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Overview
Key data
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Excavated | 1942, Zidanku Chu tomb, Changsha, Hunan |
| Material | Silk, folded into eight central columns with twelve sections around the border |
| Period | Middle to late Warring States |
| Present location | Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C. |
| Contents | Parts A (four seasons), B (celestial portents), C (month prohibitions) |
Form and structure
The manuscript is square, with two long texts in ink at the centre and trees painted at the four corners; twelve short sections run around the border, each with a figure and a text. The twelve correspond to the twelve months, the figures being imagined prodigies.
This layout — one centre and twelve around it — is itself a presentation of calendrical thought.
The month-name system
Each of the twelve border sections records a month under a name peculiar to Chu, such as qu, nü and bing, unlike later month-names. Under each name are prohibitions and prescriptions similar to those in day books.
The discovery of the Chu month-names made the calendar of Chu directly observable for the first time.
The four seasons and portents
The central text discusses how the four seasons came to be and in what order, tying them to astronomical portents.
It speaks of the sun and moon losing their order and the stars leaving their stations bringing calamity — a strand of astral divination.
Value
Recovered early and well preserved, the manuscript is the ancestor of Chinese silk texts.
Its month-names can be compared with those in the “Explaining the Heavens” chapter of the Erya, making it a key source for the study of the Chu calendar and of month-names generally.
Full text
No electronic full text of this work is available here. This is an archaeological find or artefact, for which no transmitted full text exists.
The title, date, summary and index structure compiled here are offered under CC BY 4.0 (attribution: Chujia Kuang · kuangchujia.com).
Compiled and arranged by Chujia Kuang.