Page 351 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

States elite in Chu and elsewhere since turtle
and milfoil divination were a shared inheritance
from Shang and Zhou religious tradition. 2
The Tianxingguan divination-sacrifice record
documents the routine of divination to obtain
judgments from the spirits and their approval of
sacrificial offerings — continuing the pattern of
divination coupled with propitiatory and exorcistic
acts that is first recorded in the Shang oracle-bone
inscriptions (cats. 55-56). Among the ten bamboo
slips exhibited, nos. 8 and 5 (in that order) contain
nearly an entire entry from the original record. The
translation, followed by an explanation, follows. 3

1. In the year that the Guest from Qin,
Gongsun Yang, inquired after the King at
Ying [the Chu capital]; in the tenth month;
on the day bingxu. Gu Ding divines for the
Lord of Diyang, Pan Cheng, with the Long
Treasure [turtle]: "In serving the King [from
the tenth month extending to the tenth
month of the coming year, would that dur-
ing the entire year [Pan Cheng] himself
experience benefit and concord." (Divina-
tion with the turtle plastron is performed.)
The prediction:] "The divination is ever
auspicious. As there is slight concern for
[Pan Cheng's] person, there is to be a rite
of expulsion. According to the cause, let
the rite expel it."
2. "Select a lucky day in the Cuan [eleventh]
month to pledge in prayer to Grand One,
in other Chu tombs, it is thought that such records one perfect ox; to the Director of the Life-
are a selection of the acts of turtle divination, mandate and to the Director of Faults, one
milfoil divination, and sacrifice performed during ewe each; to the Lord of the Earth, one
the several years preceding death. Perhaps the black sheep; and to pledge in prayer to
4
copies of such divination-sacrifice records were Great Water, one perfect ox. Select a lucky
compiled specifically for burial in the tomb; this day in the Xianma [twelfth] month to re-
might be one explanation for the discovery of quite [the pledge to the royal ancestors
tomb inventories together with divination-sacrifice from Sire Zhuo to Sire Hui. Entertain them
records in a number of Chu tombs. It is certain with the Great Animal Sacrifice [ox, sheep,
that men like Pan Cheng — an elite patron of reli- pig], offering one hundred [animals]."
gious specialists — kept such records throughout (Divination is performed.) The prediction:
their adult lives, however. The tomb copies provide "Auspicious. Throughout the term of the
a vivid first look at the daily religion of the Warring entire year there will be happiness."]] 5

35O | CHU AND OTHER C U L T U R E S