Table Of ContentSINICA LEIDENSIA
EDI DI T
INSTITUTUM SINOLOGICUM LUGDUNO BATAVUM
VOL. XVII
REMNANTS OF CH'IN LAW
REMNANTS OF CH'IN LAW
An annotated translation ef the Ch'in legal and administrative rules
of the 3rd century B. C.
discovered in Yiin-meng Prefecture, Hu-pei Province, in 1975
BY
A.F.P. HULSEWE
LEIDEN
E.J. BRILL
1985
Published with financial support from the Netherlands Organization
for the Advancement of Pure Research (Z.W.O.)
ISBN 90 04 07103 2
Copyright 1985 by E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
translated in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche
or any other means without written permission from the publisher
PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS BYE. J• BRILL
CONTENTS
PREFACE VII
INTRODUCTION ................................................. .
Appendix I : A brief survey of the Ch'in penal system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Appendix 2: Ch'in-Han weights and measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
TRANSLATION................................................... 21
Group A Eighteen Ch'in Statutes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1. Statutes on Agriculture (Al-A6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2. Statutes on Stables and Parks (A7-A9) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3. Statutes on Granaries (A10-A35) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4. Statutes on Currency (A36-A50). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
5. Statutes on Passes and Markets (A5 l) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
6. Statutes on Artisans (A52-A57). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7. Statutes on Norms for Artisans (A58-A60) . . . . . . . . . . . 61
8. Statutes on Equalizing Artisans (A61-A63) . . . . . . . . . . . 62
9. Statutes on Statute Labour (A64) ·. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
10. Statutes concerning the Controller of Works
(A65-A78) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
11. Statutes concerning the Establishment of Officials
(A79-A81) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
12. Statutes concerning Checking (A82-A89). . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
13. Statutes concerning Aristocratic Rank bestowed for
Military Action (A 90-A9 l ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
14. Statutes concerning Rations for Holders of Passports
(A92-A94) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
15. Statutes concerning the Forwarding of Documents
(A95-A96) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
16. Statutes concerning the Minister of Finance;
miscellaneous (A97-A107) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
17. Statutes concerning the Commandant; miscellaneous
(Al08-Al09) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
18. Statutes concerning the Dependent States (Al 10) ..... . 91
Group B Statutes concerning Checking (Bl-B39) ............. . 93
Group C Miscellaneous Excerpts from Ch'in Statutes
(Cl-C25) ....................................... . 102
Group D Answers to Questions concerning Ch'in Statutes
(Dl-Dl90) ..................................... . 120
Group E Models for Sealing and Investigating (El-E25) ...... . 183
Group F Statutes from the State of Wei (Fl-F2) ............. . 208
Group G An early Ch'in Statute on Agriculture (GI) ......... . 211
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF THE CHINESE TITLES OF THE CH'IN STATUTES . . . . 216
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 7
VI CONTENTS
INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND TERMS. . • • • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
INDEX OF LOAN CHARACTERS...................................... 241
FINDING LIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Addenda et Corrigenda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
PREFACE
When, after having moved to Switzerland, I had at last again time to spend
behind my desk, I started on preparatory work for a long neglected task: the
writing of the second volume of the Remnants of Han law, published more than
twenty years earlier. But when in the summer of 1976 the Ch'in laws and
regulations were published I put the work on this second volume aside and
began with the study of this new material; after all, the Han had taken over
the Ch'in legislation, and in studying this, I would also be working on Han
law. Since then, six years have gone by, and for the time being my work on
the Ch'in laws in finished. For the time being, because studies concerning
these laws continue to appear, throwing new light on obscure passages in these
difficult texts, with the result that before long I may be obliged to publish a
list of corrections.
It must be said that these texts are difficult. No legal text in any language is
easy, but the Chinese technical jargon of the 3rd century B.C. is particularly
hard to understand. My experience with Han law was of some help, but never
theless, translating often remained a process of trial and error and a complete(?)
understanding was only reached after considerable time. And still, lacunae are
left; fortunately, not too many, and mostly, I believe, not of essential impor
tance. Still, I cannot claim that my translation is definitive-as if one could
ever make such a claim! Even the Chinese editors insist that their translation
is tentative, stressing the difficulties presented by the lapidary style.1
Like all scholars interested in the history of China during the period of the
Warring States, I owe a great debt of gratitude to the group of our Chinese
colleagues who deciphered and published the Ch'in texts. It is only fair that
their names2 should be recorded here, on the very first page of a study that is
wholly based on their labours. They are: Yil Hao-liang3 'f*?t, An Tso-chang
'ft:fi:~, Liu Hai-nien ~tl~:¥, Chu Ssu-chung*4 *·~'*'' Li Hsileh-ch'in $~111,
Ch'en K'ang-sheng* llJIH!L~, Chang Cheng-lang* 7il!&~, Kao Heng ;\?jtt[,
T'ang Tsan-kung )\ttJll'.I, Tseng Hsien-t'ung* l!fn!.illL Shu Chih-mei* &7L.~,
Ch'iu Hsi-kuei* ~~£, and Miss Tou Ai-Ii 'il~!'ii\'.. The final editing was
done by Professor Li Hsiieh-ch'in.
The present work also owes more than I can say to the compilers of several
handbooks, like the indices to the Shih-chi, the Han shu and the Hou-Han shu,
and the monumental glossary of the Hou-Han shu by Fujita Shizen5. In this
respect my greatest debt, however, is to the author of the 12-volume Sino-
1 See point 10 of thefan-li fL111J in SS (for this abbreviation seep. 4 below).
2 Listed on p. 5 of the introduction in SS.
3 He died in the summer of 1982.
4 The persons whose names are marked by an asterisk did no longer participate in preparing
the third edition of these texts in SS.
0 See the bibliography s.v. Fujita.
VIII PREFACE
ITTf;fill.*
Japanese dictionary, the late Morohashi Tetsuji 6 and his collabora
tors. His work constantly adduced pertinent information from ancient texts
outside my ken and helped me to solve numerous riddles; his magnum opus
surely is the indispensable tool for all those students, of whom I am one, who
do not possess the wide reading and the astonishing memory of the traditional
Chinese scholar.
How much I owe to the editors of the Ch'in texts and to a host of Chinese
and Japanese authors of books and learned articles devoted to these texts is
clearly shown by the notes to my translation and by the bibliography. Without
their labours, my work would have been so much the poorer.
It would have been also much poorer, if a number of friends and colleagues
had not regularly sent me books as well as xerox-copies of Chinese and Japanese
articles, all inaccessible to me in this rural retreat, far from well-equipped
sinological libraries. I therefore gratefully remember the great help I received
from
Mr. D. H. W. Allistone, until recently in Waseda University, Tokyo.
Dr. Emura Haruki IT;J:tm~t of Nagoya University, Nagoya.
Professor Hori Tsuyoshi tJijj~ of Waseda University, Tokyo.
Professor Huang Sheng-chang ~~~ of the Academy of Social Sciences,
Peking.
Dr. W.J.F. Jenner of the University of Leeds.
Professor Koga Noboru ~-it~ of Waseda University, Tokyo.
Dr. Kudo Moto-o I-5(;~ of Waseda University, Tokyo.
Professor Li Hsiieh-ch'in *¥lll of the Academy of Social Sciences, Peking.
Mr. John T. Ma and the library staff of the Sinologisch Instituut, Leiden
University, Leiden, Holland.
Mr. B. J. Mansvelt Beck of the Sinologisch lnstituut, Leiden University,
Leiden, Holland.
Professor Oba Osamu :;k:)M{rjf of Kansai University, Osaka.
Dr. R. D. S. Yates of Harvard University, Cambridge, U.S.A.
It is only right that I should single out my dear friend Dr. Michael Loewe,
Lecturer in Chinese Studies in the University of Cambridge, for a separate
expression of my profound gratitude. For he not only sent me books and papers,
but he also undertook the ungrateful and time-consuming task of correcting
my English, as well as offering many precious suggestions concerning the
translation. If readers will still be shocked by an occasional stiffness of style or
by irregularities of diction, these are to be imputed solely to me.
Finally, I wish to acknowledge the great obligation under which I stand to
the Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research for their
generous grant, which made the publication of this work possible.
Romont, Switzerland, November 1982. A. F. P. Hulsewe.
6 See the bibliography s.v. Morohashi.
INTRODUCTIONl
The cruel laws of the cruel state of Ch'in are a byword in traditional Chinese
historiography; the same accusation is sometimes even found in modern studies.
But although the inquities of Ch'in have become proverbial, the factual
grounds for this allegation are never given, except in the most general terms.2
It is even more striking to observe that the Ch'in authors of the School of Law,
Shang Yang and Han Fei, hardly ever adduce concrete examples of the legisla
tion of this state. However, this silence ceases to be surprising when it is realized
that these writers were not so much interested in the contents of the laws as in
their use as a political tool. To them, the predominantly penal laws and a system
of rewards, especially for deeds of military valour, were the two "handles"
which the ruler was to manipulate in order to compel the population to do their
utmost in two domains: agriculture and warfare. The silence of the Ch'in au
thors on the actual contents of the laws shows that they took their existence for
granted. This shows, by the way, that the creation of codified law in Ch'in is
to be placed considerably earlier than the middle of the 4th century-the time
of Shang Yang-whereas in the eastern part of China codification will have
started at an earlier date than is usually assumed, perhaps as early as the 8th
century B.C.3 As a result of this silence, we used to know far less about the
actual laws of Ch'in than about the legislation of the following Han dynasty4
(202 B.C.-220 A.D.), fragmentary as this knowledge is. At most, one could have
assumed that, because the Han had adopted the laws of Ch'in from the outset,
some known Han rules might have found their origin in Ch'in.
The recent discovery of a number of Ch'in laws and regulations has changed
the situation significantly, but it should be stressed that we are still far from
possessing the whole of the Ch'in code. It is quite clear that these new texts
are only a selection from a much larger body of laws; they are a selection
made for the use of a subordinate official in the local administration, who was
eventually buried with the texts he had constantly used during his lifetime.
It is practically certain that these texts belonged to a person called Hsi ti;
another document found in the tomb provides precious information on his
life. Born in 262 B.C. he became a government scribe in 244 B.C., to be pro
moted Prefectural Clerk in 241 B.C.; in 235 B.C. he was charged with
trying criminal suits.5 This explains why the texts found in his tomb include
both administrative rules and material on penal law.
This legal material, written on bamboo strips, forms part of a collection of
1155 strips, found in December 1975 in the coffin of tomb no. I I. This is one
1 This introduction partly repeats what I have written in "Ch'in documents'', "Legalists"
and "Economy".-For all abbreviated titles see the bibliography.
2 See e.g. HSPC 23.12a, RHL, p. 332.
3 See my "Ch'in documents", pp. 216--217, and "Legalist:s", pp. 3-4.
4 Partly collected in RHL.
s See my "Ch'in documents", p. 177, and especially "Legalists'', pp. 9-10.
2 INTRODUCTION
of a group of graves, discovered during the digging of a drainage canal in the
Shui-hu ti area IJjiJ'E.itf! of the Hsiao-kan District 'l:~[;i[, Yiin-meng Prefecture
~~' central H.I-pei Province.6 The texts were written on bamboo strips,
because bamboo and wooden strips of different sizes were the normal writing
material before the invention of rag paper in the 2nd century of our era; even
then they continued to be used for another three centuries.7 Such strips usually
contained one column of characters, written with a brush of rabbit hair and
black ink made of pine soot; the strips were held together by several sets
usually three-of intertwined strings.8
The legal and administrative material occupies 612 strips and parts of
another 13 strips. The remaining strips contain prose writings9 and mantic
texts.
The tomb in which this treasure was found can be dated c. 217 B.C., and
it is beyond any doubt that the texts are Ch'in texts and that they belong to
the 3rd century B.C. Incontrovertible proof is provided by the repeated mention
of the Ch'in capital Hsien-yang, because already in the very first year of the
Han ruler who was later canonized as Kao-tsu (i.e., 206 B.C.) Hsien-yang was
renamed Hsin-ch'eng ~!$;, and after its destruction by Hsiang Yii later in the
same year the place completely lost its importance.lo Although it is difficult, if
not impossible, to determine when the contents of the strips were copied from
unknown prototypes, there are a few indications concerning the time when some
of the texts were established. Some must have been written after named events,
such as the battle ofHsing-ch'iu which was fought in 266 B.C.,11 or the death of
the Ch'in dukes Hsien and Hsiao, indicating a date after 338 B.C.12 The term
"sacrifices by the Royal House" shows that the article was written after 325
B.C., when the Ch'in ruler adopted the title ofking.13 Custom demanded that in
writing the name of the ruler as well as some of its homophones, certain char
acters were avoided and replaced by synonyms. When we therefore observe
that in some passages the Village Chief, normally called li cheng .l:!LiE, is called
li lien .Jff!.14 we know that these passages were copied, if not created, during the
reign of the king of Ch'in who acceded as such in 246 B. C. and became the First
Emperor in 221. As his personal name was Cheng ii&, the documents in ques
tion may be dated after 246 B.C.15 One article mentions the existence of twelve
commanderies and several authors conclude from this figure that the article
6 For further details see my "Ch'in documents", p. 175 f., and the articles quoted there, as
well as CM.
7 See Tsicn, p. 90 f.
s See the description in RHA I, pp. 25-39.
9 See "Ch'in documents'', pp. 181-186.
°
1 For further details and references see "Ch'in documents'', p. I 76 f.
11 SC 5.75, Mh II, p. 90. The battle is mentioned in E 13 and E 15.
12 D 169 mentions the funerary temples of these dukes. For the death of duke Hsiao see SC
6.108, Mh II, p. 239 f.
13 The expression is found in D 23. For the date see SC 15.78, Mh III, p. 43.
14 This substitution is found in A 7, D 177, E 19 and E 21.
15 In one of the prose pieces, "Governor T'eng's written instruction", cheng lE is substituted
by tuan ;lffil; see SS, pp. 15 and 19. The letter is dated "20th year'', i.e. 227 B.C.
