CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

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
in other Chu tombs, it is thought that such records
are a selection of the acts of turtle divination,
milfoil divination, and sacrifice performed during
the several years preceding death. Perhaps the
copies of such divination-sacrifice records were
compiled specifically for burial in the tomb; this
might be one explanation for the discovery of
tomb inventories together with divination-sacrifice
records in a number of Chu tombs. It is certain
that men like Pan Cheng — an elite patron of religious
specialists — kept such records throughout
their adult lives, however. The tomb copies provide
a vivid first look at the daily religion of the Warring
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 during
the entire year [Pan Cheng] himself
experience benefit and concord." (Divination
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,
one perfect ox; to the Director of the Lifemandate
and to the Director of Faults, one
ewe each; to the Lord of the Earth, one
black sheep; and to pledge in prayer to
Great Water, one perfect ox. 4 Select a lucky
day in the Xianma [twelfth] month to requite
[the pledge to the royal ancestors
from Sire Zhuo to Sire Hui. Entertain them
with the Great Animal Sacrifice [ox, sheep,
pig], offering one hundred [animals]."
(Divination is performed.) The prediction:
"Auspicious. Throughout the term of the
entire year there will be happiness."]] 5
35O | CHU AND OTHER CULTURES