Regnum Sinense

岳麓书院藏秦简

Qin slips in the Yuelu Academy collection

Excavated texts 简牍 · 249 BC · 秦庄襄王元年

Introduction

A statute of the Yuelu Academy slips (volume IV, slips 329–331; the numbers in the text are the editors' slip numbers, register number and sequence number) from the reign of King Zhuangxiang: the Clerk of the Capital's report on the poor convict labour at the Western Workshop and the ruling on it.

Text and Translation

Text: Chinese source

Text: English Translation

Annotations

[§2] 岳麓书院藏秦简

[§2] Qin slips in the Yuelu Academy collection

泰上皇时内史言：西工室司寇、隐官、践更多贫不能自给粮。议：令县遣司寇入禾，其县毋（无）禾0587/329当貣者，告作所县偿及贷。西工室伐榦沮、南郑山，令沮、南郑听西工室致。其入禾者及吏移西0638/330工室。·二年曰：复用。0681/331

In the time of the Grand Supreme Emperor1 the Clerk of the Capital said: The sikou, the yinguan and those serving their geng turn2 at the Western Workshop are many of them poor and cannot provide their own grain. Deliberation3: Let the Counties send the sikou to deliver grain4; where a County has no grain to be lent5, let it report to the County of the work-site6 for repayment and loan7. The Western Workshop fells timber in the hills of Ju and Nanzheng; let Ju and Nanzheng act on the Western Workshop's requisitions8. Those who deliver the grain, and the officers, are passed on9 to the Western Workshop. · In the second year it was said: Put back in use.10

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Terms

Clerk of the Capital / 内史n. the office governing the home territory of Qin about the capital.
sikou / 司寇n. the lightest grade of Qin convict labour, 'robber-guard', ranking between commoners and the lichenqie 隶臣妾 slaves; by Han law a term of two years.
yinguan / 隐官n. a person pardoned after a mutilating punishment and set to work out of public sight, 'the hidden'; a status ranked with the sikou.
serving one's geng turn / 践更n. performing in person one's turn (更) of statutory labour service for the government, as against hiring a substitute.
the Western Workshop / 西工室n. a state workshop (工室) of Qin, staffed with convicts and men on labour service; the statute does not say where it stood. A Qin Western Workshop (西工) of Shu Commandery is attested on slips excavated at Zikujie, Chengdu.
County / 县n. the basic unit of direct administration, capitalized as an administrative unit.
officer / 吏n. a man in government service below the rank of official; a clerk or functionary.

Persons

King Zhuangxiang of Qin 秦庄襄王King of Qin, reigned 249–247 BC; personal name Zichu 子楚 (Suoyin); the Grand Supreme Emperor 泰上皇 (太上皇) of the Yuelu statutes, the title given him after his death.

Places

Ju 沮a County of Qin in Hanzhong Commandery, on the upper Ju River 沮水 (the Jialing); modern Lueyang 略阳, Shaanxi.
Nanzheng 南郑a County of Qin, the seat of Hanzhong Commandery, in the Han River valley; modern Hanzhong 汉中, Shaanxi.

Notes

1 Grand Supreme Emperor泰上皇, that is 太上皇, the title the First Emperor gave his father King Zhuangxiang after his death; "in the time of" the Grand Supreme Emperor is Zhuangxiang's reign, 249–247 BC, which places the statute here, at the reign's first year; the year within the reign is not given.
2 geng turn践更: the editors' pause marks make three groups, sikou, yinguan and men on their geng turn; Chen Wei reads 司寇、隐官践更, the sikou and yinguan on their geng turn, as in another Yuelu statute (slip 017). The editors' punctuation is kept.
3 Deliberation议: the ruling that answers the report (言); the form of a Qin statute of this kind.
4 deliver grain入禾: grain unhusked; the County supplies the grain its sikou will eat at the Workshop.
5 to be lent貣, the editors' reading 贷 kept in parentheses: 当貣者, the quantity due to be lent.
6 County of the work site作所县: the County in which the Workshop's work-site lies.
7 for repayment and loan偿及贷: as read here, the County of the work-site lends the grain and the sikou's own County repays it.
8 act on its requisitions听…致: 致, the note by which an office calls for men or goods to be delivered; 听, to comply with it.
9 passed on移: the forwarding of men and of the papers that go with them.
10 second year·二年曰：复用: an annotation after the scribe's dot, recording that the statute was put back in force in a second year; Chen Wei takes it as the second year of King Zheng, 245 BC.