| 英文摘要 |
Among the excavations yielding ancient inscriptions on bamboo or wooden slips in the years from 1975 to 1998 were two Qin era tombs, Yunmeng Shuihudi from Hubei province, and Tianshui Fangmatan from Gansu province, as well as one Han era tomb, Suizhou Kongjiapo from Hubei province. The inscriptions from these three tombs all contain a rishu, or almanac, and each rishu includes a chapter relating to the apprehension of thieves. This material is characterized by strong elements of superstitious belief, such as the comparison of the ten ''heavenly stems'' and twelve ''earthly branches'' (tiangan dizhi), as well as the twelve animals (shengxiao) of the lunar calendar. Details like the time the crime was committed, the articles which were stolen, as well as the appearance and special talents of the thief are all matched to elements of tiangan dizhi and shengxiao. At first glace, this appears to be an ingenious system for apprehending a thief, but in actuality must have been extremely difficult to employ to any great effect. If these documents were not put to practical use, why would the persons buried in these tombs want to use them for reference, or have them buried with them? It is evident that must have had some role to play, whether as a tool for the strict judiciary of the time or as a means to placate a populace fed up with the attacks of bandits. These three chapters have yet to be subjected to a detailed comparison. The original inscriptions from the Tianshui Fangmatan rishu have yet to be published; only an approximation of the document in modern script is available to us at this time. My aim in this article is do conduct just such a detailed comparison, analyzing both their contents and structure in order to reveal the kind of culture they manifest. Clues to many questions may be found in such a study, including the nature of the propagation of the twelve animal shengxiao cycle, the identity of the thieves described in these texts and the nature of their crimes. It is also my hope that this study may provide guidance for future researchers of these documents. |