1. Whether or not Marquis Yi's tomb and the items contained therein are typical for his status and region is a complicated question that this essay will not address directly. Extravagant funerals were standard amongst Zhanguo ruling elites. Since the discovery and excavation of Marquis Yi's tomb, however, few have failed to note or to seek explanations for the tomb's opulence and its distinctive bronze vessels and musical instruments. For an overview, see Tan Weisi 譚維四, Zeng Hou Yi mu 曾侯乙墓 (Beijing: Sanlian, 2003)Google Scholar. For a discussion of the bell sets and what they tell us about the unique musical culture at the Zeng court, see Bagley, Robert, “The Prehistory of Chinese Music Theory,” Proceedings of the British Academy 130 (2005): 41–90Google Scholar. As this essay was going to press, I was alerted to the following volume, which I have been unable to review: Huang Jinggang 黃敬剛, Zeng Hou Yi mu li yue zhidu yanjiu 曾侯乙墓禮樂制度研究 (Beijing: Renmin, 2013)Google Scholar.

2. Add to these problems the poor quality of the photographs of the strips in the excavation report. Important scholarship on the strips began with the transcription and study included in the report, Qiu Xigui 裘錫圭 and Li Jiahao 李家浩, “Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen yu kaoshi” 曾侯乙墓竹簡釋文與考釋, in guan, Hubei sheng bowu, Zeng Hou Yi mu 曾侯乙墓, vol. 1 (Beijing: Wenwu, 1989), 487–531Google Scholar. Subsequent studies include Zhang Tiehui 張鐵慧, “‘Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen yu kaoshi’ du hou ji” 《曾侯乙墓竹簡釋文與考釋》讀後記, Jiang Han kaogu 1996.3, 66–75Google Scholar; Ishiguro Hisako 石黑日沙子 “Sōkō itsu bo shutsudo chikkan ni tsuite no hitotsu kōsatsu” 曾侯乙墓出土竹简についての一考察, Sundai shigaku 95 (1995), 34–66Google Scholar [translated into Chinese by Liu Xiaolu 劉曉路 in Jianbo yanjiu yi cong 簡帛研究譯叢, vol. 2 (Changsha: Hunan, 1998), 1–29Google Scholar]. Ishiguro advanced provocative arguments about Zeng-Chu relations, approaching the strips in a manner that contrasts with the approach of this essay. See Appendix B for a discussion.

The most recent and important work is Xiao Shengzhong 蕭聖中, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng ji che ma zhidu yanjiu 曾侯乙墓竹簡釋文補正暨車馬制度研究 (Beijing: Kexue, 2011)Google Scholar. Xiao's book is based on his 2005 dissertation completed at Wuhan University, and follows publication of several of his articles on the Zeng strips (for a list, see Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 8). Transcriptions given in both the main text and appendix of this essay follow Xiao's transcription (see n. 15 below). Xiao, 8, noted that he was also largely responsible for the fresh transcription and study of the Zeng strips found in Chen Wei 陳偉, Chu di chutu Zhanguo jiance [shisi zhong] 楚地出土戰國簡冊[十四種] (Beijing: Jingji kexue, 2009), 340–73Google Scholar.

3. Dates for the Yi li, a composite text, must remain highly tentative. See William G. Boltz's entry on the Yi li in Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide, ed. Loewe, Michael (Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China, 1993), 234–43.Google Scholar

4. See, e.g., Chen Wei 陳偉, “Guanyu Baoshan Chu jian zhong de sangzang wenshu” 關於包山楚簡中的喪葬文書, Kaogu yu wenwu 1996.2, 74Google Scholar; Rawson, Jessica, “From Ritual Vessels to Pottery Tomb Figures: Changes in Ancient Chinese Burial Practice,” Orientations 27.9 (Oct 1996), 45Google Scholar; Guolong Lai, “The Baoshan Tomb: Religious Transitions in Art, Ritual, and Text During the Warring States Period” (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 2002), 30–32; Liu Guosheng 劉國勝, “Chu qiance zhidu shu lüe” 楚遣策制度述略, Chu wenhua yanjiu lun ji 楚文化研究論集, vol. 6 (Hubei: Hubei jiaoyu, 2005), 229–40Google Scholar; Cook, Constance A., Death in Ancient China: One Man's Journey (Leiden: Brill, 2006)Google Scholar, 159n.25; and Richter, Matthias, The Embodied Text: Establishing Textual Identity in Early Chinese Manuscripts (Brill: Leiden, 2013)Google Scholar, 27n.6. Important exceptions include the excavation report itself, Zeng Hou Yi mu, vol. 1, 452–58, which described the strips as primarily an account of Marquis Yi's funeral procession. Ishiguro, “Sōkō itsu bo shutsudo chikkan ni tsuite no hitotsu kōsatsu,” 39, carefully noted similarities and differences between the Zeng strips and Chu inventories, and then posited an evolutionary relationship between the two, arguing that the former played a “pioneering” (senkuteki 先駆的) role for the latter. Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 3, quoted the Yi li and then wrote that the strips are a complex combination of the inventory and gift list format, and can be called a “funeral record” (sangzang jilu 喪葬記錄). For a clear discussion of distinctions early ritual texts make between qiance and fengshu, see Yang Hua 楊華, “Sui, feng, qian – jiandu suo jian Chu di zhusang lizhi yanjiu” 禭，賵，遣－簡牘所見楚地助喪禮制研究, Xueshu yue kan 2003.9, 50–51Google Scholar.

5. Yang Hua, “Sui, feng, qian – jiandu suo jian Chu di zhusang lizhi yanjiu,” 54 and passim, and Liu Guosheng, “Chu qiance zhidu shu lüe,” 236, noted that not all of the items mentioned in texts labeled fengshu or qiance were necessarily interred in tombs, a point fully supported by the analysis in this paper. Nevertheless, the impulse has been to search for a one-to-one correspondence between items enumerated in a given excavated text and the items from the tomb that contained the text, a method that is clearly not appropriate for the tomb of Marquis Yi (see n. 21 below).

6. Anthropologists continue to debate the difference between “ritual,” “performance,” and “spectacle.” Essays in Archaeology of Performance: Theaters of Power, Community, and Politics, eds. Inomata, Takeshi and Coben, Lawrence S. (Lanham, MD: AltaMira, 2006)Google Scholar, explored the issues in detail, with contributors staking out starkly different positions. This essay refrains from entering these theoretical debates, and indeed does not hesitate to use the dictionary definition of “performance” to describe the actual staging and presentation of Marquis Yi's funeral procession. Nevertheless, its characterization of Marquis Yi's funeral as a “spectacle” is purposeful. Use of the term finds support in Stephen Houston's argument that the large scale and high number of participants and observers in spectacles distinguish them in qualitative terms from smaller-scale “performances,” even if both are “marked behaviors” that occur relatively rarely and clearly differ from quotidian behavior (and thus merit inclusion under the larger category of “ritual”). It also finds solace in Houston's general reminder that excessively tight definitions of these terms can lead to confused, even absurd conclusions. See Houston, “Impersonation, Dance, and the Problem of Spectacle Among the Classic Maya,” in Archaeology of Performance, esp. 135–39. Thanks are due to one of Early China’s reviewers for urging me to explore these issues in more detail.

7. Zeng Hou Yi mu, vol. 1, 14.

8. In the northern chamber alone, excavators unearthed 3,304 weapons and weapon pieces, most of them arrowheads. Zeng Hou Yi mu, vol. 1, 253.

9. The remainder of this section is based on descriptions found within the section of the excavation report that details the strips, Zeng Hou Yi mu, vol. 1, 452–53.

10. By comparison, the strips excavated from the 316 b.c.e. tomb of a high Chu official at Baoshan 包山 were 59.6 cm to 72.6 cm. See Pian Yuqian 駢宇騫, Ben shiji yi lai chutu jianbo gaishu 本世紀以來出土簡帛概述 (Taipei: Wan juan lou, 1999), 89Google Scholar.

11. The publishers of the excavation report cut up the photographs of the strips in order to fit them on the page, so it is quite difficult to identify these gaps. Chen Wei has noted that the distance between the gaps varies significantly between two different groups of strips, suggesting that they were in fact bound into two different rolls (juan 卷; see n. 52 below). Chen did not directly cite a source for these measurements, but they were presumably executed as part of a working group first convened in 2002–3 and dedicated to “comprehensive ordering of and research on Chu bamboo strips” (楚簡綜合整理與研究). For this group and its work, see Chen Wei, Chu di chutu Zhanguo jiance [shi si zhong], 2–3; http://www.bsm.org.cn/html/04/0406kaiti.html (accessed on November 29, 2011).

12. Qiu and Li, “Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shi wen yu kaoshi,” Zeng Hou Yi mu, vol. 1, 487. The “blank strips” were perhaps not completely blank, since the excavation report includes a photograph of an apparently broken strip that has no text, but does have a black section-heading blot at the top (further discussion of these blots below). See Zeng Hou Yi mu, vol. 2, image 231, strip 215.

13. Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 37–148, provided and explained a new sequence based on his reassessment of the strips and evidence from infrared pictures.

14. Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 160–62, gave a thorough overview and analysis of how the same chariots appear across different strip groups. Unsurprisingly, there are some exceptions and unanswered questions as to whether or not certain strips describe the same chariot.

15. Transcriptions and punctuation follow Xiao Shengzhong, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 40–148, with exceptions pointed out in the footnotes. Characters in parentheses, also included in Xiao's transcription, are not found on the strips themselves. They are Xiao's renderings of the immediately preceding characters, which are actually written on the strips. Many, though by no means all, of the items mentioned in the Zeng texts are also found in the texts from Baoshan detailing funerary items. Constance Cook, Death in Ancient China: The Tale of One Man's Journey, 211–47, translated the Baoshan texts into English, and wherever possible my translations draw on Cook's work. Information in the footnotes provides justification for the renderings given here. Only rarely do the notes engage in debates surrounding the transcription and interpretation of individual characters. Interested readers are encouraged to compare the translations and notes provided here with Xiao's and Cook's comprehensive analyses and references.

Note that the transcriptions do not attempt to recreate the circular blots (what I call “counting marks”) that pepper the strips, though they do reproduce the squares of ink that marked off different sections. The blots are quite complicated and evince subtle differences that are difficult to reproduce for a transcription (at least with my own poor graphic and computer design skills). They are, however, fundamentally important for understanding the process by which the strips were composed and compiled for the funeral procession. They are discussed separately and in greater detail in the second section of this article. Xiao's transcriptions render the blots as either circles or ovals.

16. This “Director of the Right” is mentioned on strip 7. Qiu and Li, “Zeng Houyi mu zhujian shiwen yu kaoshi,” 501n.8, noted that the “tallies” (qi jie 啓結) of E Jun 鄂君 used ling 令 (“Director”) interchangeably with the character on the Zeng strips. Various officers mentioned in the Baoshan texts include the character, and the office you ling 右領 is found in the Zuo zhuan 左傳. See He Linyi 何琳儀, Zhanguo guwen zidian : Zhanguo wenzi sheng xi 戰國古文字典:戰國文字聲系 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1998), 1147Google Scholar; Liu Xinfang 劉信芳, Baoshan Chu jian jie gu 包山楚簡解詁 (Taipei: Yiwen, 2003), 7–8.Google Scholar

17. Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 198, noted that this character is not understood.

18. Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 42 and 197, cited various scholars and sources, including Wang Guowei 王國維 and the Er ya 爾雅, which suggest that bi 弼 and hen 鞎 refer to protective screens attached to the front and back, respectively, of chariots.

19. Qiu and Li, “Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen yu kaoshi,” 502n.13, noted that this same word appears in different forms throughout the strips, including fen 紛. Cook, Death in Ancient China, 235, rendered fenyue 紛約 as “tied-together ropes.”

20. For “panda-skin” and “wild dog,” see Cook, Death in Ancient China, 235. The Wangshan 望山 strips (2.8), describe a bow case made of a similar hide, termed limo 狸貘. See Zhang Guangyu 張光裕 and Yuan Guohua 袁國華, Wangshan chu jian jiao lu: [fu wen zi bian] 望山楚簡校錄 : [附文字編] (Taipei: Yiwen, 2004), 93.Google Scholar

21. The items recovered from the northern chamber provide a visual and material sense of the different materials described on the strips. It is reasonable to suppose that some of the items contained within the northern chamber were in fact used in the funeral procession. There is no one-to-one correspondence between items listed on the strips and items from the tomb, however, despite efforts to make such matches. For example, Qiu and Li, “Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shi wen yu kaoshi,” 505n.31, using definitions found in later texts and commentaries, separated the “capped spear” (jin shu 晉杸) identified on the strips from the other bladed spears in the tomb. They also found a perfect match between the number of capped spears recovered from the tomb (fourteen) and the number mentioned on the strips. Though the strips mention only nine capped spears, Qiu and Li argued that an additional five must also have held up five double or single banners (pei旆) also referred to on the strips that are not paired with a spear. Elsewhere in the strips, however (e.g., strip 2), we read of spears (called just shu 杸) that supported banners. There is thus no reason to assume that capped spears necessarily had to support the five spear-less banners. This essay argues against Qiu and Li's central assumption reflected in this example: that the Zeng strips functioned as an inventory of items in the tomb, and thus the figures provided should correspond to the number of items in the tomb.

22. See Qiu and Li, “Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shi wen yu kaoshi,” 505n.30 and 506n.31.

23. These strips typically follow the format: X drives the chariot of Y. For example: 哀還馭令尹之一乘車 (strip 63; see below).

24. Qiu and Li, “Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shi wen yu kaoshi,” 522n.183, wrote that this character can be taken as bu 布 (hemp fabric), as does Teng Rensheng 滕壬生, Chu xi jianbo wenzi bian 楚系簡帛文字編 (Wuhan: Hubei jiaoyu, 2008), 723Google Scholar. Elsewhere in the Zeng strips (e.g., strip 127), the character is written without the sound component fu 父. See also Chen Wei, Chu di chutu Zhanguo jiance [shisi zhong], 361n.4; Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 99n.3.

25. The strips clearly distinguish between human and horse armor. See Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 99.

26. Qiu and Li, “Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shi wen yu kaoshi,” 522n.182, wrote that 索 can be understood as su 素 (white), and that the character refers to the color of the armor (they cite a commentary to the Guoyu 國語). Chen Wei, Chu di chutu Zhanguo jiance [shisi zhong], 360, followed this interpretation. The lacquer armor excavated from the tomb is only black and red. If the armor was originally painted white, the color long ago washed away in Marquis Yi's water-logged tomb.

27. The right half of this character is illegible. Chen Wei, Chu di chutu Zhanguo jiance [shisi zhong], 364, included only a picture of the character and then offered one possibility: xuan 駽.

28. Qiu and Li, “Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shi wen yu kaoshi,” 524n.202, wrote that the right half of the character is an alternate form for mao 卯, thus the rendering liu 騮.

29. The translation takes qingshi 慶事 as 卿事, an official title found in several pre-imperial bronze inscriptions. Most scholars have interpreted the title as 卿士, a Zhou office mentioned in pre-imperial and Han texts. Commentators described the qingshi as a high administrative office in charge of government ministries. See Egashira Kō 江頭廣, Senshin kanshoku shiryō 先秦官職資料 (Tokyo: Kenbun, 1985), 14Google Scholar. Egashira followed Guo Moruo's 郭沫若 (1892–1978) argument that the qingshi was in fact equivalent to the Zhou office of neishi内史. The laconic listing of the office on this particular strip can shed no additional light on the matter.

30. The donors listed share titles seen in the A, B, and C strips, though many are missing and the number of horses listed on the D strips do not approach the total number of horses given on the Zeng strips. It is possible that the now missing strips indicated the rest of the donated horses.

31. Chen Wei, Chu di chutu Zhanguo jiance [shisi zhong], 372n.6. It is not precisely clear what sort of “figurines” might have been used in the funeral.

32. A survey of the area around the Marquis's tomb yielded evidence of a Zeng “graveyard,” but no evidence of burial pits. See Hubei sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiu suo, “Hubei Suizhou shi Leigudun mu qun de kancha yu shijue” 湖北隨州市擂鼓墩墓群的勘察與試掘, Kaogu 2003.9, 25–32Google Scholar.

33. According to Chen Wei, Chu di chutu Zhanguo jiance [shisi zhong], 341, the Chu strips task force (see n. 11 above) “discovered” (faxian 發現) a third label strip after taking infrared photographs of the strips. For a transcription of this third strip, see Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 130.

34. For this rendering, see Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian zhiwen, 180. This type of chariot is mentioned in several strips that are labeled (see n. 81 below).

35. Qiu and Li, “Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen yu kaoshi,” 517n.123 only gave details about the transcription of the character. Teng, Chu xi jianbo wenzi bian, 636, did not provide instances of the word ji beyond the Zeng strips.

36. Assuming that the yuan xuan 園軒 chariot given on strip 203 corresponds to the chariot (che 車) seen on strip 53 that has a “curved railing” (yuan xuan).

37. Two different strips (119 and 193) record that the Lord of Yangcheng gave luche路車, but the record on strip 119 prefaces the word luche with the character , which most scholars have glossed as “to donate” (see Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 99). This table counts these strips as referring to the same set of three chariots, but one could argue that they are two different vehicles, for the following reasons. First, the three luche of the Lord of Ge recorded on strip 194 (immediately after those of the Lord of Yangcheng) are not in the tabulation on strip 119. Second, strip 195 tabulates luche prefaced by the unknown character while strip 196 tabulates just luche.

38. I have followed Qiu and Li in taking the Duke of Lüyang 旅陽公 listed on strip 195 as being the same Duke of Luyang seen on strip 162. I have also assumed that a person titled Lu Gong 旅公 seen on strip 119 also refers to the Duke of Luyang.

39. We read on strip 156, for example, that the “King's grandson Sheng” (wang sun sheng 王孫生) contributed one horse.

40. It is difficult, if not impossible, to identify these locations with absolute certainty, since borders shifted over time and received texts refer to several individuals with these titles. For different possible identifications of the Lord of Pingye in received and excavated texts, see Shi Quan 石泉, He Hao 何浩, and Chen Wei 陳偉, Chu guo lishi wenhua cidian 楚國歷史文化辭典 (Wuchang: Wuhan daxue, 1996), 225Google Scholar. See also Liu Xinfang, Baoshan chu jian jie gu, 189. For the Lord of Yangcheng, including his appearance in the Mozi 墨子, see Shi Quan, et. al., Chu guo lishi wenhua cidian, 173. For a detailed analysis of the Duke of Luyang as mentioned in received and excavated texts, see He Hao, “Luyang Jun, Luyang Gong ji Luyang she xian de wenti” 魯陽君，魯陽公及魯陽設縣的問題, Zhongyuan wenwu 1994.4, 47–51.Google Scholar

41. Henan Sheng wen wu kao gu yan jiu suo, Xincai Geling Chu mu 新蔡葛陵楚墓 (Zhengzhou: Da xiang, 2003)Google Scholar.

42. Liu Xinfang 劉信芳, “Xincai Geling Chu mu de niandai yi ji xiangguan wenti” 新蔡葛陵楚墓的年代以及相關問題. Posted on http://www.jianbo.org/admin3/html/liuxinfang01.htm (accessed on January 12, 2012).

43. Ishiguro has a much more elaborate theory about the king(s) mentioned on the strips. See Appendix B.

44. Interestingly, however, the three chariots that the king donated are listed on three separate strips, 187–89, while strips describing chariots donated by the prince and the lords give separate strips only for each donor, not individual chariots. This separate treatment on the strips perhaps presents the king and his donations as comparatively more important. No argument is thus made here about the relative importance of nobles versus Chu royalty in the funeral as a whole. In this vein, we should not forget that the King of Chu presented Zeng with a remarkable bronze bell, cast in honor of Marquis Yi and hung with the rest of his bells on the set from the tomb.

45. Presumably some level of training would have been required in order to ensure that the horses worked well together and could pull the chariot in a safe and aesthetically pleasing manner. How long would this training process have taken? My lack of equestrian experience prohibits a confident answer. Most likely, however, the horses would have already been highly trained, and quite used to pulling chariots in a team. The funeral directors, in other words, would not have started from scratch. Nevertheless, noble viewers of the cortege no doubt understood that these carriages and horses belonged to different lords. The fact that the directors were able to combine them together so effectively must have been a testament to the high level of horsemanship at the Zeng court.

46. My analysis here, of course, assumes that the descriptions on the strips reflect the actual reality of the procession as it was performed in 433 b.c.e. It is theoretically possible that the funeral directors just added names of nobles who in fact neither participated in nor contributed items to the procession, presumably in an attempt to increase the prestige of Marquis Yi's funerary cortège. I believe this is unlikely, however, for two reasons. First, the fact that the Chu king donated such a magnificent bronze bell to Zeng for the funeral proves that Marquis Yi was sufficiently important to attract spectacularly opulent goods across long distances. Second, as discussed more fully below, the Zeng funerary texts were formal documents that had an important public function in the performance of the procession. It stretches credulity to imagine that the Zeng state would publicly proclaim that important nobles donated items when in fact they had done no such thing.

47. The Baoshan strips mention a “New Office” (xin guan), giving different posts found within the New Office (in what appears to be a hierarchically arranged list) and even the personal names of office holders. See Zhou Fengwu 周鳳五, “Baoshan Chu jian ‘Ji zhu’ ‘Ji zhu yan’ xi lun” 包山楚簡《集箸》《集箸言》析論, Zhongguo wenzi 21 (1996), esp. 34.Google Scholar

48. See Appendix B.

49. I am thus more concerned here with what the arrangement of the black blots can tell us about how scribes composed the text. No argument is made about the precise function of the blots as punctuation in the Zeng texts. Square blots of a similar sort are commonly found in excavated texts in the pre-imperial and early imperial periods, and serve several different functions. See Guan Xihua 管錫華, Zhongguo gudai biaodian fuhao fazhan shi 中國古代標點符號發展史 (Chengdu: Ba Shu, 2002), 62, 67, 71, and 89–90Google Scholar. Guan does not mention the square blots on the Zeng strips, which do indeed appear to be somewhat anomalous, since the marks on the A and B strips equally denote the beginning and ending of chariot entries depending on where the entries are arranged on a given set of strips. They thus function above all to mark off the entries as discrete units (for the benefit of readers?). Elsewhere in the texts, particularly in the tabulation strips, square black blots appear consistently as headings at the start of a line of text, in a manner similar to instances in other excavated texts. Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 4, noted only that the square blots either begin or end passages.

50. Note, for instance, the slanted orientation of characters on the C strips compared to those on the A strips.

51. The presence of binding string gaps on the strips is relevant here. As noted above, the excavation report described regular gaps on the strips between characters, suggesting that the strips were bound before scribes wrote on them. The presentation of the photographs in the excavation report makes it difficult to discern such gaps. Chen Wei, Chu di chutu Zhanguo jiance [shisi zhong], 340, noted that the distance between the two gaps on strips 1–141 (groups A and B) is 40 cm or greater, while the distance on the C strips describing the horse teams is only 35–37 cm. He concludes that the strips were divided into two separate rolls (juan 卷). These observations thus accord with the argument advanced here.

52. See n. 46 above.

53. Still, it was the arrival of the chariots that the scribe emphasized, since he wrote the characters zhi ci quite large and placed them towards the bottom of the strip, separate from the rest of the text (see Figure 4; zhi and ci are the last two characters on the bottom right of strip 121). An alternate reading of the phrase is possible: zhi ci 致此, or “These were presented.” In this case, zhi would refer to the chariots themselves and the items that they contained, and the tabulation would refer to the procession as it was planned and organized, before the actual performance. This reading does not affect the basic idea, however, that the Zeng funeral directors used the strips to organize and verify the myriad participants and components of the procession. Thanks are due to an Early China reviewer for alerting me to this alternative interpretation.

54. The A and B strips together would have been a very long text and perhaps a bit unwieldy for one scribe to mark as the chariots went by. Two scribes could have sat in front of the unrolled text, however, making separate marks on the A and B sections.

55. For a recent example containing images and a transcription of portions of an inventory, see Bowuguan, Jingzhou, “Hubei Jingzhou Xiejiaqiao yi hao Han mu fajue jianbao” 湖北荊州謝家橋一號漢墓發掘簡報, Wenwu 2009.4, 36Google Scholar (image) and 41 (transcription). Liu Guosheng, “Chu qiance zhidu shu lüe,” provided an overview for pre-imperial inventory texts. Writing in 2001, Hong Shi 洪石, “Dong Zhou zhi Jin dai mu suo chu wu shu jiandu ji qi xiangguan wenti yanjiu” 東周至晉代墓所出物疏簡牘及其相關問題研究, Kaogu 2001.9, 59–69Google Scholar, counted 37 tombs, from Zhanguo to Jin, that have yielded inventories. A helpful table at the end of the article provided summary information on these texts, along with citations of relevant studies and transcriptions.

56. Shuqing, Shi, Changsha Yangtianhu chu tu Chu jian yan jiu 長沙仰天湖出土楚簡研究 (Shanghai: Qun lian, 1955), 2–3Google Scholar. Shi explicitly stated that he began to study the strips in order to verify (zhengming 證明) the descriptions of the qiance found in the Yi li and its commentaries.

57. Shi Shuqing, Changsha Yangtianhu chu tu Chu jian yan jiu, 30. Note that Shi claimed that the third character on the strip is the person's title (gong 公). Hubei sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiu suo, Wangshan Chu jian 望山楚簡 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1995)Google Scholar, 133n.156, adopted the same interpretation.

58. Transcription and punctuation follows Chen Wei, Chu di chutu Zhanguo jian ce [shisi zhong], 289. Characters in parentheses are glosses of the immediately preceding characters, which are transcriptions of the original characters on the strips.

59. See Cook, Death in Ancient China, 47–63; Lai, “The Baoshan Tomb,” 41 and 49–50.

60. Cook, Death in Ancient China, 225, rendered the line, “Metal Items for the Great Sacred Plot”; see 63–77 for a detailed explanation.

61. Cook, Death in Ancient China, 212. The inventory from Xinyang 信陽 also lists the “implements” (qi) under categories, though they are quite different from those in the Baoshan text. Henan sheng wenwu yanjiu suo, Xinyang Chu mu 信陽楚墓 (Beijing: Wenwu, 1986), 128–29Google Scholar.

62. Transcription and punctuation follows Chen Wei, Chu di chutu zhanguo jiance [shi si zhong], 121. Characters in parentheses are glosses of the immediately preceding characters, which are transcriptions of the original characters on the strips. My translation reflects Chen's annotations, and differs somewhat from Cook, Death in Ancient China, 241.

63. Chen Wei, “Guan yu Baoshan Chu jian zhong de sangzang wenshu,” 73–74, glossed shou 受 (“to receive”) as shou 授 (“to give”), as did Wang Yin 王潁, Baoshan Chu jian cihui yanjiu 包山楚簡詞彙研究 (Xiamen: Xiamen daxue, 2008), 80–81Google Scholar. Chen argues that the strips record the donor names.

64. Cook, Death in Ancient China, 10–11, provided a succinct analysis of work by Yang Hua 楊華 on this topic. See also Chen Wei, “Guanyu Baoshan Chu jian zhong de sangzang wenshu.”

65. See Lai's introduction to “The Baoshan Tomb.”

66. Cook, Death in Ancient China, 12.

67. The Zeng strips might not be the only excavated records of a funeral procession that should be distinguished from inventories and gift lists. The summary of a text labeled by archaeologists as a qiance from Tianxingguan 天星觀, tomb 1, describes a document that appears to share some characteristics with the Zeng strips. See Hubei sheng Jingzhou diqu bowuguan, “Jiangling Tianxingguan yi hao Chu mu” 江陵天星觀一號楚墓, Kaogu xuebao 1982.1, 109Google Scholar. Unfortunately, a full transcription with photographs of the Tianxingguan strips has not been published.

68. For a quick and clear illustration of the importance and regularity of funerals in Chunqiu inter-state relations, see the tables compiled from the Annals (Chunqiu 春秋) in Van Auken, Newell Ann, “Could ‘Subtle Words’ Have Conveyed ‘Praise and Blame’? The Implications of Formal Regularity and Variation in Spring and Autumn (Chun qiu) Records,” Early China 31 (2007), 47–111CrossRefGoogle Scholar. There is a growing body of work on elite funerals during the early empires. See, e.g., Loewe, Michael, “State Funerals of the Han Empire,” Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 71 (1999), 5–72Google Scholar; and Chongwen, Gao “Shi lun xian Qin liang Han sangzang lisu de yanbian” 試論先秦兩漢喪葬禮俗的演變, Kaogu xuebao 2006 (4): 447–72Google Scholar.

69. Ishiguro has argued that the texts do mention the Zeng heir, though this essay maintains that the evidence is inconclusive. See Appendix B.

70. Li ji jijie 禮記集解, ed. Sun Xidan 孙希旦 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2007), 1078–79Google Scholar (“Za ji shang” 雜記上).

71. There is some evidence from two tabulation strips (207 and 208) that the horses and chariots were received at particular offices in Zeng. Would the heir have attended donation ceremonies at both of the offices? With dozens of chariots and even more horses to receive at multiple locations, he would have been quite busy. See the translations and notes in Appendix A.

72. Giesey, Ralph, The Royal Funeral Ceremony in Renaissance France (Geneva: E. Droz, 1960)Google Scholar, documented the elaborate funerary rituals and procession of Francis I (r. 1515–1547), which included highly regulated appearances and protocol for the heir, Henry II (r. 1547–1559). During the Han, the imperial court sent envoys to funerals staged for the Liu 劉 ruling family kings (zhuhou wang 諸侯王). The envoys wrote elegies for the monarch, donated clothing and goods, and installed the deceased's heir as king.

73. In this light, the Zeng strips also provide a fruitful contrast to meditations on limiting the consumption of resources and display of material wealth, a common theme in Zhanguo political philosophy. See Nylan, Michael, “On the Politics of Pleasure,” Asia Major 15.1 (2001), 73–124Google Scholar.

74. For a detailed discussion of the authorship and content of the “Yufu zhi,” see Beck, B.J. Mansvelt, The Treatises of Later Han: Their Author, Sources, Contents, and Place in Chinese Historiography (Leiden: Brill, 1990), 227–68Google Scholar. Sima Biao based his work on previous treatises of a similar nature by Cai Yong 蔡邕 (133–92 c.e.) and Dong Ba 董巴 (c. 220 c.e.).

75. Earlier in the treatise, the author defines the fajia as a type of procession with 36 attending chariots, all of them driven by those at the rank of daifu 大夫. See Hou Hanshu (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1965), 29.3649Google Scholar.

76. Translation of titles follows Loewe, Michael, A Biographical Dictionary of the Qin, Former Han, and Xin Periods (221 BC–AD 24) (Leiden: Brill, 2000)Google Scholar.

77. Hou Hanshu, 29.3650.

78. Mansvelt Beck, The Treatises of Later Han, 266 and passim, emphasized that the rules in the “Yufu zhi” were primarily prescriptive rules “honored in the breach,” and just as much a response to the political and intellectual conditions of late Eastern Han as a reflection of actual practice.

79. In his transcription, Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 179–80, indicated a mark that did not differ in size or placement compared to the section heading blots, even though the photographs of the strips indicate that the mark here is different. The smaller size and placement shown here are meant to more accurately suggest the shape and arrangement of the mark on the strips, and to differentiate it from the section heading blots.

80. Most scholars have interpreted these twelve chariots as guangche 廣車. For overviews of the guangche and related terms, see Qiu and Li, “Zeng Houyi mu zhujian shiwen yu kaoshi,” 513n.78; Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzhen, 182–83. Qiu and Li gave references suggesting that guangche could just be large chariots useful for transporting goods, while Xiao called it a war chariot. The Zeng strips contain several chariot names with the character guang: guangche 廣車, shaoguang 少廣, chengguang 乘廣, and xingguang 行廣. References to guangche are scattered throughout classical texts; most commentators have glossed them as “military chariots” (bingche 兵車) at the head of chariot formations. See, e.g., Zhou li 周禮, “Che pu” 車僕; Liu Xingjun 劉興均, Zhou li ming wu ci yanjiu 周禮名物詞研究 (Chengdu: Ba shu, 2001), 39Google Scholar. Other excavated texts, including the Tianxingguan 天星觀 inventory, refer to chariots labeled guang. See Tan Rensheng, Chu xi jianbo wenzi bian, 1184–85.

81. Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 179–80, reviewed three different kinds of chariots labeled in the Zeng strips. Noting that the character is unattested in early texts, Xiao speculated that it refers to the sound made by the so-called “simurgh bells” (luan ling 鸞鈴) attached to the “simurgh chariots” (luan che 鸞車), both of which are seen in pre-Han and Han texts. Xiao admitted, however, that Chen Wei's argument that the character should be read as zhan 棧 is also plausible. Descriptions of these chariots in the Zeng strips indicate that each had distinct decoration and weaponry.

82. Strip 203 gives 囩軒 as the name of a chariot, but Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 179, noted that this same chariot is described more fully in strip 53 from A-I, which clearly describes something on a chariot. Both Xiao and Qiu and Li noted this variation in meaning. Strip 120 clearly refers to a feature of the chariots, rather than a chariot name.

83. It is unclear who this person is or why he is significant. Ping could refer to a place name, since the same title is seen in strip 144, group 24 (yi si 乙四) from the cache found in the Lord of Pingye's 坪夜君 tomb at Geling 葛陵 village in southeast Henan. See Henan sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiu suo, Xincai Geling Chu mu, 209. That strip reads: “…in the ninth month, on the day jiashen, the assistant artisan followed the lord's command and obtained zhenling…” (九月 甲申之日 攻差以君命取真靈). It is impossible to demonstrate any relationship between this artisan assistant and the one listed on the Zeng tabulation strip. Indeed, the duties of the two seem quite different: the former appears to be obtaining a plant for divination, while the latter has constructed chariots. Regardless, it is highly interesting that the tabulation strip mentions the chariot maker. Five horse teams attached to xingguang chariots are included in the “Grand Officer” tabulation, strip 159 (see below).

84. Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 176–77, related the you 斿 (遊) chariot to Zhou li commentaries, which mention a mulu 木路 chariot and a tianlu 田路 chariot, which kings are said to have used in travels and hunts through the countryside. The word youche itself seems relatively clear without such references.

85. Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 183–84, noted other scholars have argued that a similar character in the Baoshan corpus refers to a hearse.

86. Qiu and Li, “Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen yu kaoshi,” 519n.153, argued that this term refers to a chariot outfitted with spectacular hubcap blades such as those found in the northern chamber of Marquis Yi's tomb. For a picture, see she, Wenwu chuban and shuju, Guangfu, Zhanguo dixia yue gong 戰國地下樂宮 (Beijing: Wenwu, 1994), image 89Google Scholar.

87. Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 184, argued that this term is another name for the bixuan 俾軒 chariot, which supposedly had a special type of umbrella held up by a curved pole.

88. Scholars of the Zeng strips, including Xiao and Qiu and Li, equate these road chariots (lu che 路車) with the “five road chariots” (wu lu 五路) mentioned in the Zhouli. The Zhouli says that the king (wang 王) rides a different type of road chariot in each season. I see no connection between this hierarchical classical formulation of the road chariots and the road chariots described in the Zeng strips. We see references to many different types of road chariots in the Zeng strips, and many different people, none of them kings, rode them. See notes below for explanations of the various tallies of road chariots.

89. The ovular marks printed here are meant to reflect the rounded shape of the blots found on this strip. Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 106, depicted the marks as square blots, equivalent to the other square blots found on the strips (and discussed in the essay above). The strip photographs, however, show markings that are smaller and different in shape than the square blots.

90. Ellipses here and below indicate sections of strips that were broken off.

91. This blank square and those below indicate single unreadable characters.

92. Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 106, indicated a full square in his transcription, rendering this mark in the same manner as the section heading and ending blots. In fact, this particular mark is smaller and more rounded than the section blots. The same is true for the other rounded dot indicated in the transcription of this strip. See Zeng Hou Yi mu, vol. 2, image 214.

93. Though the strip is broken, the incomplete opening statement seems to refer to the craftsmen who made the armor, similar to the mention of the assistant artisan in strip 120 (see n.84 above).

94. Most studies of the strips take this lü 旅 to be a variant of lu 魯.

95. Qiu and Li, “Zeng Houyi mu zhujian shiwen yu kaoshi,” 521n.175, argued that the character means “to donate” (feng). If true, one wonders why only certain chariots are singled out as being “donated,” since other strips clearly indicate donated chariots without this word. The available evidence is slim, since the character is not found in any other excavated manuscripts. See Tan Rensheng, Chu xi jianbo wenzi bian, 724. The placement of this tally is curious, as well, since it refers to chariots described as 車 in strips immediately prior to strip 195, yet still comes after mention of the Duke of Luyang's chariots, which are tallied on strip 196 (see below).

96. Both Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 66, and Qiu and Li, “Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen yu kaoshi,” 529n.263, argued that strip 196 totals the three chariots given by each of the lords of Yangcheng, Gu, and Luyang, described on strips 193–95.

97. This character is unknown, but likely refers to a type of horse, perhaps a mule. See Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 125.

98. Qiu and Li, “Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen yu kaoshi,” 529n.267, noted that this character is unknown, but probably refers to a type of horse. Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 125, followed He Linyi's 何琳儀 suggestion that it might be an early form of luo 騾 (mule). The character is not seen in the horse donor strips. The role these animals had in the procession remains unclear.

99. The duties of this office are unknown. It is quite significant, however, that the strip gives a total for chariot teams being “received” at an office. The office might have been one of the bureaus in which the organization and recording of horse and chariot teams for Marquis Yi's procession occurred. Other explanations have been offered, however. Zhao Ping'an 趙平安, cited in Chen Wei, Chu di chutu Zhanguo jiance [shisi zhong], 371n.93, argued that guan 官 should be read as 棺 (coffin), suggesting that the strips recorded the actual placement of chariots in the tomb of the Marquis. Chen Wei, Chu di chutu Zhanguo jiance [shisi zhong], 371n.94, suggested that this and the name in strip 208 referred to the names of the burial pits where the horse and chariot teams were buried. Thus far, no evidence of burial pits has been discovered (see n. 33 above).

100. On this point, Egashira Kō, Senshin kanshoku shiryō, 4, noted that several states during Zhanguo, not just Chu, employed officials with the title yin 尹.

101. Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 81, noted only that the statement 王魚軒 on strip 54 “seems to indicate a yuxuan chariot that came from wang” (似是指出於“王”的“魚軒”), without speculating on the identity of this wang.

102. Note that the drawn reproduction of the strip in Zhang Yuguang 张裕光, et al., Zeng Hou Yi mu zhu jian wen zi bian 曾侯乙墓竹簡文字編 (Taipei: Yi wen, 1997), 280Google Scholar, simply reproduced wang without giving any dashed lines to note smudged or rubbed off portions, as is done elsewhere in the volume. Xiao, Zeng Hou Yi mu zhujian shiwen buzheng, 81, rendered the character as wang, without comment.