Overview
Key data
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Excavated | 1975, Shuihudi tomb 11, Yunmeng, Hubei |
| Date | c. 217 BCE (year of the tomb occupant Xi’s death) |
| Quantity | Two versions, A and B, over four hundred slips in all |
| Contents | Day selection, childbirth, illness, dreams, exorcism |
| Publication | The Shuihudi Qin Tomb Bamboo Slips |
Size and date
The tomb occupant, Xi, was a Qin prison official who died in the thirtieth year of the First Emperor (c. 217 BCE).
Among the slips buried with him, the day book in two versions, A and B, comes to more than four hundred slips — the best preserved body of its kind.
What it contains
The day book sets out by day what may and may not be done: travel, marriage, breaking ground, seeing officials, cutting cloth, bathing, sacrifice.
Beyond day selection there are divinations on childbirth — the fate of an infant read from the position and hour of its birth — on illness, and on dreams, as well as a section on exorcism.
It is the fullest surviving side-view of ordinary life of the time, and its value goes well beyond the calendar.
Its calendrical value
The order of months in the day book agrees with the calendar actually in use, and can be read against the excavated tables.
From this it can be confirmed that Qin took the tenth month as the head of the year, called the intercalary month “latter ninth month,” and put intercalation at the year’s end.
Qin used the Zhuanxu calendar, taking the tenth month as the head of the year and placing the intercalary month at the year’s end under the name “latter ninth month.” This is seen most plainly on excavated calendrical tables: their months begin with the tenth and end with the ninth, unlike the later order from the first to the twelfth.
Compiled and arranged by Chujia Kuang.