　　嘉禾六年正月十 二日都鄉典田掾蔡忠白。(5.2154 正·圖 11-20/6)

Central District adult male Wen Jin. Old household, lower grade. Must pay 4400 coins. (To be checked by) the marquisate Chancellor. Jiahe 6th year, 1st month, 12th day, reported by Metropolitan District Field Managing Attendant Cai Zhong.

入錢畢，民自送牒還縣。不得持還鄉典田吏及 ⟨ 帥 ⟩ 。 (5.2154 背· 圖 11-20/6)

Reverse: To enter the coins in full …

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Chapter 3 •右一百六十 ⟨一 ⟩户，下品，出錢四千四百，合七十萬八千四百。 (7.4077·圖 33-12/18) (Nothing written on the reverse) • Above, 161 households, lower grade. Each must pay 4400 coins, alto-

gether 708,400. (Nothing on reverse)

□⟨中⟩⟨鄉⟩故□二百五十⟨六⟩户，三品⟨出⟩⟨錢⟩，合一百五十⟨七⟩萬 □■ (7.2641/18)【注】背面無字。

… Central District old  … 256 households. The three grades must pay a total of 1,570,000 … (figures in the ten thousands and below not visible; nothing on reverse)

4.3.2

Mo District New Household Registers ⟨模⟩⟨鄉⟩大男黄欽，新户上品，出錢一萬三千。臨湘侯相　　嘉禾五 年十二月十八日模鄉典田掾烝若白。(4.1382/2)

Mo District adult male Huang Qin, new household, upper grade, has paid 13,000 coins, (to be checked by) the chancellor of the Linxiang marquisate. Jiahe 5th year, 12th month, 18th day, reported by Mo District Field Managing Attendant Zheng Ruo. 模鄉大男謝牒，新户中品，出錢九千。臨湘侯相　　嘉禾五年十二月 十八日模鄉典田掾烝若白。(4.1385/2)

Mo District adult male Xie Die, new household, middle grade, has paid 9000 coins, (to be checked by) the chancellor of the Linxiang Marquisate. Jiahe 5th year, 12th month, 18th day, reported by Mo District Field Managing Attendant Zheng Ruo.

模鄉大男烝忠，新户下品，出錢五千五百九十四錢。臨湘侯相　　 嘉禾五年十二月十八日模鄉典田掾烝若白。(4.1394/2)

Mo District adult male Zheng Zhong, new household, lower grade, has paid 5594 coins, (to be checked by) the chancellor of the Linxiang Marquisate. Jiahe 5th year, 12th month, 18th day, reported by Mo District Field Managing Attendant Zheng Ruo. 4.3.3

Mo District Old Household Registers ⟨模⟩⟨鄉⟩謹⟨列⟩：所領户出錢上、中、下品人名爲簿。(2.8256/22)82 Mo District respectfully lists the names of people in the (old) households of the upper, middle and lower grades under its jurisdiction who paid coins according to their household grade and makes a register.

82

We have added Mo xiang 模鄉 and changed yi “以” to lie “列.”

121

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents 模鄉郡吏何奇，故户上品，出錢一萬二千。臨湘侯相 二月十八日模鄉典田掾烝若白。 (2.8259/220)83

，嘉禾五年十

Mo District commandery official He Qi, old household, upper grade, has paid 12,000 coins. The Linxiang Marquisate chancellor has checked it. Jiahe 5th year, 12th month, 18th day, reported by Mo District Field Managing Attendant Zheng Ruo.

模鄉大男盖轉，故户中品，出錢八千。臨湘侯相　

■ (1.1518/5)84

Mo District adult male Ge Zhuan, old household, middle grade, has paid 8000 coins. Checked by the chancellor of the Linxiang Marquisate … Registers of Farmer Households Working on Quota Fields xiandian renhu koushi renming bu 限佃人户口食、人名簿 In the fifth year of the Jiahe reign the districts carried out a survey of farmer households which recorded only the numbers of people in each household and the names and ages of the working adults.85 These households seem to have been parts of the agricultural colonies (tuntian 屯田), meaning that they were under the direct control of the government. There were both military and civilian (min 民) colonies. Quota (xian 限) fields were designated quantities of land on which people had to pay fixed amounts of taxes.86 They paid tax on these quota fields at a much higher tax rate than the rates on other types of taxable fields. If we think of this in terms of the ways the government extracted labour and resources from its subjects, this high tax rate makes quota fields something between normal taxation and corvée labour. This labour was performed by people of various statuses, including field officials (dian li 佃吏), field corvée labourers (dian zu 佃卒), privately educated men (sixue 私學), postal labourers (you zu 郵卒), guards (weishi 衛士) and even some common people (min 民). The rice received from these fields was classified as quota rice and was divided into different categories. For example, some came from military agricultural colonies 4.4

83 84 85

We have changed “見” to “ .” We have added “ .” See Washio Yuko 鷲尾祐子, “Chōsa Sōmarō Gokan ni mieru ‘genden’ meiseki ni tsuite” 長沙走馬樓吴簡にみえる ‘限佃’ 名籍について, Ritsumeikan bungaku 619 (2010), 369–374. 86 Quota rice xian mi 限米 is mentioned in the Records of the Three Kingdoms in a passage that laments the over-exploitation of the people: “If a minor official has five people, three must all perform corvée, father or older brothers in the capital, sons and younger brothers serving with officials in the commandery or county. Once they have paid their quota rice, if they army deploys, they should go with it. As for the affairs of their family, there is nobody to maintain them. I am deeply pained by this” 諸吏家有五人三人 兼重為役，父兄在都，子弟給郡縣吏，既出限米，軍出又從，至於家事無經 護者，朕甚愍之. San guo zhi 48.1157 (吴書‧孫休傳).

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(sima … tuntian xianmi 司馬 … … 屯田限米, 1.1739), others from common farmers in agricultural colonies (tuntian min xianmi 屯田民限米, 3.1493). The documents in this section were records of commoners who were liable for these taxes in a commoner agricultural colony. 小武陵鄉謹列：嘉禾五年限佃人户口食、人名簿。(2.9/15)

Xiaowuling District respectfully lists the numbers and names of quota farmer household members from the 5th Jiahe year in a register.

南鄉謹列：嘉禾五年限佃人户口食、人名簿。　⁃ ■ (2.1131/15)

South District respectfully lists the numbers and names of quota farmer household members from the 5th Jiahe year in a register.  ⁃　■ 吉陽里户人公乘李堤，年卅　妻大女服，年廿五。(2.80/15) 右堤家口食二人。(2.66/15)

Jiyang canton householder Li Di, of gongsheng rank, age 30. His wife, adult female Fu, age 25. Above, Di’s family members, 2 people.87 宜陽里户人公乘潘衣，年卌九　　妻大[女]紫，年卌五。　　⁃

(2.75/15)

•右衣家口食二人。(2.10/15)

Yiyang canton householder Pan Yi, of gongsheng rank, age 49. His wife, adult (female)88 Zi, age 45.  ⁃ • Above, Yi’s family members, 2 people. 宜陽里户人公乘李遺，年五十　　妻大女妾，年卌一。(2.292/15) 右⟨遺⟩家口食二人。　⁃　■ (2.260/15)

Yiyang canton householder Li Yi, of gongsheng rank, age 50. His wife, adult female Qie, age 41. Above, Yi’s family members, 2 people.89  ⁃ 　■ □□里户人公乘雷怒，年廿七　　妻大女姑，年廿六。 (2.106/15) 右怒家口食三人。 (2.72/15)

?? canton householder Lei Nu, of gongsheng rank, age 27. His wife, adult female Gu, age 26. 87 88 89

The original transcription read 5 people, but we have changed it to 2 based on the image of the slip. The scribe forgot to write “female” nü 女. We have changed “道” to “遺.”

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Above, Nu’s family members, 3 people.90 □ 集 凡 小 武 陵 、 西 二 鄉 新 住 91 限 佃 ⟨ 客 ⟩ 卅 四 户 ， 口 食 卌 一 人，故户。中□ (2.35/15)

… Totalled together are the new quota guest farmer households in the two districts of Xiaowuling and West, total 34. The number of household members is 41, old households. Agreed …92 □集凡南鄉領限佃户二户，口食六人，故户。　　⁃ (2.427/15) … Totalled together are the quota farm households under the jurisdiction of the South District, a total of 2 households. The number of household members is 6. Old households.

Registers of Recommended Privately Educated Men ju sixue bu 舉私學簿 The collapse of the Han empire had left a power vacuum that was filled by a variety of armed groups, ranging from small gangs to kingdoms, each headed by a man who depended on men of skill and talent to serve him. The success of leaders like Liu Bei and Sun Quan was based on their ability to bring many of these groups under their command by rewarding them for service with wealth and power. But once these men consolidated their power, as Sun Quan had done by the early 220s, independent armed groups became more of a hazard than an asset, and the central government sought to curtail their power. One way of doing this was to steal their talent by requiring their followers to serve in the central government. In the second year of the Jiahe reign, the Sun Wu government ordered commanderies and counties to recommend “privately educated” (sixue 私學) men and send some of them to the capital to serve in office.93 The term “Privately Educated” referred to educated men who were mostly not registered inhabitants in any part of the Sun Wu domain, and which the government sought to register and recruit into the government. Most of them were probably followers of powerful men who served as officials in the Wu government. The name of the status refers to the fact that these men had received some education. 4.5

90 91 92 93

There must be a slip missing with a working adult’s name and age. The graph transcribed zhu 住 in the originally publication may be zuo 作. The reason two districts are listed is that one official is in charge of both. On this process, see Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Zoumalou Wu jian ju sixue bu zhengli yu yanjiu: jianlun Sun Wu de zhanmu” 走馬樓吴簡舉私學簿整理與研究：兼論孫吴的 占募, Wen shi 2 (2014), 37–72.

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Unlike later periods, this term did not indicate a contrast with men who had been educated at official schools.94 The chancellor of Linxiang Marquisate and the deputy chancellor, Yan 琰, ordered the Bureau of Personnel (gongcao 功曹) and other agencies to carry the order out strictly. These agencies consulted the registers of government officials, and informed officials that they must, according to their rank, recommend a certain number of privately educated men. In response, officials sent in “recommendation letters” ( juzhang 舉狀). They subsequently created documents concerning the Privately Educated men. Modern scholars divided these documents into three types and numbered them before they understood the order in which they were originally produced, and we will use these numbers to maintain consistency with existing scholarship. The Bureau of Personnel and other agencies first made registers of all privately educated men (type 2). During this time, the relevant agencies of the marquisate held several meetings to examine whether the recommended privately educated men were registered local residents or not. They divided them into two groups. One group were those who were registered as local residents (type 3). Another group were those not registered in any household registers who were sent to the imperial palace in Jianye in accordance with the edict (type 1). Finally, Ou Guang and others arranged to send over 20 people to Jianye by a given time. – Registers of government officials: ■□邸閣⟨南⟩郡董基。　■ (4.4567·圖 22-17/5) ■ … Official of Granaries Management Dong Ji from South Commandery.95 　■ 州中邸閣汝南李⟨嵩⟩。(4.4644·圖 23-16/5)

Central provincial (granary) Granaries Management Official Li Song from Runan.

– Recommendation letters: 私學長沙劉陽謝達，年卅一，居臨湘 都鄉立沂（？）丘。 十一月十五日右郎中竇通舉。(J22–2617, 圖 44) 94 Wu did establish a school soon after it made Jiankang its capital in 229, but it is highly unlikely that it was producing enough scholars that it became necessary to distinguish them from all other educated men in the realm. 95 Dige 邸閣 (an abbreviation of dige langzhong 邸閣郎中) seems to have been a granary management institution from which the central government sent officials to inspect the collection of grain taxes, so we translate it as Official of Granaries Management.

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Privately Educated Xie Da from Liuyang County, Changsha (Commandery). Age 31. Lives in Linxiang (Marquisate) Metropolitan District, Liyi hill. The 15th day of the 11th month, recommended by right counsellor Dou Tong.96 私學弟子南郡周基，年廿五，字公業，任吏，居 在西部新陽縣下。 嘉禾二年十一月一日監下關清公掾張闓舉。

Privately Educated student Zhou Ji,97 from South Commandery, age 25, courtesy name Gongye, competent to be an official. Lives in Xinyang County, in the Western section (of Changsha Commandery).98 Jiahe 2nd year, 11th month, 1st day, Recommended by attendant from Xiaguan, qinggong Zhang Kai.99

– Privately Educated Name Registers, Type 2: …… 黄 ⟨客 ⟩，年卅八，狀： ⟨客 ⟩，白衣，居 ⟨臨 ⟩⟨湘 ⟩⟨都 ⟩⟨鄉 ⟩□□ 丘。

…… 石，年廿九。(4.3949/4) … Huang Ke, age 38. Description: Ke, white clothes, lives in Linxiang metropolitan district … ? hill … Shi, age 29.100 96

We translate langzhong as “counsellor” because it was a kind of vague official title with no fixed duties. It originated in the central court and was used in marquisates because they were officially fiefs, and thus emulated central government positions. In the Han a man would serve as langzhong for three years, after which he would be eligible for a higher position. See Sun Zhengjun 孫正軍, “Zoumalou Wu jian zhong de zuo, you langzhong” 走馬樓吴簡中的左、右郎中, Wu jian yanjiu 3 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2011), 262–271. 97 Dizi seems to indicate the author’s relationship to the man he is recommending and may mean something like “my pupil.” 98 Changsha Commandery was divided into east, west and central sections (bu 部, confusingly the same word used for groups of two districts, a much smaller area), and Xinyang County was in the western sections. Each section was headed by a Military Commandant (duwei 都尉). 99 “Qinggong” means something like “honest lord,” and appears to be some kind of title. 100 “White clothes” were the clothes of common people, probably woven from undyed hemp, so this indicates commoner status. “Shi, age 29” is information recorded during the investigation of the members of Huang Ke’s household. The request from the capital was to send privately educated men who were not currently registered in a household. Huang Ke was probably the head of a registered household and Huang Shi was probably his family member. This slip is poorly preserved, and we have modified the transcription in several places, including adding the personal name Ke 客 based on the 宀 part at the top of the graph and our guess that this refers to the same Huang Ke mentioned in 4.3943.

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Chapter 3 ■長沙黄⟨星⟩，年廿六，狀：⟨星⟩，白衣，居臨湘都鄉吴溏丘， 帥龔傳。 無有⟨户⟩。(4.3979/5)

… Huang Xing from Changsha (Commandery), age 26. Description: Xing, white clothes, lives in Linxiang’s Metropolitan District at Wutang hill, whose headman is Gong Chuan.101 Does not have a household.

□□長沙李 ⟨俗 ⟩，年廿，狀：俗，白衣，居臨湘東鄉茗上丘，帥鄭 各主。(4.3991/5)

… Li Su from Changsha (Commandery), age 20. Description: Su, white clothes, lives in Linxiang’s East District at Mingshang hill, managed by headman Zheng Ge …102

私學長沙烝喿，年卅，狀：喿，白衣，居 ⟨ 臨 ⟩ 湘東鄉□丘，帥烝 □主。 □□送兵（共）户。 103 (4.4078/5)

Privately Educated Zheng Zao from Changsha (Commandery), age 30. Description: Zao, white clothes, lives in Linxiang East District, ? hill, managed by headman Zheng ?, … with ? Song in the same household register.

4.5.1 Meeting and Evaluation Documents These include documents arguing that some of the privately educated men who were recommended did not comply with the edict to be sent to the capital (Jianye, modern Nanjing) because they were registered in the area. 若（諾）。君教：丞琰如掾，期會掾烝若、録事掾陳曠校。 兼主簿劉　恒省。 十二月廿一日白：從史位周基所舉私學□□正户民，不應發遣事，脩 行吴贊⟨主⟩。(4.4850①/5)

101 Xing 星 was originally transcribed feng 豐, but we believe that this is probably the same person as Huang Xing in 4.3976. 102 There are traces of illegible writing on the lower left side of this slip. 103 Gong 共 was written bing 兵 in the original transcription. It is not very clear, but gong seems more likely.

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

Figure 13 Document 4.4850, with the entire tablet on the right and a closer view on the left. The thick line painted on top represents 若. 24.2 × 4 cm.

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Agreed. His honour’s instructions:104 Deputy chancellor Yan agreed with the Attendants.105 Checked by Scheduling Attendant Zheng Ruo and Recording Attendant Chen Kuang. Examined by acting Archivist Liu Heng. On the 21st day of the 12th month we reported the affair of the fact that the privately educated (Zhang You?) recommended by assistant Zhou Ji is an officially registered household member and should not be sent. (Zhang You?) is responsible by Xiuxing Wu Zan.106 After this document was written, the signatures of Yan 琰, Ruo 若, Kuang 曠, and Heng 恒 were added. Finally, 若—meaning nuo 諾 “agreed”—was added by a higher official. This may have been the marquisate Chancellor himself, though it could also have been a subordinate writing in his name. ⟨南⟩鄉勸農掾番琬叩頭死罪白：被曹敕，發遣吏陳晶所舉私學番倚詣 廷言。案文書，倚一名文，文父廣奏辭107“本鄉正户民，不爲遺脱”，   輒操黄簿審實，不應爲私學。乞曹列言府108。琬誠惶誠恐，叩頭死罪 死罪。 詣　功　曹。 十二月十五日庚午白。(J22–2659 圖 41) South District Agriculture Promotion Attendant Pan Wan prostrating and risking execution, reports: upon the order of the (Personnel) Bureau, to dispatch the privately educated Pan Yi, who was recommended by official Chen Jing, to the marquisate court. According to the documents, Yi’s other name is Wen. Wen’s father Guang submitted this statement: “(Wen) is an officially registered household member of this district; he was not

104 Jun means the chancellor houxiang 侯相 of the Marquisate. Jiao 教 is a type of document. According to the editors, there is a “君教” on the published image that is covered by the squiggle at the top, which is a cursive “若.” 105 This means he agrees with the two attendants Zheng Ruo and Chen Kuang: Takatori Yūji 鷹取祐司, “Chōsa Go-ichi hiroba Tōkan kantoku kunkyō bunsho shinkō” 《長沙五一廣場 東漢簡牘》 君教文書新考, Tōzai jinbun 15 (2021), 207–270. 106 “We” refers to the person who signed the text, probably an official of the Personnel Bureau. Xiuxing is the title of someone responsible for education. Cong shi wei 從史位 was a low-ranked official with unspecified duties who was often dispatched to carry out tasks. The name of the person is missing here. It may have been Zhang You 張游 mentioned on document 4.4550①. 107 Ci 辭 is a confession. 108 The fu means Changsha Commandery.

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omitted from the registers.”109 I promptly got out the yellow registers and authenticated this;110 he should not be recommended as a privately educated. I implore the bureau to report this to (Changsha) Commandery. Wan in fear and trepidation, prostrating, risking execution, risking execution. To the Bureau of Personnel.  Reported on the 15th day of the 12th month, gengwu. 都市掾潘羜叩頭死罪白：被曹敕，推求私學南陽張游發遣詣屯言。111 案文書，輒推問游外王母大女戴取，辭：“游昔少小，随姑父陳密在 武昌。⟨密⟩以黄龍元年被病物故。游轉随姊聟（婿）州吏李恕。到今 年六月三日，游來（？）□取家。其月十三日，游随故郭將子男欽□ 到始安縣讀書，未還。 ”如取辭。□曹列言□南部追□⟨發⟩⟨遣⟩□⟨詣⟩ 大屯。又游無有家屬應詭 112課者，謹列言。羜誠惶誠恐，叩頭死罪 死罪。 詣　⟨功⟩113　曹。 十一月十五日辛丑白。(4.4550①·圖 22–27①)

Supervising Market Attendant Pan Zhu prostrating and risking execution, reports: upon the order of the (Personnel) Bureau I sought privately educated Zhang You from Nanyang (Commandery) to send him to the military garrison.114 According to the document, I immediately asked You’s maternal grandmother, adult woman Dai Qu, who stated “when You was young, he stayed with his uncle Chen Mi in Wuchang. Mi died of illness in the first year of the Huanglong reign, so You in turn stayed 109 Law required someone else to identify a person, which is why his father does it. 110 Two unclear graphs; if they are zhecao 輒操, it means “immediately consult.” At that time, the household registers were stored in the district offices, so the South District Farming Promotion Attendant could immediately use the household registration survey at his disposal to determine whether Pan Guang’s statement was true or false. After confirming that Pan Yi was a registered in a local household, he sent a report up to the county court informing them that Pan Yi did not meet the requirement to be sent. 111 We have changed yi 遺 to qian 遣. The military garrison (tun 屯) in question was probably Wu’s military capital at Oukou 漚口, Hunan. 112 We have changed zhaoke 詔課 to guike 詭課 based on its form and on the fact that the former is not seen elsewhere, while the latter is seen in 1.4341, 1.4355, 2.180, 2.186 and 3.3424. 113 We have changed hu 戶 to gong 功 based on the fact that it seems to include a gong 工 and that the previous document (J22–2659) is also addressed to the Bureau of Personnel. 114 Chi 敕 means to transmit information to lower levels of administration, and is what the subsequent “according to the document” refers to. The military garrison in question (tun 屯) is probably Wu’s military capital at Oukou 漚口, Hunan.

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with his older sister’s husband, provincial official, Li Shu. On the 3rd day of the 6th month of this year, You came … Dai Qu’s home. On the 13th day of that month, You went with Qin, the son of the deceased Guo Jiang … to Shi’an county115 to study, and did not return.” This is Qu’s statement. (I implore the) Bureau to report. Ask … (the Lingling Commandery) South Section to pursue You and send him to the large garrison. In addition, he has no family members who owe taxes to be recovered. We respectfully report it. Zhu, in fear and trepidation, prostrating, risking execution, risking execution. To the Bureau of Personnel Reported on the 15th day of the 11th month, xinchou. – Privately Educated Name Registers, Type 1: 私學羅縣儀□，年廿六。(4.4526·圖 22–3/5)116 私學臨□□喿，年卅。(4.4540·圖 22-17/5) □學臨⟨湘⟩⟨李⟩⟨俗⟩，年廿。(4.4559·圖 22–9/5)

Privately educated Yi ? from Luo County, age 26. Privately educated ? Cao … from Lin(xiang), age 30. (Privately) educated Li Su, from Linxiang, age 20. – Privately Educated Name Registers, Type 3: 私學黄客，狀：客，本正户民。　■ (4.3943/4)

Privately Educated Huang Ke. Description: Ke, officially registered household member.　■

Registers of Male Relatives of Provincial and Army Officials yinhe zhou jun li fuxiong zidi bu 隱核州、軍吏父兄子弟簿 The Three Kingdoms Period was a time in which a man seeking power had to know which way the wind was blowing and switch his allegiance to the leader who was on the rise. Conversely, he had to ensure that his followers would not do the same.117 The loyalty of one’s followers was particularly important in warfare, when a general switching sides at a key moment could change the course of a battle. In order to discourage such behaviour, the Wu government 4.6

115 Shian County belonged to Lingling 零陵 Commandery. 116 Both names are unclear. 117 The career of Liu Bei 劉備 exemplifies both of these skills: de Crespigny, A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23–220 AD), 478–484.

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kept track of the families of its generals and high officials in a kind of internal hostage system known as baozhi 保質. Scholars once believed that this system applied only to high military and civil officials, but the Zoumalou texts make clear that it also applied to relatively low ranking provincial and army officials.118 Despite the hostage system, men continued to run away.119 The hostage system required the state to keep careful records of who, and where, the male family members of officials were. This included not only fathers and sons, but also uncles, nephews, and sons-in-law. In the eighth month of the fourth year of the Jiahe reign, the Wu state had district Farming Promotion Attendant conduct a survey of the physical condition, place of residence, name, and age of the male relatives of provincial and army officials. During this process he consulted existing records of the male relatives of provincial army officials and then made new registers. For this reason, there are some slips with identical content among the Zoumalou materials.120 – Report sent to superiors: These tables were bound to the name registers, listed below, to summarize their contents. “Guest” ke 客 was a euphemism for a labourer who submitted to someone’s authority and worked for them. ※廣成鄉勸農掾區光言：被書，條列軍吏父兄子弟狀、處、人名、年 紀爲簿。輒料核鄉界，軍吏五人，父兄子弟合十七人。其四人老鈍刑 盲踵病，一人宫限佃客，一人爲𤢌狩（禽獸）所害殺，一人給郡吏，   九人細小，一人給限佃客，下户民代。隱核人名、年[紀]相應，無有 遺脱。若後爲他官所覺，光自坐。嘉禾四年八月廿六日破莂保據。 121 ※ Guangcheng District Farming Promotion Attendant Ou Guang reports:

I received a document (that instructed me to) list the physical condition, location, name, age of the fathers, older brothers, sons and younger brothers of army officials, and make a register. I immediately investigated within the district borders and found five army officials, whose fathers, older brothers, sons and younger brothers add up to 17 people. Four of

118 Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Changsha Zoumalou Wu jian ‘baozhi’ jian kaoshi” 長沙走馬樓 吴簡‘保質’簡考釋, Wenwu (2015.6). 119 This probably got worse towards the end of the Wu dynasty, after the period of these slips: Li Shisheng 黎石生, “Changsha Zoumalou chutu ‘panzou’ jian tantao” 長沙走馬樓 出土‘叛走’簡探討, Kaogu (2003.5), 86–91. 120 Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Zoumalou Wu jian yinhe zhou, jun li fu xiong zi di zi bu zhengli yu yanjiu: jianlin Sun Wu li, min fen ji ji zai ji renkou” 走馬樓吴簡隱核州、軍吏父 兄子弟簿整理與研究：兼論孫吴吏、民分籍及在籍人口, Zhongguoshi yanjiu (2017.2), 81–104. 121 This tablet is published in: Changsha Dong Wu jiandu shufa teji (xu), zhongguo shufa (2014.10), 91.

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Figure 14 Report sent to superiors by Farming Promotion Attendant Ou Guang, translated here. The entire tablet is shown on the left, with a closer view on the right. Note the three lines across the top, which is what our symbol represents. 25 × 4.5 cm

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these people are old and senile, crippled, blind, swollen, or sick,122 1 is a quota farmer guest for the imperial palace, 1 was killed by wild animals, 1 is serving as a commandery official, 9 are minors, 1 is serving as a quota farmer guest, but is being replaced by a person from a lower grade household. We have evaluated these names and ages and found them consistent (with the document), and none has been omitted. If other offices later discover fraud, I, Guang, will accept the same punishment. Jiahe 4th year, 8th month, 26th day, I split this certificate [into two copies of the same document] to keep a copy as verification. ※南鄉勸農掾謝韶，被書，條列鄉界州吏父兄子弟⟨年⟩一以上狀、處爲 簿。輒部歲伍潘祇、謝黄、巨力、謝琕、陳魯等條鄉領州吏父兄子弟合十 二人。其二人被病物故，一人先給郡吏，一人老鈍刑盲，七人細小。   謹破莂保據，無有遺脱、年紀虛欺，爲他官所覺，韶自坐。嘉禾四年 八月廿六日破莂保據。(8.3342①) ※ South District Farming Promotion Attendant Xie Shao (reports): I

received a document (that instructed me) to list the provincial officials’ fathers, older brothers, sons, younger brothers and their physical condition and location within the district borders who are over one year of age and make a register. I immediately deployed suiwu including Pan Zhi, Xie Huang, Ju Li, Xie Pin and Chen Lu to list the fathers, older brothers, sons, and younger brothers of provincial officials under the jurisdiction of the district, altogether 12 people. Of these, 2 died of illness, 1 has already provided service as a commandery official, 1 is old and senile, crippled, or blind, and 7 are minors. I respectfully split this certificate to keep a copy as verification. Nobody has been omitted, no age was falsified, If other offices discover fraud, I, Shao, will accept the same punishment. Jiahe 4th year, 8th month, 26th day, I split this certificate to keep a copy as verification.

– Registers: 軍吏謝趙。　■ (3.3099/27) Army official Xie Zhao.　■ 軍吏謝趙。(3.3840/31) Army official Xie Zhao.

122 Presumably including those permanently weakened or disabled by illness.

134

Chapter 3 軍吏烝昭。(3.1793/24)

Army official Zheng Zhao. 軍吏烝昭，年廿八。(3.3834/31) Army official Zheng Zhao, age 28. 州吏蔡⟨脩⟩。(3.3071/27)

Provincial official Cai Xiu.

州吏蔡脩，年卅。(3.3062/27)

Provincial official Cai Xiu, age 30. 州故吏南郡趙典。(3.2952/27) Previous provincial official from South Commandery Zhao Dian. 州吏南郡趙典，年廿五。(2.6886/21) Provincial official from South Commandery Zhao Dian, age 25. 州吏南[郡]黄買。(3.2976/27)

Provincial official Nan (Commandery) Huang Mai.123 買男弟蔣，年廿四，先給縣吏。(2.6654/21) Mai’s younger brother Jiang, age 24, is already serving as a county official. 買姪子男來，年六歲，一名□。　　細小。(3.1674/24) Mai’s nephew Lai, age 6 years, also known as ?. Minor. 軍吏黄倉。(3.1682/24)

Army official Huang Cang.

倉父孫，年七十一，以嘉禾三年三月十三日被病物故。(3.1882/24)

Cang’s father Sun, age 71, died of illness on the 13th day of the 3rd month of the 3rd Jiahe year. 倉女聟楊□，年十八，以嘉禾四年三月十八日叛走。(3.1788/24) Cang’s son-in-law Yang ?, age 18, fled on the 18th day of the 3rd month of the 4th Jiahe year. Registers of the Male Relatives of Officials Who Fled Jun xian li xiongdi panzou bu 郡縣吏兄弟叛走簿 These are records of the name and date of the male relatives of commandery and county officials who have fled, clearly related to the records above. Most fled when they were eligible for conscription at 15 years old, or when they were conscripted at another age.124 Note that Liuyang, Wuchang 吴昌 and Liling County are all places in Changsha Commandery.

4.7

123 The word jun 郡 (Commandery) was left out. 124 Ling, Zoumalou Wu jian caiji bushu, 154–169.

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□鄉⟨謹⟩⟨列⟩：郡縣吏兄弟叛走人名簿。(1.7849/13)125

? district respectfully lists the names of commandery and county officials’ brothers who have fled, in a register.

⟨郡⟩⟨故⟩吏史僦弟政，年十五。　嘉禾四年四月十日叛走。(1.7882/13) Former commandery official Shi Jiu’s younger brother Zheng, age 15. Fled on the 10th day of the 4th month of the 4th Jiahe year.126 郡吏黄□弟□，年十⟨五⟩。　嘉禾二年十月十八日叛走。(1.7893/13)

Commandery official Huang ?’s younger brother ?, age 15. Fled on the 18th day of the 10th month of the 2nd Jiahe year.

郡 吏 監 訓 兄 帛 ， 年 卅 ⟨八 ⟩。 　 嘉 禾 四 年 四 月 十 五 日 叛 走 。 ■ (1.7975/13)

Commandery official Jian Xun’s older brother Bo, age 38. Fled on the 15th day of the 4th month of the 4th Jiahe year.　■

縣 吏 毛 章 弟 頎 ， 年 十 五 。 　 以 嘉 禾 三 年 十 二 月 ⟨十 ⟩七 日 叛 走。(1.7865/13)

County official Mao Zhang’s younger brother Qi, age 15. Fled on the 17th day of the 12th month of the 3rd Jiahe year.

縣吏毛車叔父青，年卌九。　以嘉禾三年十二月十七日叛走。  127

(1.7868/13) County official Mao Che’s uncle Qing, age 49. Fled on the 17th day of the 12th month of the 3rd Jiahe year. ⟨ 縣 ⟩ 吏 谷 漢 兄 子 □ ， 年 廿 九 。 　 嘉 禾 三 年 二 月 十 九 日 叛 走 。 128 (1.7905/13) County official Gu Han’s nephew ?, age 29. Fled on the 19th day of the 2nd month of the 3rd Jiahe year.

125 The first graph could be zhu 諸 “all, various.” We have added jin lie 謹列. 126 We have added the two graphs jun gu 郡故. Gu li 故吏 were former officials: Miranda Brown, The Politics of Mourning in Early China (Albany: SUNY Press, 2007), 91–94. 127 The graph transcribed as che 車 may actually be zhang 章, in which case this is the same Mao Zhang as slip 1.7865. If this is the case, then it is likely that Mao Qi in the previous slip and Mao Qing in this slip fled together. The original transcription read shi 世, but we have changed it to shu 叔. For similar examples of the shu graph, see 1.10135, 1. 10196, etc. 128 We have changed jun 郡 to xian 縣. The graph is unclear, but guhan were granary officials of Sanzhou 三州 (see slip 1.21), and were county officials (see slips 1.344 and 2.8377).

136

Chapter 3 縣吏五訓兄⟨瞻⟩，年卅。　嘉禾三年十一月九日叛走。■ (1.7980/13)

County official Wu Xun’s older brother Zhan, age 30. Fled on the 9th day of the 11th month of the 3rd Jiahe year.　■

⟨ 右 ⟩ □鄉郡縣吏兄弟合十五人，前後各叛走，𬇖趣劉陽、吴昌、 醴陵■ (1.7454/13) Above, ? District, commandery and county officials’ brothers, altogether 15 people have successively fled. Hurry to Liuyang, Wuchang and Liling … 5

Treasury Account Registers

The main things the Wu state kept track of were people, grain, land, and wealth items. Having covered documents on people, we will now turn to those concerned with wealth items, which included coins, cloth, and skins. These goods were the business of the treasury (ku 庫), in contrast to grain, which was stored in granaries (cang 倉) and will be the topic of the subsequent section. The treasury records are mainly the accounts of the treasury of the marquisate/county. We translate ku 庫 as “treasury” rather than “storehouse” because only relatively valuable items were stored there, including textiles and skins. The treasury managed the storage and transfer of wealth within the county. This included keeping track of its own holdings and moving coins and other wealth between districts, offices, and people. We will divide the treasury accounting registers into five categories: 1) various registers of coins, 2) income from a tax on rented land, 3) market taxes on slaves, 4) cloth, 5) skins, and 6) hemp. Although bronze coins had been the main token of exchange for many centuries by this time, cloth woven of either hemp or silk was another standard unit of exchange.129 These documents frequently refer to “requisition cloth” (diao bu 調布), which meant cloth of a size and quality that met the official standards to be accepted by the government. There were regulations in the Qin and Han about the size and quality of cloth that the government would accept, and we can assume that Wu followed Han precedent, though we have no clear evidence of it. While both the Qin and Han empires had collected cloth as tax, in the Later Han governments lacking in cloth began to purchase it in 129 On coins and cloth as units of exchange, see Yohei Kakinuma, “The First Chinese Economic Impact on Asia: Distribution and Usage of Monies in Early China in Synchronic and Diachronic Perspective,” in Between Command and Market: Economic Thought and Practice in Early China, ed. Elisa L. Sabattini and Christian Schwermann (Leiden: Brill, 2021), 358–391.

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markets, which is also visible in these documents. We will discuss cloth in more depth below. Treasury Coin Account Registers ku qian zhangbu 庫錢賬簿 These are the county treasury’s coin accounting registers.130 The treasury was not a single storage space but included a central storage section which was the core of the treasury, as well as an outer space. The first type of registers mention where the coins came from, while the others are essentially inventories of the coins in the treasury. The treasury account books are composed of registers of various coins received and entered (襍錢入受簿), registers of various coins carried forward and newly entered (襍錢承餘新入簿) and registers of various coins spent and remaining (襍錢領出用餘見簿). These documents employ a mature four pillar accounting system (四柱結算法). Six key terms used in these documents illustrate the movement of goods through the system. “Entering and accepting” (rushou 入受) refers to the payment of tax by commoners, and its receipt by the treasury officials. This was recorded in the entering and accepting certificates (rushou bie 入受莂). “Newly entered” (xinru 新入) refers to the treasury officials collecting the taxes and entering them into the treasury. This was recorded in the summary slips that were included with the entering and accepting certificates. The “balance” (chengyu 承餘) is what remained after the treasury had transferred some of its stocks. This was essentially what was transferred into the treasury minus what was transferred out. The above all belong to the financial processes recorded in the treasury’s accounts. The following are accounts of coins spent, which are merely records of coins leaving the treasury, not records of what the government used them for. The phrase lingshou 領收 means “sent and received.” Ling refers to the coins spent by the treasury (probably something like “directed outwards” (lingchu 領出)), while shou refers to the collection of coins that had been on the accounts as owed or evaded.131 “Expenditure” (chuyong 出用) referred to coins send out 5.1

130 On this type of registers, see Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Zoumalou Wu jian kuqian zhangbu tixi fuyuan zhengli yu yanjiu” 走馬樓吴簡庫錢賬簿體系復原整理與研究, Kaogu xuebao (2015.2), 187–228. 131 Since people were often unable to pay their debts, or tried to evade them, recording and collecting unpaid debts was a constant task for early imperial officials. See Maxim Korolkov, “Between Command and Market: Credit, Labour, and Accounting in the Qin Empire (221–207 BCE)” in Between Command and Market: Economic Thought and Practice in Early China, ed. Elisa L. Sabattini and Christian Schwermann (Leiden: Brill, 2021), esp. 188–195.

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from the treasury for regular government spending. “Visible surplus” (yujian 餘見) was calculated by subtracting “expenditures” from “sent and received.” It was the expendable surplus after entering the consumption part of the coins. The “visible surplus” part remained in the expenditure department and was not returned to the treasury. There were at least two categories of coins. Intact coins ( ju qian 具錢) referred to well preserved coins. Circulating coins (xing qian 行錢) had presumably lost some of their metal content, and thus some of their value, but were still good enough to be used according to the official standards. The government levied taxes in intact coins, which were more valuable than circulating coins, and it made a profit on the difference between the two types. Registers of Various Coins Received and Entered za qian ru shou bu 襍錢入受簿 These are records of various coins paid in tax by officials and commoners of various districts to the officials of the treasury, which then passed them on to different offices and people. The records generally include the amounts paid, as well as the basic information about the taxpayer or carrier ( jiuren 僦人). Each district collected “materials coins” (caiyong qian 財用錢), “night watchman coins” hehei qian (何[呵]黑錢), “hoe sale coins” (huajia qian 鋘賈錢), and “hay coins” (chu qian 蒭錢) and brought them to the marquisate treasury. The treasury then sent the materials tax and straw coins to the county government and the watchmen coins to the watchmen themselves. The hoe selling coins were possibly sent to the Iron Office (tieguan 鐵官). There were also coins received from a tax on alcohol ( jiuzu qian 酒租錢), which may have been a tax on brewing. The hay coin tax was first established five centuries earlier in Qin to provide fodder for government livestock. Farmers were soon given the option of paying the tax in coins instead of hay, and it became another tax without any connection to its name.132 The materials tax, whose name suggests that it was originally collected to provide daily use materials for government offices, may have also followed the same trajectory. It is common in history that “temporary” taxes are created for specific purposes, often during wartime, and then continue to be collected once the crisis is over.133 5.1.1

132 Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 697. 133 Charles Tilly and Gabriel Ardant, eds., The Formation of National States in Western Europe (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975), 42.

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The “hoe” sale coins (hoe is a rough translation of hua 鋘) seems to refer to the sale of iron farming tools produced by the iron office and sold by the districts, which sent the proceeds back to the iron office, via the county treasury. Although hoe sale coins were entered into the treasury along with other types of coins and were recorded in the “registers of various coins entered and received” (襍錢入受簿), they were nonetheless considered to be of a different status. When the registers one level higher were compiled, hoe sale coins were entered with other special sale coins in “registers of various sale coins carried forward and newly entered, into the treasury” (襍賈錢承餘新入簿), and there were even “registers of newly entered hoe sale coins” (鋘賈錢新入簿). Hoe sale coins were considered a separate source of income than the other coins, and were sent towards Wu’s central government, becoming one of its most important sources of income. Since local governments sold the farming tools and collected the income, we would expect that they would have kept some of these funds, but we have yet to find any clear evidence of them doing so in the Zoumalou documents. 入小武陵鄉嘉禾二年財用錢六千。※嘉禾二年八月三日前渚丘男子孫 直付庫吏殷連受。(1.2828/8)

Entered from Xiaowuling District, 6,000 materials coins of the 2nd Jiahe year. ※ Jiahe 2nd year, 8th month, 3rd day, delivered by adult male Sun Zhi from Qianzhu hill. Received by treasury official Yin Lian.134 入廣成鄉嘉禾二年鋘賈錢二千。※嘉禾二年四月十三日雅丘男子唐陸 付庫吏殷連受。(1.2811/8)

Entered from Guangcheng District, 2,000 hoe sale coins of the 2nd Jiahe year. ※ Jiahe 2nd year, 4th month, 13th day, delivered by adult male Tang Lu from Ya hill. Received by treasury official Yin Lian.

134 Rather than individually travelling to the county treasury, groups of villagers of the “hills” often hired people to transport their tax payments. This was true of cloth, and may well have been the case with coins and other taxes: Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Sun Wu Jiahe yuannian pin shi bu ru shou bu zonghe zhengli yu yanjiu” 孫吴嘉禾元年品市布入受 簿綜合整理與研究, Chutu wenxian yanjiu 17 (2018), 346–354. Deng Weiguang 鄧瑋光 and Wu Qiong 吴瓊 believe that the people whose names appear after the ※ in these documents are the men who delivered the payments and that only names that appear before that symbol have any connection to the actual taxpayers; see their “Shilun ‘qiu’ ji xiangguan wenti” 試論‘丘’及相關問題, Nanjing xiaozhuang xueyuan xuebao (2017.5), 27–38.

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Chapter 3 入中鄉嘉禾年蒭錢三千四百。※嘉禾二[年]閏月廿日男子 ⟨錢 ⟩⟨國 ⟩ 付庫吏殷連受。(3.3174/28)

Entered from Central District, 3400 hay coins from the Jiahe period.135 ※ Jiahe 2nd (year), intercalary month, 20th day, delivered by adult male Qian Guo. Received by treasury official Yin Lian. 入中鄉吏許丑所備何黑錢二千※嘉禾二年二月十日付⟨庫⟩■ (1.1672/5)136

Entered from Central District, 2000 night watchman coins supplied by official Xu Chou, ※ on Jiahe 2nd year, 2nd month, 10th day, delivered to the treasury … •右東鄉入財用錢十一萬八百一十。■ (1.1440/5) • Above, East District entered 110,810 materials coins. •右南鄉入鋘賈錢二萬二千五百二□ (1.1548/5) • Above, South District entered 2252? hoe selling coins … •右諸鄉入鹽賈錢三千一百。(3.3171/28) • Above, 3100 salt selling coins from all the districts have been entered. •右東鄉入蒭錢四百。(1.1701/5) • Above, East District entered the hay coins 400. 右南鄉入何黑錢二萬二千八百。(1.1698/5)

Above, South District entered 22,800 night watchman coins.

Registers of Various Coins Carried Forward and Newly Entered chengyu xinru zaqian bu 承餘新入襍錢簿 At the end of a given period, treasury officials would carry out an inventory of their holdings, counting coins that remained in the treasury (cheng yu 承餘), and newly received (xinru 新入) coins, and would make these registers to record the results. There are also records of the coins spent by the treasury 5.1.2

135 The scribe left out the year. 136 Bei 備 means to replenish goods that were below their expected quantities in the treasury or granary. Hou Xudong believes that it means specifically to repay a debt (bu 逋) or replace something that had been lost through wastage (haosun 耗損) caused by negligence, and considers it a part of the Wu state’s measures for investigating and dealing with the mistakes of its officials. Hou Xudong 侯旭東, “Wu jian suo jian ‘zhe jian mi’ bushi: jianlun cangmi de zhuanyun yu li de zhiwu xingwei guoshi buchang” 吴簡 所見‘折咸米’補釋：兼論倉米的轉運與吏的職務行為過失補償, Wu jian yanjiu 2 (Wuhan: Chongwen, 2006), 176–191.

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to buy cloth. This presumably means either that the state was simply buying cloth for its own use, or that it wanted to convert coins to cloth (which was also effectively a kind of currency) for some unknown financial reason. The title slip calls these documents bie bu 莂簿, which for the sake of consistency we translate “certificate register.” But this is confusing because the slips of this type are not the juan 券 and bie 莂 type of documents that are split so that the payer receives proof of their payment. The “new entry” (xinru 新入) slips record the totals of the amounts entered on the entering and accepting certificates (ru shou bie 入受莂). We have not found a title slip of the entering and accepting certificates, so we do not know what they were called at the time. It is possible that bie bu 莂簿 refers to the original “entering and accepting certificates” and “new entry” certificates attached together. The structure of these documents remains unclear. – Title slips: ■□□承餘、新入襍錢莂簿。(1.5555/12)

… carried forward and newly entered various coins in a certificate register.

□庫吏潘有謹列：正月旦 137 起□月一日訖十■ ⟨ 五 ⟩ 日承餘、新入 □□⟨莂⟩簿。(1.5518 + 5567/12)

On the 1st day of the 1st month treasury official Pan You respectfully lists the (coins?) carried forward and newly entered from the 1st day of the ? month to the 15th day … with a certificate register.

5.1.2.1 Records of Coins Carried Forward – Main body slips: 承十二月旦簿餘嘉禾二年市租錢十萬七千二百。(1.5242/12) Carried-forward balance of register of the 1st day of the 12th month of the 2nd Jiahe year market zu tax coins, 107,200. 承正月旦簿餘嘉禾二年酒租錢一千八百。(1.5346/12)

Carried-forward balance of register of the 1st day of the 1st month of the 2nd Jiahe year alcohol zu tax coins, 1800. 承二月旦簿餘嘉禾二年復民租錢四千。■ (1.5630/12) Carried-forward balance of register of the 1st day of the 2nd month of the 2nd Jiahe year non-active soldier zu tax coins, 4000.

137 These add up the taxes from the previous month.

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Chapter 3 承三月旦簿餘嘉禾二年租、蒭錢三萬四千七百九十。(1.5251/12)

Carried-forward balance of register of the 1st day of the 3rd month of the 2nd Jiahe year zu tax and hay coins, 34,790.

承四月旦簿餘嘉禾二年口筭錢七萬二百五十。(1.5305/12)

Carried-forward balance of register of the 1st day of the 4th month of the 2nd Jiahe year poll tax coins, 70,250. – Summary slip: 右承餘錢三千二百。(1.5302/12) Above, carried over 3,200 coins.

5.1.2.2 Records of Newly Entered Coins The coin totals in these records were copied from the summaries of the certificate registers of various coins received and entered into the treasury. They add up the various income sources. 入邑下復民楊樊租錢四千。(1.5328/12)

Entered zu tax coins from non-active soldier Yang Fan, 4000.138

入中鄉嘉禾二年蒭錢二千四百。(1.5650/12)

Entered the 2nd Jiahe year hay coins from Central District, 2400.

入都鄉嘉禾二年財用錢二千。(1.5184/12)

Entered the 2nd Jiahe year materials coins from Metropolitan District, 2000.

入西鄉嘉禾二年口筭錢一千二百。(1.5272/12)

Entered the 2nd Jiahe year poll tax coins from West District, 1200.

右新入襍錢一萬九千。(1.5208/12)

Above, various coins newly received, 19,000. 右新入襍錢七萬九百七十。(1.5243/12)

Above, various coins newly received, 70,970.

138 The two districts known to have yi 邑 settlements were the Metropolitan and South districts.

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

5.1.2.3

143

Records of Coins Taken out and Spent by the Treasury Itself

出 具 錢 八 萬 一 千 爲 行 錢 八 萬 五 千 二 百 ⟨九 ⟩十 五 錢 ， 市 嘉 禾 二 年 調布，嘉禾三年正月卅 (1.5359/12)

Spent 81,000 intact coins, which is equivalent to 85,295 circulating coins, to buy 2nd Jiahe year requisition cloth. The 30th day of 1st month of the 3rd Jiahe year …139 出具錢三萬爲行錢三萬一千一百九十四錢，市嘉禾二年調布，嘉禾三 年正月卅 (1.5379/12)

Spent 30,000 intact coins, which is equivalent to 31,194 circulating coins, to buy 2nd Jiahe year requisition cloth. The 30th day of the 1st month of the 3rd Jiahe year …140

右出行錢三萬五千二百九十四錢。(1.5637/12)

Above, spent 35,294 circulating coins.

Sometimes when the inner section of the treasury had no expenditures, it was recorded: 出用　無。 (1.5629/12 and 1.5676/12 both have these three words)

Spent: nothing.

– Summary slips: 右正月旦簿承餘、新入襍錢卅九萬五千三百廿。(1.5357/12) Above, various coins carried forward and newly entered from the 1st day of the 1st month register, 395,320. •右二月旦承餘、新入襍錢四萬三千七百九十。(1.5210/12) • Above, various coins carried over and newly entered from the 1st day of

the 2nd month, 43,790.

•右三月旦承餘、新襍錢一⟨百⟩七十一萬四千七百六十。(1.5167/12) • Above, various coins carried over and newly [entered]141 from the 1st

day of the 3rd month, 1,714,760.

139 The conversion rate between intact coins and circulating coins recorded in this slip is roughly 1:1.05. 140 The conversion rate between intact coins and circulating coins recorded in this slip is roughly 1:1.04. 141 The scribe forgot to write “entered” ru 入.

144

Chapter 3 •右四月旦承餘、新入蒭錢廿七萬七百八十。(1.5672/12) • Above, hay coins carried over and newly entered from the 1st day of the

4th month, 270,780.

右承餘、新入口筭錢四千。　已 (1.5195/12)

Above, poll tax coins carried over and newly entered, 4000. Checked.

右領承餘、新入財用錢八萬八千八百。(1.5325/12)

Above, materials coins carried over and newly entered, 88,800. 今餘錢二千。　已 (1.5372/12) Up to now, we have 2000 coins remaining. Checked. 其四萬二千三百二年財用錢。(1.5505/12)

Of these, 42,300 are materials coins of the 2nd year.

其八百二年紵租錢。(1.5280/12) Of these, 800 are hemp cloth tax coins of the 2nd year.

5.1.3

Registers of Various Types of Coins Listed, Spent and Remaining zaqian ling chuyong yujian bu 襍錢領出用餘見簿 Whereas the registers of various coins received and entered (襍錢入受簿) listed coins deposited in the treasury, the following registers include both coins received and spent, as well as the difference between these two numbers (i.e., the remaining coins). Higher officials wrote in red on several of these documents after they were completed (slips 6317, 6303, 7003, 6318, 6319 and 7052). This suggests that, unsurprisingly, the higher officials only checked the documents that summarized the total amounts of coins. – Title slip: ■⟨禾⟩⟨五⟩⟨年⟩十月所領襍錢⟨種⟩領、出用、餘見簿。142 (3.7305/38) Registers of the various types of coins which were recorded in the 10th month of the 5th year, listed, spent, and remaining …

142 We have changed bu 簿 to zhong 種 based on the unclear image and a textual parallel with 4.1306.

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

145

– Records of coins received: •⟨右⟩領及收除⟨數⟩錢十五萬九千四百一十一錢。 143 (3.6317/36) • Above, listed and received chushu coins amount to 159,411. 領收除數錢六萬九千八百廿三錢。(3.7339/38)

Listed and received chushu coins, 69,823 coins.

右領錢一萬六千八百廿四錢。(3.7340/38)

Above, listed coins 16,824 coins.

右領錢三百六十⟨二⟩萬六千六百五十。(3.7343/38)

Above, listed coins 3,626,650.144

– Records of expenditures: 出錢九萬二千九百卌，與襍錢二百九十二萬一千六十，通合三百一 萬⟨四⟩ (3.6303/36)

Spent coins 92,940, and various coins 2,921,060. Altogether 3,014, ??? …145

出錢廿四萬八千八⟨百⟩⟨卅⟩⟨三⟩⟨錢⟩，被府丙寅書，□□⟨錢⟩十萬四 千六百七十■ (3.7003/37)

Spent coins 248,833 coins, according to the commandery document issued on the bingyin day … coins 104,670 …

出行錢一萬四千，被府三年 ⟨八 ⟩月廿四日丙子記，給貸下隽吏□□ 拾⟨桔⟩⟨亭⟩⟨賈⟩⟨錢⟩，⟨未⟩⟨還⟩ (3.7336/38)

Spent 14,000 circulating coins, according to the commandery document issued on the 24th of the 8th month of the 3rd year, a bingzi day, to lend to Xiajuan county official ? buy (?) Shiju guard post. Not repaid … 出行錢一萬六千八百廿四錢送詣府，嘉禾四年二月十四日關邸閣 張⟨儷⟩，付庫吏江蓋 (3.7432/38) 143 The “above” you 右 at the beginning is a guess. We have replaced yong 用 with shu 數 based on the presence of the tian 田 part of the left side, and the presence of this “coins number difference” chu shu qian 除數錢 in other slips. It refers to the difference between the numbers of intact and circulating coins. The state always ordered people to pay their taxes in intact coins and seems to have taken advantage of the difference in value between intact and circulating coins. 144 The er 二 graph is unclear, and may be a san 三. 145 This slip is intact, so its text presumably continued on another slip.

146

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Spent circulating coins 16,824. On the Jiahe 4th year, 2nd month, 14th day, the coins were sent to the commandery and, after being reported to treasury management official Zhang Li, the coins were given to treasury official Jiang Gai. •右出錢三萬九千四百八十五錢■ (3.6318/36) • Above, spent coins 39,485 coins.　■ •右出錢八十四萬七千一十三錢，盡■ (3.6319/36) • Above, spent coins 847,013. The coins were used up …　■

– Records of coins remaining: 今餘錢三千五百 …… ■ (3.7052/37) Coins remaining to date: 35 ?? …　■ •今餘錢　無 (3.7346/38) • Coins remaining to date: none.

Registers of Various Sale Coins Carried Forward and Newly Entered Into the Treasury za jiaqian chengyu xinru bu 襍賈錢承餘、新入簿 When treasury officials made registers of the income and outflow of coins, they often compiled additional registers to record the income of coins acquired through administratively unusual sources. For example, “registers of various sale coins carried forward, and newly entered, into the treasury,” were compiled to record the coins earned from the sale of certain materials by the government. We tend to think of this as simply selling goods for money, but from the government’s perspective it was more a case of exchanging one type of commodity for another one, in this case coins. This was not classified as fiscal expenditure but as the conversion and circulation of government property, so it was recorded on a separate register. Another example of this is seen in the “registers of newly entered hoe sale coins” mentioned above. This type of new money was probably the special income of the central government’s iron implement office, so a register was compiled to provide to iron officials and other departments. These kinds of income sources were probably recorded in separate registers not only to keep the main treasury registers simple, but specifically to avoid the mistakes that that would become more common if the registers became too complicated. 5.1.4

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

147

⟨承⟩四月旦簿餘吏潘謝所還三年鋘賈行錢九十三萬五千■ (2.7043/21)146 Carried forward the surplus from the first day of the month registers of the 4th month, 935, ??? circulating hoe sale coins from the third year repaid by official Pan Xie. 承五月旦簿餘嘉禾二年⟨鋘⟩⟨賈⟩⟨錢⟩一萬。(2.7217/21)147

Carried forward the surplus from the first day of the month registers of the 5th month, 10,000 hoe sale coins from the second Jiahe year.

承 三 月 旦 簿 餘 嘉 禾 二 年 三 ⟨ 州 ⟩ 倉 賈 ⟨ 錢 ⟩ 二 千 二 百 一 十  …… ■ (2.6862/21)148

Carried forward the surplus from the first day of the month registers of the 3rd month, from the Sanzhou granary, the second Jiahe year, 221? sale coins …

承二月旦簿餘嘉禾二年⟨漬⟩米賈行錢二萬六千。　■ (2.7226/21)149

Carried forward the surplus circulating coins purchased with water-damaged rice from the first day of the month registers of the 2nd month, 26,000. ■ 入都鄉嘉禾二年⟨鋘⟩賈行錢一萬五千。　■ (2.6916/21)

Entered, Metropolitan District’s Jiahe 2nd year hoe selling circulating coins, 15,000. ■ 入中鄉皃（兒）木船賈行錢三萬。　■ (2.7254/21) Entered, Central District’s wooden boat selling circulating coins, 30,000. ■ •右承餘錢一萬。　■ (2.7223/21) • Above, carried forward coins, 10,000. ■ 146 We have changed fan 凡 to cheng 承 based on the published image and the parallel text of the other slips. We have added xing 行, which was lacking from the original transcription. The original transcription read “九千三百五十.” We have changed it to “九十三 萬五千.” 147 We have added “⟨鋘⟩⟨賈⟩.” 148 We have changed “出” to “承.” 149 The original transcription had a blank (□) after qing 漬, but on the published image it appears to be a mark made by the strings that tied the slips together, so we have erased it. The same is true of the blank square after qian 錢 in the original transcription of document 5.5318/9, below.

148

Chapter 3 出用　無。150　■ (2.7224/21) Spent: nothing. ■

– Jiahe 5th year register of newly entered hoe-selling coins: 入中鄉五年鋘賈錢三⟨千⟩⟨八⟩百。(8.3510·圖 10-12/21)

Entered Central District 5th year hoe selling coins, 3800.

入東鄉五年鋘賈錢六萬四百。(8.3509·圖 10-11/21)

Entered East District 5th year hoe selling coins, 60,400.

入平鄉五年鋘賈錢一萬八千二百五十。(8.3513·圖 10-14/21) Entered Ping District 5th year hoe selling coins, 18,250. 右諸鄉起十二月七日訖 ⟨ 四 ⟩ 月廿九日入五年鋘賈錢廿八萬七千二 百卌。(8.3507·圖 10-9/21)

Above, 287,240 5th year hoe selling coins from every district from the 7th day of the 12th month to the 29th day of the 4th month.

5.1.5

Materials Coins Account Registers caiyongqian zhangbu 財用錢賬簿 都鄉謹列：財用錢要簿。(5.7228/12)

Metropolitan District respectfully lists the summary registers of materials coins.

都鄉領吏民户三百九十，户收財用錢八百，合卅一萬二千。(5.5316/9)

Metropolitan District lists 390 official and commoner households, each of which submitted 800 coins for materials, altogether 312,000.

•定領二千二百廿 151二户，應出財用錢， ⟨户 ⟩收錢八百，合一百七十 七萬七千六百。(5.5318/9) • Confirmed to list 2222 households that should pay coins for materials.

Each household paid 800 coins, altogether 1,777,600.

⟨尉⟩曹謹列：諸鄉今年財用錢鄉□已入、未畢簿。(6.4777/15) The Commandant Bureau respectfully lists in a register this year’s materials coins from each district including those that have already been entered and those that remain unpaid. 150 We have changed “□　無□” in the original transcription to “出用　無.” 151 We have changed “卌” to “廿” based on the published image and on the math.

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

149

尉曹謹列：二鄉領⟨財⟩用錢已入、未畢簿。(6.4687/15) The Commandant Bureau respectfully lists in a register the materials coins of two districts that have already been entered and those that remain unpaid. 入東鄉財用錢一萬□千九百，逋六萬四千二百。(6.4700/15) Entered Eastern District’s materials coins 1?,900. They owe 64,200. 入桑鄉財用錢一萬七千六百。(6.4703/15)

Entered Mulberry District’s materials coins 17,600.

入樂鄉元年財用錢二萬五百。(6.4705/15)

Entered Le District’s materials coins from the first year, 20,500.

模鄉 ⟨ 逋 ⟩ 元年財用 ⟨ 錢 ⟩ 八萬七千九百， ⟨ 吏 ⟩⟨ 五 ⟩⟨ 訓 ⟩ 主，請鞭杖 ⟨各⟩⟨卅⟩。(6.4811/15)

Mo District owes 87,900 materials coins from the first year. County official Wu Xun is responsible and we request to flog him with thirty strokes of a cane.

樂鄉逋元年財用錢五萬五百，吏孫儀主，請鞭杖各⟨卅⟩。(6.4813/15)

Le District owes 50,500 materials coins from the first year. County official Sun Yi is responsible and we request to flog him with thirty strokes of a cane.

右桑、樂二鄉領元年財用錢十一萬二千八百。(6.4739/15) Above, the two districts of Mulberry and Le list the materials coins from the first year, 112,800. 右十一鄉財用錢⟨八⟩十四萬六千八百七十。(6.4696/15)

Above, the materials coins from 11 districts, 846,870.

Register of Personal Names and Land Rent Coins dijiu qian renming bu 地僦錢人名簿 The purpose of these documents remains unclear, and our translation of dijiu qian 地僦錢 as “commercial land coins” is tentative. Judging from the fact that these coins were collected by market officials (shili 市吏) and contain the phrase “commercial land coins to support [someone]” (shi dijiu qian 食地 僦錢) they could be related to commerce. It is also possible that they are the taxes paid on the land whose income went directly to the Linxiang Marquis Bu Zhi 步騭. Because these are lists of people paying coin tax, we could also have included these documents with the household related registers above, but we 5.2

150

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have chosen to put them here because they could have been produced by the treasury which collected the coin income.152 These people did not pay based on the specific property, but were rather classed into different categories, all of which paid the same tax. ⟨臨⟩湘謹列：邑下居民收地僦錢人名爲簿。(1.4357/11) Linxiang respectfully lists the names of the townspeople who were required to pay commercial land coins and makes a register. 臨湘謹列：起四月一日訖六月卅日地僦錢□簿。(1.4352/11)

Linxiang respectfully lists commercial land coins from the 1st day of the 4th month to the 30th day of the 6th month and (makes) a register. The following is a list of the names of the heads of renter households, which paid 500 coins per month. Most heads of households were male, but not all of them. 大男張順僦錢月五百。大男樂□僦錢月五百。大男冀士僦錢月五 百。(1.4346/11)

Adult male Zhang Shun, monthly rental coins 500. Adult male Le ?, monthly rental coins 500. Adult male Ji Shi, monthly rental coins 500.

大男王錢僦錢月五百。大男周德僦錢月五百。大男丁終僦錢月五 百。(1.4387/11)

Adult male Wang Qian, monthly rental coins 500. Adult male Zhou De, monthly rental coins 500. Adult male Ding Zhong, monthly rental coins 500.

郡士馬伯僦錢月五百。郡士朱主僦錢月五百。郡士王徹僦錢月五 百。(1.4390/11)

Commandery soldier Ma Bo, monthly rental coins 500. Commandery soldier Zhu Zhu, monthly rental coins 500. Commandery soldier Wang Che, monthly rental coins 500.

152 Li Junming 李均明, “Zoumalou Wu jian ‘dijiu qian’ kao” 走馬樓吴簡‘地僦錢’考, Jianbo yanjiu 2004(2006), 347–353.

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

151

大男榮闊僦錢月五百。大男史侯僦錢月五百。大男趙阿僦錢月五 百。(1.4401/11)

Adult male Rong Kuo, monthly rental coins 500. Adult male Shi Hou, monthly rental coins 500. Adult male Zhao A, monthly rental coins 500. 郡士張□僦錢月五百。大女王汝僦錢月五百。大女鄭汝僦錢月五 百。(1.4601/11)

Commandery soldier Zhang ?, monthly rental coins 500. Adult female Wang Ru, monthly rental coins 500. Adult female Zheng Ru, monthly rental coins 500.

右卌五户，月收僦錢，合二萬二千五百。(1.4462/11) Above, 45 households. We received monthly rental coins, altogether 22,500. •右七户，户月收僦錢五百，合三千五百，右前復，被□□ (1.4491/11) • Above, 7 households, from each of which we received monthly rental

coins of 500, adding up to 3,500. Above, previously exempted from …153 •右□□□□□僦錢□二萬三千五百。(1.4550/11) • Above … rental coins ? 23,500.

臨湘言：部吏潘羜收責食地僦錢，起正月一日訖三月卅日□有人悉畢 □■ (1.4345/11)

Linxiang reports: Official Pan Zhu was assigned to collect land rental coins levied to support [someone]. From the 1st day of the 1st month to the 30th day of the 3rd month, someone has paid the full amount … 府前言：絞促市吏□書收責地僦錢有人言。靖叩頭叩頭死罪死 罪，案文書，輒絞促□ (1.4397/11)154

Commandery government stated earlier: urge market officials to collect land rental coins levied. Jing prostrating, risking execution, risking execution, according to the document immediately urge …

153 The verb is missing, but a passive construction is implied by bei 被. 154 “There are people there” you ren 有人 contrasts with the other possibility, “there are not people there” wu ren 無人, which is seen on some other slips, such as 2.7632. Yan 言 indicates the end of the sentence.

152

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Registers of Market Taxes on Slaves shengkou gushui renming bu 生口估税人名簿 In the sixth year of the Jiahe reign, the Finance Bureau ( jin cao 金曹) directed metropolitan (i.e., Linxiang) Supervising Market Clerk (dushi shi 都市史) Tang Yu 唐玉 to investigate the collection of taxes in coins on the sale of private slaves.155 He sent trading middleman Guo Ke to inspect the payment of taxes on the sale of slaves in the first season ( jidu 季度) of the year, and encouraged people to pay these taxes. He then made records of these payments and sent them to higher officials.156 As with the previous category, these are lists of people and we could have included them in the name registers section above, but we have included them here because they mention that the tax assessment money was sent to the treasury. The term used for slaves here is shengkou 生口. In this case they were mostly war captives. Yi shengkou 夷生口 was a general term for non-Han people captured and treated as less than human. When they were registered in a household they became registered slaves nubei 奴婢, which meant that they were legally people, though still slaves. The 10% tax that was collected on the sale of such people was probably composed of central governmental as well as local taxes. 5.3

■ 市 史 唐 玉 謹 列 ： 起 嘉 禾 六 年 正 月 訖 三 月 卅 日 ⟨吏 ⟩民 賣 買 生 口⟨人⟩⟨名⟩⟨簿⟩ (4.1758·圖 8-40/3)

(Supervising) Market Clerk Tang Yu respectfully lists the names of slaves bought and sold by officials and commoners from the 1st month to the 30th day of the 3rd month of the 6th Jiahe year, in a register.

■士文錢賣女生口昜，直錢 ⟨ 八 ⟩ 萬， 157 嘉禾六年正月廿□日⟨貸⟩ （責）   158男子唐調收中外 (4.1759·圖 8-41/3) ⟨估⟩具錢八千。(4.1760·42/3) 155 On slavery in the early empires, see Yates, Robin D.S., “The Changing Status of Slaves in the Qin-Han Transition,” in Birth of an Empire: The State of Qin Revisited, ed. Yuri Pines et al. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013), 206–223. 156 Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Zoumalou Wu jian zhong suojian de shengkou maimai: jian tan Wei Jin fengjianlun zhi nu ke xianghun” 走馬樓吴簡中所見的生口買賣：兼談魏晉 封建論之奴客相混, Shixue jikan (2014.4), 73–81. 157 In the original transcription the number is written as 4 (si 四), but the published image is illegible. We have changed it to 8 (ba 八) based on the fact that the 10% tax on it is 8,000 coins. 158 This graph is unclear on both this and the following slip (1761). We suspect that both are ze 責.

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

153

… soldier Wen Qian sold female slave Yang, value 80,000. 2?th day of the 1st month of the Jiahe 6th year, adult male Tang Diao was charged to collect central and local commercial tax, intact coins 8,000. 大女依汝賣女生口葉，直錢六萬，嘉禾六年正月廿日貸（責？）男子 雷逆收中外估 (4.1761·圖 8-43/3) 具錢⟨六⟩千。159 (4.1762·圖 8-44/3)

Adult female Yi Ru sold female slave Ye, value 60,000. 20th day of 1st month of Jiahe 6th year, adult male Lei Ni was charged to collect central and local commercial tax intact coins 6,000.

大 女 劉 佃 賣 男 生 口 得 ， 直 錢 五 萬 ， 嘉 禾 六 年 三 月 廿 八 日 □ ⟨郡 ⟩ 吏□（張）⟨橋⟩收中外估 (4.1763·圖 8-45/3)160

Adult female Liu Dian sold male slave De, value 50,000. On the 28th day of the 3rd month of the 6th Jiahe year, commandery official (Zhang) Qiao was charged to collect central and local commercial tax …

都市史唐玉叩頭死罪白：被曹敕，條列起嘉禾六年正月一日訖三月卅 日吏民所 私賣買生口者收責估錢言。案文書，輒部會郭客料實。今客 辭：“男子唐調、雷逆、郡吏張橋各私買生口合三人，直錢十九萬， 收中外估具錢一萬九千。”謹列言。盡力部客收責送（逆）、161 調等 錢，傳送詣庫。復言。玉誠惶誠恐叩頭死罪死罪。 詣　金　曹 四月七日白 (4.1763①·圖 8-45①/3)

Supervising Market Clerk Tang Yu, prostrating and at risk of the death penalty, reports: Upon the order of the bureau, I list the commercial tax in coins that we charged and should collect on the private slaves sold and bought by officials and commoners from the 1st day of the 1st month to the 30th day of the 3rd month of the 6th Jiahe year.

159 In the original transcription the number is written as 9 jiu 九, but the published image is illegible. We have changed it to 6 liu 六 because it is a 10% tax on 60,000 coins. 160 The graph transcribed as dian 佃 may be lü 侣. The ⟨郡⟩ reads xian 縣 “county” in the original transcription but we have changed it because the left side of the graph looks more like jun 郡 “commandery.” The two graphs 張⟨橋⟩ are not transcribed in the original publication, but the second one looks something like qiao 橋, and we suspect that this is the personal name Zhang Qiao mentioned in other slips. 161 Comparing this graph with other song 送 and ni 逆 on this document, we suspect this is ni, and refers to the person Lei Ni mentioned above.

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Chapter 3

I acted according to the document and promptly assigned trading middleman Guo Ke to inspect. Now Ke submits this statement: “Adult males Tang Diao, Lei Ni and commandery official Zhang Qiao each privately bought a slave, total 3 people, with a total value of 190,000 coins. We should collect 19,000 central and local commercial tax intact coins.” Respectfully reported. [Tang Yu writes] With utmost efforts I assign Ke to collect coins levied from Ni, Diao, etc., and present them to the treasury. Resubmitted. Yu with fear and trepidation, prostrating, risking execution, risking execution. Sent to the Bureau of Finance Reported on the 7th day of the 4th month Treasury Cloth Account Registers162 ku bu zhangbu 庫布賬簿 Cloth had been used as a unit of exchange and tax payment for centuries by this time. The Zoumalou slips tell us about quantities of cloth, but very little about types of cloth. Most cloth was woven from hemp or ramie, and unless otherwise specified we can assume that most of the cloth referred to in these texts was made of these.163 There were various administrative categories of cloth, whose meaning is not entirely certain. “Requisition cloth” (diaobu 調布) probably referred to cloth of a quality high enough to be accepted as tax payment, and it may also have been of a specific width. In the Qin and Han there had been regulations concerning the quality of such cloth and we can assume that Wu followed this precedent, but we do not have any evidence for that. The basic measure of cloth was a bolt (pi 匹, around 9.68 m). One pi equalled 4 zhang 丈 (each around 2.42 m), which was equivalent to 10 chi 尺 (each around 24.2 cm).164 Requisition cloth was divided into two categories. Market cloth (shibu 市布) was cloth that market officials purchased in the market or from local people. The quantity that people were asked to sell was based on their household grade. Household cloth (pinbu 品布) was cloth that people at the local 5.4

162 Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Zoumalou Wu jian caiji kubu zhangbu tixi zhengli yu yanjiu: jianlun Sun Wu de hudiao” 走馬樓吴簡采集庫布帳簿體系整理與研究：兼論孫吴 的戶調, Wen shi (2012.1), 53–110; “Sun Wu Jiahe yuan nian pin shi bu ru shou bu zonghe zhengli yu yanjiu” 孫吴嘉禾元年品市布入受簿綜合整理與研究, Chutu wenxian yanjiu 17 (2018), 334–391. 163 Dieter Kuhn, Science and Civilisation in China 5.9; Textile Technology: Spinning and Reeling (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988). 164 Wilkinson lists the Han chi at 23.1 cm and the Three Kingdoms chi as 24.2, so Wu’s was probably in that range. Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, 556.

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

155

level were forced to sell to the state, also on the basis of household grade. The sale of market cloth was voluntary, while that of household cloth was not. In both cases the government paid less for the cloth than they would have on the open market, which makes this a kind of tax. Like the Later Han dynasty’s “requisition cloth” (diaobu 調布) system, this was still a temporary measure and had not yet developed into a regular tax. Not everyone recorded on these certificates as providing cloth was a taxpayer. There were also people who collected it from numerous households and sent it to the treasury, most of whom were district and hill officials and their employees. The main function of the household cloth certificates was to verify that the tax cloth being transported between the districts and the county treasury arrived safely. In order to ensure the smooth collection of tax cloth, the Deputy Chancellor of the county and his officials sometimes participated in the collection of tax cloth, and this can be seen in the tax cloth certificates, which often mention Deputy Chancellor Qi. As with the coins records above, these are the records of cloth entered into and taken from the treasury. These are records of a temporary policy in which the Linxiang marquisate requisitioned (but paid for) cloth from officials or commoners of various districts in the first three years of the Jiahe reign period. The figures regarding household grade and purchased cloth of the first two Jiahe years were recorded in registers of received and entered household grade and purchased cloth. These consist of the two temporary cloth account registers—those of the first Jiahe year “requisition cloth” (調布) and the second Jiahe year “new requisition cloth” (新調布). The certificates of household grade and purchased cloth are composed of several interconnected “one-time registers” that record a specific time period, usually a month. The certificates are arranged in order according to districts in these “one-time registers.” Registers of Household and Market Cloth Entered and Received 5.4.1 Treasury officials often made temporary registers (yishi bu 一時簿) of the cloth as they collected it. They sent these to the county court, where they—or at least the information contained in them—were combined to create a document that summarized this information. The label translated here, and shown in Figure 15, was attached to the outside of this scroll to make it easier to find in the archive. – Label: 庫　吏殷連、潘　珛起二年七月 (7.4820① 正) [other side] 庫　訖三年五月十五日　所受嘉禾二年　品、市布莂。 (7.4820① 背)

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Figure 15 A label. Document 7.4820. 7 × 3.2 cm

Treasury: The Certificates of (treasury) officials Yin Lian and Pan You from the 7th month of the 2nd year Treasury: to the 15th day of the 5th month of the 3rd year the household and market cloth of Jiahe 2nd year received. – Requisitioned cloth in the first Jiahe year: This section concerns registers from the 1st Jiahe year. We will begin with household cloth (pinbu 品布). In the first two of these slips the length of the cloth (qi pi 七匹 and er pi 二匹) seems to have been intentionally written on the crack where the document would be split, so that only the right half of it appears on this slip.

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

157

入都鄉横溪丘男子黄智布七匹。※嘉禾元年七月十一日關丞祁，付庫 吏殷　七匹　連受 (6.4864·圖 47-10/15)165

Entered 7 pi of cloth from adult male Huang Zhi of Hengxi Hill in the Metropolitan District. ※ On the 11th day of the 7th month of the 1st Jiahe year, reported to Deputy Chancellor Qi, given to treasury official Yin, 7 pi. Received by Lian.

入都鄉東溪丘大男陳丞布二匹。※嘉禾元年七月十一日關丞祁，付庫 吏殷　二匹　連受 (6.4870·圖 47-16/15)

Entered 2 pi of cloth from adult male Chen Cheng of Dongxi Hill in the Metropolitan District. ※ On the 11th day of the 7th month of the 1st Jiahe year, reported to Deputy Chancellor Qi, given to treasury official Yin, 2 pi. Received by Lian. •右都鄉入布合卅五匹一丈四尺。　中 (3.245/23) • Above, Metropolitan District entered cloth altogether 35 pi, 1 zhang,

4 chi. Agreed.

•右都鄉入布卌匹五尺，通合一百八十四匹七尺。中 (6.5618·圖 54–8/15) • Above, Metropolitan District entered cloth 40 pi, 5 chi, altogether 184

pi, 7 chi. Agreed.

入廣成鄉東薄丘徐麦布一匹。※ 嘉禾元年七月十六日關丞　祁，付庫 吏殷　一匹　連受。(4.826/1)

Entered: 1 pi of cloth from Xu Mai of Dongbo Hill in Guangcheng District. ※ Jiahe 1st year, 7th month, 16th day, reported to Deputy chancellor Qi, given to treasury official Yin Lian, who received 1 pi. 入廣成鄉撈丘男子陳牙布三丈九尺。※嘉禾元年七月十六日關 丞祁，付庫吏殷　三丈九尺　連受。(4.835/1)

Entered Guangcheng District Lao hill adult male Chen Ya’s 3 zhang, 9 chi of cloth. ※ On the 16th day of the 7th month of the 1st Jiahe year reported to Deputy chancellor Qi, given to treasury official Yin Lian, who received. 3 zhang, 9 chi.

165 To the left of the space left of “Yin Lian” are traces of the right sides of the words qi pi 七匹.

158

Chapter 3 •右廣成鄉入布廿三匹 …… (3.208/23) • Above, Guangchang District entered cloth 23 pi … 入小武陵鄉□丘大男□夏布一匹。※ 祁，付庫吏殷連受。(4.831/1)166

嘉禾元年七月十四日關丞一匹

Entered 1 pi of cloth from adult male ? Xia of ? Hill in Xiaowuling District. ※ On the 14th day of the 7th month of the 1st Jiahe year, reported to Deputy chancellor Qi, treasury official Yin Lian, who received it. One pi. • ⟨右 ⟩⟨諸 ⟩⟨鄉 ⟩⟨入 ⟩⟨布 ⟩卅七匹二丈三尺　通合百卅四匹一丈□□

(3.257/23) • Above, the cloth entered by all districts, 37 pi, 2 zhang, 3 chi. Altogether 134 pi, 1 zhang … – Market cloth: 入市吏潘羜所市布一百卅一匹。※嘉禾二年二月廿四日付庫吏■ (6.5654·圖 54-44/15) Entered 131 pi of market cloth purchased by Market Official Pan Zhu. ※

On the 24th day of the 2nd month of the 2nd Jiahe year given to treasury official …

入南鄉官所市廖金布一匹。※嘉禾元年七月廿九日關丞 ⟨祁⟩， ⟨付 ⟩ ⟨庫⟩⟨吏⟩⟨殷⟩受。一匹 (6.4913·圖 47-59/15)167

Entered 1 pi of cloth from Liao Jin bought by South District official. On the 29th day of the 7th month of the 1st Jiahe year, reported to Deputy chancellor Qi, given to treasury official Yin, who received. One pi. 右市掾潘羜所市布四百卌二⟨匹⟩。　⟨中⟩ (6.5662·圖 54-52/15) Above, 442 pi of cloth bought by Market Attendant Pan Zhu. Checked.

166 In the lower section of the “registers of household cloth entered and received” that were collected in the first basin of excavated slips, the length of cloth is often written between the space of the words Yin 殷 and Lian 連 and Qi 祁 signed his name below guan cheng 關丞. This seems to the standard format of these documents. On this particular slip, the space between Yin and Lian is small, while there is a space after guan cheng where both “one pi” and Qi are written together. 167 The transcription in the original publication included Lian 連 after Yin, probably added inadvertently because it is known from other documents to be his name. However, the scribe did not write Lian here, so we have erased it. Traces of the right-hand sections of the words yi pi 一匹 can be seen at the lower left of this slip, which was probably one part of the document that was split in three.

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

159

•右市布三百九十五匹。 168　中 (3.246/23) • Above, 395 pi of market cloth. Checked.

– His honour’s instruction tablets jun jiao mu du “君教” 木牘 君教　　　丞出給民種粻，如曹，期會掾烝　若、録事掾谷　水　校 　已出　主簿　　省　嘉禾三年五月十三日白：庫領品、市布 　　　　　　　　起嘉禾元年十二月一日訖卅日一時簿 (5.110)169

His honour’s instruction. The Deputy has gone out to distribute seed grain to commoners in agreement with the bureau. Checked by Scheduling Attendant Zheng Ruo and Recording Attendant Gu Shui. Already sent. The archivist has examined it. On the 13th day of the 5th month of the 3rd Jiahe year, (the bureau) reported a one-time register of the household and market cloth under the jurisdiction of the treasury from the 1st to the 30th day of the 12th month of the 1st Jiahe year. – Requisitioned cloth in the second Jiahe year: The previous registers dated to the first Jiahe year. The following are registers of cloth received from the 2nd Jiahe year. 入南鄉嘉禾二年新調布一匹。※嘉禾二年七月廿八日山田丘利高付庫 吏殷連受。 (2.6412/20)170 Entered 1 pi of Jiahe 2nd year new requisition cloth from South District. ※

On the 28th day of the 7th month of the 2nd Jiahe year Li Gao of Shantian hill gave it to treasury official Yin Lian. Received.

入南鄉新調布一匹。※嘉禾二年八月廿七日牙田丘胡公付庫吏殷 連受。(2.5315/20) Entered 1 pi of new requisition cloth. ※ On the 27th day of the 8th month

of the 2nd Jiahe year Hu Gong of Yatian hill gave it to treasury official Yin Lian. Received.

168 We have changed 三匹九丈五尺 to 三百九十五匹. Four zhang was one pi, so it is unlikely that anyone would write 3 pi, 9 zhang, 5 chi, which should be 5 pi, 1 zhang, 5 chi. The writing of the 百, 十, and 匹 graphs is unclear, but they can vaguely be distinguished, so we have changed the transcription. 169 Ruo 若 and Shui 水 are signatures, while yichu 已出 is an acknowledgement written by a superior. 170 The new requisition cloth of the Jiahe second year does not include any market cloth.

160

Chapter 3 •右南鄉入嘉禾二年布廿五匹三丈七尺。(1.6256/12) • Above, South District entered 25 pi, 3 zhang, 7 chi of cloth from the Jiahe

2nd year.

入小武陵鄉嘉禾二年新調品布一匹。※嘉禾二年七月廿日新薄丘男子 □狗付庫吏殷連受。(2.5494/20)

Entered 1 pi of Jiahe 2nd year new requisition household cloth from Xiaowuling District. ※ On the 20th day of the 7th month of the 2nd Jiahe year ? Gou of Xinbo hill gave it to treasury official Yin Lian. Received. 入小武陵鄉嘉禾二年新調布四匹。※嘉禾二年八月十二日日進丘 黄純、蒸金付庫吏殷⟨連⟩⟨受⟩。(1.7701/13)

Entered 4 pi of Jiahe 2nd year new requisition cloth from Xiaowuling District. ※ On the 12th day of the 8th month of the 2nd Jiahe year Huang Chun and Zheng Jin of Jin hill gave it to treasury official Yin Lian. Received. •右小武陵鄉入二年布卅一匹三丈二尺。(2.5493/20) • Above, Xiaowuling District entered 31 pi, 3 zhang, 2 chi of cloth from the

(Jiahe) 2nd year.

入都鄉嘉禾二年調布一匹三丈八尺。※嘉禾二年七月十三日敖（？）   中丘大男李赤付庫吏殷連受。(2.5497/20)

Entered Metropolitan District’s 2nd Jiahe year requisition cloth, 1 pi, 3 zhang, 8 chi. ※ Jiahe 2nd year, 7th month, 13th day Ao (?) Central hill adult male Li Chi gave it to treasury official Yin Lian, who received it. 入都鄉嘉禾二年布一匹。※嘉禾二年七月十七日男子蔡（？）超付庫 吏殷連受。(2.5331/20) Entered Metropolitan District’s Jiahe 2nd year cloth, 1 pi. ※ On the 17th

day of the 7th month of the 2nd Jiahe year, adult male Cai (?) Chao gave it to treasury official Yin Lian, who received it.171

右都鄉入 ⟨ 嘉 ⟩⟨ 禾 ⟩ 二年布□ ⟨ 匹 ⟩ 五丈□尺，合一百七十二匹二丈 五尺。　中 (1.7729/13)

Above, Metropolitan District entered the 2nd Jiahe year cloth, ? pi, 5 zhang, ? chi. Altogether 172 pi, 2 zhang, 5 chi. Agreed.

171 The scribe seems to have forgotten to write Cai’s place of registration.

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

161

•右都鄉入布六匹三丈六尺。　■ (2.4010/19) • Above, Metropolitan District entered 6 pi, 3 zhang, 6 chi of cloth. •右都鄉入二年布廿八匹一丈七尺。(2.5499/20) • Above, Metropolitan District entered the Jiahe 2nd year cloth 28 pi,

1 zhang, 7 chi.

集凡起五月一日訖十五日民入嘉禾二年布合廿匹三丈六尺。(1.8197/13)

Altogether, from the 1st to the 15th day of the 5th month commoners entered a total of 20 pi, 3 zhang, 6 chi of cloth from the Jiahe 2nd year.

■ □ 八 月 ⟨一 ⟩日 訖 卅 日 □ 吏 入 嘉 禾 二 年 布 合 一 千 八 十 六 匹 □ ■

(2.5952/20) … from the 1st to the 30th day of the 8th month ? official entered a total of 1086 pi … of cloth from the Jiahe 2nd year.

■□日訖卅日領⟨諸⟩鄉嘉禾二年調布　■ (2.6471/20) … from … day to the 30th day listed all the districts’ 2nd Jiahe year requisition cloth.

5.4.2

Registers of Cloth Carried Forward and Newly Entered Into the Treasury As with coins, inventory was carried out on cloth in the treasury. According to the terminology, it would be taken out, counted, and then re-entered, though one can imagine the officials saving themselves some trouble and counting the cloth without taking it out of the treasury. This was recorded on registers, as was newly received and entered cloth, as well as cloth that had been distributed or spent. 主庫吏殷連謹列：正月旦承餘、新入布匹數簿。(4.1344/2)

Responsible treasury official Yin Lian respectfully lists, on the 1st day of the 1st month, a register of the numbers of carried-forward and newly entered cloth.172 172 This is the title slip of a list of cloth from a specific month. The title slips of several other monthly cloth registers have also been found, with identical content except for the dates. All of them date to the first day of the month, but each is a different month and two also mention the year: 4.4719 is dated to the 1st day of the 3rd month of the 1st year (the original transcription incorrectly wrote the 2nd year), 4.2057 is dated to the 4th month, 4.4718·111/5 is dated to the 5th month, 4.1369/2 is dated to the 9th month and 2.6233/20 is dated to the 10th month of the 2nd year.

162

Chapter 3 承四月簿餘元年布一千三百一十匹一丈三尺五⟨寸⟩。(4.5234/5)

Carried forward from the 4th month register, 1310 pi, 1 zhang, 3 chi, 5 cun of 1st year cloth.173 入都鄉元年布⟨卌⟩二匹六□□□。　中174 (4.2059/3)

Entered Metropolitan District 1st year cloth 42 pi, 6 … Agreed

入東鄉元年布五十七匹二丈九尺。　中 (4.1351/2)

Entered Eastern District 1st year cloth 57 pi, 2 zhang, 9 chi. Agreed. 入南鄉元年布十一匹三丈六尺。　中 (4.1505/2)

Entered South District 1st year cloth 11 pi, 3 zhang, 6 chi. Agreed.

入西鄉元年布二匹三丈七尺。　中 (4.1487/2)

Entered West District 1st year cloth 2 pi, 3 zhang, 7 chi. Agreed.

入中鄉元年布十六匹二丈七尺。　⟨中⟩ (4.1478/2)

Entered Central District 1st year cloth 16 pi, 2 zhang, 7 chi. Agreed.

入廣成鄉元年布卌六匹□丈八尺。　中 (4.1099/2) Entered Guangcheng District 1st year cloth 46 pi, ? zhang, 8 chi. Agreed. 入模鄉元年布卅八匹五尺。　中 (4.1464/2)

Entered Mo District 1st year cloth 38 pi, 5 chi. Agreed.

入平鄉元年布十七匹三丈三尺。　⟨中⟩ (4.1350/2)

Entered Ping District 1st year cloth 17 pi, 3 zhang, 3 chi. Agreed.

入桑鄉元年布四匹。　中 (4.1366/2)

Entered Mulberry District 1st year cloth 4 pi. Agreed.

入小武陵鄉布□□□匹一丈七尺。　中 (4.1359/2)

Entered Xiaowuling District cloth … pi, 1 zhang, 7 chi. Agreed. 入市吏潘羜所市布一百六十□匹。(4.1323/2)

Entered the cloth purchased by market official Pan Zhu, 16? pi.

173 For similar examples to this, see 4.2066, 4.1610, 4.1416 and 2.6103. 174 Note that the zhong 中 graphs in this and the following ten slips was not included in the original published transcriptions, but we have added them based on the published images.

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

163

•右新入布三百九十九匹二丈二尺。(4.1336/2) • Above, newly entered cloth, 399 pi, 2 zhang, 2 chi. 其五百卅七匹二丈四尺□□□ (4.1353/2)

Of these, 537 pi, 2 zhang, 4 chi …

其五百四匹吏潘羜所市布。(4.1367/2)

Of these, 504 pi is cloth purchased by official Pan Zhu.

■右出布一千五百匹。(4.1668/2) ■ Above, expended cloth 1500 pi. •右出布一千四百七十三匹。(4.1397/2) • Above, expended cloth 1473 pi. 出用　無。175　■ (4.4720·113/5) Expended: none.　■ •右三月旦承餘、新入布一千□百□匹二丈二尺五寸。(4.1100/2) • Above, cloth carried forward and newly entered on the 1st day of the

3rd month, 1??? pi, 2 zhang, 2 chi, 5 cun.

Registers of Skins Entered and Received ku pu zhangbu 庫皮賬簿 In addition to coins and cloth, the treasury also occasionally requisitioned animal skins from the people of the various districts.176 These documents record collections that began in the 7th month of Jiahe 1st year and ended on the 30th day of the 3rd month of the 3rd year. Here we will provide examples of a label, a reconstructed document, and some summary slips. There are enough slips to reconstruct documents from several districts, though none of them are complete.177 These were mostly deer (lu 鹿 and ji 麂) and sheep and goat (yang 羊), though there is also a le/yue 樂 skin, whose meaning is unknown. Hunan has a remarkable diversity of deer and there is no reason to expect that lu 鹿 and ji 麂 correspond with species defined by modern zoologists. 5.5

175 We have changed ru 入 from the original publication to yong 用. Though the graph is blurred, there are many slips with the same phrase, such as 1.5629 and 1.5676. 176 Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Zoumalou Wu jian caiji kupi zhangbu zhengli yu yanjiu” 走馬樓 吴簡采集庫皮賬簿整理與研究, Beida shixue 16 (2011), 16–45. 177 For example, in Zhujian vol. 2 we can find registers from Metropolitan District (slips 8925, 8912, 8888 and 8911) and the Sang District (slips 8879, 8884, 8913, 8883 and 8914).

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The deer in the region can be roughly divided into two different size groups, and one possibility is that lu referred to larger deer such as sika (Cervus nippon), sambar (Rusa unicolor) and elaphure (Elaphurus davidianus) while ji 麂 referred to dog-sized deer like muntjac (Muntiacus sp.) and water deer (Hydropotes inermes). We will translate the former as “deer” and the latter as “muntjac.” Agricultural societies with relatively low population densities tend to create ideal deer habitat—sometimes intentionally—providing hunters with a reliable supply of meat and hides.178 It is possible that the widespread abandonment of agricultural land in the wars had created an abundance of deer habitat, leading to an abundance of deer that then ate people’s crops. In this case one county collected 246 skins in one month. This tax may have killed enough deer to reduce their numbers in these regions, and it is not impossible that it was intended to do so. – Label: 庫：吏殷連起嘉禾元年七月訖三年三月卅日所受嘉禾元年襍皮莂。

Treasury: A certificate of all of the various skins of the 1st Jiahe year received by treasury official Yin Lian between the 7th month of the 1st Jiahe year and the 30th day of the 3rd month of the 3rd year.179 – An example of a register of skins: 入平鄉鹿皮二、麂皮二枚，合四枚。※嘉禾元年十一月十三日男子何 盛付庫吏殷連受。(2.8957/23)

Entered 2 deer skins and 2 muntjac skins from Ping District, total 4 skins. ※ On the 13th day of the 11th month of the 1st Jiahe year adult male He Sheng gave them to treasury official Yin Lian, who received. 入平鄉杷丘男子番足二年樂皮二枚。※嘉禾二年十二月廿一日丞 弁關，付庫吏潘珛受。180 (1.8214/13) 178 Katherine Brunson and Brian Lander, “Deer and Humans in the Early Farming Societies of the Yellow River Valley: A Symbiotic Relationship,” Human Ecology 51.4 (2023), 609–625. 179 Note that “certificates” bie 莂 could be single tablets or documents written on multiple slips. This is the latter. 180 Chengbianguan 丞弁關 is usually written zhengbian 烝弁. Scholars usually consider the latter to be a personal name but, upon inspection of the published image we believe that there is also a guan graph. Cheng refers to the deputy Marquis of Linxiang Marquisate. Bian was the name of an assistant official (佐吏) and guan is a mark added by an assistant meaning “to handle or take care of.” See Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Zoumalou Wu jian zhong de qianshu, xingjiao he gouhua fuhao juyu” 走馬樓吴簡中的簽署、省校和勾畫符號 舉隅, Zhonghua wenshi luncong 1 (2017).

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Entered 2 second-year yue skins from Ping District Ba hill adult male Pan Zu. ※ On the 21st day of the 12th month of the 2nd Jiahe year, Deputy chancellor and Bian supervised, and gave them to treasury official Pan Xiu, who received. 入平鄉三州下丘潘逐二年麂皮二枚。※嘉禾二年十二月廿一日丞 弁關，付庫吏潘珛受。(1.8221/13)

Entered 2 second-year muntjac skins from Ping District Sanzhou lower hill Pan Zhu. ※ On the 21st day of the 12th month of the 2nd Jiahe year, Deputy chancellor and Bian supervised, and gave them to treasury official Pan Xiu, who received. 入平鄉巾竹丘烝直二年麂皮三枚。※嘉禾二年十二月廿一日丞 弁關，付庫吏潘珛⟨受⟩。(1.8268/13)

Entered 3 second-year muntjac skins from Ping District Jinzhu hill Zheng Zhi. ※ On the 21st day of the 12th month of the 2nd Jiahe year, Deputy chancellor and Bian supervised, and gave them to treasury official Pan Xiu, who received. •右平⟨鄉⟩⟨入⟩⟨皮⟩十六枚。　中181 (2.8934/23) • Above, Ping District entered 16 skins. Agreed.

– Summaries: • 集 凡 起 八 月 一 日 訖 卅 日 ⟨所 ⟩一 入 皮 一 百 八 十 五 枚 ， 其 五 十 九 枚 鹿皮，其一百廿六枚麂皮。(2.8899/23) • Altogether from the 1st to the 30th day of the 8th month, 185 skins were

consecutively entered. Of these, 59 were deer skins and 126 were muntjac skins. •集凡諸鄉起十二月一日訖卅日入襍皮二百卌六枚□□■ (1.8259/13) • Altogether from all counties, from the 1st to the 30th day of the

12th month, entered 246 skins of various kinds …

Registers of the Receipt of Requisitioned Hemp diaoma rushou bu 調麻入受簿 The government did not only requisition cloth and skins. There are also a few records of hemp requisitioned in various districts. As with requisition cloth,

5.6

181 We have added the xiang ru pi 鄉入皮 and the zhong 中 based on the published image.

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this hemp was purchased by requisition in various districts.182 We know this was unprocessed hemp because it was purchased by weight, not by length (one jin 斤 weighed between 220 and 250 grams). Transforming hemp from plant stems to woven fabric requires several steps of processing, and it is possible that this hemp was partly processed. Below is a label with “Treasury” written on both sides, and a single sentence split across the two sides: 庫　吏殷連起正　月訖四月卅日 庫　所受嘉禾二　年古麻莂。183

Treasury. Certificates of old hemp from the 2nd Jiahe year received by official Yin Lian from the 1st month to the 30th day of the 4th month – Requisitioned hemp certificates and summary slip: 入 南 鄉 所 調 麻 六 斤 。 ※ 嘉 禾 二 年 三 月 七 日 男 子 ⟨廬 ⟩緒 付 庫 吏 殷 連受。(6.2399/13) Entered 6 jin of hemp requisitioned from South District. ※ On the

7th day of the 3rd month of the 2nd Jiahe year, adult male Lu Xu gave it to treasury official Yin Lian. Received.

入廣成鄉所調麻一斤。※嘉禾二年三月一日泊沽丘周車付庫吏殷 連受。(6.2408/13) Entered 1 jin of hemp requisitioned from Guangcheng District. ※ On the

1st day of the 3rd month of the 2nd Jiahe year, Zhou Che from Bogu Hill gave it to treasury official Yin Lian. Received.

⟨右⟩□□入麻⟨卅⟩九斤。(6.2395/13) Above … entered 39 jin of hemp.

182 Document 6.3648 refers to a military official from an agricultural colony purchasing 150 jin of market hemp. 183 For the images and transcription, see Yang Fen 楊芬, “Changsha Zoumalou Wu jian zhong de li shu yiyun” 長沙走馬樓吴簡中的隸書遺韻, Zhongguo shufa (2014.5), 96.

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6

167

Granary Account Registers cangmi zhangbu 倉米帳簿

Various kinds of grains and beans were collected and stored in granaries. Like the treasury, the granaries kept careful records of their holdings, and what was entered and taken out. As explained in the introduction and earlier in this chapter, there were various kinds of grain taxes, such as zu 租, shui 税, and the “quota” taxes (xian 限). Registers of Various Rice Collected in Taxes zami rushou bu 襍米入受簿 6.1.1 Registers of Entering and Receiving Various Kinds of Rice These are registers of rice tax entered into the granary. They were written under the supervision of the districts and an official called dige langzhong 邸 閣郎中—often abbreviated to dige—which, as mentioned above, we translate Official of Granaries Management. These officials may have been sent from the central government to inspect the collection of grain taxes. It is not surprising that the central government would pay particular attention to grain tax income, since that was the basis of their power. The officials in this case were named Li Song, Guo Ju, Dong ji, etc., and they appear to have overseen the entering and receiving grain taxes. The following grain entry register can be reconstructed because the slips were found bunched together. We will not include all the entries in the document, only a few examples.184

6.1

入中鄉嘉禾二年税米十一斛。※嘉禾三年正月十六日帛丘大男雷迎關 邸閣李嵩，付倉吏黄諱、潘慮受。(2.362/15) Entered 11 hu of Jiahe 2nd year shui tax rice from the Central District. ※

On the 26th day of the 1st month of the 3rd Jiahe year, Bo hill adult male Lei Ying reported to Official of Granaries Management Li Song, and delivered it to granary officials Huang Hui and Pan Lü who received.185

入西鄉嘉禾二年租米十四斛七斗。※嘉禾三年正月八日龍穴丘吏謝福 關邸閣李嵩，付倉吏黄⟨諱⟩、史潘慮。(2.374/15)

Entered 14 hu, 7 dou of Jiahe 2nd year zu tax rice from the Western District. ※ On the 8th day of the 1st month of the 3rd Jiahe year, Longxue

184 The document probably includes the following slips from Zhujian vol. 2: 361, 362, 369, 363, 367, 374, 377, 381, 365, 375, 383, 386, 380 and 385. 185 The three names in bold are signatures.

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hill official Xie Fu reported to Official of Granaries Management Li Song, and delivered it to granary official Huang Hui and clerk Pan Lü. 入西鄉佃吏逢養嘉禾二年限米五斛五斗。※嘉禾三年二月十六日高樓 丘大男逢固（？）關邸閣李嵩，付倉吏黄諱、史潘慮受。(2.377/15)

Entered 5 hu, 5 dou of Jiahe 2nd year quota rice from the Western District agricultural official Feng Yang. ※ On the 16th day of the 2nd month of the 3rd Jiahe year, Gaolou hill adult male Feng Gu (?) reported to Official of Granaries Management Li Song, and delivered it to granary official Huang Hui and clerk Pan Lü who received.

入屯田司馬黄松嘉禾二年限米一百五斛。※嘉禾三年正月四日石淳丘 帥謝□關邸閣李嵩，付倉吏黄諱、史番慮。(2.365/15)

Entered 105 hu of 2nd Jiahe year quota rice from Agricultural Colony Marshal Huang Song. ※ On the 4th day of the 1st month of the 3rd Jiahe year, Shichun hill headman Xie ? reported to Official of Granaries Management Li Song, and delivered it to granary officials Huang Hui and clerk Pan Lü (who received it). – Summary slips: •右西鄉入吏帥客限米⟨十⟩⟨斛⟩。(2.425/15) • Above, West District entered 10 hu of quota rice from guests under offi-

cial command.

右西鄉入私學限米廿六斛三斗。(2.566/15)

Above, West District entered privately educated quota rice, 26 hu, 3 dou.

右小武陵鄉入税米七十二斛四斗■ (2.492/15)

Above, Xiaowuling District entered shui tax rice, 72 hu, 4 dou.　■ 右□鄉入復民限米一斛五斗。(2.522/15)

Above, ? District entered quota rice from non-active soldiers, 1 hu, 5 dou. •右民入租米八十五斛五升。　中 (2.438/15) • Above, commoners entered zu tax rice, 85 hu, 5 sheng. Checked. •右諸鄉入嘉禾二年郵卒限米卅四斛五斗。(2.520/15) • Above, all the districts entered the 2nd Jiahe year postal soldier quota

rice, 34 hu, 5 dou.

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169

6.1.2 Registers of Rice Remaining, Newly Received, and Distributed On the first day of every month granary officials were supposed to calculate their basic income and expenditure of grain for the month, writing documents that were called “first day of the month registers” (yuedan bu 月旦簿). They are registers of the various types of rice remaining, newly received, and spent.186 The references to people repaying grain are related to the fact that local governments lent people grain to plant, which they then repaid at harvest time. When rice is named by year, such as Huanglong 2nd year rice, it refers to the year the grain was lent. The phrase “millet converted to rice” (dian he zhun mi 佃禾准米) means that the original loan was done in he 禾, which may mean millet, and the farmer repaid it in rice. 中倉吏黄諱、潘慮謹列：三年十一月旦簿。(4.4734/5)

Central Granary officials Huang Hui and Pan Lü respectfully list the registers from the 1st day of the 11th month of the 3rd year. 承三年十月旦簿餘吴平斛米七百卅一斛三斗四升。(4.4910/5)

Carried over, a register of the 1st day of 10th month of the 3rd year. Remaining, 731 hu, 3 dou, 4 sheng of Wu even-hu rice.187

The following is an example of what a register would have looked like, though it is unlikely that these slips were from the same document. 入民還黄龍元年税米十二斛。　中 (4.4181/5)

Entered: 12 hu of Huanglong 1st year shui tax rice repaid by commoners. Checked.

入民還黄龍二年税米七百八十九斛七斗一升。(4.4878/5) Entered 789 hu, 7 dou, 1 sheng of Huanglong 2nd year shui tax rice repaid by commoners. 入黄龍三年税米 ⟨二 ⟩千二百廿九斛三斗一升，其二百廿斛五斗二升 白米。(4.4074/5)

Entered 2229 hu, 3 dou, 1 sheng of Huanglong 3rd year shui tax rice. Of this, 220 hu, 5 dou, 2 sheng is white rice.

186 Deng Weiguang 鄧瑋光, “Dui ‘zhongcang Huanglong sannian shiyue yuedanbu’ de fuyuan changshi” 對‘中倉黄龍三年十月旦簿’的復原嘗試, Jianbo yanjiu fall–winter 2015 (2015), 187–219. 187 Hu were measures of volume. “Wu even-hu” 吴平斛 was an official measuring vessel of the Wu state, distinct from “giving hu” 禀斛, which is also found in these documents. Some scholars have suggested that “Wu even hu” were used for receiving rice and “giving hu” were used for giving out rice.

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Chapter 3 入民還黄龍二年租米卅九斛。(4.4000/5)

Entered 39 hu of Huanglong 2nd year zu tax rice repaid by commoners.

入黄龍三年租米五百七□斛五斗九升 (4.4819/5)

Entered 57 ? hu, 5 dou, 9 sheng of Huanglong 3rd year zu tax rice.

入黄龍元年私學限米卌斛。(4.4775/5)

Entered 40 hu of Huanglong 1st year Privately Educated quota rice.

入黄龍⟨三⟩年吏帥客限米四百卌二斛二斗 (4.4126/5)

Entered 442 hu, 2 dou of Huanglong 3rd year quota rice from guests under the command of officials. 入黄龍二年新吏限米七⟨十⟩一斛。(4.4167/5)

Entered 71 hu of Huanglong 2nd year new official quota rice.

⟨入⟩黄龍三年⟨佃⟩⟨卒⟩⟨限⟩米廿四斛。(4.5128/5) Entered 24 hu of Huanglong 3rd year field corvée labourer quota rice. 入黄龍三年郵卒限米⟨廿⟩八斛八斗五升。(4.4022/5) Entered 28 hu, 8 dou, 5 sheng of Huanglong 3rd year postal corvée labourer quota rice.

⟨入⟩黄龍三年新還民限米卅二斛六斗。(4.4108/5) Entered 32 hu, 6 dou of Huanglong 3rd year newly returned commoner quota rice. 入吏民還價人李綬米六⟨十⟩⟨六⟩斛三斗。(4.4777/5)

Entered 66 hu, 3 dou of rice repaid by officials and commoners to merchant Li Shou.

入民還司馬丁烈黄武七年佃禾准米十一斛。(4.4866/5)

Entered, from Marshall Ding Lie, a commoner repaying 11 hu of Huangwu 7th year field millet converted to rice. 入吏文董備郡士黄武七年⟨佃⟩⟨禾⟩⟨准⟩⟨米⟩十二斛。(4.4778/5) Entered 12 hu of Huangwu 7th year field millet converted to rice from official Wen Dong to repay the quantity (owed by a) commandery soldier.

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171

右⟨米⟩九千八百八十七斛四斗⟨縣⟩□。(4.4176/5)

Above, listed 9887 hu, 4 dou of rice, county …

In addition to the documents listing all the different entries of grain, there were also summary documents breaking down the granary’s holdings by category. 定領米一萬四百八⟨十⟩⟨一⟩斛七斗四升。(4.4795/5)

Confirmed to list 10,481 hu, 7 dou, 4 sheng of rice.

•右襍米一百⟨廿⟩一斛，别領。(4.4879/5) • Above, 121 hu of various rice, listed separately. •右十一月新入吴平斛米一萬⟨八⟩斛四斗。(4.4889/5) • Above, 10,008 hu, 4 dou of Wu even-hu rice newly entered in the 11th

month.

其一千六十五斛三斗八升黄龍二年税米。(4.5072/5) Of this, 1065 hu, 3 dou, 8 sheng is Huanglong 2nd year shui tax rice. 其七千三百七十一斛九斗□升黄龍三年税米。(4.4774/5) Of this, 7371 hu, 9 dou, ? sheng is Huanglong 3rd year shui tax rice. 其一百卌二斛私學黄龍三年限米。(4.5143/5)

Of this, 142 hu is Huanglong 3rd year Privately Educated quota rice.

其五十四斛四斗一升吏帥客黄龍二年限米。(4.5124/5) Of this, 54 hu, 4 dou, 1 sheng of Huanglong 2nd year quota rice from guests under the command of officials. 其五十一斛新吏[黄]龍元年⟨限⟩米。(4.4788/5)

Of this, 51 hu is new official (Huang)long 1st year quota rice.

其廿八斛八斗⟨五⟩升⟨郵⟩卒黄龍三年限米。(4.4791/5)

Of this, 28 hu, 8 dou, 5 sheng is postal corvée labourer Huanglong 3rd year quota rice.

其一百八斛一斗價人李綬米。(4.4021/5)

Of this, 108 hu, 1 dou is merchant Li Shou’s rice.

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Chapter 3 其九斛二斗六升黄龍三年醬賈米。(4.4873/5)

Of this, 9 hu, 2 dou, 6 sheng is Huanglong 3rd year rice purchased with sauce.188

其九十二斛⟨永⟩⟨新⟩故尉陳崇備黄龍二年税僦米。(4.4790/5)

Of this, 92 hu of Huanglong 2nd year shui tax rent rice was provided by Chen Chong, previous Commandant of Yongxin (County). 其六十五斛監池司馬鄧⟨邵⟩黄龍三年限米。(4.4858/5) Of this, 65 hu is Reservoir Superintendent Marshall Deng Shao’s Huanglong 3rd year quota rice. 其一百一斛郡掾利焉黄龍三年限米。(4.4793/5)

Of this, 101 hu is commandery attendant Li Yan’s Huanglong 3rd year quota rice.

右襍米二百⟨五⟩十八斛，别領。(4.4794/5)

Above, various rice, 258 hu, separately listed.

•集凡承餘、新入吴平斛米一萬七百⟨卅⟩九斛七斗四升。(4.5140/5) • Altogether, 10,739 hu, 7 dou, 4 sheng of carried over and newly entered

Wu even-hu rice.

其五百七十七斛九斗六升黄龍二年税米。(4.4888/5)

Of this, 577 hu, 9 dou, 6 sheng is Huanglong 2nd year shui tax rice. •右出吴平斛米一千三百八十七斛三斗六升。(4.5076/5) • Above, taken out 1387 hu, 3 dou, 6 sheng of Wu even-hu rice.189 今餘吴平斛米九千二百五十二斛三斗⟨八⟩升。(4.4871/5)

Now the remaining 9252 hu, 3 dou, 8 sheng Wu even-hu rice. Below are two documents explaining how some of this grain was used. The grains were often used to pay the salaries of various people who worked for the government. 188 This refers to sauce exchanged for rice, not rice purchased with sauce on it. This is presumably a tax on merchants. On sauces and preserves, see H.T. Huang, Science and Civilisation in China 6.5: Fermentations and Food Science, ed. Joseph Needham (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000). 189 Note that the 1387 hu, 3 dou, 6 sheng and 9352 hu, 3 dou, 8 sheng of these two slips adds up to the 10,739 hu, 7 dou, 4 sheng of slip 4.5140.

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出倉吏黄諱、潘慮所領黄龍三年税吴平斛米四斛八斗，爲禀斛米五 斛，被縣黄龍三 (4.4136/5) 年十月廿九日庚寅書，給作柏船匠師朱哀、 朱□（德）二人三年十月、十一月直，其一人月一斛 (4.4137/5) 五斗， 一人月一斛，三年十一月一日付哀、德。 (4.4890/5)

Took out 4 hu, 8 dou of Huanglong 3rd year shui tax Wu even-hu rice as 5 hu of granary rice under the management of granary officials Huang Hui and Pan Lü, according to the county’s gengyin (day) document issued on the 29th day of the 10th month of the Huanglong 3rd year, to pay master cypress boat makers Zhu Ai and Zhu ?(De), compensation for two people, in the 10th and 11th months of the 3rd year. Of these monthly salaries, one is 1 hu, 5 dou, the other is 1 hu. On the 1st day of the 11th month of the 3rd year this was paid to [Zhu] Ai and [Zhu] De. 出倉吏黄諱、潘慮所領民還黄龍二年税吴平斛米卅四斛五斗六 升，爲稟斛米卅 (4.4850/5) 六斛，被督軍糧都尉移右節度府黄龍三年 二月十五日己巳書，給中户曹尚 (4.4909/5) 書郎黄□奉，起三年三月 訖八月，月六斛，三年十一月一日付吏張蘜。(4.4903/5)

We have spent 34 hu, 5 dou, 6 sheng of commoner-repaid Huanglong 2nd year shui Wu even-hu rice under the jurisdiction of granary officials Huang Hui and Pan Lü, to obtain 36 hu of granary rice, which—according to the jisi document issued by the Delegated Commissioner of the Right on the 15th day of the 2nd month of the 3rd Huanglong year and transmitted by the Commandant Supervising Military Grain—was used to pay for the salary of Secretary of the Masters of Writing Huang ? in the central Household Bureau from the 3rd month to the 8th month of the 3rd year; 6 hu per month. On the 1st day of the 11th month of the 3rd year this was paid to official Zhang Ju.

Summary Registers of Various Shipped Grains zhuanyun zami yaobu 轉運襍米要簿190 These registers record the sums of the shipments of grain that the county’s central granary received from the Sanzhou 三州 (Three Province) granary.191

6.1.3

190 Wang Su 王素, “Changsha Wu jian zhong de ‘yaobu’” 長沙吴簡中的 ‘要簿’, Wu jian yanjiu 3 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2011), 176–183. 191 Scholars disagree on the meaning of the “Three Province” and “Province Central” (zhou zhong 州中) granaries: Shen, Changsha Zoumalou sanguo Wu jian yuci huishi, 5. For more on these documents, see Deng Weiguang 鄧瑋光, “Dui ‘zhongcang shou sanzhou cangyun Huangwu wu liu qi nian zami yaobu’ de fuyuan changshi” 對‘中倉受三州倉運黄 武五六七年襍米要簿’的復原嘗試, in Jinian Zoumalou Wu jian faxian ershi zhounian Changsha jianbo yanjiu guoji xueshu yantaohui lunwenji 紀念走馬樓吴簡發現二十周 年長沙簡帛研究國際學術研討會論文集 (Changsha, Zhongxi, 2016), 80–85.

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Chapter 3 （中倉）192謹列：起嘉禾元年正月一日訖三年三月卅日受三州倉運黄 武五六七年襍米要簿。(1.9617/14)

(Central granary) respectfully lists, from the 1st day of the 1st month of the 1st Jiahe year to the 30th day of the 3rd month of the 3rd year, a summary register of the various rice from Huangwu 5th, 6th and 7th years received from the Sanzhou granaries transported. 入三州倉運黄武五年税米五十四斛二斗。　中 (1.9628/14)

Entered Sanzhou granary transport, 54 hu, 2 dou of Huangwu 5th year shui tax rice. Agreed. 入三州倉運黄武五年佃卒限米廿斛。　中 (1.9523/14) Entered Sanzhou granary transport, 20 hu of Huangwu 5th year field corvée labourer quota rice. Agreed. 入三州倉運郎中王毅黄武六年佃⟨禾⟩准米十八斛四斗，其十五斛黄武 七年□□三斛四斗□□□□ (1.9530/14)193

Entered Sanzhou granary transport, 18 hu, 4 dou of Huangwu 6th year field millet converted to rice from military councillor Wang Yi. Of this, 15 hu Huangwu 7th year … 3 hu, 4 dou …

入三州倉運黄武七年税米十四斛五斗。(1.9542/14) Entered Sanzhou granary transport, 14 hu, 5 dou of Huangwu 7th year shui tax rice. 入三州倉運黄武七年吏帥客限米二斛，元年二月運。　中 (1.9522/14)

Entered Sanzhou granary transport, 2 hu of Huangwu 7th year quota rice from guests under the command of officials. Transported in the 2nd month of 1st year. Agreed.

入三州倉運司馬□□黄武七年佃禾准米六斛，元年二月運。(1.9541/14)

Entered Sanzhou granary transport Marshall ??, 6 hu of Huangwu 7th year field millet converted to rice. Transported in the 2nd month of the 1st year.

入三州倉運船師張盖、栂朋□□折咸米一百七十五斛八斗□升，與所 先受米五十八斛 …… (1.9514/14) 192 Inferred from the content of the slip. 193 We have changed zu 卒 to he ⟨禾⟩.

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

175

Entered Sanzhou granary transport Boatmen Zhang Gai, Mei(?) Peng … 175 hu, 8 dou, ? sheng rice paid to compensate for wasteage. Together with previously received rice, 58 hu … Agreed. 入三州倉運新吏周章米七十五斛四斗四升。　中 (1.9534/14)

Entered Sanzhou granary transport, new official Zhou Zhang’s rice, 75 hu, 4 dou, 4 sheng. Agreed. 入三州倉運監運掾姃度漬米一百一十二斛六斗八升，元年二月先運十 二斛一斗。　中194 (1.9627/14)

Entered Sanzhou granary transport, 112 hu, 6 dou, 8 sheng of waterdamaged rice by Transport Supervision Attendant Zheng Du’s. In the 2nd month of the 1st year, 12 hu, 1 dou had already been transported. Agreed. 右五六七年襍米四百七十九斛一升。(1.9533/14)

Above, 479 hu, 1 sheng of various rice from the 5th, 6th and 7th years.

6.2 Registers of Grain Distributed and Lent These are records of the state distributing grain as an emergency relief of the poor, presumably due to a famine.195 The granary lent one hu of grain to each family, and the recorded number of people who received the grain seems to indicate that it was not the head of the household (the person whose name is recorded) who received the grain. The meaning of the term used for grain (he 禾) here is unclear. Some have argued that it referred in an earlier period to grain still on the stalk, others that it referred to high quality unhusked grain that was suitable for use as seed.196 Both may be correct. 6.2.1

Registers of Grain Distributed from the Granary qu he bu 取禾簿 鄉佃田掾烝若謹列：⟨所⟩出禾人名如牒。　■ (4.3692)

District Cultivated Field Attendant Zheng Ruo respectfully lists the personal names of grain issuers as in the accompanying document.

194 We have added “監運掾姃度” based on the published image. 195 Xiong Qu 熊曲 and Song Shaohua 宋少華, “Zoumalou Wu jian zhong de zhongliang jidai bu yanjiu” 走馬樓吴簡中的種糧給貸簿研究, Jianbo 12 (2015), 253–268; translated by Brian Lander as: Xiong Qu and Song Shaohua, “A Study of Sun Wu Seed Grain Loan Registers from Zoumalou,” Bamboo and Silk 1.1 (2018), 191–222. 196 Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 35; Xiong and Song, “Zoumalou Wu jian zhong de zhongliang jihuo bu,” 254.

176

Chapter 3 大男謝熹，一夫取禾一斛。(4.3488/4)

Adult male Xie Xi. 1 man received 1 hu of grain.

大男盧戰，一夫取禾一斛。(4.3562/4)

Adult male Lu Zhan. 1 man received 1 hu of grain.

大男烝衆，一夫取禾一斛。(4.3596/4)

Adult male Zheng Zhong. 1 man received 1 hu of grain. ⟨大⟩⟨男⟩□□，二夫⟨取⟩禾一斛。⟨居⟩⟨在⟩□⟨丘⟩。(1.942/2)197 Adult male ??. 2 men received 1 hu of grain. Lives in ? hill.

大女⟨陳⟩□，⟨取⟩⟨禾⟩一斛。⟨居⟩⟨在⟩□⟨丘⟩。(1.958/2)

Adult female Chen ? received 1 hu of grain. Lives in ? hill.

大男□□，一夫⟨取⟩⟨禾⟩一斛。⟨居⟩⟨在⟩□⟨丘⟩。(1.963/2)

Adult male ??. 1 man received 1 hu of grain. Lives in ? hill.

•右平鄉□□□□丘三人，取禾三斛。⟨居⟩⟨在⟩□⟨丘⟩。(1.941/2) • Above, Ping District … hill, 3 people received 3 hu of grain. They live in ? hill. •右平鄉□□□□丘五人，⟨取⟩⟨禾⟩⟨三⟩⟨斛⟩■ (1.995/3) • Above, Ping District … hill, 5 people received 3 hu of grain …

6.2.2

Registers of Grain Lent by the Granary dai shi bu 貸食簿 ■□廣成、平、模、桑鄉所出禾給貸民萆枚數□□　■ (3.57/23)198 … the grain issued as a loan to commoners of Guangchang, Ping, Mo and Mulberry Districts in a number of slips … 大男潘旻，一夫貸禾七斗。　居在■ (2.9091/23)

Adult male Pan Min, 1 man borrowed 7 dou. Lives in …

大男李息，一夫貸（？）一斛。⁃　■ (2.9065/23)

Adult male Li Xi, 1 man borrowed 1 hu. ⁃

197 We have made considerable modifications to the original transcription on this and the following four slips (958, 963, 941, 995). 198 Bei (or bi) 萆 is another way of writing bie 莂, which we have translated “certificates.” In this case it refers to a document written in triplicate on a tablet that was then split in three. This term was also used for documents that were not split.

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177

⟨大⟩⟨男⟩⟨謝⟩逢（？），一夫貸禾一斛。□　■ (2.9074/23) Adult male Xie Feng, 1 man borrowed 1 hu … 大男烝汝貸一斛。　■ (3.14/23) Adult male Zheng Ru borrowed 1 hu … 大男鄭觀，一夫貸一斛。　■ (3.21/23)

Adult male Zheng Guan, 1 man borrowed 1 hu …

大男黄柱貸禾一斛。　■ (3.38/23)

Adult male Huang Zhu borrowed 1 hu …

大男黄緷，一夫貸一斛。　■ (3.65/23)

Adult male Huang Gun, 1 man borrowed 1 hu …

大男烝虞貸禾一斛。　■ (3.70/23)

Adult male Zheng Yu borrowed 1 hu of grain …

■右夫里領貧民十八人，貸食官禾合十八斛□□■ (2.9036/23) ■ Above, Fu canton lists 18 poor commoners borrowed official grain as

food together 18 hu …

7

Other Account Registers

In addition to those listed above, there are a few other types of registers. The registers of irrigated fields concern embankments that were built to create irrigation reservoirs, but which had fallen into disrepair. The Field Area Type registers record the products of less common field types. The registers of state-owned cattle mainly concern the age and appearance of cattle. The registers of skin and hooves concern the use to which remaining parts of cattle used for official sacrifices were put. Registers of Inspection of Irrigated Fields yinhe beitian bu 隱核波田簿 Organizing repairs to local water infrastructure was a regular part of administration in the early empires, but we rarely have any documentation of it.199 The Changsha region is hilly and the small valleys between hills make ideal places

7.1

199 Lander, “State Management of River Dikes”; “Small-Scale Water Control Works in Early Imperial China,” Water History 14 (2022), 233–246.

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to build embankments that capture water for irrigation.200 The Zoumalou cache contains documents on the repair of these systems, our earliest evidence for their existence in Changsha, though they had surely been in use for centuries, if not millennia, by then. They were clearly quite common by the second century, but many of them seem to have been abandoned, probably during the wars of the early third century. Since people were required to provide the government with corvée labour in addition to taxes, the government wanted to use their labour to repair the dams, which would increase agricultural production and thus tax revenue. These surveys were focused on measuring the length, width, and height of the dams and now much of them needed repairing. Height was written “depth” shen 深, so it is worth specifying that this number referred to the size of the dams, not to the depth of the reservoirs. Surveyors also recorded the area of fields that these reservoirs could potentially irrigate, the number of years land was abandoned, and estimated the number of hours it would take to repair them. A few second century BCE documents concern a similar project which surveyed dikes (di 隄/堤) to plan repairs, and Wu may well have carried out similar surveys in regions with important dikes systems just to the north, but in Changsha irrigation reservoirs were the key water control infrastructure. The terms used in these texts are bei 波(陂) and tang 唐/塘/溏, which seem to have been used both interchangeably and combined to refer both for the dam itself and for the reservoir created by this dam. The Changsha Commandery government initiated this project by sending an order to the Linxiang Marquisate to survey irrigation reservoirs and irrigated fields. The Marquisate then deployed the Farming Promotion Attendant to oversee the surveying of the reservoirs of each district that had such reservoirs. Based on the results of this survey, the Farming Promotion Attendant was to compile a register of the survey in each district and submit it to the Linxiang County Court before the 20th of the month. Once these were complete, officials of the county court put them together and drafted a document to send up to the commandery. They then compiled “separate registers of each district” (諸鄉分簿) and submitted them for the Marquisate Chancellor and Deputy Chancellor to examine. Officials then created the official version of the register to be submitted to the commandery and then made two copies of it (Linxiang “combined registers” hebu 合簿). One of these was filed in the county records 200 Technically, a dam is an embankment designed for water to flow over it, while a dike is an embankment that water is not supposed to flow over, such as a dike running parallel to a river. Chinese terminology does not match this distinction, and we will simply call them dams.

Report to superiors 1 縣廷呈文Ⅰ

Farming Promotion Attendant report to superiors 勸農掾呈文

鄉計簡

District summary

主體簡

Main body

Title 標題簡

Metropolitan District separate register 都鄉分簿

Diagram 3 The registers of inspection of irrigated fields

County summary 縣計簡

Main body 主體簡

Title 標題簡

縣合簿

County combined registers

Linxiang combined registers 臨湘合簿

Farming Promotion Attendant report to superiors 勸農掾呈文

District summary 鄉計簡

Main body 主體簡

Title 標題簡

Southern District separate register 南鄉分簿 Separate registers of the nine districts 九鄉分簿

Separate registers of each district 諸鄉分簿

Registers of Inspection of Irrigated Fields 隱核波田簿

Report to superiors 2 縣廷呈文Ⅱ

Endorsement 批注

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

179

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and the other was sent to the relevant departments of Changsha Commandery. We have created a diagram to show the relations between these different documents. What we see in the Zoumalou documents are the “register of each district” and the “Linxiang combined registers.”201 These documents are poorly preserved, but we have endeavoured to reconstruct them. 7.1.1

Linxiang Combined Registers Linxiang he bu 臨湘合簿 These registers are not well preserved. The main body of these documents were lists of individual dams and reservoirs, but we will only translate three of those entries because most of them are fragmentary. – Title slip: ■□田頃數爲簿如牒 (3.7199·3/37) … fields number of qing and make a register, as in the accompanying document.

– Main body slips: ■丈二尺，長卅五丈，敗廿一丈，沃田十五頃，枯蕪二年，可 (3.7198·圖 8-2/37)202

… zhang 2 chi, 35 zhang long, 21 zhang are deteriorated, 15 qing of irrigated fields, dry and wasted two years, and would …

⟨大⟩田波一所，深二丈，長⟨廿⟩五丈，敗⟨廿⟩丈，沃田十四頃，枯蕪 ■ (3.7220·圖 8-24/37) Big Field dam, one. 2 zhang deep, 35 zhang long, 2 zhang are deteriorated, 14 qing of irrigated fields, dry and wasted …

逢唐波一所，長三百丈，沃田四頃，溏兒民（長）沙郡劉張、 = 馮漢 等歲自墾食 (3.7221·圖 8-25 = 3.7222·圖 8-26/37) 201 Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Zoumalou Wu jian ‘yinhe beitian bu’ fuyuan zhengli yu yanjiu” 走馬樓吴簡‘隱核波田簿’復原整理與研究, Zhonghua wenshi luncong 1 (2012), 107–145; Ling, Zoumalou Wu jian caiji bushu, 424–454; “Zoumalou Wu jian ‘Yinhe beitian bu’ de xifen yu zhulian” 走馬樓吴簡 “隱核波田簿” 的析分與綴連, Dongseo inmun 동서인문 (東西人文 ) 16 (2021), 249–284. 202 We know from parallels with other documents that this one (3.7198) is from the Metropolitan District, the following one (3.7220) is from the East District, and the one after that (3.7221) is from the Guangcheng District.

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

181

Feng Tang dam, one. 300 zhang long, 4 qing of irrigated fields. The pond commoners from (Chang)sha, Liu Zhang, Feng Han, etc., this year personally cleared the land to grow food. – Addition slips for each district: ■其波十六所，田合六百卅二頃七十■ (3.6554/37) 其波九所，田合五 …… 頃，唐兒民自⟨墾⟩■ (3.6724/37)

… it has 16 dams, a total of 632 qing 70 (mu) of fields, … … it has 9 dams, a total of 5? qing of fields, pond commoners themselves cleared …

– Report sent to superiors: ■⟨相⟩君、丞叩頭死罪敢言之 (3.7068/37) □□枯蕪 ⟨ 幾 ⟩ 年，洨田多少， ⟨ 何 ⟩ 人□□□，及新故錢米已入□ (3.7218·圖 8-22/37) ■⟨頭⟩死罪敢言之。(3.7074/37) ⟨二⟩月十二日 …… ■203 (3.7201·圖 8-5/37)

… lord Chancellor and Deputy Chancellor, prostrating and risking execution, dares to state. … how many years dry and wasted, how many irrigated fields, who  … and the coins and rice paid by new and old households has already been entered … … prostrating, risking execution, dare to report it. 2nd month, 12th day …

7.1.2

Register of Each District zhu xiang fen bu 諸鄉分簿 – Title slip: ⟨都⟩⟨鄉⟩⟨謹⟩⟨列⟩：⟨枯⟩⟨蕪⟩波長⟨廣⟩頃畝簿。 204 (3.7204·圖 8-8/37) Metropolitan District respectfully reports a register of the length, width and potential area of fields irrigated by the dams of dry and wasted fields.

203 The “5” wu 五 may in fact be “2” er 二. 204 This is our tentative transcription of a poorly preserved slip, as are 3.7203 and 3.7212, below.

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– Main body slips: ■ ⟨一 ⟩所 ， 深 一 丈 二 尺 ， 長 ⟨卅 ⟩⟨五 ⟩丈 ， 敗 廿 一 丈，⟨沃⟩⟨田⟩□⟨五⟩頃，枯蕪二年，可用一萬 = ■六千夫，民大男 毛⟨布⟩、陳丈、陳建等自墾食。(3.7203·圖 8-7 = 3.7206·圖 8-10/37)205

… 1, 1 zhang, 2 chi deep, 35 zhang long, 21 zhang have deteriorated. Could irrigate ?5 qing of fields. They have been dry and wasted for 2 years and would require 16,000 man-days (to repair it). Adult male commoners Mao Bu, Chen Zhang, Chen Jian, etc., cleared the land to grow food. This includes a title slip, a few main body slips, and the summary slip. ⟨南⟩（？）⟨鄉⟩⟨謹⟩⟨列⟩：⟨波⟩⟨唐⟩⟨頃⟩⟨畝⟩⟨簿⟩。 □□□⟨一⟩⟨所⟩，長一百丈，沃田卌九頃，溏兒民吴金、王署等歲自 ⟨墾⟩⟨食⟩。(3.7216·圖 8-20/37)

京□塘一所，長一百五十丈，沃田廿頃，溏兒民陳散、李□等歲自 ⟨墾⟩⟨食⟩。 長存⟨一⟩百一十八丈，沃田六⟨十⟩九頃。(3.7205·圖 8-9/37)

South (?) District respectfully lists a register of the dam reservoirs and the area (potentially irrigated by them). … 1. 100 zhang long, 49 qing of irrigated fields, pond commoners including Wu Jin, Wang Shu personally cleared the land to grow food this year. Jing ? dam, 1. 150 zhang long, 20 qing of irrigated fields, pond commoners including Cheng San, Li ?, personally cleared the land to grow food this year. … long, extant, 118 zhang, 69 qing of irrigated fields. – Document submitted to higher officials, type 2: (Empty slip) (3.7233·圖 8-37/37)

□叩頭叩頭死罪死罪，案文書，被勅，輒⟨部⟩鄉吏區 (3.7195/37)206 光 、 ⟨ 黄 ⟩ 肅 等 隱 核 縣 □ 波 唐 田 頃 畝 ， 令 光 等 各 列 簿 。 (3.7241 · 圖 8-45/37)207 □大小□□沃田頃畝，用人工多少，及得蕪溲小波 (3.7194/37)

205 We have added the first er 二 and the two wu ⟨五⟩ graphs, which were not in the published transcription. Only the bottom half of the second wu graph is visible. 206 We have changed 詣 to ⟨部⟩. 207 We have added 縣.

183

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

□ □ □ 少 ， 羅 列 頃 畝 ， 會 月 廿 日 賫 簿 詣 廷 。 ⟨ 模 ⟩ （ ？） □

(3.7193/37)208

幾畝不可佃，及  …… 久，⟨溏⟩波田當□悉令耕。列□ 圖 8-48/37) ⟨督⟩留如府記科令。(3.7243·圖 8-47/37)209 ■□簿。復言。君誠惶誠 (3.6825/37) ⟨恐⟩叩頭死罪敢言之。(3.7234·圖 8-38/37)210

(3.7244·

? prostrating, prostrating, risking execution, risking execution, according to the document, I received the order, and immediately deployed district officials Ou Guang, Huang Su, etc., to inspect the dam reservoirs and the number of qing and mu of fields in the county. I ordered Guang and others to each list each of them in a register. … size  … qing and mu of fields irrigated, how many man-days needed to use (to repair it), and if the ruined reservoirs still have some water in them … … how many (?), list the field area, before the 20th of this month, bring the registers and proceed to the court. Mo ? … How many mu cannot be farmed and … how long, dams, and irrigated fields … order all the fields to be cultivated. List … Inspect the delays according to what the commandery memorandum ordered as laws and ordinances. … registers. Resubmitted. My lord I am truly frightened, truly. Fear, prostrating, risking execution, dare to state it.

– Endorsement: ■□□□波溏長、廣、深、敗，□頃畝可 (3.7245·圖 8-49/37) ■□□⟨當⟩⟨言⟩右⟨田⟩⟨曹⟩ (3.6993/37) 　　(空白簡 3.7242·圖 8-46/37)

… dams, length, width, height, (how badly they are) ruined … area, could … should report above to the Bureau of Fields (empty slip)

208 We have changed 膺 to ⟨賫⟩. Yi 詣 means to visit someone of higher status. 209 We have changed 諮⟨所⟩ to 記科. We have added du 督, ji 記 and suo 所 to the transcription. Du may not be correct. Note that fu 府 is short for jun fu 郡府. 210 We have added “⟨恐⟩.”

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Field Area Type Registers tianmu lei bushu 田畝類簿書 These are documents produced to record the area of land cultivated and quantity of grain harvested from various uncommon categories of registered land. 7.2

7.2.1

Jiahe 5th Year All District Field Area Received Rice Work Registers Jiahe wu nian zhu xiang tian qing mu shoumi xiang zuobu 嘉禾五年 諸鄉田頃畝收米鄉作簿

These documents record land area cultivated and grain harvested in each district on the basis of the registration category of the land.211 They record the landholdings of four distinctive categories of land and taxpayers, not only the “commoners and (lower) officials” (limin 吏民), who comprised most of the population and whose taxes were recorded in the 5th year tianjia certificates. These documents are composed of the registers of the four following categories of fields: shui tax fields, fields of non-active soldiers ( fumin 復民), extra labour fields (yuli 餘力), and zu tax fields of provincial officials (zhou li 州吏). Each of those four categories in turn is composed of 1) a title slip, 2) the main document, 3) summaries of the numbers from the main document, and 4) a report to superiors. Linxiang Marquisate may have allocated land to these four categories of people to cultivate based on some criteria that is not entirely clear. They probably granted fields to non-active soldiers and provincial officials based on the number of such people within each district, while they used the regular household registers as the basis for granting shui and extra labour fields. These documents were written by assistant Zhang Qiu, and were titled “District work registers” (xiang zuo bu 鄉作簿).212 These may have been what are referred to in some documents as “principal materials” (benshi 本事), referring to reliable records that could be kept in government offices for consultation. These documents differ from the equivalent records from the second Jiahe year in Ancheng County, discussed below, in that they do not separately list the fields of commandery and county officials. This is because the Wu government had decided to abolish the preferential tax rates paid by these two groups, who now paid normal shui tax on their fields and were therefore included in the normal shui tax registers.

211 Xiong Qu 熊曲, “Zoumalou Wu jian Jiahe wu nian zhu xiang tian qing mu shoumi xiang zhu bu yanjiu” 走馬樓吴簡嘉禾五年諸鄉田頃畝收米鄉住簿研究, Jianbo yanjiu 2020 (spring and summer 2020), 284–297. 212 We have changed 住 to 作.

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

185

– Title slip: 從史位⟨張⟩⟨捄⟩⟨謹⟩⟨列⟩：五年諸鄉 …… 簿。(5.1980/6)

Assistant Zhang Qiu respectfully lists each district’s fifth year … register.

– Shui fields: 從史位張捄謹列：五年税田頃畝收米鄉作薄。(6.69·圖 2-11/12)213

Assistant Zhang Qiu respectfully lists the area of the fifth-year rice received from the shui fields in a district work register. 小武陵、西鄉領税田七十八頃七十三畝二百卅一步，收米九千四百卌 八斛七斗五升五合。(6.64·圖 2–6/12)

Xiaowuling and West Districts have 78 qing, 73 mu, 231 bu of shui fields under their jurisdictions, from which we should receive 9448 hu, 7 dou, 5 sheng, 5 ge of rice. 南鄉領税田十頃五十畝八十三步，收米一千二百六十斛四斗一升 五合。(6.70·圖 2-12/12)

South District has 10 qing, 50 mu, 83 bu of shui fields under its jurisdiction, from which we should receive 1260 hu, 4 dou, 1 sheng, 5 ge of rice.

平鄉領税田卅一頃卅三畝，收米三千七百五十九斛六斗。 (6.71 · 圖 2-3/12)

Ping District has 31 qing, 33 mu of shui fields under its jurisdiction, from which we should receive 3759 hu, 6 dou of rice.

模鄉領税田卅九頃七十五畝八十六步，收米四千七百七十斛四斗 三升。(6.72·圖 2-14/12)

Mo District has 39 qing, 75 mu, 86 bu of shui fields under its jurisdiction, from which we should receive 4770 hu, 4 dou, 3 sheng of rice.

右五年領税田四百九⟨頃⟩ …… 圖 2-19/12)214

收米 ……

九十斛⟨五⟩斗。(6.77·

Above, fifth year shui fields, 9 qing … should receive rice … 90 hu, 5 dou.

213 We have changed 住 (actually written 亻 + 亠 over 王) to zuo 作 here and below. 214 We have added “收” and the second “五” based on the published image and advice from Deng Weiguang 鄧瑋光.

186

Chapter 3 □月□日從史位張⟨捄⟩白。(6.76·圖 2-18/12)215

Reported by Assistant Zhang Qiu on the ? day of the ? month.

– Non-active soldiers’ fields: 從史位張捄謹列：五年復民田頃畝收租米鄉作簿。(6.75·圖 2-17/12)

Assistant Zhang Qiu respectfully lists the area of the fifth-year zu rice received from the non-active soldiers’ fields in a district work register.

南鄉領復民田六十四畝一百廿⟨步⟩，⟨收⟩⟨租⟩■ (1.1605/5)216

South District has 64 mu, 120 bu of non-active soldiers’ fields under its jurisdiction, from which we should receive … zu … 模 鄉 領 復 民 田 廿 五 畝 五 十 步 ， 收 租 米 十 四 斛 □ 斗 五 升 。 (6.61 · 圖 2–3/12)

Mo District has 25 qing, 50 mu, of non-active soldiers fields under its jurisdiction, from which we should receive 14 hu, ? dou, 5 sheng of zu rice.

•右五年領復民田一頃一十七畝五十步，畝收租米五斗八升五 合，爲米六十八斛五斗七升。(6.66·圖 2–8/12) • Above, 1 qing, 17 mu, 50 bu of fifth-year non-active soldiers’ fields. From

each mu we collected 5 dou, 8 sheng, 5 ge of zu rice, which makes 68 hu, 5 dou, 7 sheng of rice. □月廿□日從史位張⟨捄⟩白。(6.35·圖 1-35/12)

Reported by Assistant Zhang Qiu on the … 2?th day of the ? month.

– Extra labour fields: ⟨從⟩史位⟨張⟩捄謹⟨列⟩：五年餘力田鄉作簿。(6.528·圖 10-65/12) Assistant Zhang Qiu respectfully lists the area of the fifth-year zu rice received from the extra labourer fields in a district work register. 中鄉領餘力田六頃五十四畝一百卌步，收租米二百六十一斛 ⟨八 ⟩斗 三升。(5.5391·圖 27–4/9)217 215 We have added “日,” which was not in the original transcription, and have changed “核” to “捄” based on the published image and on the parallel name on other slips. 216 The original transcription had two “畝” graphs. We have erased one of them. The original publication noted that the graph below “收” might be “稅” or “租.” We think it is the latter. 217 We have added “一” and “三,” which were not in the original transcript. We have also added ⟨八⟩, based on the published image and on the math.

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Central District has 6 qing, 54 mu, 140 bu of extra labour fields under its jurisdiction, from which we should receive 261 hu, 8 dou, 3 sheng of zu rice. ⟨ 都 ⟩ 鄉 領 餘 力 田 八 頃 ⟨ 八 ⟩⟨ 十 ⟩⟨ 一 ⟩ 畝 五 十 步 ， 收 租 米 三 百 五 十⟨二⟩斛五斗。(6.88·圖 3–6/12)218 Metropolitan District has 8 qing, 81 mu, 50 bu of extra labour fields under its jurisdiction, from which we should receive 352 hu, 5 dou of zu rice. 小武陵鄉領餘力田五頃五十九畝，收租米二百卅三斛六斗。(6.46·圖

1-46/12) Xiaowuling District has 5 qing, 59 mu of extra labour fields under its jurisdiction, from which we should receive 233 hu, 6 dou of zu rice.

右領餘力田廿九頃七十五畝一百廿步，收租米畝四斗，爲米一千一百 九十斛二斗。(6.48·圖 1-48/12)

Above, list 29 qing, 75 mu, 120 bu of extra labour fields. From each mu we should collect 4 dou of zu rice, which makes 1190 hu, 1 dou of rice. 二月十二日從史位張⟨捄⟩白。(6.49·圖 1-49/12)

Reported by Assistant Zhang Qiu on the 12th day of the 2nd month.

– Fields of provincial officials: 從史位張捄謹列：五年 …… 鄉作簿。(6.530·圖 10-67/12)

Assistant Zhang Qiu respectfully lists fifth year … district work register.

平鄉領州吏田一頃卌四畝，⟨收⟩⟨米⟩八十四斛二斗四升。(3.6254/36)

Ping District has 1 qing, 44 mu of provincial officials’ fields under its jurisdiction, from which we should receive 84 hu, 2 dou, 4 sheng of rice.

西鄉領州吏田八十畝，收米卌六斛八斗。(6.59·圖 2–1/12)

West District has 80 mu of provincial officials’ fields under its jurisdiction, from which we should receive 46 hu, 8 dou of rice. 模鄉領州吏租田二頃一十五畝，收米一百廿五斛七斗（七升） 五⟨合⟩。(6.79·圖 2-21/12)219 218 The original transcription lacked “⟨八⟩⟨十⟩⟨一⟩” and “⟨二⟩.” We have added them based on the published image and on the math. 219 We have added “五⟨合⟩” based on the published image and the math.

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Mo District has 2 qing, 15 mu of provincial officials’ zu fields under its jurisdiction, from which we should receive 125 hu, 7 dou, 7 sheng, 5 ge of rice. •右領州吏租田十 …… 米一千五十一斛六斗□升。(6.42·圖 1-42/12)220 • Above, 1? zu fields under the jurisdiction of provincial officials … 1051

hu, 6 dou, ? sheng of ? rice.

二月廿⟨一⟩日從史位⟨張⟩⟨捄⟩白。(6.37·圖 1-37/12)221

The 21st day of the 2nd month, assistant Zhang Qiu reports.

– Report to superiors: 從史位張⟨捄⟩詣 …… ⟨曹⟩。 222 (6.50·圖 1-50/12)

Assistant Zhang Qiu went to … Bureau.

7.2.2

Register of Millet Fields of Officials and Commoners limin zitian bu 吏民粢田簿 Zi 粢 refers to millets, which were among the main grains for much of China’s history because they withstand relatively dry conditions. Millet fields were private, in contrast to agricultural colonies, and were subject to zu taxes. There are two kinds of millet field registers in the Zoumalou documents. One records only the area of land, while the other includes both land area and how much zu grain tax should be collected from it. These millet fields account for a small proportion of the fields recorded in the Zoumalou documents. These documents are complicated, and it is difficult to fully reconstruct them.223 Here we will introduce some of their contents. We will begin with the East District’s Jiahe 4th year summary records of the area of millet fields.

220 We have added “十” based on the published image and the fact that 1051 hu would be paid on under 20 qing. 221 We have changed “李□” to “⟨張⟩⟨捄⟩.” We have added “⟨一⟩,” which was not in the original transcription. 222 The original transcription lacked “⟨曹⟩.” Based on the remaining traces of writing we suspect that this is what is written but are not certain. 223 See Deng Weiguang 鄧瑋光, “Zoumalou Wu jian citian jian de fuyuan yu yanjiu” 走馬樓 吴簡粢田簡的復原與研究, Chutu wenxian (2020.1), 115–134.

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東鄉謹列：嘉禾四年吏民、部曲所種⟨粢⟩⟨頃⟩⟨畝⟩要⟨簿⟩。(6.2343· 圖 28-16/13)

East District respectfully lists the area of land that officials, commoners, and soldiers have planted with millet in the fourth Jiahe year in a summary register.

東鄉領粢田十八畝九十一⟨步⟩。(6.2363·圖 28-36/13)

East District has 18 mu, 91 bu of millet fields under its jurisdiction.

⟨鄉⟩（？）⟨過⟩（？）年領吏民粢田廿四畝廿二步。(7.2294/17) District (?) … previous (?) year, has 24 mu, 22 bu of millet fields of officials and commoners under its jurisdiction. •今年實得十八畝九十一步。(5.7339·圖 44-15/12) • This year we actually have 18 mu, 91 bu. 有損過年五畝一百卅一步。(6.175·圖 6–4/12)

5 mu, 131 bu of fields less than previous year.

– Report of the East District to its superiors: 東鄉勸農掾殷連叩頭死罪白：被曹勅，實 ⟨度 ⟩ …… 結定頃畝言。案 (6.112·圖 4-12/12) 文書，還鄉輒約敕户父自實度吏民、部曲粢田合十八畝九十一步，謹 羅列右別 (6.113·圖 4-13/12) 爲簿，盡力檢校，有遺⟨脫⟩，續簿，復言。連（？）誠惶誠恐叩頭死 (6.142·圖 5–6/12) 罪死罪　　　　　詣　田　曹 (6.160·圖 5-24/12)

East District Farming Promotion Attendant Yin Lian, prostrating, risking execution, reports: upon the order of the bureau to accurately measure … settle and determine the acreage. In accordance with the document, upon returning to the district, I immediately firmly ordered the father of households of officials, commoners, and soldiers to personally accurately measure millet fields a total of 18 mu, 91 bu. I respectfully list this above, and separately make a register. With utmost efforts I am investigating and checking. If there are omissions, I will include them in subsequent registers. Resubmitted. Lian, in fear and trepidation, prostrates; risking death, risking death. Sent to the Bureau of Agriculture

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– Summary registers of millet tax grain entered and unpaid: 臨湘謹列：粢租米已入、未畢⟨要⟩簿。(5.7429·圖 45-44/12) Linxiang respectfully lists summary registers of millet zu tax rice that has already been entered and that which remains unpaid. 小武陵、西二鄉謹列：嘉禾四年粢租米已入、未畢要簿。(7.3131/18)

Xiaowuling and West, two districts, respectfully list summary registers of millet zu tax rice that has already been entered and that which remains unpaid.

小武陵、西鄉領粢租米□一斛五斗六升八合。(6.188·圖 6-17/12) Xiaowuling and West Districts have, under their jurisdiction, ? 1 hu, 5 dou, 6 sheng, 8 ge of zu tax millet. 二鄉領粢租米六十六斛五斗六升八合。(6.150·圖 5-14/12)

Two districts have, under their jurisdiction, 66 hu, 5 dou, 6 sheng, 8 ge of millet zu tax rice. 已入十三斛一□。(6.157·圖 5-21/12) Already entered 13 hu, 1 ?. 未畢五十三斛四斗六升八合，請鞭鄉吏黄欣卌。(6.155·圖 5-19/12)

Not yet entered 53 hu, 4 dou, 6 sheng, 8 ge. I request permission to flog district official Huang Xin with thirty strokes.

西鄉領粢租米卅三斛一斗六升八合，已入畢。(7.3200/18)

West District has under its jurisdiction 33 hu, 1 dou, 6 sheng, 8 ge of tax zu millet. Already fully entered. 西鄉過年領粢田五十七畝一百卌步。(5.7395·圖 45-10/12) West District last year had under its jurisdiction 51 mu, 140 bu of millet fields. 今年實得□□畝⟨一⟩百步。(5.7394·圖 45–9/12)

This year actually obtained … mu, 100 bu.

西鄉領粢田卌一畝二百步，畝收八斗，爲米卅三斛一斗六升八 合。(7.3251/18)

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West District has under its jurisdiction 41 mu and 200 bu of millet fields. From each mu we should collect 8 dou, which makes 33 mu, 1 dou, 6 sheng, 8 ge of millet. 有□□□六畝一百□步。(5.7391·圖 45–6/12)

There are … 6 mu, 1?? bu.

– Report of the Linxiang Marquisate to its superiors: 嘉禾四年五月戊寅朔□□，臨湘侯相君、丞叩頭死罪敢 言之，(5.7338·圖 44-14/12) □中部督郵移壬寅記⟨曰⟩ …… 吏民所種粢田頃 (5.7358·圖 44-34/12) 畝收米斛數爲 …… 隱實條列爲簿。(5.7357·圖 44-33/12) 五月日臨湘侯相君、丞告諸鄉勸農掾郭宋、謝韶、區光、黄欣 224

(7.3143/18)

□陵、殷連等不處□，各以何日被前記實度今年吏所 (7.3137/18) …… □□□□□□□□各掾所⟨部⟩ (7.3141/18) 實 度 今 年 粢 田 ， 謹 列 頃 畝 爲 簿 ， □ □ 悉 訖 ， ⟨ 當 ⟩（ ？）⟨ 會 ⟩  …… 月 …… 日。(7.3134/18)

Jiahe 4th year, 5th month, beginning with a wuyin day  … Linxiang Marquisate Lord Chancellor and Deputy Chancellor prostrating, risking execution, dares to state. … the renyin document was transmitted by the central section’s Postal Supervisor. It stipulates: … area of millet fields planted by officials and commoners and the number of hu of grain received per mu (?) … inspected for accuracy, listed, and made a register. On the [nothing written] day of the 5th month the Linxiang Marquisate Lord Chancellor and Deputy Chancellor asked the Farming Promotion Attendants of all the districts, including Guo Song, Xie Shao, Ou Guang, Huang Xin, … ? Ling, Yin Lian, etc., are not at … each, based on which day they inspected the actual situation that officials … this year, according to the previously document … of the area that each attendant managed. Accurately measure this year’s millet fields. Respectfully listed the area and made a register … fully finished … It should be before month … day …

224 We have changed “谷” to “告” based on the published images and advice from Deng Weiguang.

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7.2.3 Registers of the Area of Fields Held by the Wives of Active Soldiers While their husbands were on duty, army wives were the effective heads of households. These documents seem to have been made to inspect how much land each of them held. They mainly list the number of acres of land they owned and do not record any land rent or grain tax. It seems that these lands were not taxed, which makes sense because the head of the family was away, and the government would want to avoid giving their soldiers any incentive to desert to help their struggling families. The phrases “do not collect from soldiers’ fields” (shitian bu shou 士田不收) (zhujian 2.7383) and “according to the books, do not collect coins or cloth” (yishu bu shou qian bu 依書不收錢、布) (Tianjia certificate 4.492) both suggest this policy, though neither provide clear proof. These documents seem to have been composed of two or more registers connected together. – Title slip: ■□⟨趙⟩沘（？）所佃□畝數簿。(2.6244/20)

Register of the number of mu of Zhao Bi’s cultivated fields …

– Main body of the document: 黄男妻頃田長卅 ……，⟨廣⟩□■ (1.500/1)225

Huang Nan’s wife Qing’s fields are 30 ? long … wide … 士黄男妻頃田長卅。　⁃　■ (2.6475/20)

Soldier Huang Nan’s wife Qing’s fields are 30 long.

士黄男妻酉波田長⟨廿⟩⟨三⟩⟨步⟩　■ (3.2988/27)

Soldier Huang Nan’s wife You’s reservoir fields are 23 bu long …

士區景妻苦□□□■ (1.3651/9)

Soldier Ou Jing’s wife Ku … 士區景妻苦□■ (1.3833/9) Soldier Ou Jing’s wife Ku …

•右區景妻田四町，合廿六⟨畝⟩ (1.3370/9) • Above, Ou Jing’s wife’s land 4 fields.

225 We have changed “項” to “頃.” We have changed “丧” to “男” on this slip and “果” to “男” on the next one (2.6475), both based on parallels with other slips.

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士黄⟨尾⟩妻合唐田長□■ (2.2846/17) Soldier Huang Wei’s wife He, reservoir fields length … ■•右士黄尾妻田五畝，合六□□六□六□■ (2.6168/20) • Above, soldier Huang Wei’s wife’s fields 5 mu, altogether 6 … 6 … 6 …

– Summary: ■⟨陳⟩整226士妻子田四頃■ (1.1458/5) … Cheng Zheng’s soldiers’ wife and children’s land, four qing …

Registers of State-Owned Cattle guan niu bu 官牛簿 Early Chinese empires paid little attention to most of the animals in their societies but were very concerned with horses and cattle.227 The Zoumalou documents were produced in an era of post-war reconstruction in which the state took an active role in rebuilding the economy, including by assigning people to keep cattle, labour that was presumably rewarded with reductions of other tax or duties. These cattle were probably used on state-owned farms to pull ploughs and wagons. They may also have been lent to private farmers to increase their yields. There is no indication that they were milked. These documents are records of the colour, sex, age (literally “teeth”), usage and attendants of these state-owned cattle. Two documents shown at the end add up the Linxiang Marquisate’s cattle and suggest that it owned 30–33 cattle at this time, which explain why each was important enough for administrators to keep records of them. There are only a limited number of these slips, and we provide most of them here.228 The cattle management documents can be divided into two categories, registers of adult cattle, and registers of recently born calves. The first type begin with “yellow,” “cow/steer,” “bovine.” The second type either begin with “year, month, day” or “from” (cong 從), or have a blank space at the top of each slip. “From” indicates who their mother is—who they were born “from”—and was probably arranged after the initial register of cattle. It is common for one person to raise two cattle, which may be due to the use of two cattle yoked together to plough (known as erniu taigang 二牛抬槓). 7.3

226 We have changed “牒□” to “⟨陳⟩整.” 227 Lander, The King’s Harvest, chap. 7. 228 Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Han, Wu jian guan niu bu zhengli yu yanjiu” 漢、吴簡官牛 簿整理與研究, Jianbo yanjiu 2011 (2013), 184–202; “Zoumalou Wu jian guan niu bu bukao” 走馬樓吴簡官牛簿補考, Changsha jiandu bowuguan 長沙簡牘博物館, ed., Changsha jianbo yanjiu guoji xueshu yantaohui lunwenji 長沙簡帛研究國際學術研討 會論文集 (Shanghai: Zhongxi, 2017), 98–106.

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Based on their colour we can assume these are taurine cattle, not water buffalo. It is still unclear whether domesticated water buffalo had arrived in the Yangzi valley from Southeast Asia by this time. Note that zi 牸 means “cow” and gu 牯 means “steer” (a castrated male), but in a few cases those words are missing from the slip, and since there is no non-gendered singular word for cattle in English, we translate singular niu 牛 as “bovine.” These slips include the word ri 日 “day” even if no number of days is indicated. – Title: 臨湘謹列：官領牛頭數、齒、色、養者爲簿。 229 (4.1435/2)

Linxiang respectfully lists the cattle controlled by offices, including their numbers, age, colour and their keepers and makes a register.

– Main body slips: ■ 頭 ， ⟨齒 ⟩五 歲 十 一 月 日 ， 左 角 長 三 寸 ， 變 烝 栗 色 ， 民 文 春 養 。  

(4.1352/2) … 11 months, 5 years old, left horn 3 cun long, colour of steamed chestnuts, commoner Wen Chun keeps it.

■年八月廿九日乳，黄牯牛一頭，齒一歲一月一日，左角長半（尺），   民文春養。(4.1389/2)

Born on the 29th day of the 8th month of ? year, one beige steer, 1 day, 1 month and 1 year old, left horn half (a chi) long, commoner Wen Chun keeps it.

黄牯牛一頭，齒四歲七月日，左角長一尺，民婁道⟨養⟩。(4.1439/2)

One beige steer, 4 years 7 months days old, left horn 1 chi long. Commoner Lou Dao keeps it.

黄牯牛一頭，齒二歲一月日，左角長一尺，民婁道養。(4.1388/2)

One beige steer, two years, one month days old, left horn 1 chi long. Commoner Lou Dao keeps it.

黄⟨牸⟩牛一頭，齒四歲二月□日，左角長六寸，民謝祐養。(4.1390/2)

One beige cow, 4 years 2 months ? days old, left horn 6 cun long. Commoner Xie You keeps it.

229 We have changed “數” to “爲” based on the image. The ling 領 on this slip is unclear.

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嘉禾三 230  年七月卅日□（乳），黄牸犢一頭，齒六月日，左角長 一寸，民王龍養。(4.1392/2)

Jiahe 3rd year, 7th month, 30th day ? (born). One beige female calf, 6 months days old, left horn 1 cun, commoner Wang Long keeps her. 嘉禾二年五月十日□（乳） ，黄牸犢牛一頭，齒二歲八月日，左角長 二寸一分，本蔡可牛，可物故，差民謝□⟨養⟩。(4.1412/2)

(Born) on the 10th day of the 5th month of the 2nd Jiahe year … One beige female calf, 2 years 8 months days old, left horn 2 cun 1 fen, Originally Cai Ke’s cow, Ke died, so we assigned commoner Xie ? to keep her. 黄牸牛一頭，齒三 ⟨歲 ⟩□□ ⟨日 ⟩， ⟨左 ⟩角長□□，盲 ⟨左 ⟩目，民謝 便養。(4.1413/2)

One beige cow, 3 years … days old, left horn … long, blind in the left eye. Commoner Xie Bian keeps her.

嘉禾三年四月二日乳，黄牯犢一頭，齒一歲六月卅日，左角長四 寸，變栗佐色，民吕民養。231 (4.1417/2)

Born on the 2nd day of the 4th month of the 3rd Jiahe year, one beige young steer, 30 days, 6 months and 1 year old, left horn 4 cun, not beige but the light colour of chestnut. Commoner Lü Min keeps him.

黄牯牛一頭，齒三歲九月日，左角長八寸，變烏色，民□■ (4.1427/2)

One beige steer, 3 years 9 months days old, left horn 8 cun long. Its colour turned black. Commoner …

黄牯牛一頭，齒四歲四月廿日，左角長一尺五寸，民胡 □⟨養⟩。(4.1440/2)

One beige steer, 4 years, 4 months, 20 days old, left horn 1 chi, 5 cun long. Commoner Hu ? keeps it.

黄牯牛一頭，齒四歲六月日，左角長八寸，民⟨王⟩■ (4.1442/2)

One beige steer, 4 years 6 months days old, left horn is 8 chi long. Commoner Wang … ■ ⟨齒 ⟩二 歲 六 月 日 ， 左 角 長 九 寸 五 分 ， 變 ⟨栗 ⟩色 ， 民 蔡 劉 養。(4.3580/4) 230 We have changed “二” to “三.” 231 In this slip and 4.1375 we have changed “字” to “乳.”

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… days, 6 months, 2 years old, left horn 9 cun, 5 fen long. Has become chestnut colour. commoner Cai Liu keeps it. ■□色，决鼻，本蔡劉牛，差民張客養。(4.1529/2) … colour. Pierced nose. Originally Cai Liu’s bovine, we have assigned Zhang Ke to keep it. 黄牯牛一頭，齒六歲四月日，左角長一尺，變烏色，任耕，本蔡長 牛，差民張客養。(4.1444/2)

One beige steer, 6 years 4 months days old, left horn 1 chi long. Not beige but black. Capable of ploughing. Originally this was Cai Chang’s steer, but we assigned commoner Zhang Ke to keep it. 黄牯牛一頭，齒四歲□月日，左角長一尺，變烝栗色，任耕，民謝 張養。(4.3594/4)

One beige steer, 4 years ? months days old, left horn 1 chi long. Not beige but the colour of steamed chestnuts. Capable of ploughing. Commoner Xie Zhang keeps him. ■ 角 長 二 寸 五 分 ， 變 烝 栗 色 ， 本 張 ⟨可 ⟩牛 ， 差 民 謝 民 、 謝 張 養。(4.1604/2)

… horn 2 cun, 5 fen long. Not beige but the colour of steamed chestnuts. Originally Zhang Ke’s bovine, we have assigned commoners Xie Min and Xie Zhang keep it.

黄牸牛一頭，齒三歲□□□，左角長九寸，民王吴養。(4.1445/2)

One beige cow, 3 years … left horn 9 chi long. Commoner Wang Wu keeps her

烏栗牸牛一頭，齒十七歲十月日，左角長一尺二寸，民□□□

(4.1446/2) One black-chestnut cow, 17 years, 10 months days old, left horn 1 chi, 2 cun long. Commoner … ■六寸，左尉乘，任耕，民吕尾養。不見。(4.3617/4)232

… 6 cun, pulls the left (county) Commandant’s vehicle, responsible for ploughing, commoner Lü Wei keeps it. Not seen. 232 The “not seen” bu jian 不見 on these slips is written beside the main text, not at the end.

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黄牸牛一頭，齒四歲五月廿日，左角長七寸，變烝栗色，民吕尾 養。不見。(4.1447/2)

One beige cow, 4 years, 5 months, 20 days old, left horn 7 chi long. Not beige but the colour of steamed chestnuts. Commoner Lü Wei keeps her. Not seen [“not seen” is indicated with a vertical line].

黄牸牛一頭，齒九歲一□□，左角長一尺二寸，⟨本⟩趙可牛，可被病 物故，差民唐定養。(4.1450/2)

One beige cow, 9 years 1 … left horn 1 chi, 2 cun long. Originally Zhao Ke’s cow, Ke died of illness, we have assigned Commoner Tang Ding to keep her.

黄牸（牛）一頭，齒五歲九月日，左角長九寸，變烝栗色， 任耕，本趙可牛，可被病物故，差民陳成養。(4.1451/2)

One beige (cow), 5 years 9 months days old, left horn 9 cun long. Not beige but the colour of steamed chestnuts. Capable of ploughing. Originally Zhao Ke’s cow, Ke died of illness, we have assigned Commoner Chen Cheng to keep her. 黄牸牛一頭，齒五歲六月日，左角長七寸，變烝栗 色，⟨民⟩⟨陳⟩⟨成⟩⟨養⟩。(3.7335)

One beige cow, 5 years 6 months days old, left horn 7 cun long. Not beige but the colour of steamed chestnuts. We have assigned Commoner Chen Cheng to keep her. ■ ⟨頭 ⟩，齒四歲五月日，左角長一尺七寸，市卿乘，任耕，民蔡李 ■ (4.3475/4)

… 5 months days, 4 years old, left horn 1 chi long, 7 cun long, pulls the market official’s vehicle, Can plough, commoner Cai Li …

■角長一尺一寸三分，民蔡李養。(4.1491/2)

… 3 fen, 1 cun, horn 1 chi long, commoner Cai Li keeps it.

黄□牛一頭，齒□歲八月日，左角長一尺，變烝栗色，…… ⟨民⟩張造 養。(4.3874/4)

One yellow ? cow, 8 month days, ? years old, left horn 1 chi long. Not beige but the colour of steamed chestnuts … commoner Zhang Zao keeps it.

嘉禾四年六月十日乳，黄牯犢一頭，齒二月廿日，角未生，民張 造養。(5.3075)

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Born on the 10th day of the 6th month of the 4th Jiahe year, one young beige steer, 20 days, 2 months old, horns haven’t begun to grow, Commoner Zhang Zao keeps it. There are three slips that add up totals of cattle: •右五頭將軍張承遺牛，府曹以别取養，不見。(4.1426/2) □⟨核⟩嘉禾三年起六月一日訖九月卅日簿食牛卅頭。233 (4.1431/2) ■及新乳、大、小合卅三頭。(4.1375/2) • Above, 5 heads of cattle left by general Zhang Cheng, Commandery

bureau collected and raised them separately. Not present. … inspected the 30 head of cattle which the register records as having been fed from the 1st day of the 6th month to the 30th day of the 9th month of the 3rd Jiahe year. … and newly born, large, and small cattle, altogether 33 heads.

Registers of the Skin and Hooves of Sacrificial Cattle cisi niupi tijia bu 祠祀牛皮蹄甲簿 These are records written by Linxiang marquisate treasury official Pan You 潘 有 to record the remainders of the cattle used in sacrifices to the “bright star” (mingxing 明星) and Mt. Lu (now Yuelu) in Changsha.234 In particular, they concern skins and hooves entered into the treasury in the fifth year of the Jiahe reign. These sacrifices were probably appeals to those deities to send rain. The “bright star” may be another name for the numinous star (lingxing 靈星), which appeared at spring sowing time and whose worship had been sponsored by the state for centuries.235 Sacrificing animals to stars and other deities had been part of political culture since the second millennium BCE. 7.4

吏潘有謹列：所領祠⟨祀⟩⟨牛⟩□（皮）、⟨蹄⟩⟨𧿵⟩枚數簿。(7.2578)

Official Pan You respectfully lists the number of skin and hooves of sacrificial cattle under his management in a register.

233 We have corrected the first two graphs based on the image, but this reading is tentative. 234 Ling Wenchao 凌文超, “Zoumalou Wu jian cisi niupi tijia mei shu bu zhengli yu yanjiu: Sun Wu defang cisi guankui” 走馬樓吴簡祠祀牛皮蹄甲枚數簿整理與研究：孫吴 地方祠祀管窥, Wei Jin Nanbeichao Sui Tang shi ziliao 33 (2016), 1–15. 235 David W. Pankenier, Astrology and Cosmology in Early China: Conforming Earth to Heaven (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 463; Fan Ye 范曄 and Sima Biao 司馬彪, Hou Han shu 後漢書 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1965), 3204.

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領吏黄諱五年祠録山牛皮一枚。(7.2538)

Registering one hide of the cow used to sacrifice to Mt. Lu by official Huang Hui in the 5th year.

領五年祠明星牛皮一枚。(7.2540)

Registering one hide of the bovine used to sacrifice to the bright star in the 5th year.

出⟨五⟩⟨年⟩祠⟨明⟩⟨星⟩、⟨録⟩⟨山⟩⟨皮⟩二枚，嘉禾五年□月⟨十⟩一日 付⟨帥⟩⟨苗⟩客□□236 (7.2577)

We took out two hides from cattle used in the 5th year sacrifices to the bright star and Mt. Lu, and gave them to headman Miao Ke … on the 11th day of the ? mouth of the 5th Jiahe year.

領市吏孫儀所入吏民私祠⟨祀⟩⟨牛⟩皮五枚，⟨蹄⟩𧿵卌枚。(7.2572) Registering: the 5 cowhides and 40 hooves entered by market official Sun Yi from officials and commoners from their private sacrifices. 合領皮八枚，蹄𧿵卌枚 …… (7.2573)

Altogether registered 8 hides and 40 hooves … 8

Files on the Case of Xu Di Xu Di an juanzong 許迪案卷宗

One legal case was thrown in the well with the registers, presumably because it concerns the affairs of an official connected with the granaries recorded in the granary accounts. It details the case against official Xu Di for embezzling grain. There are numerous documents related to this case, but here we will only translate one of the documents that was produced towards the end of the case to provide readers with a general idea of the trial and of the form of the documents. Scholars in China have reconstructed this case, and it deserves a full study in English.237 236 This slip is poorly preserved, and this transcription is uncertain. 237 Wang Bin 王彬, “Wu jian Xu Di ge mi an xiangguan wenshu suo jian Sun Wu Linxiang houguo de sifa yunzuo” 吴簡許迪割米案相關文書所見孫吴臨湘侯國的司法運作, Wen shi 2 (2014), 73–91; Xu Chang 徐暢, “Xin kan Zoumalou Wu jian yu Xu Di ge mi an sifa chengxu de fuyuan” 新刊走馬樓吴簡與許迪割米案司法程序的復原, Wenwu (2015.12), 71–83.

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Chapter 3 中賊曹掾陳曠叩頭死罪白：被曹敕，考實大男許迪，知斷用所賣官 鹽賈米一百一十二斛六斗八升與不言。 238 案文書，被敕，輒考問。   迪辭：所領鹽賈米一百一十二斛六斗八升，迪自散用飲食盡。 縣前結迪斬罪，懼怖罪重，攴辭，虛言以米雇擿，令弟持萆歸家 改定。迪手下辭：不以米雇擿，自割食米。審實。謹列見辭狀如牒，   請以辭付本曹，據科治罪，謹下啟白。曠誠惶誠恐叩頭死罪死罪 若　　　　　　　　　　四月廿一日白239

Central Bureau of Banditry240 official Chen Kuang, prostrating and risking execution, reports: Upon the order of the bureau (which states) “investigate and judge the facts about adult male Xu Di to ascertain whether he used [for his own purposes] the 112 hu, 6 dou, 8 sheng of rice purchased with official salt.” In accordance with the document, as instructed by the command, I immediately investigated and interrogated Di. (Xu Di) states: Di used all of the 112 hu, 6 dou, 8 sheng of rice purchased with official salt that was under his management for drinking and eating. Previously the county sentenced Di to beheading. He is terrified that the crime is serious. Pu’s modified statement is: (Di) lied about using the rice to employ someone to select rice, and ordered his younger brother to take the document241 home and to alter it. Di has written this statement with his own hand: “I did not use the rice to employ someone to select rice. I embezzled the rice myself to eat.”242 The fact was established after investigation. Respectfully I list the present statements as in the accompanying document. I beg to pass these words to the responsible bureau and (beg) that punishment be carried out according to the law. I respectfully and

238 Yan 言 here serves as a kind of quotation mark, indicating that the sentence before it was a part of the original order Chen Kuang received. 239 An image of this document is shown in the introduction of this book. It first appeared in Wenwu (1995.5, 17), and will be formally published in the forthcoming volume entitled Changsha Zoumalou San Guo Wu jian: zhu mu du 長沙走馬樓三國吴簡：竹木牘. Its collation number is 353 and its excavation number is J22–2673. 240 Zei refers to a variety of crimes committed with full understanding that the action was illegal, including things like counterfeiting official documents. It has no good English equivalent, but we adopt Hulsewé’s “banditry” because it is relatively broad. Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 383–455. 241 As noted above, “萆” is another way to write “莂.” Xi Di’s written confession probably included some version of the “break this certificate to guarantee proof” (po bie bao ju 破 莂保据) procedure. 242 Ge 割 seems to mean to illegally take part of something for one’s own use.

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humbly present this document and report. Kuang, in fear and trepidation, prostrates; risking death, risking death. Agreed     Reported on the 21st day of the 4th month 9

Ancheng County Documents Ancheng xian bushu 安成縣簿書

Most of the Zoumalou documents concern Linxiang Marquisate but there are also a few from Ancheng County. Since Linxiang was also effectively a county, this makes Ancheng an interesting unit for comparison. There are many similarities in how the two counties handled their affairs, but there are some differences in their documents, so we have included them separately from the Linxiang documents. It is unclear why these records were found at Changsha, but we do have evidence of how they got there. One small wooden piece has the words “Box with Changsha Ancheng Records and Registers” (長沙安成録 簿笥; J22-3-2660) written on it. There is a notch cut in this piece to receive a seal, and it was presumably hung on the bamboo box containing those documents and sealed before being sent to Changsha for some reason. The first document we include is a record of the land held by various officials, which was separately recorded because they paid tax at a different rate. The next one is a record of cloth purchased by Ancheng County officials. 9.1

Jiahe 2nd Year Ancheng Registers of Area of Zu Tax Fields of Provincial, Commandery and County Officials Jiahe er nian Ancheng xian zhou, jun, xian li zutian qing mu bu 嘉禾二年安成縣州、郡、縣吏租田頃畝簿

These documents are Ancheng County’s detailed registers of area of the zu tax fields of provincial, commandery and county officials. Each of these groups enjoyed different preferential tax rates depending on their status. County magistrates and their assistants paid about 2 dou, 5 sheng per mu; provincial officials paid 5 dou, 8 sheng, 2 ge; and regular commandery and county officials paid 7 dou, 5 sheng, 6 ge. These rates were much lower than those of “officials and commoners,” which is an aspect of the taxation of the Jiahe 2nd year that changed in subsequent years as the government reduced preferential treatment of officials. As discussed earlier in this chapter, the government allowed certain officials to pay lower taxes on a designated quota of zu fields. Zu is replaced with fu 復 in these documents. The size of such fields was usually 40 mu but higher officials were allowed to pay zu tax on larger areas of land. County magistrates

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had as much as 97 mu. Their assistants had as little as 30 mu. When we combine this with the records of the zu fields of provincial officials from the tianjia certificates, we see that provincial officials enjoyed tax concessions on 40 mu or less, and did not enjoy those tax rates on additional land, which was taxed as either extra labour fields or shui tax fields, the same as commoners and lower officials. This seems to have been the standard practice of Wu during the Jiahe period. According to the zu and shui rates in the Jiahe fourth and fifth year tianjia certificates, the zu tax for provincial officials was still around 5 dou, 8 sheng, 5 he, very close to the rate a few years earlier. Commandery and county officials paid 1 hu, 2 dou, the same as common people. This shows that between the second and fourth Jiahe years, Sun Wu carried out a reform on the tax rates of local officials and cancelled the preferential treatment for commandery and county officials. This reform was part of a broader trend in the century after the fall of the Han for the relative status of officials to fall. The following includes the various parts of a register of fields: a title slip, registers of the landholdings of various officials, summary, and then a report sent to superiors.243 – Title slip: 安成縣州、郡、縣吏租田 …… (5.1704·圖 7-71/6)244

Ancheng County zu fields of provincial, commandery and county officials …

– Landholdings of Higher officials: ⟨長⟩□□田⟨九⟩⟨十⟩⟨七⟩畝。(5.1700·圖 7-67/6)245 (County) magistrate … 97 mu of fields.

243 See Deng Weiguang 鄧瑋光, “Zhou jun xian li tian de fuyuan yu yanjiu: jianlun Sun Wu diceng xingzheng renyuan de shengcun zhuangtai” 州郡縣吏田的復原與研究：兼論 孫吴底層行政人員的生存狀態, Zhongguo zhonggushi yanjiu 9 (2021), 43–64. Xiong Qu 熊曲, “Zoumalou Wu jian Ancheng xian zhou jun xian li tian bu ji xiangguan wenti” 走馬樓吴簡安成縣州郡縣吏田簿及相關問題, Jianbo 24 (2022), 223–229. 244 This is probably a title slip, and we can guess that its full text was “Ancheng County lists the zu fields of provincial, commandery and county officials and makes a register” 安成 縣列州郡縣吏租田頃畝爲簿. 245 The first blank on this slip looks like it may have been guan “管,” meaning “higher officials.”

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丞⟨格⟩□田卅畝。(5.1701·圖 7-68/6) Deputy Chancellor Ge … 30 mu of fields. • 右 長 、 丞 二 人 ， 田 合 一 頃 廿 ⟨ 七 ⟩ 畝 ， ⟨ 收 ⟩⟨ 租 ⟩⟨ 吴 ⟩⟨ 平 ⟩⟨ 斛 ⟩ ⟨米⟩ …… 卅一斛一斗。(5.1690·圖 7-57/6) • Above, Magistrate and Deputy Chancellor, two people, altogether have

1 qing, 27 mu of fields. From which we should receive zu Wu even-hu rice … 31 hu, 1 dou.

– Landholdings of provincial officials: 州吏⟨蔡⟩⟨徒⟩田卌畝。　⁃ (5.1687·圖 7-54/6) Provincial official Cai Tu, 40 mu of fields. ⁃ 州吏唐梨田卌畝。　⁃ (5.1692·圖 7-59/6) Provincial official Tang Li, 40 mu of fields.  ⁃ 州吏劉基田卌畝。　⁃ (5.1696·圖 7-63/6) Provincial official Liu Ji, 40 mu of fields.  ⁃ •右州吏八人，復田合三頃廿畝，收租吴平斛米一百⟨八⟩⟨十⟩⟨七⟩斛 二斗，又一人收米廿⟨三⟩斛四斗。 ⁃ (5.1694·圖 7-61/6) • Above, provincial officials, 8 people. Altogether 3 qing, 20 of fu fields,

from which we should receive 187 hu, 2 dou of zu Wu even-hu rice, and each person from whom we should receive 23 hu, 4 dou.  ⁃ – Landholdings of commandery officials: ⟨郡⟩吏吴宗田⟨卌⟩畝。　⁃ (5.1697·圖 7-64/6) Commandery official Wu Zong, 40 mu of fields.  ⁃ 郡吏潭通田卌畝。(5.1709·圖 7-76/6)

Commandery official Tan Tong, 40 mu of fields. 郡吏沅⟨欽⟩（？）□卅三⟨畝⟩⟨一⟩⟨百⟩⟨廿⟩⟨三⟩⟨步⟩，畝收租米七斗 五升六合，々（合）廿五斛三斗三升七合。(5.1722·圖 7-89/6)

Commandery official Yuan Qin …33 mu, 123 bu. From each mu we should receive 7 dou, 5 sheng, 6 ge of zu rice, altogether 25 hu, 3 dou, 3 sheng, 7 he.

204

Chapter 3 •右郡吏六人，田⟨二⟩頃廿五畝⟨二⟩百一十七步，⟨收⟩租⟨米⟩⟨一⟩百 七十斛七斗八升⟨六⟩合。(5.1728·圖 7-95/6) • Above, commandery officials, 6 people. 2 qing, 25 mu, 217 bu of fields,

from which we should receive 170 hu, 7 dou, 8 sheng, 6 ge of zu rice.

– Landholdings of county officials: ⟨縣⟩⟨吏⟩鄧節卌畝，收租⟨米⟩七斗五升六合，々（合） 246 卅斛二斗 四升。 (5.1636·圖 7–3/6) County official Deng Jie, 40 mu, we should receive 7 dou, 5 sheng, 6 ge of zu rice (per mu). Altogether 30 hu, 2 dou, 4 sheng. 縣吏王休田卌畝。(5.1724·圖 7-91/6)

County official Wang Xiu, 40 mu of fields 縣吏姚魯田卌畝。(5.1725·圖 7-92/6)

County official Yao Lu, 40 mu of fields

縣吏劉筭田卌畝。(5.1726·圖 7-93/6)

County official Liu Suan, 40 mu of fields 縣吏李星田十七畝廿三步。(5.1752·圖 8-13/6)

County official Li Xing, 17 mu, 23 bu of fields.

縣吏劉欽田卌畝。(5.5122/9) County official Liu Qin, 40 mu of fields •右縣吏卌六人，復□合一十七頃九十七畝⟨廿⟩三步，畝收租米七斗 五升六合，々（合）一千三百 (5.3157/7) • Above, county officials, 46 people. Fu [fields] … altogether 17 qing,

97 mu, 23 bu. From each mu we should collect 7 dou, 5 sheng, 6 ge of zu rice, altogether 1300. •凡嘉禾二年領郡、縣吏田廿四頃七十畝。(5.3129/7) • Altogether, under our jurisdiction, 24 qing, 70 mu of Jiahe 2nd year

fields of commandery and county officials. 246 We have added “々.”

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– Summary: 縣□⟨二⟩年領州、郡、縣吏田廿四頃⟨九⟩十畝。(5.1703·圖 7-70/6) County … year under our jurisdiction there are 24 qing, 90 mu of fields of provincial, commandery and county officials. 二年實復廿四頃七十畝。(5.1705·圖 7-72/6)

Second year the actual fu (fields), 24 qing, 70 mu.

其 一 頃 ⟨廿 ⟩七 畝 □ 管 君 、 丞 □ □ 田 □ □ ⟨租 ⟩米 □ □ ， 合 卅 八 斛 □⟨斗⟩。(5.4543/9)247

Of this, 1 qing, 27 mu … officials of the lord Guan, Deputy Chancellor … fields … zu rice … altogether 38 hu, ? dou.

其廿頃廿三畝郡、縣吏田，畝收租七斗五升六合，□□　■

(5.4597/9) Of this, 20 qing, 3 mu are fields of commandery and county officials. From each mu we should receive 7 dou, 5 sheng, 6 ge … – Report to superiors: 安成言：條列今年州、郡、縣吏租田家列頃畝爲簿如 牒，遣吏⟨區⟩⟨侍⟩齎詣府，書詣右田曹。(5.1753·圖 8-14/6)

Ancheng reports: we list the farming families of provincial, commandery and county officials paying zu tax this year, and list the land area, and make a register, as in the accompanying document. We have dispatched official Ou Shi to bring it to the commandery government and hand it to the Bureau of Agriculture of the Right.

247 We have added “⟨廿⟩” based on the published image and parallel text on other slips. The blank after cheng 丞 may be ge 格. Regarding the ba 八 (8), it is worth noting that this graph is written similarly to yi 一 (1) in the Zoumalou texts.

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Overall Registers of Cloth Purchased by Ancheng County Officials Ancheng xian guan shi bu zhu bu 安成縣官市布諸簿 Like the Lingxiang Marquisate, Ancheng County requisitioned cloth in the first two Jiahe years.248 But there were some differences. First, unlike Linxiang, which mainly used coins to buy cloth, Ancheng County mainly used rice to buy cloth. Second, Linxiang officials referred to requisitioned cloth as “grade market cloth” pin shi bu 品市布, while Ancheng County recorded it as “household market cloth” hu shi bu 戶市布. These two terms seem to have referred to the same thing, namely cloth requisitioned from households based on their official grade. There are at least three types of documents related to this and we provide examples of each. 9.2

Wu Dun Buys Cloth 9.2.1 This is a register of Ancheng County central granary official Wu Dun using rice from the granary to buy cloth. The purchases were carried out by market officials and by Attendants (yuan 掾) from Ancheng County’s Metropolitan (du 都), Chang 昌, and Xinci 新茨 Districts. The cloth purchased by the Attendants was probably household cloth, while that purchased by market officials was market cloth. – Title: 中倉吏吴敦謹列：所領襍米出雇吏民市布賈種、領人名、 鄉別簿。(5.1640/6)

Central granary official Wu Dun respectfully lists in separate registers according to the name of the person in charge and the district, the various types of grains under his jurisdiction that were spent to pay the price of the cloth bought by the officials and commoners.

– Records of household cloth (戶市布): 出米五斛四斗，雇男子潭元布賈。(4.1405/2)

Spent 5 hu, 4 dou of rice repaying adult male Tan Yuan for cloth purchased.

出米廿七斛，雇帥黄忠布賈。(5.1663/6)

Spent 27 hu, of rice repaying leader Huang Zhong for cloth purchased.

248 Xiong Qu 熊曲, “Changsha Zoumalou Wu jian zhong de shi bu ji xiangguan wenti” 長沙 走馬樓吴簡中的市布及相關問題, Zhongguo zhong guo shi yanjiu 9 (2021), 129–146.

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

207

出米五斛四斗，雇大女韓布賈。(5.1761/6)

Spent 5 hu, 4 dou of rice repaying adult female Han for cloth purchased.

• 右 出 米 合 卅 九 斛 八 斗 ， 雇 都 鄉 民 十 人 所 市 布 賈 ， 掾 劉 欽 249 主 。  

(5.1800/6) • Above, spent altogether 39 hu, 8 dou of rice repaying common people of Metropolitan District, 10 people, for cloth purchased. Attendant Liu Qin oversaw.

右出米合三百卅五斛六斗，雇昌鄉民廿人所 250 市布賈，掾區能主。  

(4.3903/4) Above, spent altogether 335 hu, 6 dou of rice to repay common people of Chang District, 20 people, for cloth purchased. Attendant Ou Neng oversaw. •右出米合四百廿八斛六斗，雇新茨鄉民四人所市布賈， 掾唐伉⟨主⟩。(5.3108/7) • Above, spent altogether 428 hu, 6 dou of rice repaying common people

of Xinci District, 4 people, for [market] cloth purchased. Attendant Tang Kang oversaw.

•出米一百五十三斛一斗，付吏程開市布。(5.2237/6) • Took out 153 hu, 1 dou of rice and gave it to official Cheng Kai so he could

use it to buy market cloth.

其一百五十三斛一斗，布主受取米去。(5.1676/6) Of this, 153 hu, 1 dou of rice was received and taken away by the owner of the cloth. 出米三百八十五斛，雇吏唐伉、劉武、李平等六十 七（人）所市。(5.1642/6) ■布賈，平等轉入所負新兵貸郡米。(5.1671/6)

385 hu of rice were spent to pay the price of the cloth bought by 67 (persons) including official Tang Kang, Liu Wu, Li Ping. Some of this rice

249 Document 5.5122 mentions that “county official Liu Xin has 40 mu” (縣吏劉欽田卌畝), and he is mentioned as an Attendant of the Metropolitan District in document 5.1810. 250 We have added “所.”

208

Chapter 3

came from the debts of (Li) Ping and others which they incurred when they lent rice to newly recruited commandery soldiers. •右出米合五百卅八斛一斗。□□□ (5.1670/6) • Above, paid altogether 538 hu, 1 dou of rice … 集凡出米合一千三百五十二斛一斗。 ⁃ (5.3106/7)

Altogether paid 1352 hu, 1 dou of rice ⁃

Household and Market Cloth Registers 9.2.2 These documents mainly record the quantities of “household cloth” from each district and the intermediaries used to purchase it. “Household market cloth” refers to the merchant cloth mentioned above, which Wu Dun spent rice to buy. This accounts for most of the cloth. Only a small proportion was purchased by intermediaries with coins. About 40% of the cloth went to the imperial palace in the capital, which reveals that these requisitions were initiated by the central court. •倉吏吴敦謹列：二年户、市⟨布⟩⟨鄉⟩別簿。■ (5.1985/6) • Granary official Wu Dun respectfully lists the household and market

cloth from the 2nd year and makes separate registers for each district. 領受都鄉户市布五百一十二匹。(5.1983/6)

Under our jurisdiction, 512 pi of cloth purchased from households received from Metropolitan District. ⟨領⟩⟨受⟩昌⟨鄉⟩户市布 …… 　■ (5.1989/6) Under our jurisdiction, received from Chang District, cloth purchased from households …

領受新茨⟨鄉⟩⟨户⟩市布八百□一匹。　□ (5.1967/6)

Under our jurisdiction, received from Xinci District, 8?1 pi of cloth purchased from households …

•右三鄉入二年⟨户⟩市布合一千九百廿五匹。(5.1971/6) • Above, the three districts have entered 1925 pi of cloth purchased from

households of 2nd year.

Reconstructions of the Various Kinds of Documents

209

領受會殷郴市布卅匹。(5.1975/6) Under our jurisdiction, we received 30 pi of market cloth from intermediary Yin Chen 領受二年襍錢市布五十九匹。□□　■ (5.2013/6)

Under our jurisdiction, we received 2nd year 59 pi of market cloth purchased with mixed coins … 集凡二年户市布合二千一十四匹。　⟨已⟩⟨出⟩。(5.1482/6) Altogether, of 2nd year household and market cloth, a total of 2014 pi has already been taken out. 出布八百八十六匹付吏李⟨龍⟩、劉⟨非⟩（？）送詣宮。(5.1473/6)

Spent 886 pi of cloth, paid to officials Li Long, Liu Fei … to be delivered to the imperial palace. •右⟨出⟩户布合八百⟨八⟩⟨十⟩六匹。(5.1477/6) • Above, spent altogether 886 pi of household cloth. 合□□⟨市⟩布一千⟨一⟩⟨百⟩⟨廿⟩⟨八⟩匹。　■ (5.1480/6)

Altogether, 1128 pi of market cloth …

9.2.3 Ancheng Finance Bureau Buys Cloth This register seems to record the plan of Ancheng County’s Finance Bureau to use rice to buy requisition cloth. Their terminology for requisition cloth—qian bei diao 前被調 and hou bei diao 後被調—are probably equivalent to the Linxiang Marquisate’s diao bu 調布 and xin diaobu 新調布. The Finance Bureau originally planned to requisition around 1750 pi of cloth twice, but from these records we can see that they collected 1925 pi. From this change we get a glimpse of how Wu’s taxes and levies increased incrementally. 金曹謹列：所規及米出雇官市布賈簿。(5.5125/9)

The Finance Bureau respectfully lists what it has planned and the rice it has spent to buy official purchased cloth and made a register. 縣前被調市布一千五百⟨匹⟩■ (5.5532/10)

The county’s purchased cloth, 15?? pi … according to the previously requisitioned order.

210

Chapter 3 縣後被調增市布二百□■ (5.5540/10)

The county’s purchased cloth in the market, 2?? … according to the subsequently requisitioned order.

•右前、後被調市布合一千七百五十匹。(5.5124/9) • Above, altogether 1754 pi of purchased cloth according to the previously

and subsequently requisitioned order. 10 Conclusion

Above, we have respectfully listed various kind of documents in a long but gripping chapter. In fear and trepidation, risking death, we present it to the sinological community. We hope that our work will spur scholars to employ this unique body of documents in their research.

Appendix

Contents of Each Published Zoumalou Volume 走馬樓吴簡各卷内容分布表

性質 大木簡 （混合）   采集竹簡

卷

簡號

盆

嘉禾吏民田 家莂

4·1–782 5·1–1269 0·1–90 壹·1–10545

发掘228枚，其他的采集

竹簡〔壹〕

第1盆：1–761 第2盆：762–964 第3盆：965–1120 第4盆：1121–1376 第5盆：1377–1716 第6盆：1717–2503 第7盆：2504–2667 第8盆：2668–2852 第9盆：2853–4092

7136–7235

第10盆：4093–4334

7236–7275

第11盆：4335–5135 第12盆：5136–7135 第13盆：7276–8890

竹簡〔贰〕

贰·1–9091

第14盆：8891–10545 第15盆：1–1535 第16盆：1536–2840 第17盆：2841–3447 第18盆：3448–3815 第19盆：3816–5304 第20盆：5305–6534 第21盆：6535–8199 第22盆：8200–8876 第23盆：8877–9091

© Brian Lander, Ling Wenchao, and Xin Wen, 2024 | doi:10.1163/9789004549654_006

Contents of Each Published Zoumalou Volume

213

聚集出現的主要内容 《長沙走馬樓二十二號井发掘报告》   嘉禾四年吏民田家莂頃畝旱熟、收米錢布、付授吏姓名、年月 嘉禾五年吏民田家莂頃畝旱熟、收米錢布、付授吏姓名、年月 户籍簿、倉米入受簿、庫錢入受簿、户品出錢人名簿 户籍簿、取禾簿、草刺文書簿 取禾簿、草刺文書簿 倉米承餘新入簿、庫布入受簿、户籍簿、庫錢文書簡、户品出錢人名簿 庫錢入受簿、倉米入受簿、户品出錢人名簿、户籍簿 倉米承餘新入簿、倉米出用餘見簿 户籍簿 户籍簿、倉米入受簿、庫錢入受簿 户籍簿、倉米入受簿 户籍簿、倉米入受簿 地僦錢簿、米租錢簿、倉米入受簿、户籍簿 户籍簿、倉米入受簿（貸食）、庫錢承餘新入簿、兵曹徙作部工师及妻子簿、庫布入受簿 倉米入受簿、户籍簿、兵曹徙作部工师及妻子簿、庫布入受簿、郡縣吏兄弟叛走人名簿、 庫皮入受簿 南鄉户籍、小武陵鄉征赋户籍簿、倉米入受簿 限佃户籍簿、倉米入受簿、上中下品户數簿 广成鄉派役户籍簿、倉米入受簿 户籍簿、户品出錢人名簿 户品出錢人名簿 倉米入受簿、庫布入受簿、户籍簿 庫布入受簿、倉米入受簿、 户品出錢人名簿、户籍簿、隐核州軍吏父兄子弟簿、庫皮入受簿、户籍簿、倉米月旦簿、 地僦錢簿 倉米月旦簿、户品出錢人名簿 庫皮入受簿、倉米貸食簿

214

Appendix

(cont.) 性質

发掘竹簡

卷

簡號

盆

竹簡〔叁〕

叁·1–8414

第23盆：1–1312

竹簡〔肆〕

肆·1–5613

竹簡〔伍〕

伍·1–7431

竹簡〔陆〕

陆·1–6164

第24盆：1313–2166 第25盆：2167–2646 第26盆：2647–2970 第27盆：2971–3165 第28盆：3166–3367 第29盆：3368–3574 第30盆：3575–3807 第31盆：3808–3902 第32盆：3903–4267 第33盆：4268–4995 第34盆：4996–5612 第35盆：5613–6088 第36盆：6089–6448 第37盆：6449–7288 第38盆：7289–7768 第39盆：7769–8414 第1盆：1–960 第2盆：961–1680 第3盆：1681–3120 第4盆：3121–3960 第5盆：3961–5613 第5盆：1–116 第6盆：117–2321 第7盆：2322–3327 第8盆：3328–4482 第9盆：4483–5460 第10盆：5461–6336 第11盆：6337–7221 第12盆：7222–7421 第12盆：1–1829 第13盆：1830–3176 第14盆：3177–4565

Contents of Each Published Zoumalou Volume

215

聚集出現的主要内容 取禾簿、庫布入受簿、隐核州軍吏父兄子弟簿、倉米入受簿、户品出錢人名簿、户籍簿、 庫皮入受簿 倉米月旦簿、隐核州軍吏父兄子弟簿、兵曹徙作部工师及妻子簿 倉米月旦簿、兵曹徙作部工师及妻子簿 倉米入受簿、隐核州軍吏父兄子弟簿、户籍簿 隐核州軍吏父兄子弟簿、户籍簿 户籍簿、庫錢入受簿 户籍簿 倉米入受簿 倉米入受簿、隐核州軍吏父兄子弟簿 倉米月旦簿 倉米月旦簿、户籍簿 倉米月旦簿 倉米入受簿、户籍簿 户籍簿、倉米入受簿、庫布入受簿、取禾簿 取禾簿、隐核波田簿、户籍簿、庫錢出用餘見簿 庫錢出用餘見簿 户籍簿、倉米月旦簿 户籍簿、庫布入受簿、倉米入受簿 倉米入受簿、悬空錢種領簿、庫布承餘新入簿、官牛簿、户品出錢人名簿 户籍簿、生口估税簿、倉米入受簿 倉米入受簿、取禾簿 倉米入受簿、舉私學簿、倉米月旦簿、隐核新占民簿、餘逋杂米已入付授簿、上中下品户數簿 庫布新入簿 户品出錢人名簿、田頃畝增损簿、安成縣州郡縣吏租田家列頃畝簿、安成縣中倉倉米簿、 安成縣永新倉倉米簿、安成縣户市布簿、杂錢已入未毕出用餘見簿 户籍簿、種粻米斛數簿、領禾斛數簿、言事文書簿 舉私學簿 户籍簿、倉米入受簿 倉米月旦簿 户籍簿、倉米月旦簿 粢田頃畝及收租米斛數簿 田頃畝收米鄉作簿、粢田頃畝及收租米斛數簿、户籍簿、草刺文書簿 倉米入受簿、庫錢账簿、倉米入受簿、生口人名直錢簿、倉米月旦簿 生口人名直錢簿、貸食杂米斛數簿、户籍簿、倉米入受簿

216

Appendix

(cont.) 性質

卷

竹簡〔柒〕

混合

簡號

盆

柒·1–6153

第15盆：4566–5939 第16盆：5940–6164 第16盆：1–1381 第17盆：1382–2376 第18盆：2377–4211

竹簡〔捌〕

捌·1–6050

竹簡〔玖〕

玖·1–7810

竹木牍 （未刊）  

第19盆：4212–6048 第20盆：6049–6153 第20盆：1–2790 第21盆：2791–5274 第22盆：5275–6034 第23盆：6035–6050 第23盆：1–1373 第24盆：1374–2433 第25盆：2434–4496 第26盆：4497–6449 第27盆：6450–7810

Contents of Each Published Zoumalou Volume

217

聚集出現的主要内容 户籍簿、財用錢簿、庫布入受簿、倉米月旦簿 倉米月旦簿、户籍簿 倉米月旦簿、户籍簿、草刺文書簿 草刺文書簿、倉米月旦簿、户籍簿、倉米入受簿（貸食） 户籍簿、户品出錢人名簿、祠祀牛皮蹄甲枚數簿、草刺文書簿、倉米月旦簿、粢租米已入未 毕要簿、朱表案文書簿 倉米入受簿、草刺文書簿、倉米月旦簿、户籍簿 户籍簿 户籍簿、庫錢簿 倉米入受簿、倉米月旦簿、户籍簿、許迪割米案文書簿 户籍簿、倉米月旦簿、生口贾錢账簿 倉米入受簿 倉米入受簿 倉米入受簿 庫錢承餘新入簿、倉米入受簿、倉米月旦簿 自首士簿、倉米月旦簿、庫錢承餘新入簿、生口贾錢入受簿、户籍簿 户籍簿

Glossary

Politics of the Three Kingdoms Period

孫吴(東吴) Sun Wu (Dong Wu) Southeasternmost of the Three Kingdoms 孫策 Sun Ce Leader of Wu, c.191–200 孫權 Sun Quan Ruler of Wu from 200 to 252 曹魏 Cao Wei Northernmost of the Three Kingdoms 曹操 Cao Cao Ruler of Wei (not yet called Wei), 200–220 曹丕 Cao Pi Ruler of Wei, 220–226 曹叡 Cao Rui Ruler of Wei, 226–239 蜀漢 Shu Han Southwesternmost of the Three Kingdoms 劉備 Liu Bei Ruler of Shu Han, c.208–223 劉禪 Liu Shan Ruler of Shu Han, 223–263 步騭(步侯) Bu Zhi (Bu hou) Marquis of Linxiang under Wu 建安 Jian’an Reign title of the final Han emperor, 196–220 黃初 Huangchu Cao Wei’s first reign title, 220–226 黄武 Huangwu Wu’s first reign title, 222–229 黃龍 Huanglong Wu reign title, 229–231 嘉禾 Jiahe Wu reign title, 232–238



Places and Geographical Designations

湘 Xiang Main river in Hunan 臨湘 Linxiang “Overseeing the Xiang” administrative place name 侯國 houguo Marquisate 州 zhou Province (included several commanderies) 郡 jun Commandery 縣 xian County 曹 cao Bureau 鄉 xiang District 部 bu Section 丘 qiu Hill 里 li Canton 宮 gong Palace 庫 ku Treasury 倉 cang Granary 戶曹 hucao Bureau of Households

Glossary

219

金曹 jincao Finance Bureau 田曹 tiancao Bureau of Agriculture 倉曹 cangcao Bureau of Granaries 賊曹 zeicao Bureau of Bandits 功曹 gongcao Bureau of Personnel 縣門下 xian menxia County government offices 蠻 Man Indigenous people of the south (Essentially, “barbarian”) 武陵蠻 Wuling Man Barbarians of Wuling 州中倉 zhouzhong cang Central provincial granary 三州倉 sanzhou cang Three provinces granary 邸閣 dige Official of granaries management



Official Positions and Offices

太守 taishou Governor 侯 hou Marquis 侯相 houxiang Marquisate Chancellor 督郵 duyou Postal Supervisor 督軍糧都尉 du junliang duwei Commandant Supervising Military Provisions 都尉 duwei Commandant 節度 jiedu Delegated Commissioner 令 ling County Magistrate 掾 yuan Attendant 鎮南將軍 zhennan jiangjun General Suppressing the South 太常 taichang Master of Ceremonies 勸農掾 quannongyuan Farming Promotion Attendant 從史位 cong shiwei Assistant 邸閣郎中 dige langzhong Granaries management councillor 監運掾 jianyun yuan Transport Supervision Attendant 丞 cheng Deputy chancellor 兼 jian Acting (carrying out the duties of one position while holding another post) 破虜將軍 polu jiangjun General Who Smashes the Enemy 主簿 zhubu Archivist 主記史 zhujishi Recording clerk 里魁 and 里正 likui and lizheng Canton leader 御史臺 yushi tai Censorate 驛兵 yibing Postal guard 期會掾 qihui yuan Scheduling attendant 都市史 dushi shi Market supervising clerk

220

Glossary

Words Used by Officials with Reference to Households and People

吏民 limin “Officials and commoners” is a phrase confusingly used to signify com-

mon people, everyone who was not a slave, a soldier, or a higher official

吏 li Official of such a low status that he did not receive any preferential treatment

in taxation

民 min Commoner 户人 huren Householder 女户 nühu Female household 小口 xiaokou Minor 大口 dakou Adult 尪羸民 wangleimin Weak and disabled people 子弟 zidi Sons and brothers 復民 fumin Non-active soldier 口食 kou shi Number of household members (lit. “eating mouths”) 男弟 nan di Younger brother 女弟 nü di Younger sister 子女 zi nü Daughter 子 (子男) zi (zi nan) Son 姪子 zhizi Nephew 姪子女 zhizinü Niece 小妻 xiao qi Concubine (later became jie 妾) 大男/男子 da nan/ nanzi Adult male (over 15 years old or married; inscribed in the

household registers) 大女 da nü Adult woman (over 15 years old or married) 丁中 dingzhong System of registering people. Ding: fully able-bodied people. Zhong: semi-able-bodied people 品/等 pin Grade 下品之下/下等之下 xiadeng zhixia / xiapin zhixia Below the lowest grade 故户 guhu Old households 新户 xinhu New households 公乘 gongsheng Once a prestigious order of merit, by this time much of the population were of gongsheng status 士伍 shiwu A hereditary marker of social status among males, especially young boys 爵 jue Rank, a.k.a. order of merit 月伍 yue wu Official status held by a man who was the headman of one or two wards who had to do a month’s service for local government 歲伍 sui wu Official status held by a man who was the headman of one or two wards who had to do a year’s service, usually military

Glossary

221

叛民 panmin Absconding commoner 還民 huanmin Demobilized commoner returned from desertion 新占民 xinzhanmin Newly registered commoner 正户民 zhenghumin Officially registered commoner 溏兒民 tangermin Commoner who farmed land irrigated by reservoirs 金民 jinmin Metal commoner (meaning unclear) 船民 chuanmin Boat commoner 典田吏/掾 diantian li/yuan Field management official/attendant 士 shi Soldier 部曲 buqu Soldiers (active and non-active) 軍吏 junli Military official 郡卒 junzu Commandery corvée labourer 軍屯 juntun Military-agricultural colony 叛士 panshi Deserted soldier 夷兵 yibing Barbarian soldier 工師 gongshi Master artisan 師 shi Master 佐 zou Assistant 剛師 gangshi Iron/steel master 錦師 jinshi Brocade master 皮師 pishi Hide master 綃白師 xiaobaishi Master of some craft, perhaps plain silk or polishing 船師 chuanshi Boat master 錢師 qianshi Coin master 鑢師 lüshi Master of polishing 貫連師 guanlianshi Threading master 作部 zuo bu Handicraft workshop 屯將行 tunjiang xing Transferred military garrison 乾鍛師/佐 ganduan shi Steel forging master/assistant 私學 sixue Educated man (lit. “privately educated”) 佃客 dianke Agricultural guest (“guest” being a euphemistic term for people whose

status is not clearly understood, but which ranged somewhere from tenant to serf) 吏帥客 lishuaike “Guests” under the command of officials or leaders 屯田 tutian Government-owned agrarian colonies 限佃客 xiandian ke Tenant on quota fields (lit. “guest”) 僮客 tongke Servant guest (perhaps similar to slave) 衣食客 yishike Guests provided with food and clothes 大(or 太)常佃客 taichang dianke Farm guest of the Chamberlain of Ceremonies 斬首獲生 zhanshou huosheng Beheaded or captured as slaves

222

Glossary

生口 shengkou Slaves 奴 nu Male slave 婢 bi Female slave 戶下奴/婢 huxia nu/bi Male/female household slaves 奴婢 nubi Male/female slaves 夷生口 yi shengkou Non-Han captives or slaves 閭長 lüzhang Head of the neighbourhood 白衣 baiyi White clothes (commoners) 弟子 dizi Student 郎中 langzhong Councillor 無有戶 wu you hu Not registered as the member of a household 邑下 yixia (Living) in the town (only two districts had towns)



Goods, Land and Taxes

訾 zi Property (Unit for measuring household property) “二年常限”田 ernian changxian tian Two-year quota land 孰(熟)田 shutian Ripe land 定收田 dingshou tian Fixed rate land 旱田 hantian Dry land 波 bei Reservoir (or dam) 沃田 wotian Irrigated land 火種田 huozhong tian Fire planted land 餘力火種田 yuli huozhong tian Spare labour fire planted land 佃田 dian tian Farmed land/ cultivated farmland 限佃 xian dian Designated area of cultivated land on which a farmer had to pay a fixed amount of tax 種粻米 zhongzhang mi Seed rice (for planting) 漬米 zi mi Water-damaged rice 沒入米 moru mi Confiscated rice 息米 ximi Interest rice 鹽賈米 yanjia mi Rice purchased with salt 醬賈米 jiangjia mi Rice purchased with sauce 限米 xianmi Quota rice 租米 zumi Zu tax rice 稅米 shuimi Shui tax rice 折咸(減)米 zhejian mi Discounted rice 加臧米 jiazang mi Added embezzled rice

Glossary

223

池賈米 chijia mi Rice paid for pond produce 市租米 shizu mi Market zu tax rice 稟米 linmi Salary rice 麥 mai Wheat or barley 麥准米 mai zhun mi Wheat taxes converted to rice by official permission 佃禾准米 (abb. 准米 / 准入米) dian he zhun mi (zhun mi / zhun ru mi) Field millet

converted to rice by official permission

旱敗不收 han bai bu shou Crops failed due to drought and were not harvested 更錢 gengqian Rotation coins (money paid in lieu of rotating forced labour) 田畝錢 tianmuqian Field tax coins 財用錢 caiyongqian Materials coins (for government offices to purchase materials) 估錢 guqian Commercial tax coins 市租錢 shizu qian Market tax coins 地僦錢 dejiu qian Commercial land coins (meaning unclear) 酒租錢 jiuzu qian Tax on alcohol 賈錢 jia qian Sale coins (tax on commercial transactions) 牛賈錢 niujia qian Cattle sale coins 皮賈錢 pijia qian Hide sale coins 鋘賈錢 huajia qian Hoe sale coins 何(呵)黑錢 heheiqian Night watchman coins 口錢 kouqian Poll coins 大口錢 da kouqian Poll tax, over 15 years old 小口錢 xiao kouqian Poll tax, under 15 筭錢 suan qian Poll tax, generally levied on those 15–59 years old 筭 suan Suan-money (as opposed to kou-money 口錢) 芻/蒭錢 chuqian Hay coins 具錢 ju qian Intact coins 行錢 xing qian Circulating coins 口筭錢 kou suan qian Poll tax coins 紵租錢 zhuzuqian Ramie cloth tax coins 除數錢 chushu qian Difference between the value of intact and circulating coins 承餘錢 chengyu qian Carried-forward coins 奉鮭錢 fengguiqian Coins paid to officials as salary in lieu of directly providing fish

and other food

調布 diaobu Requisition cloth. Cloth meeting the standards to be purchased by the

government

品布 pinbu Household cloth (cloth requisitioned on the basis of household grade,

and paid for) 田畝布 tianmubu Field tax cloth (based on field area)

224

Glossary

口筭皮 kousuanpi Skins levied according to poll tax 户品出錢 hupin chuqian Offering coins according to household grade 戶調 hudiao Requisitioned on the basis of household 市布 shi bu Market cloth (cloth requisitioned from markets and paid for) 鹿 lu Deer; possibly only used for sika (Cervus nippon) 麂 ji Muntjac; possibly used for all smaller deer 羊 yang Sheep and goats 樂皮 le/yue pi Unknown skin 祠祀牛皮 cisi niupi skin and hooves of sacrificial cattle 官牛 guan niu State-owned cattle 齒 chi Age (lit. “teeth”), the age of some animals (i.e., cattle and horse) could be

examined by their teeth



Document Terminology

簡 jian Bamboo slip 牘 du Tablet (larger than a slip) 莂 bie Certificate 簿 bu Register 戶籍 huji Official household registers 人名簿 mingji bu Name registers 庫賬簿 ku zhangbu Treasury account registers 倉賬簿 cang zhangbu Granary account registers 田賬簿 tian zhangbu field account registers 田家莂 tian jia bie Farming family certificate 入 ru Enter (something into a storage space) 受 shou Receive 新入 xinru Newly enter 定 ding Fix (determined by calculation or investigation) 都莂 dubie Comprehensive certificate 别使 bie shi Sent separately 自占 zi zhan To self-report 敕 chi Order 記 ji Document 教 jiao Instruction (document type) 見 jian Present 中 zhong Agreed/checked (written after inspection by a higher official) 留 liu Kept

Glossary

225

黃簿 huangbu Yellow registers 征赋戶籍簿(更口算錢) zhengfu huji bu (geng kou suan qian) Household taxation

registers (made to collect geng, kou, and suan coins)

月旦簿 yuedan bu Registers [made] on the first day of the month 舉狀 juzhang Recommendation letters 保質 bao zhi Keep track of (in a kind of internal hostage system) 庫錢賬簿 ku qian zhang bu Treasury coin account registers 承餘 chengyu Carried over/ carried forward 收責 shou ze Instruct to collect (as in instruct officials to ask people to pay) 正戶民 zhenghu min Population officially registered in households



Weights and Measures

斛 hu Measure of capacity, 1 hu = 10 dou 斗 dou Measure of capacity, 1 dou = 10 sheng 升 sheng Measure of capacity, 1 sheng = 10 ge 合 ge Measure of capacity 匹 pi Measure of length, 1 pi = 4 zhang (around 9.68 m in Sun Wu) 丈 zhang Measure of length, 1 zhang = 10 chi (around 2.42 m) 尺 chi Measure of length, 1 chi = 10 cun (around 24.2 cm) 寸 cun Measure of length, 1 cun = 10 fen (around 2.42 cm) 分 fen Measure of length (around 2.42 mm) 頃 qing Measure of area, 1 qing = 100 mu 畝 mu Measure of area, around 506 square metres 步 bu Measure of length, 1 bu = 6 chi. Also a measure of area, around 2.1 square

metres, 240 bu = 1 mu.

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Index Note: Page numbers in italics refer to figures and tables. Abe Yukinobu 80n11 agricultural colonies (tuntian 屯田 ) 37 private millet fields contrasted with 188 quota field tenants (xiandian ke 限佃客)  37, 131, 168, 170, 171, 174 quota rice (xianmi) levied on 47–48, 82 Ancheng County. See also cloth—registers of cloth purchased by Ancheng County officials districts of 41n95 Zoumalou documents from 3, 20, 74, 75, 184, 201 Ancheng County—registers of zu tax fields of provincial, commandery and county officials examples 202–205 parts of a register of fields 202 preferential tax rates depending on status 201–202 basins and basin numbers (pen hao 盆號) cross-section diagrams of slip position 69, 69–70 excavated bundles (zha 紮) of bamboo slips assigned to 63, 63n2, 66, 68–70 location on document numbers after a slash 76–77 slips in basins 67, 67, 68 beans 15, 167 Cao Cao 曹操 (155–220) 1, 17, 21 Cao Wei state Cao Pi (220‒226) 21–22 Huangchu reign title of Cao Wei 22 location of 2 name of 3n2 cattle and horses horses in the Zoumalou documents 16, 193 registers of state-owned cattle 193–198 sacrificing of 198–199 water buffalo 16, 16n16, 194

Changsha. See also Mawangdui geography and ecology of 10–16, 12 location in the Yangzi valley 11, 12, 18 population of 58–59 Changsha Commandery county treasury (ku 庫) under the jurisdiction of 43–44 establishment in 37 CE  17 Linxiang Marquisate under the jurisdiction of 20 location in Sun Wu 2 population of 23 Zoumalou documents from 20 Changsha—political history of. See also Linxiang Marquisate as an administrative centre for two millennia 10 location Sun Wu 2, 3 as the power base of Sun Jian 18–19 as the provincial capital of Hunan 10 during the Warring States period 17 cloth cloth tax and cloth purchased in markets during the Han dynasty 136–137 cloth—diaobu (requisition cloth) coins used to purchase requisition cloth during the Jiahe reign 143 defined 136, 154 household cloth (pin bu 品布) 48, 58, 154, 156–158 during the Later Han Dynasty 155 market cloth (shibu 市布) 154, 158–159 registers of 155, 156, 159–161 registers of cloth carried forward and newly entered 161–163 cloth—registers of cloth purchased by Ancheng County officials household and market cloth registers 208–209 rice used for purchasing 206 Wu Dun buys cloth 206–208

241

Index coins coin and cloth tax not paid by active soldiers (shi 士) 85 coins—treasury account records 43–44 coins used to purchase requisition cloth during the Jiahe reign 143 collection of taxes in coins on the sale of private slaves 152–154 materials coins collected from Xiaowuling district 139 records of coins talken out and spent by the treasury 143–144 register of personal names and land rent coins 149–152 registers of coins listed, spent and remaining 144–146 registers of various sale coins carried forward and newly entered into the treastury 146–149 commoners (min 民). See also limin 吏民 (commoners and [lower] officials); women details in the Zoumalou documents the about their legal and social position 5, 26 quota fields worked by 121 terms of their status with regard to the state 34 commoners (min 民)—examples of cows kept by 194–198 Sun Zhi 26, 139 Zhang Ke 92–93, 196 Zhao Shi 26, 110 corvée labour and corvée labourers (zu 卒). See also postal corvée labourers (you zu 郵卒) li 吏 as a term compared with 89n18 Pan Diao’s status as 89–91, 90–91 quota (xian) fields defined in relation to  121 in records of households kept by the Wu  30, 32, 36 of the Wu labour system reflected in household registers 101, 102, 103 cows. See cattle and horses de-earthing numbers (chutu hao 出土號)  61, 68, 70–71

deer deer skins as tax payments 6, 13, 47, 164–165 diversity of deer in Hunan 163–164 Deng Weiguan 83n14, 139n134 excavation and collation of documents 8–9 See also basins and basin numbers (pen hao 盆號); reconstruction of documents; slip position diagrams (jiebo tu 揭剝圖); well 22 at Zoumalou de-earthing numbers (chutu hao 出土號) 61, 68, 70–71 Farming Promotion Attendants (quannong yuan 勸農掾) Guo Song as a 26, 110, 112n63, 191 Ou Guang as a 26, 124, 131, 132, 133, 183, 191 suiwu and yuewu under the jurisdiction of 26, 33, 39, 104–108, 110, 112, 133 gender. See also women male/female household slaves (hucis nu/ bi 戶下奴/婢) 37–38 gongsheng 公乘 and shiwu 士伍 householders with gongsheng rank 95, 97, 102, 103, 122 as terms 33 Xia Long’s gangsheng rank identified 55–56 granaries Central Provincial Granary 44, 124 official of granaries management (dige 邸閣) 44, 124, 124n95, 167–168 registers of grain distributed and lent 175–177 Sanzhou (Three Provinces Granary) 44, 147, 173–175 taxation managed and mediated by 44 Guan Yu (d. 220) 1, 18 guests (ke 客) defined as a euphemism for a labourer 37, 131 farmer guests (dianke 佃客) 37, 133 quota field tenants (xiandian ke 限佃客) 37, 131, 133, 168, 170, 171, 174 servant guests (tongke) 37, 48

242 Han Dynasty—Jian’an reign 建安 (196–220) cloth tax and cloth purchased in markets 136–137 disintegration of 3n2, 21–22 Jian’an reign titles in Zoumoulou documents 20n29, 22 private armes formed by independent generals during 78n8 registered population in the Changsha region 58–59 requisition cloth (diaobu 調布) system 155 horses. See cattle and horses Hou Xudong 45, 141n136 household grades. See also old households (guhu 故户) and new households (xinhu 新户) document 4·4523 109–112, 111 document 5.1616 117, 118 records of households assigned to suiwu 33, 39, 104–108, 110, 112, 133 wealth (zi 訾) as the determinant for  104 irrigation. See water and irrigation Kan Ze 闞澤 (d. 243) 59 li 吏 (officials). See official ranks and hierarchies—terms in the Zoumalou documents Li Qing 80n11 li吏 (officials) zu 卒 (corvée labourers) compared with 89n18 limin 吏民 (commoners and [lower] officials). See also tianjia certificates ( Jiahe limin tianjia bie 嘉禾吏民田家莂) as a term in the Zoumalou documents 34, 184 register of millet fields of 188–191 zu 卒 (corvée labourers) compared with li 吏 (officials) 89n18 Lin Yi-Der 28 Ling Wenchao reconstructions by 73, 75 Linxiang Marquisate Bu Zhi as marquis of 3, 18, 20, 23– 24

Index four categories of fields on field area registers 184 the government’s attention to water and irrigation 15, 178, 180–183 horizontal relations with surrounding commanderies and counties 40–41 population of 28–29 third-century communities presented in Zoumalou documents 58 Zoumalou documents as the bureaucratic “paperwork” of 3, 10, 20, 40 Liu Bei 劉備 (161–223) 1, 3, 5, 17–18, 21, 24, 123, 130n117 Lü Dai 呂岱 (161–256) 23, 24–25 Mawangdui fish identified at 14 seeds from fruit and nut trees found in tombs at 15 spices, medicines, and aromatics from tomb #1 at 13n2 wood used to build coffin excavated at  11 medicine and medicinal knowledge administrative records of disease and illness 29–30, 95, 95n27, 129, 133, 134, 197 medicinal materials collected in the Yangzi River valley 13 spices, medicines, and aromatics from tomb #1 at Mawangdui 13n2 Meng Yanhong on the meaning of “two-year limit” 82–83n13 millet and millet fields field millet converted to rice 91, 169, 170, 174 zu tax on 188–191 Minor Wuling. See Xiaowuling district 小武陵鄉 new households (xinhu 新户). See old households (guhu 故户) and new households (xinhu 新户) not registered as the member of a household (wu you hu 無有戶). See also privately educated (sixue 私學) men example of Huang Xing from Changsha  126

Index

243

official ranks and hierarachies—terms in the Zoumalou documents 32–38. See also commoners (min 民); corvée labour and corvée labourers (zu 卒); Farming Encouragement Attendants (quannong yuan 勸農掾); gongsheng 公乘 and shiwu 士伍; guests (ke 客); limin 吏民 (commoners and [lower] officials); old households guhu 故户 and new households xinhu 新户; slaves and the slave market; soldiers officials known by the work they engaged in 34 old households (guhu 故户) and new households (xinhu 新户) Central District old household registers 117–120 Mo District new household registers 120 Mo District old household registers 120–121 taxation in the three-tier system 32, 116

quota rice (xianmi 限米) defined 46, 47–48, 81, 82, 121–122 in granary account registers 168, 170, 171, 172, 174 payments by privately educated persons 48, 80, 121, 168, 170, 171 payments by soldiers in 48, 48n121, 80, 82, 121n86

Pan Diao’s land tax 89–91, 90–91 Pan Jun 潘濬 (d. 239) 18, 25, 37, 42, 56, 112 poll tax (suan 算) defined 47 paid for slaves as members of households 38 in Zoumalou documents 46 postal corvée labourers (you zu 郵卒) quota fields worked by 121, 168, 170, 171 Yang Ming’s service as 101, 102 privately educated (sixue 私學) men as a category in Zoumalou documents 36–37, 108, 123–124 document 4.4850 evaluated 126–127, 127 quota rice paid by 48, 80, 121, 168, 170, 171 those not registered in any household registers (type 1) 124–125, 125n100, 129–130 those registered as local residents (type 3) 124, 126, 128–129, 130

Shen Gang 75–76 Shu Han state location of 2 name of 3n2 paucity of information on 2–3 shui 税 and zu 租 taxes administrative distinctions between  49, 81 registers of shui tax rice repaid during the Huanglong reign period 169–173 shui tax fields on field area type registers 184–185 the status of the taxpayer as a determinant 80–85, 82n12 during the Warring States period 49, 80 zu tax fields of provincial officials on field area type registers 184 shui 税 and zu 租 taxes—zu rice from zu land defined 82 from extra labour fields 85, 186–187 from zu tax fields of provincial officials 82, 85, 184, 187–188, 201–203 slaves and the slave market 59. See also guests (ke 客) beheaded or captured as slaves (zhanshou huosheng 斬首獲生) 37 male/female household slaves (hucis nu/ bi 戶下奴/婢) 37–38

quota (xian 限) fields defined 121 mu tax rates on quota fields 80, 82–83, 82n12, 83n14, 85, 85, 89–90, 90, 91, 92–93 taxes on surplus land compared with 50

reconstruction of documents. See also basins and basin numbers (pen hao 盆號) de-earthing numbers (chutu hao 出土號) 61, 68, 70–71 slip position diagrams (jiebo tu 揭剝圖) 69, 69–71 rice. See also quota rice (xianmi 限米); shui 税 and zu 租 taxes—zu rice from zu land cloth purchased with rice by Ancheng County officials 206–208 types of 15

244 slaves and the slave market (cont.) registers of market taxes on slaves 152–154 servant guests (tongke 僮客) 37, 48 shengkou 生口 as a term for 152 slip position diagrams (jiebo tu 揭剝圖) 69, 69–71 reconstruction of documents based on 99–100 social status. See official ranks and hierarachies—terms in the Zoumalou documents soldiers “barbarian soldiers” (yi bing 夷兵) 35 deserted soldiers (panshi 叛士/zishou shi 自首士) 35, 48, 82 military family tianjia certificates 93–94 quota rice paid by 48, 48n121, 80, 121n86 the term zu 卒 for corvée labourer Zoumalou documents 35, 89n18, 90, 121 soldiers—active (shi 士) and inactive soldiers (fumin 復民) active soldier Wu You 93 area fields held by wives of active soldiers 192–193 as categories on tianjia certificats 78 coin and cloth tax not paid by active soldiers (shi 士) 85 fields of non-active soldiers on field area type registers 184, 186 zu fields cultivated by 82 soldiers—junli 軍吏 (military officials) in household registers 35, 105–106 Registers of Male Relatives of Provincial and Army Officials (yinhe zhou jun li fuxiong zidi bu) 130–131, 133–134 Sun Quan 孫權 (182–252) 1, 54, 112, 123 Sun Wu 孫吳 (or Eastern Wu 東吳, ca. 190–280). See also Changsha; Linxiang Marquisate administration of households rather than individuals 30–32 as the first of the dynasties following the fall of the Han 3 location in the Yangzi valley 2, 5 name of 3n2 shui and zu taxes distinguished in 49

Index Sun Ce 18–19 Sun Jian’s founding of 18 wars with indigenous peoples in the mountains 19–20 Wu even-hu 吴平斛 as an official measuring vessel of 169n187 Zoumalou administrative documents associated with 1, 3, 5 Sun Wu 孫吳—Huang Wu era (222–229) adoption as the reign title by Sun Wu 22 Bu Zhi awarded the Marquisate of Linxiang during 20, 24 field millet converted to rice during 170 registers of shipped grains during 173–175 Sun Wu 孫吳—Huanglong era (229–231) registers of shui tax rice repaid during 169–173 Sun Wu 孫吳—Jiahe era (232–238) population of Xiaowuling District during the 4th year of 40 tax policies changes between the fourth and fifth years of 58, 202 Zoumalou documents dating no later than the sixth year of 22 Zoumalou documents primarily associated with 21 surnames on tianjia certificates 68 in the Wu shu 25 in the Zoumalou documents 24n39, 25, 27 taxes and taxation systems. See also poll tax (suan 算); quota rice (xianmi 限米); shui 税 and zu 租 taxes; tianjia certificates (Jiahe limin tianjia bie 嘉禾吏民田家莂); tianjia certificates (Jiahe limin tianjia bie 嘉禾吏民田家莂)—categories of fields deer skins as tax payments 6, 13, 47, 164–165 mu tax rates lowered for provincial (zhou) officials 83, 83n14, 85, 201–202 mu tax rates on quota fields 80, 82–83, 82n12, 83n14, 85, 85, 89–90, 90, 91, 92–93 policy changes during the Jiahe reign periods of the Wu kingdom 58, 202

Index taxes and taxation systems (cont.) political power in ancient China based on 3, 5 summary of types of 45, 46, 47 Three Kingdoms (ca. 190–280). See also Cao Wei state; Shu Han state; Sun Wu state dating of the Zoumalou documents to 20–23 forests of Changsha lowlands during 11 map of 2 Records of the Three Kingdoms 2–3, 121n86 Three Kingdoms (ca. 190–280)—wars between Wei, Wu, and Shu Jingzhou as the focus of 17–18, 21 military mobilization in the background of the Zoumalou documents 19 tianjia certificates (Jiahe limin tianjia bie 嘉 禾吏民田家莂) categories of cultivated fields in 84 as a category of written pieces from Zoumalou 72 cleaning and sorting of 67–68 as complete documents in themselves 77–78, 94 content of 77–78, 87 on land taxes 126–127 numbering of 77 publication of 7, 68, 68n4, 71 recovery from the dump site 62–63, 63 recovery from well 22 site 65 shi 士 (active soldiers) and fumin 復民 (inactive soldiers) distinguished in 78 surnames on 68 three identical versions of texts on 78, 78n7 tianjia certificates (Jiahe limin tianjia bie 嘉禾吏民田家莂)—categories of fields “two-year routine quota fields” (ernian changxian tian) 49–50 diagram of 84 extra labour 79, 80, 82–83, 82n12, 85, 91, 184, 186–187 fire planted fields 49, 79, 92 ripe fields 79–80, 82, 85, 89n20, 90, 93 surplus fire planted land 49, 79, 82, 82n12, 89

245 tax rates on 50, 82n12, 85, 85, 202 two-year regular quota fields 82–83, 85, 89, 90, 92, 93 tianjia certificates (Jiahe limin tianjia bie 嘉禾吏民田家莂)—examples of certificate 4.1 85–87, 86 certificate 4.463 87, 88 tianjia certificates (Jiahe limin tianjia bie 嘉禾吏民田家莂)—military tianjia certificates shi 士 (active soldiers) and fumin 復民 (inactive soldiers) distinguished  78, 93 Warring States (ca. 475–221 BCE) Changsha during 17 Hunan colonized by the Chu during 19 shui and zu as tax terms during 49, 80 water and irrigation Linxiang government’s attention to 15, 178, 180–183 registers of inspection of irrigated fields 177–180, 179 Wei state. See Cao Wei state well 22 at Zoumalou. See also basins and basin numbers (pen hao 盆號) archaeologists separating the slips 68 discovery in downtown Changsha, Hunan (1996) 1, 61, 62 excavation of bundles (zha 紮) of bamboo slips 66, 66–70 four excavation areas (qu 區) of the second strata 64, 65, 66, 70 four strata (ceng 層) of 63 legal case thrown in. See Xu Di 許迪 embezzlement case speculation on when documents were dumped in 22 women details of their legal and social position in Zoumalou documents 5, 32 female households (nühu 女户) led by 31–32, 103, 105 fields held by wives of active soldiers 192–193 with gongsheng status 65 life expectancy of 29

246 women (cont.) population numbers in Zoumalou documents 28 qie 妾 used for women with no official name 97n32 wives and children in household taxation records 31, 96 Wu Qiong 139n134 Wu state. See Sun Wu 孫吳 (or Eastern Wu 東吳, ca. 190–280) Wuling 武陵 Commandery 2, 19, 41 Wuling Man 武陵蠻 as barbarian soldiers in the Wu state 35 as a term 19 Wu campaigns against 24, 25, 37, 42, 112 Xia Long’s 夏隆 household registers gangsheng rank identified 55–56 household details 56–57 identification of Xia Long in Biographies of Old Venerables of Changsha 57–58 Xiaowuling district 小武陵鄉 Jiyang canton household records 96–97 location in Linxiang county 39, 112n63 materials coins collected from 139 population of 40, 98 quota field taxes 122, 123 requisition cloth from 158, 160, 162 shui tax rice 168, 185 zu tax rice 187, 190 Xu Di 許迪 embezzlement case the Governor’s involvement in 43, 54 narrative of 53–54, 200–201 tablet recording the trial of 4, 75, 199–201, 200n239 Yellow River valley 1, 11 Yu Zhenbo 27–28, 30

Index Zhang Rongqiang on the meaning of “two-year limit”  83n13 Zhu Biao 朱表 embezzlement case 53, 53n135, 54, 75 Zoumalou 走馬樓 well at. See well 22 at Zoumalou Zoumalou 走馬樓 documents introduced. See also excavation and collation of documents as the bureaucratic “paperwork” of Linxiang Marquisate 3, 10, 20 dating to the Three Kingdoms (ca. 190–280) period 20–23 documents found in ancient Huanan and Hubei compared with 6–7 documents found in the central Yangzi region compared with 6–7, 59 Jian’an reign titles as mentioned in 20n29, 22 materials on local government and society featured in 1, 5–7, 16, 32, 53 number and complexity of 1 publication of 7–8, 61 Three Kingdoms state of Sun Wu associated with 1 wood and bamboo as a Chinese writing medium 59–60 Zoumalou 走馬樓 documents—people mentioned in. See also surnames; Xu Di 許迪 embezzlement case as the subjects of administration 26 zu 卒. See corvée labour and corvée labourers (zu 卒) zu 租 taxes. See shui 税 and zu 租 taxes