PALEOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE OF QIN RELIGIOUS PRACTICE FROM LIYE AND ZHOUJIATAI

Abstract

Abstract In this paper I discuss paleographic texts recording local-level religious practices during the Qin dynasty that archaeologists recovered from Liye and Zhoujiatai. The Liye materials are bureaucratic records of state-sponsored sacrifices that took place in 215 and 212 b.c.e ., indicating the types of sacrifices and reflecting the processes by which the bureaucracy managed the items offered. The Zhoujiatai text appears to give instructions for individual sacrifices and provides information about the locations and types of offerings, as well as the verbal formulae employed. The article begins with consideration of Qin practices in transmitted texts and of the agricultural spirit Xiannong, which appears in both the Liye and Zhoujiatai texts. Since in the past there was virtually no information extant about local-level religious activity under the Qin, the details in these paleographic texts represent an advance in understanding the history of the period.