Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T14:06:47.738Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Early references to collective punishment in an excavated Chinese text: analysis and discussion of an imprecation from the Wenxian covenant texts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2011

Crispin Williams
Crispin Williams*
Affiliation:
University of Kansas
*
clw@ku.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Susan Roosevelt Weld has observed that the Houma and Wenxian covenant texts, excavated texts dating to the fifth century bc, can be considered “examples of collective responsibility”. New materials from the Wenxian covenant texts provide further evidence relevant to this issue. In this article I present my analysis of a previously unseen imprecation, “Cause [you] to have no descendants” 俾毋有胄後. I suggest the excavated covenants provide the earliest references found in a legal context to collective punishment, a practice that, while archaic in origin, is generally better known from Qin and later penal codes. I also discuss the scope of the term shì 氏, as it is used in the imprecation, in the context of Mark Lewis's work defining basic social units in the Zhou period.

Keywords

Houma 侯馬 and Wenxian 溫縣 covenant texts 盟書, 俾毋有胄後ImprecationCollective punishmentshì 氏LineagePalaeography
Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 74 , Issue 3 , October 2011 , pp. 437 - 462
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baxter, William H. 1992. A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology. (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs 64.) Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Behr, Wolfgang. 2007. “Placed into the right position – etymological notes on Tu and congeners”, in Bray, Francesca, Dorofeeva-Lichtmann, Vera and Métailié, Georges (eds), Graphics and Text in the Production of Technical Knowledge in China. Leiden: Brill, 109–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen Naihua 陳乃華., 1989. “‘Yi san zu’ tan yuan ‘夷三族’ 探源”. Shandong Shida xuebao (shehui kexue ban) 山東師大學報 (社會科學版) 6, 25–9.Google Scholar
Cheng Pengwan 程鵬萬., 2007. “Rong ban cun liang xin kao 半灷量新考”. Zhongguo lishi wenwu 中國歷史文物 3, 76–8.Google Scholar
Diamond, Jared. 1993. The Third Chimpanzee. New York: HarperPerennial.Google Scholar
Hanyu da zidian zixing zu 漢語大字典字形組., 1985. Qin Han Wei Jin zhuan-li zixing biao 秦漢魏晉篆隸字形表. Chengdu: Sichuan cishu.Google Scholar
Hao Benxing 郝本性., 2004. “Henan Wenxian Dong Zhou mengshi yizhi fajue yu zhengli qingkuang huibao 河南溫縣東周盟誓遺址發掘與整理情況彙報”, in Ai Lan 艾蘭 (Sarah Allan), and Xing Wen 邢文, (eds), Xin chu jian bo yanjiu – di-er jie xin chu jian bo guoji xueshu yantaohui wenji 2000 nian 8 yue, Beijing 新出簡帛研究·第二屆新出簡帛國際學術研討會文集 2000 年 8 月·北京. Beijing: Wenwu, 76–9.Google Scholar
Hao Benxing 郝本性, and Wei Kebin 魏克彬, [Crispin Williams]., 2006. “‘Xuan shu’ jie ‘懸書’ 解”. Kaoguxue yanjiu 考古學研究 6. Beijing: Kexue, 461–4.Google Scholar
Harbsmeier, Christoph. 1981. Aspects of Classical Chinese Syntax. (Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies Monograph Series No. 45.) London and Malmo: Curzon Press.Google Scholar
He Linyi 何琳儀., 1998. Zhanguo guwen zidian 戰國古文字典. Beijing: Zhonghua.Google Scholar
Henan Sheng Wenwu Yanjiusuo 河南省文物研究所, . 1983. “Henan Wenxian Dong Zhou mengshi yizhi yi hao kan fajue jianbao 河南溫縣東周盟誓遺址一號坎發掘簡報”. Wenwu 3, 78–89 and 77.Google Scholar
Hulsewe, A. F. P. 1986. “Ch'in and Han law”, in Twitchett, Denis and Loewe, Michael (eds), The Cambridge History of China: The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. –A.D. 220. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 520–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jia Liying 賈麗英., 2008. “Qin Han shiqi zuxing lunkao 秦漢時期族刑論考”, Shoudu Shifan Daxue xuebao (shehui kexue ban) 首都師範大學學報 (社會科學版) 2, 11–17.Google Scholar
Kang Dewen 康德文., 1999. “Lun Xi Zhou Chunqiu shiqi de miezu xing 論西周春秋時期的滅族刑”, Jiangxi Shifan Daxue xuebao (zhexue shehui kexue ban) 江西師範大學學報 (哲學社會科學版) vol. 32 no. 1, 50–53.Google Scholar
Karlgren, Bernhard. 1996. Grammata Serica Recensa. Taibei: SMC Publishing Inc. [First published in the Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, No. 29, Stockholm, 1957.]Google Scholar
Keightley, David. 1999. “The Shang”, in Loewe, Michael and Shaughnessy, Edward L. (eds), The Cambridge History of Ancient China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 232–91.Google Scholar
Lewis, Mark E. 1990. Sanctioned Violence in Early China. (SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture.) Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, Mark E. 2006. The Construction of Space in Early China. (SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture.) Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Li Jiahao 李家浩., 2006. “Shi Shangbo Zhanguo zhujian Ziyi zhong de ‘qi xi’ hewen 釋上博戰國竹簡《緇衣》中的‘'合文”, in Kangle ji – Zeng Xiantong jiaoshou qishi shou qing lunwenji 康樂集––曾憲通教授七十壽慶論文集. Guangzhou: Zhongshan Daxue, 21–6.Google Scholar
Liu Guosheng 劉國勝., 2001. “Xinyang Changtaiguan Chu jian ‘Qian ce’ bian lian er ti 信陽長台関楚簡《遣策》編聯二題”, Jiang Han kaogu 江漢考古, 3, 66–70.Google Scholar
Liu Hainian 劉海年, and Yang Yifan 楊一凡., 1984. Zhongguo gudai falü shi zhishi 中國古代法律史知識. Harbin: Heilongjiang renmin.Google Scholar
Liu Yongping., 1998. Origins of Chinese Law. Hong Kong, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Liu Zhao 劉釗., 2005. “Zhanguo Zhongshan wang mu chutu guwenzi ziliao kaoshi 戰國中山王墓出土古文字資料考釋”, in Guwenzi kaoshi conggao 古文字考釋叢稿. Liu Zhao 劉釗. Changsha: Yuelu shushe, 210–17.Google Scholar
Loewe, Michael (ed.). 1993. Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Berkeley: The Society for the Study of Early China and The Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Lü Shuxiang 呂淑湘, . [1990] 1995. “Lun wu yu wu 論毋與勿”, in Lü Shuxiang wenji 呂淑湘文集 Vol. 2. Beijing: Shangwu, 73–102. [Originally published in Huaxi Xiehe Daxue Zhongguo wenhua yanjiusuo jikan 華西協合大學中國文化研究所集刊 vol. 1, issue 4 {一卷四期}, 1924.]Google Scholar
Mattos, Gilbert L. 1997. “Eastern Zhou bronze inscriptions”, in Shaughnessy, Edward L. (ed.), New Sources of Early Chinese History. Berkeley: The Society for the Study of Early China and The Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 85–124.Google Scholar
Moore, Sally F. 1972. “Legal liability and evolutionary interpretation: some aspects of strict liability, self-help and collective responsibility”, in Gluckman, Max (ed.), The Allocation of Responsibility. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 51–108.Google Scholar
Pines, Yuri. 2005–06. “Bodies, lineages, citizens, and regions: a review of Mark Edward Lewis' The Construction of Space in Early China”. Early China 30, 155–88.Google Scholar
Qiu Xigui 裘錫圭. 1992. “Shi ‘jia’ 釋‘賈'”. Conference paper. The ninth meeting of the Zhongguo Guwenzi Yanjiu Hui 中國古文字研究會. Nanjing, 1992.Google Scholar
Qiu Xigui 裘錫圭., 1994. Wenzixue gaiyao 文字學概要. Taibei: Wanjuanlou.Google Scholar
Qiu Xigui 裘錫圭., 2000. Chinese Writing. Mattos, Gilbert L. and Norman, Jerry (trans.). Berkeley: The Society for the Study of Early China and The Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Sagart, Laurent. 1999. The Roots of Old Chinese. (Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science, Series IV, Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, Vol. 184.) Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Schuessler, Axel. 2006. ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.Google Scholar
Sena, David M. 2005. “Reproducing society: lineage and kinship in Western Zhou China”, PhD dissertation, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Skosey, Laura A. 1996. “The legal system and the legal tradition of the Western Zhou (c. 1045–771 B.C.E.)”, PhD dissertation, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Sun Yingmin 孫英民., 1986. “Cong Yunmeng Qin jian kan Qin lü ‘lianzuo’ fa 從雲夢秦簡看秦律 ‘連坐’ 法”. Zhongyuan wenwu 中原文物, 2, 100–4.Google Scholar
Thorp, Robert L. 2006. China in the Early Bronze Age. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomiya Itaru 富谷至., 2006. Qin Han xingfa zhidu yanjiu 秦漢刑罰制度研究. Hengye, Zhu and Shengfang, Chai (trans.). Guilin: Guangxi Shifan Daxue.Google Scholar
Tsang Chi-hung 曾志雄. 1993. “A study of alliance pacts unearthed at Houma (Houma mengshu yanjiu 侯馬盟書研究)”, PhD dissertation, University of Hong Kong.Google Scholar
Vankeerberghen, Griet. 2000. “Family and Law in former Han China (206 BCE–8 CE): arguments pro and contra punishing the relatives of a criminal”, Cultural Dynamics 12/ 1, 111–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weld, Susan Roosevelt. 1990. “Covenant in Jin's walled cities: the discoveries at Houma and Wenxian”, PhD dissertation, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Weld, Susan Roosevelt. 1997. “The covenant texts from Houma and Wenxian”, in Shaughnessy, Edward L. (ed.), New Sources of Chinese History. Berkeley: The Society for the Study of Early China and The Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 125–60.Google Scholar
Weld, Susan [Roosevelt]. 1999. “Chu law in action: legal documents from Tomb 2 at Baoshan”, in Constance A. Cook, and Major, John S. (ed.), Defining Chu: Image and Reality in Ancient China. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 77–97.Google Scholar
Weld, Susan Roosevelt. 2004. “Zhengli Wenxian mengshu sheying chengxiang xiangmu: fangfa gaishu 整理溫縣盟書攝影成像項目: 方法概述”, in Ai Lan 艾蘭, (Sarah Allan) and Xing Wen 邢文, (eds), Xin chu jian bo yanjiu – di-er jie xin chu jian bo guoji xueshu yantaohui wenji 2000 nian 8 yue, Beijing 新出簡帛研究·第二屆新出簡帛國際學術研討會文集 2000 年8月·北京. Beijing: Wenwu, 80–85.Google Scholar
Williams, Crispin. 2004. “Shuo Wenxian mengshu de ‘ke shen qi de’ 說溫縣盟書的恪慎其德'”, in Ai Lan 艾蘭, (Sarah Allan) and Xing Wen 邢文, (eds), Xin chu jian bo yanjiu – di-er jie xin chu jian bo guoji xueshu yantaohui wenji 2000 nian 8 yue, Beijing 新出簡帛研究·第二屆新出簡帛國際學術研討會文集 2000 年8月·北京. Beijing: Wenwu, 208–17.Google Scholar
Williams, Crispin. 2005a. “Interpreting the Wenxian covenant texts: methodological procedure and selected analysis”, PhD thesis, University of London.Google Scholar
Williams, Crispin. 2005b. “A methodological procedure for the analysis of the Wenxian covenant texts”, Asiatische Studien LIX/1, 61–114.Google Scholar
Williams, Crispin. 2009. “Ten thousand names: rank and lineage affiliation in the Wenxian covenant texts”, Asiatische Studien LXIII/4, 959–89.Google Scholar
Williams, Crispin [魏克彬]. 2010a. “Houma yu Wenxian mengshu zhong de ‘Yue Gong’ 侯馬與溫縣盟書中的 ‘岳公’ ”. Wenwu, 10, 76–83, 98.Google Scholar
Williams, Crispin [魏克彬]. 2010b. “Wenxian mengshu WT5K14 mengshu bushi: shuo ‘gong’ zi 溫縣盟書WT5K14盟書補釋：說 “龏” 字”, in Wu Changqing 吳長青 (ed.), Chutu wenxian yu chuanshi dianji de quanshi – jinian Tan Pusen xiansheng shishi liang zhounian guoji xueshu yantaohui lunwenji 出土文獻與傳世典籍的詮釋——紀念譚樸森先生逝世兩周年國際學術研討會論文集. Shanghai: Shanghai guji, 97–127.Google Scholar
Xu Daosheng 許道勝., 2004. “Zhangjiashan Han jian ‘Ernian lüling – zei lü’ bu shi 張家山漢簡《二年律令·賊律》補釋”, Jiang Han kaogu 江漢考古, no. 93, 4, 86–90.Google Scholar
Yates, Robin. 1987. “Social status in the Ch'in: evidence from the Yun-meng legal documents. Part one: Commoners”, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 47/1, 197–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yu Xingwu 于省吾., (ed.). 1996. Jiaguwenzi gulin 甲骨文字詁林. 4 vols. Beijing: Zhonghua.Google Scholar
Zhao Shigang 趙世綱 and Luo Taoxiang 羅桃香., 1996. “Lun Wenxian mengshu yu Houma mengshu de niandai ji qi xianghu guanxi 論溫縣盟書與侯馬盟書的年代及其相互關係”, in Zhongguo kaogu xuehui, 中國考古學會 (ed.), Fen he wan: Dingcun wenhua yu Jin wenhua kaogu xueshu yantaohui wenji 汾河灣: 丁村文化與晉文化考古學術研討會文集. Taiyuan: Shanxi gaoxiao lianhe, 152–61.Google Scholar
Zhao Shigang 趙世綱., 2003. “Daoci kao – Wenxian mengshu T5K14 meng ci shidu 禱祠考 — 溫縣盟書T5K14盟詞釋讀”, in Zhang Guangyu 張光裕, (ed.), Di-si jie guoji Zhongguo guwenzixue yantaohui lunwenji 第四屆國際中國古文字學研討會論文集. Hong Kong: Xiang Gang Zhongwen Daxue Zhongguo Yuyan Ji Wenxue Xi, 479–92.Google Scholar
Zhang Shichao (Chō Sei Chou) 張世超, et al. 1996. Jinwen xing yi tong jie (Kinbun keigi Tsūkai) 金文形義通解. 4 vols. Kyoto: Chūbun Shuppansha.Google Scholar
Zhang Shouzhong 張守中., 1981. Zhongshan Wang Cuo qi wenzi bian 中山王器文字編. Beijing: Zhonghua.Google Scholar
Zhu Dexi 朱德熙., 1995. “Zhanguo wenzi yanjiu (liu zhong) 戰國文字研究 (六穜)”. Zhu Dexi guwenzi lunji 朱德熙古文字論集. Beijing: Zhonghua, 31–53. [Originally published in Kaogu xuebao 考古學報 1972/2.]Google Scholar
Zhu Dexi 朱德熙, and Qiu Xigui 裘錫圭., 1979. “Pingshan Zhongshan Wang mu tongqi mingwen de chubu yanjiu 平山中山王墓銅器銘文的初步研究”, Wenwu, 1979/1, 42–52.Google Scholar
Zhu Honglin 朱紅林, . 2005. “Zhangjiashan Han jian ‘zei lü’ ji shi 張家山漢簡《賊律》集釋”. Guji zhengli yanjiu xuekan 古籍整理研究學刊 2005/2: 30–41.Google Scholar