The calendrical tables from the Han tomb at Zhangjiashan

张家山汉简《历谱》 Western Han · Empress Lü to Emperor Wen

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Overview

The calendrical table from the Zhangjiashan Han tomb at Jiangling, found with the “Statutes of the Second Year” and the “Book of Numbers” — one batch of evidence for early Han calendrical practice and administration.

Key data

ItemDetail
Excavated1983–1984, Zhangjiashan tomb 247, Jiangling, Hubei
PeriodEarly Western Han (c. Empress Lü to Emperor Wen)
ContentsCalendrical table, the “Statutes of the Second Year,” the “Book of Numbers,” the “Book of Vessels,” and others
Table formDay-table with jianchu and fu-la
PublicationThe Zhangjiashan Han Tomb Bamboo Slips

The table and the other slips

Zhangjiashan tomb 247 yielded over a thousand slips, among them the “Statutes of the Second Year,” a great body of early Han legal articles,

the “Book of Numbers,” one of the earliest surviving Chinese works on mathematics, and the calendrical table.

Law, arithmetic and calendrical days in one tomb show what an official of the time needed to know.

What the table looks like

The table sets out the days in sexagenary order with jianchu and fu-la noted.

With the Yinqueshan table for 134 BCE and the Zhoujiatai Qin table it forms a line, showing the continuous face of practical day-tables from Qin into early Han.

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Compiled and arranged by Chujia Kuang.