Overview
Key data
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Collection | Peking University Western Han bamboo slips (acquired 2009) |
| Period | Middle Western Han |
| Titles | “Nodes,” “Book of Rain,” and others |
| Contents | Nodes and seasonal signs; divination of rain |
| Publication | The Peking University Western Han Bamboo Books |
“Nodes”
“Nodes” takes the twenty-four nodes as its frame, recording the seasonal signs and corresponding affairs of each.
Its form is close to the Xia Xiao Zheng and the “Explanation of the Seasonal Instructions,” belonging to the class that attaches affairs to the seasons.
A Han slip text on the nodes is direct material for how the twenty-four nodes were actually used in the period.
“Book of Rain”
“Book of Rain” gives methods of divining rain, inferring the time of rainfall from cloud, wind and the sexagenary day.
Such material occurs scattered in transmitted texts but not as a whole text; this manuscript makes its original form visible.
Value
The Peking University slips were acquired late and are well preserved, with many titles.
“Nodes” and “Book of Rain” present the two ends of season and divination side by side, material for the agricultural sense of time of the period.
Compiled and arranged by Chujia Kuang.