Bsms Article p291 - 4

bamboo and silk 4 (2021) 291–335
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A Preliminary Analysis of Rhymed Passages in the

Daybook Manuscripts
Rens Krijgsman
Research and Conservation Center for Unearthed Texts, Tsinghua University
krijgsman.rens@gmail.com
《日書》韻文初探
武致知
清華大學出土文獻研究與保護中心
Abstract
The daybook manuscripts are miscellanies in that they gather together a range of dif-
ferent forms of text onto a single manuscript carrier. This article focuses on passages of
rhymed text, analyzing in particular the forms, patterns, and functions of the rhymes.
On this basis, I provide a number of preliminary observations on the use and context
of the daybook manuscripts. The article focuses on the use of rhyme in material from
the Kongjiapo 孔家坡 and Shuihudi 睡虎地 daybook manuscripts in particular, while
also paying attention to related hemerological, astrological, and divinatory material
from Mawangdui 馬王堆, Fangmatan 放馬灘, and the Beida 北大 manuscripts among
others. These materials have a penchant for using especially Yang-group 陽部 rhymes
marking the (auspicious or otherwise) results of actions and divinations, in this regard
they can be further compared to genres such as prayers and philosophical sayings for
instance, raising the possibility of a shared discursive practice.
Keywords
rhyme – daybook manuscripts – (in-)auspiciousness – divination – discursive practice
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292 Krijgsman
摘要
《日書》作為雜抄彙集了不同類型的文本段落。本文從《日書》韻文段落入手，探
討押韻在《日書》裏的類型、規律和功能。在此基礎上對《日書》的使用與閱讀習
慣提出幾個初步想法。本文主要討論孔家坡和睡虎地《日書》，以及馬王堆、放馬
灘、北大簡等日書、天文、卜筮等類文獻的用韻現象。這些文獻多使用陽部韻形成
韻文,恰好與祝文、哲学類話語等其他文獻一樣使用這類韻文討論吉凶問題。本文
進而試圖闡發《日書》類文獻是否與不同類型文獻有所關聯，參與一個共同的話語
實踐。
關鍵詞
韻文, 日書, 吉凶, 占卜, 話語實踐
1 Introduction
The study of rhyme in early China tends to focus on the types, forms, and dis-
tribution of rhyme in seminal collections of verse such as the Shijing 詩經 and
the Chuci 楚辭. In recent years, there has been an increase in discussions on the
use of end-rhyme in excavated manuscripts, predominantly focusing on the
reconstruction of ancient phonology, dialects and the identification of individ-
ual (loan-)graphs.1 Research aiming to explain the use, semantic-embedding,
and functions of end-rhyme is only slowly emerging, and in large part focuses
on bronze inscriptions and classics such as the Shangshu and Shijing, other
types of text have received less attention.2 Even less is known about rhyme in
1 See Liu Zhao 劉釗 and Ye Yuying 葉玉英, “Liyong guwenzi ziliao de shanggu yin fenqi fenyu
yanjiu shuping” 利用古文字資料的上古音分期分域研究述評, Guhanyu yanjiu 古汉语
研究 2008.2, 10–18.
2 Jeffrey Tharsen, “Chinese Euphonics: Phonetic Patterns, Phonorhetoric and Literary Artistry
in Early Chinese Narrative Texts” (PhD dissertation, University of Chicago, 2015), Wolfgang
Behr, “Reimende Bronzeinschriften und die Entstehung der chinesischen Endreimdichtung”
(Bochum: Projekt Verlag, 2008). See also research on so called Daoist works, in particular the
Zhuangzi, for example, Harold Roth, Original Tao: “Inward Training” and the Foundations of
Taoist Mysticism (New York, Columbia University Press, 1999), and for an older but still very
comprehensive survey, Long Yuchun 龍宇純, “Xian Qin sanwen zhong de yunwen” 先秦散
文中的韻文, Chongji Xuebao 崇基學報 2 and 3 (1962–3), repr. in his Sizhuxuan xiaoxue lunji
絲竹軒小學論集 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2009), 182–283.

Rhymed Passages in the Daybook Manuscripts 293
especially the daybooks,3 but also when it comes to technical manuscripts more
generally, a notable exception being Donald Harper’s early research on the *He
Yinyang 合陰陽 (Conjoining Yin and Yang) manuscript from Mawangdui.4
Rhyme in the daybooks is often limited to individual lines and sections,
accounting at least in part for the lack of attention given to the phenomenon.
Furthermore, rhyme is often perceived of as a literary quality, and as such is
often ignored in the study of daybooks considered to belong to the realms of
the practical and mundane. While one would indeed be hard-pressed to draw
technical manuscripts into the belles lettres, their textual qualities should
also not be ignored as they alert us to questions of their use and appreciation
but also potential links to other realms of discourse and modes of transmis-
sion different from scribal copying. Especially because rhyme is often seen
as being somehow related to oral and memory-based forms of transmission,
their role in the otherwise highly formalized (“written”) and technical genre
of daybooks presents us with tantalizing questions. The daybook manuscripts
are multi-text manuscripts (also referred to as “miscellanies”, and they draw
together numerous short texts.5 As such, some heterogeneity in their content,
and potential modes of use can be expected. Despite this variety of texts and
text-types, the use of rhyme as a textual quality in parts of the miscellany has
received little attention.
Before I present my analysis, a number of methodological preliminaries are
in order. In my discussion of rhyme in the daybooks, I predominantly focus
on end rhyme. While in certain cases this includes the repetition of the same
word to form an identical rhyme, I include such examples only when they are
part of a larger configuration including different rhymes, and not those texts that
3 Note for instance the absence of any discussion on rhyme in the overview of research on the
daybooks from Shuihudi by Lü Yahu 呂亞虎, “Shuihudi Qinjian rishu yanjiu zhushu mulu
(1976–2014)” 睡虎地秦簡日書研究著述目錄（1976–2014）, Wuhan daxue jianbo wang
武漢大學簡帛網, 2015-01-23, http://www.bsm.org.cn/show_article.php?id=2144. For pho-
nological studies of the Qin Han manuscripts, see Li Yu 李玉, Qin-Han jiandu boshu yinyun
yanjiu 秦漢簡牘帛書音韻研究 (Beijing: Dangdai Zhongguo, 1994); and Lee Chun-Chih
(Li Cunzhi) 李存智, Qin Han jiandu boshu zhi yinyun yanjiu 秦漢簡牘帛書之音韻學研究
(PhD Diss. National Taiwan University, 1995).
4 Donald Harper, “The Sexual Arts of Ancient China as Described in a Manuscript of The
Second Century B.C.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 47.2 (1987): 539–93.
5 Note that the typical daybook has a relatively stable core hemerology, starting with the jian-
chu 建除 and congchen 叢辰 systems and a number of other general hemerologies before
including a selection of topical hemerologies and a wider variety of materials towards the lat-
ter parts of the manuscripts. For a discussion, see Liu Lexian, “Daybooks: A Type of Popular
Hemerological Manual of the Warring States, Qin, and Han,” in Donald Harper and Marc
Kalinowski eds., Books of Fate and Popular Culture in Early China: The Handbook Manuscripts
of the Warring States, Qin and Han (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 57–90.
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294 Krijgsman
are organized on a strict parallel to the effect that the last word of every line
is the same, and thus rhymes.6 I furthermore consider cases of impure rhymes
(heyun 合韻) as there are strong indications that for contemporary users, these
operated as if they were strict, full rhymes (i.e. of the same rhyme group 韻
部). Lastly, in certain cases I have noticed assonance (半諧音) contributing
to the overall rhythmic quality of the composition. Obviously, my analysis
is limited by my ability to spot rhymes in the material, and a digital, corpus-
based analysis would provide more accurate and countable data. Sadly, no
such corpus is available for the daybooks and it is beyond my ability to con-
struct one. This caveat applies to my comparison with the non-hemerological
materials in particular. The corpus of technical literature is vast and I have
selected the examples that I felt could meaningfully bring out aspects of the
daybook materials, undoubtedly at the expense of excluding a much wider
variety of rhyme and rhythmic phenomena. These will have to be the subject of
other work.
As I mentioned above, rhyme in the daybooks is fairly limited. The odd sin-
gle line aside, texts that have clearly defined rhymed sections or are rhymed
throughout are limited in number. Nonetheless, I have focused my selection
on the Shuihudi A and B, and Kongjiapo daybooks as they are better preserved
and more certain in their reconstruction. I have consulted the Jiudian and
Fangmatan daybooks as well but found little evidence of rhyme. These manu-
scripts are largely incomplete and do not provide representative evidence. In
specific, the following spread of rhymed texts can be observed for the three
daybooks mentioned:
Shuihudi A:
– “Ji chen” 稷辰, especially the first two sections feature a variety of rhymes,
with a predominance of Yang 陽 group rhymes;
– “Sui” 歲, rhymed throughout in Yang;
– *“Shi’er zhi ji” 十二支忌, rhymed throughout in Yang;
– “Meng” 夢, the “prayer” 祝 section rhymes in Zhi 職 and Yu 魚;
– “Jie” 詰, the opening frame rhymes in Yang;
– the 2nd “Yi” 衣 text, two out of four items rhyme in Yang;
– “Ma” 馬, the prayer is rhymed throughout in Wu 物 and Yang.
6 For example, I exclude texts such as Shuihudi A “Zuo shi” 作事: “In the second month it is
beneficial to raise earth works in the west, in the eighth month in the east, in the third month
in the south, in the ninth month in the north.” 二月利興土西方，八月東方，三月南
方，九月北方, featuring identical rhyme in fang 方 *paŋ, but I have included Shuihudi A
“Sui” 歲 (see below) featuring a varied combination of rhyme words in parallel lines.

Shuihudi B:
– “Ci” 祠, the “Xing xingci” 行行祠 section rhymes in Yang, Duo 鐸 and Yue 月,
Zhi 之 and Zhi 職;
– “Meng” 夢, the prayer 祝 section rhymes in Zhi 職 and Yu 魚;
– “Jia zi x” 嫁子□, the last two words of every item rhyme in Yang.
Kongjiapo A:
– “Chen 辰, Especially the first two sections feature different rhymes, with a
predominance of Yang 陽 group rhymes;
– “Tu shi” 徒時, the three phrases at the beginning of every item rhyme in
Yang;
– *“Ji ri” 忌日, the majority of items rhyme with each other in Yang.
From the above outline, it becomes clear that rhyme is present in the general
hemerologies (e.g., “Chen”), the topical hemerologies (e.g., *“Shi’er zhi ji”), and
in the non-hemerological material (e.g., “Meng”). Nonetheless, the presence of
rhyme relative to the size of these broad divisions suggests that rhyme is espe-
cially common among the non-hemerological material, the prayers in particu-
lar. Given that the bulk of a typical daybook manuscript is comprised of topical
hemerology, the presence of rhyme therein is not in proportion to the size of the
division. The above overview also shows that the daybooks, while including a
variety of rhymes, feature predominantly Yang group (*-aŋ) rhyme. This will be
discussed further below.
In the following, I start with a preliminary analysis of the use and functions
of rhyme in two sections of the “*Ji ri” 忌日 (Daily inhibitions) text from the
Kongjiapo daybook.7 The text is rhymed and clearly structured. An under-
standing of the use of rhyme in these sections provides a lens through which to
examine different texts within the daybooks and possible relations beyond the
daybook genre as such. I follow the published transcription, except for areas
open to discussion. To facilitate comparison and understanding across schol-
arly traditions, both Wang Li’s 王力 rhyme notation and the Baxter and Sagart
reconstruction are provided. Furthermore, my understanding of the rhyme
scheme in this text is marked using ‘A’ for the main rhyme foot, ‘a’ for impure
rhymes and assonances (in other words, a rhyme relation to the main rhyme
foot A), ‘B’ for a secondary rhyme, and finally ‘X’ for unrhymed phrases and ‘?’
for missing words:
7 Hubei sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo 湖北省文物考古研究所 eds., Suizhou Kongjiapo

Hanmu jiandu 隨州孔家坡漢墓簡牘 (Beijing: Wenwu, 2006), 178–179 (transcription).
296 Krijgsman
[子不8可起土功]，東 *kˤoŋ a
□□□□。 X X ?
[丑不]可穿戶牖，幽 *[l]uʔ X
相奪日光，陽 *kʷˤaŋ A
長子失明。陽 *mraŋ A
寅不可行，陽 *[g]ˤraŋ-s A
出入不至五里，之 *(mə.)rəʔ B
人必見兵。陽 *praŋ A
不可禱祠、之 *sə.lə B
歸(392)以禮傷，陽 *l̥aŋ A
百鬼不鄉（饗）。陽 *qʰaŋ A
卯不可收五種，東 *k.toŋʔ a
一人弗嘗。陽 *Cə.daŋ A
不可穿井，耕 *C.tseŋʔ X
百泉不通。東 *l̥ˤoŋ a
辰不可舉喪，陽 *s-mˤaŋ A
出入三月，月 *[ŋ]ʷat a
必復有喪。(393) 陽 *s-mˤaŋ A
巳不可入錢財，之 *[dz]ˤə B
人必破亡。陽 *maŋ A
不可殺雞、祠，之 *sə.lə B
主人毋傷，陽 *l̥aŋ A
巫受其央（殃）。陽 *ʔaŋ A
On Zi days you cannot raise earth works,….….

On Chou days you cannot raise doors and windows, they will steal the
sunlight from each other, and the elder son will lose his sight.
On Yin days you cannot travel, or even when your movements do not
reach 5 li, you will certainly encounter strife. You cannot [go to] offer at
shrines, or on your return, your rite will have harmed, and the hundred
ghosts won’t be satisfied.
On Mao days you cannot harvest the five crops or no one will taste them.
You cannot dig wells or the hundred springs will not flow.
On Chen days do not hold a funeral, or in your movements for three
months you will certainly encounter mourning again.
On Si days you cannot gather money and wealth, or people will cer-
tainly go bankrupt. You cannot slaughter chicken and offer sacrifices,
8 I have supplemented zi 子 and bu 不 here on the basis of the parallel structure of the other
items in the text.

or even when the host does not harm you, the medium will bear the
misfortune.
午不可計數，侯 *s-roʔ X
不可臨官，元 *kʷˤa[n] a
四勶不當。陽 *tˤaŋ A
未不(394)行作，鐸 *[ts]ˤak a
不可上山，元 *s-ŋrar a
斧斤不折，歌 *tet X
四支（肢）必傷陽 *l̥aŋ A
申不可功（攻）石玉，屋 *[ŋ](r)ok X
石玉不出，物 *t-kʰut X
人必破亡。陽 *maŋ A
酉不可寇<冠>、（城），耕 *[d]eŋ X
出入三歲，祭 *s-qʷʰat-s a
人必有詛明（盟）。陽 *mraŋ A
戌不可(395)取（娶）妻嫁女，魚 *nraʔ a
且作且喪。陽 *s-mˤaŋ A
亥不可遷徒，魚 *[d]ˤa a
必□以此□。(396) X X9 ?
On Wu days you cannot do the books, and you cannot hold office, or the
four excisions won’t be proper.
On Wei days you cannot do works, you cannot go up the mountain, for
your axe won’t splice, and your four limbs will certainly be harmed.
On Shen days you cannot mine for stones and jade, for they won’t come
out, and people will certainly be hurt or lost.
On You days you cannot cap or wall, or in your movements for three years,
people will certainly curse you.
On Xu days you cannot marry a wife or marry out a daughter, or for what-
ever you do there will be mourning.
On Hai days you cannot move place, or you will certainly … because of
this …
The “*Ji ri” is itemized along the 12 earthly branches and can structurally be
divided into two sections (from Zi 子 to Si 巳 and from Wu 午 to Hai 亥). The
length of text for every “item” is slightly different and accordingly the num-
ber of rhymed lines is also not strictly fixed. The first section features longer
9 This last line is damaged, but would likely have ended in a Yang-rhyme as well.
298 Krijgsman
text per item and features (alternating) rhyme every line, mostly consisting of
Yang 陽 rhymes, and to a lesser extent Dong- 東 rhymes (forming an impure
rhyme with the Yang words), and some Zhi- 之 rhymes.10 The second section
has shorter items that do not rhyme internally. Rather, the different items
rhyme with each other, each ending in a Yang-rhyme. In this second section,
a number of items additionally feature assonance of the main vowel *-a-
between the Yuan 元 and Yu 魚 and the Yang group words. The two sections
are thus structured differently, forming two distinct end-rhyme patterns. The
rhyme words include the following:
Section 1:
Dong-group rhymes (-oŋ): gong 功, ? (missing), zhong 種, tong 通;
Yang-group rhymes (-aŋ): guang 光, ming 明, xing 行, bing 兵, shang 傷,
xiang 饗, sang 喪, wang 亡, yang 殃;
10 Yang- and Dong group words form an impure rhyme in the Chu manuscripts. According
to Dong Tonghe 董同龢, this reflects a feature of the Chu dialect, but as Wei Hong-Jun
魏鴻鈞 and Lee Chun-Chih 李存智 point out, this phenomena is not limited to the Chu
region. See their “Shanggu ‘she jian bi yin yunwei’ ge bu zhi heyun fenxi” 上古「舌尖鼻音
韻尾」各部之合韻分析, Chengda zhongwen xuebao 成大中文學報 46 (2014), 33–68.
Also see Lee Chun-Chih 李存智, “Guodian yu Shangbo Chujian zhupian Yangsheng
yunbu tongjia guanxi yanjiu” 郭店與上博楚簡諸篇陽聲韻部通假關係研究, Taida
zhongwen xuebao 臺大中文學報 30 (2009), 95–156. Haeree Park has shown that at least
in Warring States materials from Chu, graphic variation to represent phonic informa-
tion is likely not the result of a local, Chu, dialect leaving traces in the script but can
instead often be traced to Western Zhou practices. See Haeree Park, The Writing System
of Scribe Zhou: Evidence from Late Pre-imperial Chinese Manuscripts and Inscriptions (5th–
3rd centuries BCE) (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016). Ethan Harkness, pc. 06/8/2019, makes the
valid point that there is a possibility that rhyme and other sonic features of the daybooks
could betray regional differences, especially given the wide distribution of the daybooks.
As Marc Kalinowski has noted, for example, there appear to be different preferences
between the Fangmatan 放馬灘 (Gansu) and the Jiudian 九店 (Chu) in the technical
vocabulary used for the prescription. See Marc Kalinowski, “Hemerology and Prediction
in the Daybooks: Ideas and Practices,” in Donald Harper and Marc Kalinowski eds., Books
of Fate and Popular Culture in Early China: The Handbook Manuscripts of the Warring
States, Qin and Han (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 139. Whether dialect is a possible influence on
the use of rhyme in the Qin-Han dynasty daybooks would be hard to assess and requires
further study. Given that the examples from Fangmatan presented below likewise use
a combination of Yang-group and other rhymes of the form I describe here, I work on
the assumption that the influence of dialect on the use of rhyme is possibly quite lim-
ited and that any differences are rather due to different regional formations of the texts
themselves, including habitual word usage, text contents etc., rather than fundamental
differences in the type of rhyme used.

Section 2:
Yang-group rhymes: dang 當, shang 傷, wang 亡, meng 盟, sang 喪, ?
(missing).
Why does the “*Ji ri” use rhyme in addition to the earthly branches to organize
its content? Despite irregularities in the use of rhyme in the text it does not
appear random. Even given the fact that hemerological and other texts discuss-
ing questions of auspiciousness in themselves often rely on words that fall in
the Yang rhyme group such as yang 殃 (misfortune), sang 喪 (mourning), xiang
祥 (auspicious), chang 昌 (flourishing), qing 慶 (fortunate), many of these texts
do not rhyme. How then do we explain the “*Ji ri”’s choice of rhyme?
To understand this choice, we need to first consider a number of general
characteristics of rhyme. The use of rhyme is a common option to pattern lan-
guage and has a variety of functions. Here I list a few, in no particular order:11
1. Organizing and structuring text, including the marking of line breaks,

items in a list, and aesthetic considerations;12
The daybook miscellanies use different ways to organize their content and
structure their texts. From a material perspective, the bamboo manuscript car-
rier’s use of layout, sections, and columns is the most straightforward means
of organizing the material into distinct texts and sections. The “*Ji ri” for exam-
ple writes out one item per bamboo slip, leaving the remaining space blank.13
From a textual perspective, the use of the heavenly stems and earthly branches
11 I draw here particularly on David C. Rubin’s study and comprehensive overview of the
use and function of rhym. See his Memory in Oral Traditions: The Cognitive Psychology of
Epic, Ballads, and Count-down Rhymes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995). See also
Roman Jakobson, “Linguistics and Poetics,” in Thomas A. Sebeok ed., Style and Language
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1960), 350–77, on the relation between rhyme and meaning,
and what he refers to as the “magical, incantory function,” for which see my item 4 below.
12 The daybooks used to be perceived as reflecting the beliefs of the lower orders of society,
and were therefore considered unsophisticated, and as such were not seen as featuring
aesthetic and other non-functional elements in their texts. This view is no longer tenable.
See Donald Harper’s contribution, “Daybooks in the Context of Manuscript Culture and
Popular Culture Studies,” esp. 92 and 103–104, in Harper and Kalinowski eds., Books of Fate
and Popular Culture in Early China.
13 Marc Kalinowski, “Les livres des jours (rishu) des Qin et des Han: la logique éditoriale du
recueil a de Shuihudi (217 avant notre ère),” T’oung Pao 94.1–3 (2008), 1–48. For the impli-
cations of material (visual) and rhymed (auditory) means of text organization for the
reading and use of early manuscripts, see Rens Krijgsman, “An Inquiry into the Formation
of Readership in Early China: Using and Producing the *Yong yue 用曰 and Yinshu 引書
Manuscripts” T’oung Pao 104.1–2 (2018), 2–65.
300 Krijgsman
(ganzhi 干支), the five phases (wu xing 五行), the 28 lodges (ershiba xiu 二十
八宿) etc. provide a common means of organizing and subdividing individual
texts in the daybooks. It is on this basis that the “*Ji ri” adds the use of rhyme.
Every “item” opens with an earthly branch and closes with an end rhyme, sig-
naling the start and ending of the individual subsections of the text. Moreover,
the text’s predominant reliance on the Yang rhyme group across items strings
the whole text together into one unified whole. As such, irregularities in line
length,14 sentence structure, or number of clauses within an item,15 are sub-
sumed under the regular occurrence of end rhyme. This form of organization
not only helps grasping the division of content and individual lines, it is also
aesthetically pleasing and easy to listen to.
2. Recitation, reading, and memorability;
Because of the clarity and audibility of the structure, rhymed text—especially

lists such as these—is generally more easily memorized and recited from
memory.16 This in turn favors the reuse of the text in the absence of access to
the manuscript itself. Many educational materials from early China, including
14 The basic line length in the “*Ji ri” is four words long, but five, six, and even seven-word
lines occur. Even when negatives such as bu 不 are discounted, this variety in line length
persists (Wolfgang Behr, personal communication, 12/8/2019 notes that the word bu can
behave as “presyllable in a sesquisyllabic word” and thus need not be counted as one
countable unit in line-length).
15 Compare for example item yin 寅 composed of six lines, and hai 亥 of only two. Many of
the examples discussed below are even less regular than the “*Ji ri” and feature a wider
variety of sentence structures.
16 Behr, personal communication, 12/08/2019 reminds me that the effect of rhyme on
retention is not without its drawbacks. While rhyme favors sequential, verbal memori-
zation, there is evidence that rhyme can also interfere with understanding the contents
of a text. The number of repetitions in memorizing a text obviously also influences
the rate of retention. See for instance, Donald S. Hayes, Bruce E. Chemelski, and Melvin
Palmer, “Nursery rhymes and prose passages: preschoolers’ liking and short-term reten-
tion of story events,” Developmental Psychology 18.1 (1982), 49–64, but it should be noted
that this particular research focused on the retention of stories, which in themselves are
governed by different memory dynamics, and not the list-like items such as the ones
under discussion. Sandra L. Calvert and Maureen Tart, “Song Versus Verbal-Forms for
Very-Long-Term, Long-Term, and Short-Term Recall,” Journal of Applied Developmental
Psychology 14 (1993), 245–260, provides a good discussion on the use of rhythm, rhyme,
meter and other aspects of sound and their relation to memorization. For a recent study
focusing on how rhetorical features such as rhyme facilitate the retention of prosodic
features but hamper the semantic processing of text, see Winfried Menninghaus et al.,
“Rhetorical features facilitate prosodic processing while handicapping ease of semantic
comprehension,” Cognition 143 (2015) 48–60.

for example the Shanghai Museum *Yong yue 用曰, and the Guodian *Yucong
語叢 4, or the Shuihudi Wei li zhi dao 為吏之道 all use rhyme to bring home
their didactic message. Rhyme aids memorization and recall in three main
ways: 1) the rhythmic repetition and alternation of sounds aids in commit-
ting the structure of a text to memory;17 2) the physical reverberation of sound
in the body and the formal act of recitation reinforce memorization;18 3) end
rhyme allows one to reconstruct the last word of a line or section on the basis
of sound, and from there, recall the content of the line;
The first section of “*Ji ri” is more regularly structured, with the same rhyme
often occurring multiple times within a single item. This favors the correct
remembrance of each individual item. The second section features end rhyme
across items, and one would need to read the whole section in order for the
rhyme to be significant in memorization. As such we can hypothesize that the
“*Ji ri” was not to be read for individual items, but was rather intended to be
read in one go for the structure and aesthetic to become apparent. The same
applies to memorizing the text.
3. Organizing activity and result, and marking key content;
“*Ji ri” arranges inauspicious activities by day. Going against the prohibitions
has disastrous consequences and these consequences are marked by rhyme.
For example, when the text says that, “On Si days you cannot gather money and
wealth, or people will go bankrupt. You cannot slaughter chicken, and offer
sacrifices, or even when the host does not harm you, the medium will bear
the misfortune.” The activities themselves are described in plain language,
yet the consequences of these actions and the resulting harm inflicted feature
end-rhyme. This reflects a bifurcation of the content. The first level reflects
concrete, daily actions; the second a layer of more abstract and formalized
results. These results can be appended to a variety of activities. For example
wang 亡 (to perish—disappear (here, of people or wealth)) is marked as the
result of ignoring the prohibitions against both “gathering money and wealth”
入錢財 and “mine for stones and jade” 攻石玉. Both layers are at least in part
composed of generic language. For example, activities such as marriage, travel,
or meeting officials, or consequences such as “to perish” or “to (not) encounter
strife” (you/wu bing 有/無兵) occur frequently throughout various sections of
the daybooks.
17 This applies to assonance as well, see Rubin, Memory in Oral Traditions, 72ff.
18 Rubin, Memory in Oral Traditions, 66, 70.
302 Krijgsman
4. Marking the special properties of “magical,” “authoritative,” or “ele-

gant” language;
Rhyme can be used to mark special forms of language use. Whether it is chil-
dren’s ditties, song and verse, or in the daybooks, the words themselves might
not be particularly elegant or special, but the moment rhyme is added to the
mix, the way the text is received changes. The research of Jeffrey Tharsen among
others has shown that as early as the Western Zhou, rhyme is an important
means to emphasize regularity, harmony, and the correctness of governance in
what is often referred to (or reimagined) by the Late Warring States as “elegant
language” 雅言.19 Perhaps closer to the concerns of auspiciousness reflected
in the daybooks is the use of rhyme in the Yijing 易經 and other divinatory
materials.20 Especially the yao 爻/繇 (line statements / omen verses) and the
judgments (zhan ci 占辭) are often rhymed. Through text such as the Zuozhuan
左傳, we can deduce that early divination practice featured an orally delivered
judgment on the auspiciousness of the result. In such a context of oral deliv-
ery rhyme is a powerful tool to heighten the import of the language.21 Donald
Harper’s research on technical materials has also argued that rhyme seems to
19 Tharsen, “Chinese Euphonics”, 296. For a masterful analysis and overview of rhyme
in material from the Shang up to the Han, and Zhou bronzes in particular, see Behr,
“Reimende Bronzeinschriften.” Note also references and overview of divination and tech-
nical material, especially 91–2 for divination texts and 93–94 for Qin and Han materials.
20 The use of rhyme in Yi 易 (Changes) divination texts and practices was first discussed
by Gu Yanwu 顧炎武, noting that: “The statements of scapula and stalk divination often
used the harmony of sounds to facilitate their recitation.” 古者，卜筮之辭多用音和以
便人之玩誦. See the chapter “Yi yin” 易音, vol. 1.1 in Gu Yanwu 顧炎武, Zhou Zumo 周
祖謨 ed., Yinxue wushu 音學五書 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1982), 192.b. See also Yuan Jun 沅
君, “Yi yunli chugao” 易韻例初稿, Beijing Daxue Yanjiusuo Guoxuemen Zhouksn 北京大
學研究所國學門週刊 2.18 (1926), 117–119 and 2.19, 145–148; For modern studies see Yang
Duanzhi 楊端志, Zhouyu gujing yunkao yundu 周易古經韻考韻讀, Shandong daxue
xuebao 山東大學學報 3 (1994), 1–16; Ye Yuhua 葉玉華, “Xizhou yaoci yu xingshi—fulun
youguan Xizhou Chunqiu shige shi de ziliao bianpai wenti” 西周繇辭與興詩—附論有
關西周春秋詩歌史的資料編排問題, Huadong shifan daxue xuebao 華東師範大學
學報 4 (1990), 60–66; Richard Alan Kunst, The original “Yijing”: a text, phonetic transcrip-
tion, translation, and indexes, with sample glosses (Ph.D. Diss., University of California,
Berkeley, 1985, [unpublished]); Edward Shaughnessy 1983 (The Composition of the Zhouyi
(Ph.D. Diss., Stanford University), Stanford [unpublished]); Gerhard Schmitt, Sprüche der
Wandlungen auf ihrem geistesgeschichtlichen Hintergrund (Berlin: Akademie, 1970).
21 See Chen Wei 陳偉, “Geling Chujian suo jian de bushi yu daoci” 葛陵楚簡所見的卜
筮與禱祠, Chutu wenxian yanjiu 出土文獻研究 6 (2004), 38–39, repr. in Chen Wei
陳偉, Xinchu Chujian yandu 新出楚簡研讀 (Wuhan: Wuhan daxue, 2010), 98–100;
Edward L. Shaughnessy, “The Origin of a Line Statement,” Early China 20 (2000), 223–240;
Kidder Smith, “Zhouyi interpretations from accounts in the Zuozhuan”, Harvard Journal of
Asiatic Studies 49.2 (1989), 421–63 for specific studies.

empower the perception of efficacy of prayers, curses, and medical formulas.

This resides at least in part in ancient beliefs in word magic, through which
rhymed language was imbued with authority and power.22
The common ground between these types of text and the daybooks is that
they attempt to use specialist language and techniques to control human for-
tune. Curses and prayers request a change in the subject’s or object’s fortunes,
and divination attempts to grasp the potential outcome of a situation. It is not
hard to see that the hemerological concerns of the daybook manuscripts like-
wise fall into this broader category of using technical language to control the
outcome or steer the choice of action. A correct use of the “*Ji ri” for instance
allows its recipients to avoid activities in daily life with a negative outcome. To
do so, the language of the “*Ji ri” draws power from the efficacy of rhyme, mak-
ing its claim over what not to do in life appear naturally effective and powerful.
If this observation is not too forced, then the question becomes why only a
limited number of texts in the daybooks make use of the power of rhyme?
5. Marking intertextuality and genre affiliation.
I already remarked above that rhyme can be used to mark key content. Rhyme
helps to focus the attention on particular parts of a text, in our case here the
auspiciousness or not of the result of an action. When other texts used to predict
and control the outcome of actions likewise make use of a similar terminology
of prognostication ( ji 吉 “auspicious”, xiong 凶 “inauspicious” etc.) and rely on
similar rhyme words and patterns as in the daybooks to discuss questions of aus-
piciousness, success and failure, do such connections suggest intertextual and
genre relations, or even a shared discursive practice? If so, is it possible that the
use of rhyme in the daybooks is derived from earlier prognostication practices?
I will return to the implications of these questions at the end of this arti-
cle. In what follows I first analyze a set of texts following the five categories
listed above.
22 Donald Harper, “The Sexual Arts of Ancient China as Described in a Manuscript of the
Second Century B.C.,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 47.2 (1987), 560, and Donald
Harper, “Wang Yen-shou’s Nightmare Poem,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies (1987),
279–82. Also see Behr, “Reimende Bronzen,” 36–7, 610, and Liu Ying 劉英, “Su wen
yongyun yanjiu”《素問》用韻研究, Gu Hanyu yanjiu 古漢語研究 1989.4, 67–71. Some
theoretical basis for the persuasiveness and perceived power attributed to language
imbued with multiple rhetorical features can be found in Menninghaus et al., “Rhetorical
features facilitate prosodic processing while handicapping ease of semantic comprehen-
sion,” 54–55, who note that once multiple features (the study focused on: brevity, meter,
and rhyme) are combined, the perceived power of persuasion of a proverb increases well
beyond proverbs with only a single feature present or those with none at all.
304 Krijgsman
2 Memorability of the Texts
When we examine the language of the daybooks, the first impression is often
that the texts feel carefully planned in writing by virtue of their highly eco-
nomical, technical, and formalized diction filled with jargon. Furthermore,
the text is often closely linked to diagrammatic representations on the bam-
boo, further giving the impression that its text could not meaningfully exist
outside the written context of the manuscripts. Accordingly, the daybooks are
often not perceived as having strong oral or mnemonic components. However,
the presence of easily memorized rhymed text, and the recurrence of some
of this material both within and beyond the daybooks suggests that we also
cannot exclude the possible influence of a remembered, oral discourse in the
(re-)composition and (re-)use of the material. This becomes even clearer in
light of the following case studies.
For example, the Shuihudi A daybook features a text called, “Sui” 歲 (Year
star—Jupiter),23 with a clearly visible rhyme pattern. Different from the “*Ji ri”,
the structure and rhythm of the text is unified throughout, and the rhymes are
all in the Yang group:
刑夷、八月、獻馬，24歲在東方，以北大祥，東旦亡，南遇殃，西數
25反其鄉26。64.127
夏夷、九月、中夕，歲在南方，以東大祥，南旦亡，西遇殃，北數反
其鄉。65.1
23 The text editions for the Shuihudi daybooks are based on Chen Wei 陳偉 ed. in Chief,
Shuihudi Qinmu jiandu 睡虎地秦墓簡牘, in Qin jiandu heji 秦簡牘合集, vol. 1 (Wuhan:
Wuhan daxue, 2014), hereafter: heji. Sui is found on p. 385.
24 I thank Wolfgang Behr, pc. 12/8/2019, for alerting me to assonance on *-a- between Ma 馬
*mʕraʔ and Xi 夕 *s-ɢAk. The same should be noted for yue 月 *[ŋ]ʷat.
25 Wang Zijin 王子今, Shuihudi Qinjian rishu jiazhong shuzheng 睡虎地秦簡《日書》甲
種疏證 (Hubei jiaoyu, 2003), 103 suggests to read as “speedily” su 速.
26 Zeng Xiantong 曾憲通, “Qinjian rishu sui pian jiangshu” 秦簡日書歲篇講疏, in Rao
Zongyi 饒宗頤 and Zeng Xiantong 曾憲通, Yunmeng Qinjian rishu yanjiu 雲夢秦簡
日書研究 (Guangzhou: Zhongwen daxue, 1982), 70 reads as “direction” xiang 向; Yan
Changgui 晏昌貴, “Jianbo rishu sui pian hezheng,” Hubei daxue xuebao 湖北大學學報
30.1 (2003), 73–78 reads the line 數反其鄉 as a type of misfortune second to death only.
27 The number after the slip number refers to the register on the manuscript, in this case, the
top-most, or first, register.

紡月、十月、屈夕，歲在西方，以南大祥，西旦亡，北遇殃，東數反
其鄉。66.1
七月、爨月、援夕，歲在北方，以西大祥，北旦亡，東遇殃，南數反
其鄉。67.1
Year star
During the Xingyi (fourth),28 eighth, and Xianma months, the year star
is in the east, rendering the north greatly auspicious. If it is lost in the
morning in the east,29 then the south encounters misfortune, and in the
west it quickly reverses its direction;
During the Xiayi (fifth), ninth, and Zhongxi (first) months, the year star
is in the south, rendering the east greatly auspicious. If it is lost in the
morning in the south, then the west encounters misfortune, and in the
north it quickly reverses its direction;
During the Fang (sixth), tenth, and Quxi (second) months, the year
star is in the west, rendering the south greatly auspicious. If it is lost in
the morning in the west, then the north encounters misfortune, and in
the east it quickly reverses its direction;
During the seventh, Cuan (eleventh), and Yuanxi (third) months, the
year star is in the north, rendering the west greatly auspicious. If it is lost
in the morning in the north, then the east encounters misfortune, and in
the south it quickly reverses its direction.
For every item, after listing three different months, “Sui” features Yang rhymes
for the five short lines. (with 4, 4, 3, 3, and 5 characters per line respectively).
The rhythm is organized and the rhyme words are the same for every line ( fang
方 *C-paŋ, xiang 祥 *s.ɢaŋ, wang 亡 *maŋ, yang 殃 *ʔaŋ, xiang 鄉 *qʰaŋ).30
The strict repetition of the rhyme words and formulaic structure of the text
28 The names from Xingyi to Yuanxi all refer to months in the Chu calendar, see Yan
Changgui, “Jianbo rishu sui pian hezheng.” Both the names and their numbering are dif-
ferent from the Qin system. These differences are tabulated on the second to fourth regis-
ters beneath the Sui text see Heji 387.
29 Zeng Xiantong, “Qinjian rishu sui pian jiangshu,” 70 argues that this refers to the year star
not appearing according to schedule.
30 Yan Changgui, “Jianbo rishu sui pian hezheng,” notes parallel passages in Shuihudi day-
book B and the Mawangdui manuscripts. It should be noted that most of these are not
rhymed, and none rhymed throughout.
306 Krijgsman
suggests an orderly pattern, established beyond doubt. Importantly, they also

make the text very easy to remember by heart, allowing one to recollect indi-
vidual sections on the basis of the structure.31
Other texts have a similar regular rhyme structure, but have additional
unrhymed lines interspersed between the rhymes. For example the Shuihudi A
daybook has a text referred to as the “Prohibitions of the 12 Earthly Branches”
(“*Shi’er zhi ji” 十二支忌, Heji 合集 404–5):
毋以子卜筮，害於上皇。(101.2) 陽 *[ɢ]ʷˤaŋ
毋以丑徐（除）門戶，害於驕母。(102.2) 之 *məʔ
毋以寅祭祀、鑿井，以細□。(103.2) x x
毋以卯沐浴，是謂血明，不可□32井池。(104.2) 陽 *mraŋ
毋[以]辰葬，必有重喪。(105.2) 陽 *s-mˤaŋ
毋以巳夀（禱），反受其英（殃）。(107.2) 陽 *ʔ<r>aŋ
毋以午出入臣妾、馬[牛]，是為幷33亡。(108.2) 陽 *maŋ
毋以木<未>斬大木，必有大英（殃）。(109.2) 陽 *ʔaŋ
毋以申出入臣妾、馬牛、金材（財），是(110.2)
胃（謂）□□□。(111.2) x
毋以酉台（始）寇<冠>帶劍，恐御矢(112.2)兵，
可以漬米為酒，酒美。陽 *praŋ
(113.2)
Do not divine by plastron and milfoil on Zi days. You will receive harm
from the Supreme August;34
31 Here it should be noted that in one of the related texts, the “Jia zi x” 嫁子□ in Shuihudi
daybook B (Heji 556) a similar rhyme appears in the parallel phrased text, 北續光，正
東吉富，東南反鄉. Note also the discussion in Behr, “Reimende Bronzeinschriften,”
42ff on “identical rhyme” where rhyme and rhythm are generated by the repetition of the
same word.
32 The Heji editors 405–6, n. 7 suggest the graph looks like a shortened form of wei 為; Liu
Lexian 劉樂賢, Shuihudi Qinjian rishu yanjiu 睡虎地秦簡日書研究 (Taipei: Wenjin,
1994), 145 notes a parallel in the Dunhuang manuscripts using chuan 穿.
33 Heji 406, n. 12 suggest to read as beng wang 迸亡 (to run away).
34 I follow Rao Zongyi 饒宗頤, “Yunmeng Qinjian rishu shengyi” 雲夢秦簡日書賸義, in
Rao Zongyi 饒宗頤, Zeng Xiantong 曾憲通, Chudi chutu wenxian san zhong yanjiu 楚
地出土文獻三種研究 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1993), 451 who suggests the Eastern August
Ultimate Unity refers to the deity mentioned in the Jiu Ge 九歌 passage quoted below.

Do not exorcise your house on Chou days. You will receive harm from the
Haughty Mother;35
Do not sacrifice or drill wells on Yin days, [or you will] zhi with fine X?;
Do not wash your hair and body on Mao days. This is called bloody bright.
You cannot make? wells and ponds;
Do not hold funerals on Chen days, or you will certainly mourn again.36
Do not offer on Si days, or you will return/instead receive misfortune
from it;37
Do not remove or bring in servants, concubines, horses and oxen, or they
will run away;
Do not chop large trees on Wei days, or there will certainly be great
misfortune;
Do not remove or bring in servants, concubines, horses and oxen, or pre-
cious metals and wealth on Shen days. This is called X;
Do not cap or carry a sword for the first time on You days, or be afraid to
encounter arrows and weapons. You can steep rice to make rice wine.
It will be delicious.
This text has a number of illegible characters at the sentence final position, and
therefore the rhymes cannot be fully reconstructed. It should also be noted that
the text on the upper register, “Tu ji” 土忌 (Prohibitions of the Earth), crosses
over into the lower register on slip 106. This, combined with the facts that the
characters are written very densely, that the following text “Zhi shi men” 直室
門 (Approaching the door of the room) and accompanying chart do not allow
for any more text, and that there are no items for Xu 戌 and Hai 亥 days, sug-
gests that the text was filled in after the surrounding text had been copied. This
observation is further supported by the fact that the text on slips 104 and 108
was written all the way to the bottom of the slip, perhaps revealing a desire of
the scribe to maximize the use of space. These observations taken together,
35 The reading of this figure is unclear. Rao Zongyi, “Yunmeng Qinjian rishu shengyi,”
451 thinks it refers to Hou Jiao 后趫, the wife of Yu 禹; see also Lu Ping 陸平, “Shi shi
Kongjiapo Hanjian Rishu zhi ‘yu,’ ‘yu,’ ‘nüwa.’” 試釋孔家坡漢簡《日書》之 “緰”、
“禹”、“女過”, Wuhan daxue jianbo wang 武漢大學簡帛網, 2007-08-25, http://www.bsm
.org.cn/show_article.php?id=704.
36 Compare “*Ji ri” slip 393: “On Chen days do not hold a funeral, or in your movements
for three months, you will certainly encounter mourning again.” 辰不可舉喪，出入三
月，必復有喪。
37 Compare “*Ji ri” slip 392: “On Yin days you cannot travel, … You cannot [go to] offer at
shrines, or in returning your rite will have harmed, and the hundred ghosts won’t be satis-
fied.” 寅不可行，[…] 不可禱祠、歸（392）以禮傷，百鬼不饗, which has the same
logic for Yin days.
308 Krijgsman
signal that the text is likely to be incomplete and possibly copied with less care
than some of the other materials. Other problems and inconsistencies within
the text should therefore be viewed in this light as well (note the errors on
slips 109 and 112, for instance).
Despite these difficulties, it is still clear that the basic structure of most of
the lines divides in two: an opening prohibition “do not do X on Y days,” fol-
lowed by an inauspicious consequence if one ignores the prohibition, marked
with a Yang-group rhyme in at least seven cases, rhyming in huang 皇, ming 明,
sang 喪, yang 殃, wang 亡, yang 殃, and bing 兵. At least one item, Chou, ends
in mu 母 and does not rhyme. Deviating from this basic framework, two items
(Mao and You) include a short phrase after the rhymed foot. The above con-
siderations hint that the text might have undergone some expansion or other
change in the process of transmission. One possible explanation lies in com-
mentarial additions added by successive users of the text. Another possibility,
not excluded by the former, lies in oral and memory-based forms of transmis-
sion, further evidence for which can be found in the recurrence of similar pro-
hibitions across different texts. For example, the Chen day prohibition against
funerals recurs in the “*Ji ri” text discussed above (see also n. 36 above), the
Zi prohibition against divination likewise occurs in slightly different form in
the “*Za ji” 雜忌 from the Shuihudi B daybook, and the Yang rhyme “Supreme
August” also occurs in a line from the “Jiu ge” on auspicious days:
辰不可舉喪(*s-mˤaŋ) ，出入三月，必復有喪(*s-mˤaŋ) 。 (“*Ji ri”

slip 393)
On Chen days do not hold a funeral, or in your movements for three
months, you will certainly encounter mourning again.
毋以子卜筮，視□□□□□，命曰: “毋38上剛(*kˤaŋ)。” (“*Za ji” 雜忌

slip 126, Heji, 540)
Do not divine by scapula or milfoil on Zi days, view … the command
says: “Do not elevate the hard.
吉日兮辰良(*[r]aŋ)，穆將愉兮上皇(*[ɢ]ʷˤaŋ)。(Chuci 楚辭, “Jiu ge” 九

歌, “Donghuang Taiyi” 東皇太一)39
On this auspicious day, the occasion is good, reverently we go forth
and delight in the August on High.40
38 I do not read wu 毋 (*mo) as wu 無 (*ma). The context is clearly a prohibition.

39 Hong Xingzu 洪興祖 ed., Chuci buzhu 楚辭補注 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1983), 55.
40 Compare also, David Hawkes, Ch’u T’zu: The Songs of the South, an Ancient Chinese
Anthology (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959), 36.

The recurrence of phrases composed of similar rhymes and topic suggests

the possibility that these collocations were part of a shared discourse on
(in-)auspiciousness more generally.41 While the “Jiu ge” example might appear
a bit forced, it likewise links a Yang-rhyme with a general statement on auspi-
cious days. The similarity across the “*Ji ri”, “*Za ji”, and “*Shi’er zhi ji” seems
less incidental. Especially the composite “*Za ji” draws prohibitions from a
variety of origins (as evidenced by the clear differences in phrase form) and
it is probably not a stretch to imagine that the line was originally current in
another rhymed context, such as the “*Shi’er zhi ji,” from where it spread on to
other texts, transforming in the process. Whether this occurred orally or not is
hard to tell for certain. Nonetheless, the fact that rhymed and easily remem-
bered lines traveled to different texts, changing in the process, argues in favor
of a shared discourse wherein specialists (re-)used materials from other day-
books and related materials to form new texts.42 Within such a context, an
oral-mnemonic dimension should certainly not be excluded as a force besides
reading and copying. This possibility also provides an avenue for explaining
why material discussing questions of hemerological and (in-)auspiciousness
appears in unrelated texts such as the “Jiu ge” among others. This will be dis-
cussed further below.
3 Marking Key Content and Abstract Consequences
The use of rhyme in the daybooks often falls on the passages with key con-
tent, especially where the consequences of actions are marked, as in the “*Ji ri”
and “*Shi’er zhi ji,” for example. The Kongjiapo daybook’s “Chen” 辰 to which
I turn now likewise contains this feature. The text is composed of a list of day
names and a discussion of auspicious and inauspicious activities by day.43 It
41 Compare among other possible examples also the presence of recurring lines between
the Jiudian Congchen text and the Shuihudi Jianchu materials, see n. 43 below.
42 See Rens Krijgsman, “Traveling sayings as carriers of philosophical debate: From the inter-
textuality of the *Yucong 語叢 to the dynamics of cultural memory and authorship in
Early China,” Asiatische Studien / Études Asiatique 68.1 (2014), 83–116, for similar observa-
tions regarding rhymed philosophical sayings.
43 Suizhou Kongjiapo Hanmu jiandu, 131–132 (transcription). Versions of the text have been
found in the Shuihudi daybook A, Congchen 叢辰; Qin 秦, in Shuihudi daybook B, the
Chinese University of Hong Kong collection daybook (see Lu Ping 陸平, “Gang Zhongda
guan cang Hanjian rishu jiaoshi” 港中大館藏漢簡《日書》校釋, Wuhan daxue
jianbo wang 武漢大學簡帛網, 20-9-2008, http://www.bsm.org.cn/show_article
.php?id=876, and the recently excavated (in walking distance from the site of this day-
book) Zhoujiazhai 周家寨 daybook. While the Jiudian daybook includes a topically and
structurally similar instance of the Congchen 叢辰 text, the specific entries are rather
310 Krijgsman
features a loose and unstructured rhyme, at times even appearing forced or

slightly random. Nonetheless, in light of the rhyme patterns of the previously
discussed texts, the predominance of Yang-group rhymes becomes more pro-
nounced. In addition, the text includes a number of impure rhymes 合韻 (velar
nasal rhymes in *-ŋ between words of the Zheng- 蒸, Geng- 耕, Yang- 陽 and
Dong- 東 groups with different main vowels for instance) and assonances 半
諧音 (also referred to as “subsequence rhyme,” here featuring predominantly
in the Yang-, Yuan- 元, and Yu- 魚 group words which share the main vowel
*-a-). Here I present the first two sections where rhyme is most predominant.
The latter sections, while likewise including rhyme of this type, are even less
clearly structured:
秀日，
是謂重光，陽 *kwʕaŋ
【利野戰，元 *tar-s
必得侯】王。陽 *ɢʷaŋ
以生子，之 *[ts]əʔ
美且長，陽 *Cə-[N]-traŋ
賢其等。之 *tˤəŋʔ
利見人及入畜產。44 元 *s-ŋrarʔ
可以娶妻、嫁女，魚 *nraʔ
£(31)衣裳, 陽 *daŋ
冠帶。月 *C.tˤa[t]-s
…… 以飲水，脂 *s.turʔ
歌樂。藥 *[ŋ]ˤrawk-s
臨官蒞政相宜。歌 *ŋ(r)aj
different and relatively shorn of rhyme, as are the other texts in this daybook. One striking
example of zhi 職 group rhyme in the Jiudian Congcheng text can be found in the middle
of the item on s.36 and is interestingly enough preceded by yue 曰 (say/it is said), unprec-
edented in the other Congchen texts. Possibly it indicates a stock phrase or some other
verbal formula: “It is said: If there is food in the house, there will be gains on your travels”
曰：居有食 (*mә-lək)，行有得 (*tˤək). This phrase finds a parallel in Shuihudi A and
B chu 除 241: 成、決光之日，利以起大事、祭、家子，吉。居有食，行有得。
生子，美. Note here that the whole line here forms an impure series alternating 之 and
職 rhymes.
44 The Shuihudi A version has sheng 生 *sreŋ (Geng 耕 rhyme) instead of chan 產 *s-ŋrarʔ
(Yuan 元 rhyme). Note that on slip 1 of the Zhangjiashan 張家山 Yinshu 引書 manu-
script, chan could be understood as loosely rhyming with the Yang words zhang 長 *traŋʔ
and cang 藏 *m-tsʰˤaŋ: “Spring produces, \summer grows, \autumn gathers, \winter
stores, this is the way of Peng Zu.” • 春產（元）、\夏長（陽）、\秋收（幽）、\冬
藏（陽），此彭祖之道也。

以徒官，元 *kʷˤa[n]
免，事。之 *[m-s-]rəʔ-s
以繫，支 *m-kˤek-s
亟出。物 *t-kʰut
雖雨，(32) 齊（霽）。脂 *dzˤəj
不可 …… 美，脂 *[m]rəjʔ
有兵。(33) 陽 *praŋ
Xiu days:
Are called double radiant, it is favorable to do battle in the wild, one
certainly meets a lord or king. If you have a son on these days, he will
be handsome and tall, and competent among his kind. It is favorable to
meet people and to bring in livestock. You can marry a wife or marry out
a daughter, [make]45 clothing, caps and belts…. to drink water, there will
be song and merriment. If you take up office and manage government
affairs on these days, they will be mutually conducive. You can take up
new office, and when discharged you will serve again.46 When impris-
oned, you will quickly get out. Even though it rains, it will clear up [after-
wards]. You cannot … beautiful, there is strife.
正陽，陽 *laŋ
是謂番昌，陽 *thaŋ
小事果成，耕 *[d]eŋ
大事有慶，陽 *[kʰ]raŋ-s
它事未小大盡吉。質 *C.qi[t]
利以為嗇夫，魚 *p(r)a
三昌。陽 *thaŋ
□47時以戰，元 *tar-s
命謂三(34)勝。蒸 *l̥əŋ
以祠，吉。質 *C.qi[t]
以有為也，美惡自成。耕 *[d]eŋ
生子，吉。質 *C.qi[t]
可以葬。陽 *[ts]ˤaŋ-s
以雨，齊（霽）。脂 * dzˤəj
亡者，不得。職 *tˤək
正月以朔，鐸 *s.ŋrak
45 The editors note the use of zhi 制 “to make” in the Shuihudi A daybook slip 132, n. 4.
46 The editors suggest that the word fu 復 is dropped before shi 事. 132, n. 7.
47 The editors 133, n. 11 note a possible reading from Shuihudi A as yi 依.
312 Krijgsman
歲美，脂 *[m]rəjʔ
無兵。(35) 陽 *praŋ
True Yang days:

These are called repeatedly prosperous, small affairs are successful in
the end, and great affairs have a celebrated outcome. Other affairs, regard-
less if small or great, are all thoroughly auspicious. It is advantageous to
become a Bailiff; triple prosperity. Do battle according to the times. This
is called triple victory. To offer at shrines, auspicious. To undertake affairs,
good and bad results come of themselves. To have a son, auspicious. You
can hold a burial. When it rains, it will clear up. Those who abscond will
not be caught. If it is the first day of the first month, the year will be good.
There will not be strife.
The use of rhyme in “Chen” is not as strict as some of the other examples above,
let alone songs from the Odes (shi 詩). Nonetheless, when read out loud the
effect is still quite palpable. The two passages cited above all open and close in
a Yang rhyme. Especially the opening of the second section is similar to the “*Ji
ri” in that abstract consequences are marked in a Yang rhyme:
正陽，陽 *laŋ
是謂番昌，陽 *thaŋ
小事果成，耕 *[d]eŋ
大事有慶，陽 *[kʰ]raŋ-s
它事未小大盡吉。質 *C.qi[t]
利以為嗇夫，魚 *p(r)a
三昌。陽 *thaŋ
True Yang days,

these are called repeatedly prosperous,
small affairs are successful in the end,
and great affairs have a celebrated outcome,
other affairs, regardless if small or great, are all thoroughly auspicious.
It is advantageous to become a Bailiff;
triple prosperity.
The abstract consequences are spelled out in a technical vocabulary recurring

throughout the daybooks. On the one hand, these terms, such as wang 亡 or
bing 兵 or chang 昌 are akin to the more general judgments ji 吉 or xiong 凶
in that they pronounce in broad terms whether or not the action will have

auspicious consequences. On the other hand, the range of these terms is much
wider. Instead of auspicious or not, they reflect broad categories of harm or
fortune that would be met by the user. As shown above, these categories can
be applied to a range of different actions. Important here is that even in less
structured texts such as “Chen” here, and obvious outliers such as cheng 成 and
de 得 aside, there still appears to be a preference to use Yang-group words to
mark abstract consequences.
Similar cases can be found throughout the daybooks. For example, the
“Approaching the Door of the Room” (“Zhi shimen” 直室門, Heji, 407) from
Shuihudi A has the following line:
則光門，其主昌，柁衣裳，十六歲弗更，乃狂。(119.2)
The door adhering to the light: it governs prosperity, one’s clothes are
rimmed with embroidery, if you fail to change [the door] after sixteen
years, then you will go crazy.
This line has a Yang-rhyme ending for every phrase, including positive (chang
昌) and negative (kuang 狂) consequences. The pattern in the Fangmatan 放
馬灘 B Daybook “Eaten by Vermin” (Shushi 鼠食) is even clearer: a Yang-rhyme
concludes the text (s.121) highlighting the consequences of particular items
being eaten by vermin:
鼠食寇〈冠〉則□48
食□則有●央（殃）。陽 *ʔaŋ
食領則有明（盟）。陽 *mraŋ
If vermin eat your cap, then X;

If they eat your X, then there will be calamity;
If they eat your collar, then there will be an alliance.
In short, then, we are faced with a situation wherein the consequences of

actions are set in rhyme, Yang-rhymes in particular. In what follows, I show that
this phenomenon does not just appear in hemerological texts. Indeed, similar
48 I suspect the missing graph here should also feature a Yang-rhyme, instead of yuan 遠
suggested by the editors, or pin 貧 suggested by Fang Yong 方勇, “Tianshui Fangmatan
Qinjian lingshi (yi)” 天水放馬灘秦簡零拾（一）, Fudan daxue chutu wenxian yu
guwenzi yanjiu wang 復旦大學出土文獻與古文字研究網, 18-9-2013, http://www.gwz
.fudan.edu.cn/Web/Show/2117.
314 Krijgsman
features appear in different genres of text. Even though other rhymes are also
being used in these texts, Yang-rhymes are still highly common.
4 Special Language
Using rhyme to highlight consequences and conclusions in particular bears

similarity to the marking of effects in prayers. Compare the injunctions (ling
令) in the “Horse” prayer text from Shuihudi A (Heji 507):
馬■49
禖祝曰[…] (156 背):
“······主君苟屏馬，驅其央（殃），陽 *ʔaŋ
去(157 背)其不羊（祥），陽 *ɢaŋ
令其口嗜薦，物 ?*t-kʰut (出)50
嗜飲律律，物 *[r]ut
弗遏自退，微 *n̥ ˤ[u]p-s
弗驅自出，51 物 *t-kʰut
令其鼻能嗅鄉（香），陽 *qʰaŋ
令耳聰目明，陽 *mraŋ
令(158 背)頸爲身衡，陽 *[g]ˤraŋ
脊爲身剛，陽 *kˤaŋ
脅爲身張，陽 *C.traŋ
尾善驅虻，陽 ?*maŋ (亡)
腹爲百草囊，陽 *nˤaŋ
四足善行。陽 *Cә.[g]ˤraŋ
主君勉飲勉食，之 *mә-lәk
吾(159 背)歲不敢忘。” (160 背) 陽 *maŋ
49 For a discussion on the title of the text, see heji 508–9. Note also Liu Lexian 劉樂賢,
“Kongjiapo Hanjian rishu ‘Jixue she’ jiaodu” 孔家坡漢簡《日書》“雞血社” 校讀, paper
presented at the “Hubei chutu jianbo rishu guoji xueshu yantaohui” 湖北出土簡帛日書
國際學術研討會 conference, Wuhan, 9-11-2018 for a discussion of similar rhymed prayer
texts, set in a Yu- 魚 rhyme. See also the Meng 夢 prayer in Shuihudi A and B and the “Gao
Yi Wu” 告武夷 prayer in the Jiudian daybook, rhyming in zhi 之 and zhi 職 among others,
for instance.
50 A raised question mark preceding the reconstruction marks words for which the Baxter
and Sagart and Wang Li systems currently do not have a reconstruction, the value given
here is that of the phonophore.
51 The reorganization of the text along the Wu 物 group rhymes here follows Fang Yong 方
勇, “Shuihudi Qinjian zhaji er ze” 睡虎地秦簡劄記二則, Wuhan daxue jianbo wang 武
漢大學簡帛網, 25-11-2015, http://www.bsm.org.cn/show_article.php?id=2375#_ednref6.

Horses
Prayer to the Horse-begetter:
…
My Lord, we have trapped and fenced off these excellent horses.
Chase away their afflictions,
exorcise their baleful influences.
Make their mouths be fond of food,
and [their tongues] be fond of drink.
(Make them) stay in line, move by themselves without [being ridden],
and come forth of their own accord without being chased.
Make their noses able to savor the smells,
make their ears sharp and their sight clear.
Make their heads be (positioned) horizontally on their bodies,
their spines provide strength for their bodies,
their {flanks stretch} for their bodies,
their tails be good in chasing off insects,
their stomachs become sacks for the hundred grasses, and
their four feet be fit for walking.
My Lord, we urge you to drink and eat (the sacrificial offerings).
I, annually, shall not dare to neglect you.52
The excision of negative influences (yang 殃, bu xiang 不祥) and the beseech-
ing for health in the horses (ming 明, gang 剛, xing 行, etc.), in other words,
the expected result of performing the sacrifice and prayer, are marked with
Yang-rhyme words of a broader range than seen in other daybook texts (note
for example mang 虻 and nang 囊). Of course, other rhymes are also used
in the daybooks. The “Offering” (ci 祠, Heji 544) text in Shuihudi Daybook B
features a combination of Yang-, Duo- (鐸) and Yue- (月) rhymes and impure
rhymes sharing the main vowel *-a- (except for 餟 in -o-), and finally, Zhi- (之)
and Zhi- (職) impure rhymes sharing the main vowel schwa (*-ə-):
行行祠53行祠，東南行，祠道左；西北行，祠道右。其號曰: “大常
（*[d]aŋ）行（*[g]ˤraŋ-s），合三土皇（*[ɢ]ʷˤaŋ），耐（乃）為四
席（*s-m-tAk）。席餟其後，亦席三餟（？*tʰot, 啜）。” 其祝(145)曰:
52 The translation is adapted from Roel Sterckx, The Animal and the Daemon in Early China
(New York: SUNY, 2002), 63.
53 There is a repetition mark after the first xing 行 in the title of the section. As there are
some mistakes further on in the text it is possible that the repetition is mistaken as well.
For now, I translate the first xing 行 as “perform.”
316 Krijgsman
“無王事（*[m-s-]rəʔ-s），唯福是司（*s-lə），勉飲食（*mə-lək），
多投福（*pək）。” (146)
Performing travel offerings. Travel offerings, when travelling to the east

and south, offer on the left-hand side of the road. When travelling to the
west and north, offer on the right-hand side of the road. The correspond-
ing call goes: “[For the] Great Constant Traveler, and the three Earthly
Augusts, I have made four seats. I provide a libation offering at the seats
behind them, three times each.” The corresponding prayer goes: “No royal
affairs, it is only blessings which I [desire you] to administer. I urge you to
eat and drink, and bestow many blessings.”
The use of rhyme in the horse prayer and the travel offering are probably
related to a belief in word magic. In many ancient cultures, and especially in
medicinal and prayer texts, this “magical” power of rhythmic, repetitive, and
rhymed language is often employed to bolster the perceived efficacy of the
spell, especially in incantation.54 Such power is surely called for in the Jie 詰
(“Spellbinding”55 Heji 441) text in Shuihudi Daybook A. As such it is interesting
that only the preface of this demonology features rhyme:
詰
• 詰咎。
鬼害民妄行，陽 *[g]ˤraŋ-s
為民不羊（祥），陽 *ɢaŋ
告如詰之，（“召” shaped sign），56（24v.1）
導令民毋麗凶央（殃）。陽 *ʔaŋ
鬼之所惡，彼屈臥箕（25v.1）坐，連行踦立。（26v.1）
• “Spellbinding”
Spellbinding to inflict odium on demons.
The Wang-hang who injure people treat the people unpropitiously.
54 See for example, H.S. Versnel, “The Poetics of the Magical Charm An Essay in the Power
of Words,” in Paul W. Mirecki and Marvin W. Meyer eds., Magic and Ritual in the Ancient
World (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 105–158.
55 Following Donald Harper, “A Chinese Demonography of the Third Century B.C.,” Harvard
Journal of Asiatic Studies 45.2 (1985), 479.
56 Harper, Donald, “A Chinese Demonography of the 3rd century B.C.” Harvard Journal
of Asiatic Studies 45.2 (1985), 480 n. 60 notes that this mark possibly signals to the reader to
not read across register divisions but continue along the first register.

Let the way for how to spellbind them be declared, to enable the people
to not encounter the baleful and calamitous.
What demons detest are namely reclining in a crouch, sitting like a win-
nowing basket, interlinked motion, and the leaning stand.57
The text opens in Yang-rhymed phrases declaring its main purpose, after
which a range of ways to exorcise various types of demons follows. Like the
prayer and offering texts discussed above, rhyme is drawn upon to enhance
the perceived efficacy of the text. Nonetheless, the remainder of the text with
the actual spells is not rhymed suggesting that the power of rhymed language
was here not so much an attempt to ensnare the demons targeted in the text,
but perhaps more to persuade potential users of the text’s efficacy.
5 Intertextuality: Jargon
Many divinatory materials feature comparable uses of rhymed language, and

despite significant similarities in form and content, are often not considered to
belong to the daybook genre as they appear on different manuscript types and
in different textual configurations.58 Most of the examples below come from
a variety of divinatory materials. These materials share resemblances with the
daybook texts both in content and use, but are not strictly considered part of
the daybook type. Sometimes it is hard to distinguish them. Cheng Shaoxuan
程少軒, for example, has convincingly argued that while the Fangmatan 放馬
灘 Model Divination of Bells and Pitches (Zhong lü shi zhan 鐘律式占) is written
57 Translation follows Harper, “A Chinese Demonography,” 480–1. Harper’s, and Sterckx’s

(above, for the “Horse” text) use of “baleful” for xiong 凶 makes good sense within the
context of a demonology. I translate it elsewhere as the more general “inauspicious.”
58 For considerations on what constitute a daybook manuscript and a hemerological text
proper, see the introduction (esp. 6–7) and the contributions by Liu Lexian (esp. 57–66)
and Donald Harper in Harper and Kalinowski eds., Books of Fate and Popular Culture in
Early China. The main problem stems from the composite nature of the daybook manu-
scripts. On the one hand the daybook is a self-identified manuscript type which collects
a variety of different genres of text together on its carrier, on the other hand, the pre-
dominance of hemerological texts on these manuscripts has led the term daybook to be
used as a genre label, referring more narrowly to a combination of texts with a core of
hemerological concerns often starting with the “Jianchu” system. More broadly, it refers
to all other texts appearing on the daybook manuscripts. The problem in nomenclature
manifests itself when divinatory texts beyond the daybook manuscripts start to concern
themselves with the propitiousness of days, or when structurally and topically similar
texts appear in widely different contexts (for examples, please see the discussion below).
318 Krijgsman
on the same manuscript as Daybook B, it should nonetheless be considered as

a distinct individual text.59 Of course, such considerations would be equally
true for the “Horses” and “Spellbinding” texts discussed above, and as such,
I have chosen to arrange the texts treated in this paper by their main concern
(hemerological, ritual, divinatory etc.). Because of the vast range of materi-
als opened up by such broader considerations, I have only selected a number
of representative examples which approach the use of rhyme in ways similar
to the texts of the daybooks. Compared to the materials from the daybooks,
the use of rhyme in the Mawangdui silk manuscripts is more diverse. While
there still is a predilection for the use of Yang-rhymes, we also find many oth-
ers such as rhymes in the Yu 魚, You 幽, Xiao 宵, and Zhi 職 groups, and so forth.
Likewise, the rhythmic patterns display a broader range of variation, including
two, four, and five-character rhymed phrases to name but a few.
First, an example from the Mawangdui “Prognostics of the Five Planets”
(*“Wu xing zhan” 五星占):
【… 其國有】德，職 *tˤәk
黍稷之匿；(007B) 職 *nr[ә]k
其國失德，職 *tˤәk
兵甲嗇嗇。職 *s.rək
其失次以下魚 *gˤraʔ
一若，魚 *nak
二若魚 *nak
三舍，魚 *l̥Aʔ
是謂天維紐，幽 *n<r>uʔ
其下之【國有憂: 幽 *ʔ(r)u
將亡，國傾敗。】祭 *N-pˤra[t]-s
When the state [on which it dwells] has virtue, there will be storing up
of glutinous and panicled millet. If the state is without virtue, troops and
armour will proliferate. If [Jupiter] misses its station and falls short by
one, two or three abodes, this is called ‘knotting of the Celestial Bond [sc.
‘Jupiter’?]’; the country below it will have sorrow: It will be lost, and the
state will be overturned in defeat.60 […]
59 See Cheng Shaoxuan 程少軒, Fangmatan jian Shizhan guyishu yanjiu 放馬灘簡式占古
佚書研究 (Shanghai: Zhongxi, 2018), 3 a subsection of this text, the “Divination of the 12
pitches” features many rhymes, as these are already extensively discussed in Cheng’s work
I will not treat them here.
60 The text follows Qiu Xigui 裘錫圭 ed. in Chief, Changsha Mawangdui Hanmu jianbo
jicheng 長沙馬王堆漢墓簡帛集成, vol. 4 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2014), 224. The translation

… 用兵┗。陽 *praŋ
所往之(009B)野有慶，陽 *[kʰ]raŋ-s
受歲之國，職 *[C.q]ʷˤәk
不可起兵，陽 *praŋ
是謂伐皇，陽 *[ɢ]ʷˤaŋ
天光其不從，東 *[dz]oŋ
其陰大凶殃。東陽 *qʰ(r)oŋ *ʔaŋ
… use troops, the [state corresponding to] the Field where it goes will
have good fortune. A state that receives the Year may have no troops
raised [against it]: this [would be] called ‘Attacking the August’. If the
Celestial Radiance [= Jupiter?] is not followed, its Yin is greatly inauspi-
cious [and calamitous].
The text is littered with rhymed passages but because the manuscript is dam-
aged, there are some areas where the rhyme cannot be clearly established.
I have selected this section mostly for completeness. Nonetheless, it is clear that
the basic meter of the rhymed sections adheres to the standard pattern of four
graphs per phrase. In addition, the text also features rhyme across some two-
and five-character phrases. Of particular note here is the staccato rhythm gen-
erated by setting the three short statements to count out the number of abodes
missed by Jupiter in Yu-rhyme. Different rhymes are included, with the same
rhyme appearing anywhere between two to four times in a row. The rhyme in
the last three phrases quoted is noteworthy in that the final phrase appears to
include a, for lack of a better term, masculine-feminine rhyme, with the pen-
ultimate word “inauspicious” (xiong 凶, Dong-rhyme) rhyming with “adhere”
(cong 從, Dong-rhyme) of the preceding phrase and the final word “calamity”
(yang 殃, Yang-rhyme) rhyming with “august” (huang 皇, Yang-rhyme) of the
second to last phrase. The combination “inauspicious/baleful and calamitous”
(xiongyang 凶殃) also appears in the “Spellbinding” text above and is likely a
set phrase; its use as a masculine-feminine rhyme here might signal the end of
the section to a reader.
As mentioned, the Mawangdui technical manuscripts are littered with
rhymed passages, including for example the “Punishment and Virtue” (*Xing
de 刑德) A, B, and C, and the “Yin, Yang and the Five Phases” (*Yin yang wu xing
is modified from Christopher Cullen, “Wu xing zhan 五星占 ‘Prognostics of the Five
Planets,’” SCIAMVS 12 (2011), 193–249. The translation is on 28 ff. For a study by the same
author, see his “Understanding the Planets in Ancient China: Prediction and Divination
in the Wu xing zhan,” Early Science and Medicine 16.3 (2011), 218–251.
320 Krijgsman
陰陽五行) A and B. Here, I only discuss some interesting features in two related
passages in the “Miscellaneous Prognostications Concerning Astronomy and
Meteorology” (*Tianwen qixiang zazhan 天文氣象雜占) and the “Punishment
and Virtue” B text, respectively:
四月竝出，是謂亂明(*mraŋ)，【天】下大【亂】，□□興兵(*praŋ)。
(2.23)
If four moons appear together, this is called disorderly brightness, the

world will be in disorder, and…. will raise troops.
天箾（簫） (*sˤiw) ，出，天下𥝩( 愮 )(*law) ， 61 小人負 | 子姚（逃）

(*lˤaw)。(6.15)
天箾（簫）(*sˤiw)，北宮曰: 小人嗁（啼）號(*[C.g]ˤaw)。它同。
(6.16)
Heavenly panpipes, coming forth, the world is worried, the petty man
carries his child and flees.
Heavenly panpipes, Beigong says: “the petty man cries out.” The rest
(of the prognostication) is the same (as the previous one).62
In the first line ming 明 and bing 兵 rhyme (Yang-rhyme), in the following two,
xiao 簫, yao 愮, and tao 逃, and xiao 簫 and hao 號, form an impure rhyme
(You- 幽, Xiao-宵 and Yao-藥 rhymes).
This pattern is likewise observed in an item from *Xingde B:63
● 德在木 : 名曰柖榣 (*law)，以此舉事，眾心大勞 (*[r]ˤaw)，君子

介而朝 (*m-t<r>aw)，小人負子 (041C)以逃 (*lˤaw)，事若已成，天乃
見祅 (?*[ʔ](r)aw, 夭 )，是謂發箾 (*s-rˤewk)，先舉事者，地削兵弱
(*newk)。(042C)
61 Liu Lexian, Mawangdui tianwenshu kaoshi, 132 reads as yao 愮, which is justified by the
parallel from *Xingde B.
62 The edition follows Changsha Mawangdui Hanmu jianbo jicheng, vol. 4 (Beijing:
Zhonghua, 2014), 251. The interpretation here follows Liu Lexian 劉樂賢, Mawangdui
tianwenshu kaoshi 馬王堆天文書考釋 (Guangzhou: Zhongshan daxue, 2004), 132.
63 As noticed first by Hu Wenhui 胡文輝, “Mawangdui boshu Xingde yi pian yanjiu” 馬王
堆帛書《刑德》乙篇研究, in Hu Wenhui 胡文輝, Zhongguo zaoqi fangshu yu wenxian
congkao 中國早期方術與文獻叢考 (Guangzhou: Zhongshan daxue, 2000), 159–273.

Virtue resides in wood: Its name is Waving tree. When one engages in
affairs under it, even though the masses are troubled, the gentleman dons
his armor and goes to court,64 yet the petty man carries his child and
flees. If the affair is already completed, Heaven will then reveal ominous
portents: this is called “blowing the pipes.” Those who engage first, their
territory will be diminished and their troops weakened.
This similarity in text, rhyme, and imagery of the two passages reveals the pres-
ence of intertextuality in such divinatory materials. As discussed before, one
important function of rhyme is aiding the memorization and oral transmission
of text. In these examples and those discussed above (“*Shi’er zhi ji,” “*Za ji,”
and Chu ci), even when there are differences in the wording of the texts, their
relation is often revealed in the use of similar rhymes and structures. This sug-
gests that in certain cases, these rhymed divination statements could travel
orally or mnemonically across texts to act as pronouncements for different
situations. In that sense it is interesting that the *Tianwen qixiang zazhan puts
part of the rhyme in a quote of the words of the diviner Beigong 北宫.65 While
it is often assumed that the daybooks and divinatory texts were transmitted on
a purely written basis, and indeed there is plenty of evidence to support such
a primary mode of transmission,66 I stress again that we should also consider
the possibility that in the formation of these texts there was an oral, mnemonic
component at work, where certain rhymed statements and images were part of
a shared jargon that could be (re-)used across similar texts.
The examples chosen above reflect a relatively high degree of intertextual-
ity, but it should also not be forgotten that aside from rhyme, the hemerologi-
cal, divinatory, and astrological texts also share many similarities in sentence
structure, vocabulary, and material layout. These similarities hint at a more
generally shared discursive practice, wherein rhyme is just one among many
64 Following Chen Weiwu 陳偉武, “Mawangdui jianbo kaoshi xiaoji” 馬王堆簡帛考釋小

記, in Hunan sheng bowuguan 湖南省博物館 ed., Jinian Mawangdui Hanmu fajue sishi
zhounian guoji xueshu yantaohui lunwenji 紀念馬王堆漢墓發掘四十周年國際學術
研討會論文集 (Changsha: Yuelu, 2016), 253–256.
65 In one other case in this text (3/1), diviner Ren 任氏 presents a simple internal
Yang-rhyme: “Ren said: ‘There is mourning in the state’” 任氏曰：“邦(*pˤroŋ)又（有）
喪(*s-mˤaŋ)。”
66 Cheng Shaoxuan 程少軒, “Mawangdui boshu Xingde Yinyang wuxing zhupian lifa
yanjiu—yi Yinyang wuxing yi pian wei zhongxin” 馬王堆帛書《刑德》、《陰陽
五行》諸篇曆法研究–以《陰陽五行》乙篇為中心, Zhongyang yanjiuyuan lishi
yuyan yanjiusuo jikan 中央研究院歷史語言研究所集刊 87.2 (2016), 313–44; and Chen
Songchang 陳松長, “Three Research Notes on the Silk Manuscript *Tianwen qixiang
zazhan 天文氣象雜占,” Bamboo and Silk 2.2 (2019), 274–289.
322 Krijgsman
shared traits. Compare for example the use of “it’s name is X” 名曰 and “this is
called X” 是謂 in a text on figurine divination and a text on disastrous portents,
likewise set in a Yang-rhyme:
【東首】偃者，名曰卬陽 (*laŋ)，利事侯王 (*ɢʷaŋ-s)， □暨至天，吉

聞而長(*Cə-[N]-traŋ)，此吉。(*“Muren zhan” 木人占 022C, Jicheng
164–165)
[Eastern Head] Reclining: its name is: “Raise [one’s head towards] Yang
(i.e., the sun).” It is advantageous to serve lords and kings, X reaches up to
heaven, auspiciousness is known and extensive, this is auspicious.
凡邦有大畜生小畜，是胃（謂）大昌(*thaŋ)，邦則樂王(*ɢʷaŋ-s)，□
大⧄ (*“Zaiyi zhan” 災異占, 776)67
In the case that the state has large livestock giving birth to young live-
stock, this is called: “Greatly flourishing,” the state will rejoice in/sing its
king, X greatly …
These examples are similar to the passages quoted from the daybooks above in
their use of rhyme and sentence structure. Each starts with a case, direction,
or position. The statements are often four characters each, predominantly fea-
ture Yang-rhymes in pronouncements, and use naming formulas to label the
observed state or phenomenon.68
Taking the structural similarities in the examples discussed so far, it is pos-
sible that their use of rhyme draws on a shared discursive practice, possibly
67 Wang Mingqin 王明欽, “Wangjiatai Qinmu zhujian gaishu” 王家臺秦墓竹簡概述, in

Ai Lan 艾蘭 (Sarah Allan) and Xing Wen 邢文 eds., Xinchu jianbo yanjiu 新出簡帛研究
(Beijing: Wenwu, 2004), 26–49.
68 Such similarities in form and especially rhyme also appear in transmitted texts. Compare
for instance these rhymed concluding statements in the Guanzi 管子 “Four seasons” 四
時 chapter:
陰陽者天地之大理也，四時者陰陽之大徑也，刑德者四時之合也 …… 刑德
不失四時如一，刑德離鄉(*qʰaŋ)，時乃逆行(*Cə.[g]ˤraŋ)，作事不成(*[d]eŋ)，
必有大殃(*ʔaŋ)。
Yin and Yang are the great pattern of heaven and earth, the four seasons are the great
warp of Yin and Yang, Punishment and Virtue are the harmony of the four seasons …
when Punishment and Virtue do not lose track of the seasons they are as one, when they
leave their locale and time they will then move in the wrong direction and affairs will
not be completed, there will certainly be great misfortune. See Li Xiangfeng 黎翔鳳 ed.,
Guanzi jiaozhu 管子校注 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2004), 838, 857.

rooted in earlier divinatory traditions. Since the use of rhyme in omen phrases
and line statements has been discussed extensively already,69 I will here only
focus on two excavated texts bearing on this question. Of particular interest
here is the use of rhymed statements in divinatory texts. Consider the follow-
ing example of a rhymed, four-character omen phrase (yaoci 繇辭) from the
*Bu shi ji dao 卜筮祭禱 text from the Xincai Geling 新蔡葛陵 manuscripts:
⧄其繇曰: 是日未兌（說）(*l̥ot)，大言絕絕(*[dz]ot)，小言惙惙(?*tʰot,
啜)，若組若結，終以□□ (A3, slip 31) ⧄□是以謂之有言。其兆: 亡咎⧄
(0, slip 232)70
… its statement says: “On this day one has not yet explained, great words
are not spoken, petty words keep coming, as if knitted together as if tied
off, finally one … This is why it is called “having words.” Its omen: no
misfortune …”
As Chen Wei has pointed out, this rhymed divination statement bears like-
ness to the description of plastron and milfoil divination in the Zuozhuan,
as the statements form “fixed expressions … close to lines of verse.”71 If the
descriptions in the Zuo reflect Warring States divinatory processes, their use of
rhymed statements seems to lend weight to the idea of oral pronouncements
being used in interpreting the divination and establishing the auspiciousness
of a certain action at a certain time. This process could reflect a similar logic to
the marking with rhyme of abstract results and auspiciousness in the daybooks
and the divinatory materials discussed earlier. It is therefore possible that the
use of rhyme in the daybook texts is better understood as operating in and
originating from a broader discursive practice discussing questions of auspi-
ciousness. The use of rhymed statements to mark results and consequences
69 See note 20 above.

70 Edition follows Wuhan daxue jianbo yanjiu zhongxin 武漢大學簡帛研究中心 and
Henan sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo 河南省文物考古研究所 eds., Chudi chutu
Zhanguo jiance heji (er) 楚地出土戰國簡冊合集（二）：Geling Chumu zhujian
Changtaiguan Chumu zhujian 葛陵楚墓竹簡·長臺關楚墓竹簡 (Beijing: Wenwu, 2013),
10 and 64, n. 105. The combination of these two slips follows Yu Fu 于茀 “Xincai Geling
Chujian chutan” 新蔡葛陵楚簡初探 Wenwu 文物 2005.2, 69–71.
71 Chen Wei, “Geling Chujian suo jian de bushi yu daoci,” 38–39. The passages in the Zuo
zhuan can be found under Min 閔 2; Xi 僖 4, 15; Zhuang 莊 22; Zhao 昭 1; Xiang 襄 10;
Ai 哀 17 etc. Kidder Smith, “Zhouyi Interpretation from Accounts in the Zuozhuan,” esp.
458–62 argues that these descriptions in the Zuozhuan, while likely not historical records
of actual divinations, nonetheless accurately reflect the Warring States divinatory pro-
cess. The Geling finds appear to support this observation.
324 Krijgsman
would then best be understood as part of a performative use of language,

wherein the power of rhymed statements, similar to the prayers discussed
above, adds an almost magical efficacy to the omen statements made after the
divination. In terms of textual form and possible use, then, it is not unlikely
that the use of rhyme in the daybooks ultimately goes back to established prac-
tices in the performance of divination. Many more materials could be brought
to bear on this question. To further support the idea of a shared discursive
practice, I now turn to the Beida Jing jue 荆决 manuscript, presenting a form of
hexagram based stalk divination combined with the twelve heavenly branches
used in day notation. The editors of the text note that its divination system
finds a counterpart in the daybook in the same cache of acquired documents
and that the Jing jue text provides a strong case of stalk divination adopting the
hemerological logic of the daybooks.72 As the manuscript is rhymed through-
out, it provides a good example to tie the rhymed daybook texts and divinatory
materials together:
● 鐫（鑽）龜告筮，不如荊決。若陰若陽（ *laŋ ），若短若長
（*Cə-[N]-traŋ）。所卜毋方（*paŋ），所占毋良（*[r]aŋ），必察以
明（ *mraŋ）。卅筭以卜其事 (1)，若吉若凶（ *qʰ(r)oŋ），唯筭所從
（ *[dz]oŋ）。左手持書，右手操筭（ *[s]ˤorʔ-s），必東面。用卅筭
（*[s]ˤorʔ-s），分以爲三分，其上分衡（橫）（*[g]ˤraŋ），中(2)分
從（縱）（*tsoŋ），下分衡（橫）（*[g]ˤraŋ）。四四而除之，不盈
者勿除。(3)
己〈甲〉三亖三<亖三三>4-3-3: 窮奇，欲登于天（*l̥ˤi[n]），浮雲
如人（*ni[ŋ]）。氣（既）已行之，乘雲冥冥（*mˤeŋ）。行禺（遇）
大神（ *Cə.li[n] ），其高如城（ *[d]eŋ ），大（太）息如壘（雷）
(4) ，中道而驚（ *kreŋ ）。泰（大）父爲祟，欲來義（我）生
（*sreŋ）。凶。(5)
Compared to piercing the shell and reading the stalks, it is preferable to

use Jing jue. Whether Yin or Yang, short or long, when your divination has
no method, your statement will not be good, and you will have to clarify
it by examining it. Use thirty stalks to divine the corresponding matter,
(to determine) whether (something is) auspicious or inauspicious, what
is to be followed should always be the calculation. The left hand holds the
writing, and the right operates the calculation, you have to face east. Use
72 Beijing daxue chutu wenxian yanjiusuo 北京大學出土文獻研究所 ed., Beijing daxue

cang Xihan zhushu (wu) 北京大學藏西漢竹書（伍）(Shanghai: Shanghai guji, 2014),
169–171.

thirty stalks, divide into three parts, place the upper part horizontally,
the middle vertically, and the bottom horizontally. Remove the stalks by
fours and again, that which does not exceed (four) do not remove it.
Jia: 4-3-3 Exhausting the uneven, if you wish to rise up to heaven, and
be as a person floating on the clouds,73 when you ride them, mount the
clouds dark and dim. When you encounter the Great spirit in your move-
ments, he is high as a city wall, he exhales as the thunder, and startles
you when you reach the Way. The Great father is the bane, he wants to be
born among us. Inauspicious.
The Jing jue is rhymed throughout and is composed of four-character lines.

Items contain multiple rhymes which usually form an impure rhyme (e.g. the
Yang- and Dong-, or the Zhen- 真 and Geng- 耕 rhymes in the example above.
The rhyme as a whole is more carefully crafted than in most of the daybook
materials reviewed above and it is not limited to abstract consequences. As
a text, it both combines the gnomic flavor of the line statements and omen
phrases, as also seen in the Geling example above, and the didactic tone of the
preface explaining the method suggests that the use of rhyme here might, at
least in part, serve to help one memorize the text. Where the daybooks seem
to have inherited some of the discursive habits of divinatory materials, the Jing
jue for its part seems to draw on both traditions as equal partners, using key
elements of the genres to inform its textual form. In that sense, it highlights
that the daybooks were not just passive receivers of conventions of other texts,
but actively contributed to the continuation of a shared discourse in which
rhyme could be employed to empower the text’s claim to help control their
users’ fate.
The above examples suggest that the use of rhyme in the daybooks might
be part of a continued discursive practice using rhymed statements to make
pronouncements on the auspiciousness of certain actions. This practice might
have been shared more broadly. To support this idea, I review some Warring
States examples from literary and philosophical texts which likewise use
rhyme to make pronouncements on auspiciousness.
The philosophical text *“San de” 三德 (Three virtues) from the Shanghai
Museum manuscripts, is composed of rhymed quatrains, some of which share
the vocabulary of auspiciousness with the daybooks. In many cases, the con-
cluding lines are further marked with punctuation. See for example the follow-
ing stanzas:
73 The grammatical order of the sentence appears distorted here because of the rhyme.
326 Krijgsman
敬之敬之，
天命孔明。東陽 *[k]ʰˤoŋʔ *mraŋ
如反之，
必遇凶殃。東陽74（3–4） *qʰ(r)oŋ *ʔaŋ
Respect it, respect it, the heavenly mandate is vast and clear. If you go
against it, you will certainly encounter inauspiciousness and calamity.
故常不利▬，
邦失幹常。陽 *[d]aŋ
小邦則殘，
大邦過傷▬。陽（5） *l̥aŋ
That is why under constant disadvantage, the state will lose its support
and constancy. A small state will be crippled, a large state will be dam-
aged excessively.
喜樂無期度，
是謂大荒▬。陽 *m̥ ˤaŋ
皇天弗諒，陽 *[r]aŋ-s
必復之以喪▬。陽（7） *s-mˤaŋ
When joy and pleasure are without regularity and measure, this is called
great waste. August heaven will not forgive, and will certainly repay with
mourning.
These examples are set in a Yang-rhyme marking positive or negative con-

sequences for people and states.75 The first example additionally features a
masculine-feminine rhyme featuring the Dong rhyme for the penultimate word
of the second and fourth lines on top of the final Yang rhyme. Consequences in
the *San de are understood as resulting from human behavior and self-control
(or the lack thereof). Compared to the daybook’s emphasis on performing
actions at the right time, many Warring States philosophical materials link
action and consequence on the moral level. Such differences are the result
of the fundamentally different textual genres and concerns. Nonetheless it is
74 The examples of the *San de 三德 are drawn from Gu Shikao 顧史考 (Scott Cook),
Chujian yunwen fenlei tanxi 楚簡韻文分類探析, Chutu wenxian yu guwenzi yanjiu 出土
文獻與古文字研究 4 (2011), 215–258.
75 The *San de does not just feature Yang-rhymes, but as in the daybooks, they are the pre-
dominant means to mark (abstract) consequences.

also clear that the way of marking consequences with rhyme (Yang-group in
particular) and specific vocabulary for describing the necessity of the conse-
quences (such as “this is called” 是謂; “then” 則; “certainly” 必 etc.) is shared
across the genres.76 The relation with auspiciousness is, however, less clear
(despite the use of jargon such as “inauspicious” xiong 凶; “mourning” sang 喪
etc.). This interlinking thread is more clearly visible in the Shanghai Museum
manuscript-texts *Wuwang jianzuo 武王踐祚 A and B’s use of sayings:
A:
師尚父奉書，道書言曰:
“怠(4)勝義則喪，陽 *s-mˤaŋ
義勝怠則長。陽 *Cə-[N]-traŋ
義勝欲則從，東 *[dz]oŋ
欲勝義則兇。東 *qʰ(r)oŋ
……”
Shi Shangfu presented the document and articulated the sayings of the
document: “When laxity surpasses propriety there is loss, when propriety
surpasses laxity, there is growth. When propriety surpasses desire, there
is adherence, when desire surpasses propriety there is misfortune.77
乙:
太公答曰: “丹書之言有之曰:
“志勝欲則(14)[昌]，陽 *thaŋ
欲勝志 ▬ 則喪▬ 陽 *s-mˤaŋ
志勝欲則從▬ 東 *[dz]oŋ
欲勝志則兇。東 *qʰ(r)oŋ
敬勝怠則吉▬ 質 *C.qi[t]
怠勝敬▬則滅▬。月 *[m]et
76 Also compare the use of “it is called: …” in the Tang chu yu Tangqiu 湯處於湯丘
manuscript:
湯曰：“善哉！子之云之。
先人有言：‘能其事而得其食，是名曰昌；
(6) 未能其事而得其食，是名曰喪。’
必使事與食相當。
Tang said: “It is excellent, how you spoke of it! Our predecessors had a saying: “When
one is capable and obtains its succor, it is called ‘prosperous’; one who is not capable and
obtains its succor, it is called ‘mourning.’ One must match the tasks and their succor.”
77 Translations modified from Rens Krijgsman, “A Self-reflexive Praxis: Changing Attitudes
to Manuscript and Text in Early China,” Early China 42 (2019), 75–110.
328 Krijgsman
Taigong replied, saying: “In the sayings of the Cinnabar document the fol-
lowing is said: ‘If your will surpasses desire, then you will prosper; if your
desires surpass your will, then you will mourn; if your will surpasses your
desire, you will adhere, if your desires surpass your will, it will be inauspi-
cious. If your respect surpasses your laxity, that will be auspicious; but if
your laxity surpasses your respect, you will be ruined….’”
These two examples have a “travelling saying” set in Yang- and Dong-rhymes at
their core, i.e. variations of this saying were shared across early texts.78 Text B
expands on this with the impure rhyme “fortunate” ( ji 吉, *C.qi[t])—“ruin” (mie
滅, *[m]et). Both texts add a coda to the saying: text A describing the respec-
tive lengths of the state’s “fortune” (yun 運), text B in turn featuring a rhymed
coda on the importance of “respect” ( jing 敬) in having the people adhere. The
main point of the text is to teach the future King Wu the virtue of controlling
one’s desires and attitude so that the state will flourish and enjoy lasting for-
tune. When one does not do so, calamity, mourning, and even destruction will
result. By directly linking the moral cultivation of the future ruler to auspicious
and inauspicious consequences, these two texts provide a more direct example
of how the discourse of auspiciousness could be articulated on the moral level
while at the same time expressing abstract consequences using rhyme and text
structure seen also in the daybooks and divinatory materials.
Both in excavated and transmitted texts there are many more examples fea-
turing the use of rhyme to mark auspicious and inauspicious consequences. In
particular there is a range of texts which—not unlike the daybooks—link astrol-
ogy, five-phase theory, and temporal concerns with rhymed consequences.79
The question occupying the second half of this paper has been whether such
correspondences across a wide range of text types can be understood as a
common way of talking about the (in-)auspiciousness of actions. Despite the
78 See Krijgsman, “Traveling sayings as carriers of philosophical debate,” 83–116.

79 See for example Xunzi 荀子, “Li lun” 禮論: “Heaven and earth are [characterized] by har-
mony, the sun and moon by brightness, the four seasons by their order, the planets and
asterisms by their movement, the rivers and waters by their flow, the myriad things by
their flourishing, what one likes and despises by moderation, and joy and anger by their
aptness. When used below there is adherence, when above there is brightness, and the
ten-thousand transformations are in order, when you go against this there is mourning.”
天地以合，日月以明，四時以序，星辰以行，江河以流，萬物以昌，好惡以
節，喜怒以當，以為下則順，以為上則明，萬變不亂，貳之則喪也。And the
Liezi 列子 “Shuo fu” 說符: Mr. Shi said: “In general, those who grasp the (right) time,
flourish, those who lose it, perish. 施氏曰：凡得時者昌，失時者亡。The Shi ji 史記
“Tianguan shu” 天官書 and the Han shu 漢書 “Tianwen zhi” 天文志 are also littered
with rhymed passages linking asterism, time, five-phase theory, and auspiciousness.

tentative nature of the interrelation and historical developments of such a dis-

cursive practice, the similarities across these rhymed materials suggest that
the use and functionality of rhyme in the daybooks did not appear out of thin
air, but was rather part of shared language habits, and possibly had more direct
antecedents in, for example, divination practices.
6 Conclusion
This article has presented some preliminary thoughts on the use of rhyme in
the daybooks. Based on the limited sample covered here, I have suggested that
we can at least distinguish five main functions of rhyme in the daybooks:
1) Organizing and structuring text, including aesthetic considerations;
2) Recitation, reading, and memorability;
3) Organizing activity and result, and marking key content;
4) Marking the special properties of “magical,” “authoritative,” or “elegant”
language;
5) Marking intertextuality and genre affiliation.
In addition, I have argued that the use of rhyme in the daybooks can be fruit-
fully compared with other types of materials, such as prayers, divinatory,
astronomical, and philosophical texts. Through such a comparison, we can
see a number of shared qualities of the use of rhyme in these texts: 1) the day-
books, Kongjiapo and Shuihudi in particular, mainly (but not exclusively) use
Yang-rhymes, and the texts are not necessarily neatly structured. They include
three-, four-, and five-character lines, and range from regular end-rhymes
every sentence, rhyme every other sentence, to highly irregular rhyme. 2) Not
all rhymes are pure end-rhymes, some feature double or nested end-rhymes,
internal rhymes, and impure rhymes, assonance or half-rhyme, and some
texts add a line or two after the rhyme foot. There is a large diversity in rhyme-
groups used, beyond the more common Yang- and Dong-rhymes. 3) Especially
Yang-rhymes are regularly used to mark the auspiciousness of the result of an
action, and are used to stress abstract consequences of daily and special activi-
ties. 4) This use of rhyme can also be seen in other text types which place the
consequences on a moral, state, or celestial level. 5) The use of similar jargon,
rhyme patterns, and logic of causality suggests that these texts somehow par-
take of a shared discursive practice used to discuss questions of auspicious-
ness. In particular, I have noted the close relations visible between the daybook
texts and divinatory materials. Possibly the latter’s use of rhymed prognosti-
cation statements provided an antecedent for the daybook’s use of rhyme in
describing (in-)auspiciousness.
330 Krijgsman
When we view the regularities in the use of rhyme in the daybooks and
related texts from an even broader perspective, we find that other dis-
courses similarly have recurring rhyme patterns across texts. For example,
Harold D. Roth has remarked on the use of a “common vocabulary” (296) and
“a consistency in technical terminology and rhetorical structure” (297) in self-
cultivation texts. This terminology is often set in a Geng- or Zhen-rhyme. For
example, the “Nei ye” 內業 chapter of the Guanzi 管子 uses the Geng-group
words zheng 正 *teŋ-s (aligned) and jing 精 *tseŋ (concentrated) among others
to describe, in Roth’s analysis, stages of meditation.80 David Pankenier has sug-
gested that similar rhyme patterns—he adds jing 經 *k-lˤeŋ (arrange in order)
and ying 營 *[ɢ]ʷeŋ (delineate—lay out) among others—might be related to
early thoughts on astronomy, correctly aligning buildings and, metaphorically,
one’s rule, in early Western Zhou texts.81 More broadly, Wang Guowei noted
early on the use of impure rhyme in nasal finals in bronze inscriptions and the
Documents 書, and Nylan, Schaberg, Behr, and Tharsen have likewise remarked
on the use of Geng-, Zhen-, Dong-, and Yang-group rhymes from the Western
Zhou onwards to suggest harmonious and ordered governance.82 While there
is still much more to learn in this particular area of research, it does seem clear
that using particular rhymes to pattern texts operating in the same discursive
practice is quite common and can be traced from the Western Zhou onwards.
The use of rhyme, combined with a regular vocabulary discussing questions
of (in-)auspiciousness should probably be seen as operating in this broader
landscape of discursive habits more generally.
Based on the limited overview above, we can see that the use of especially
Yang-rhymes to express the auspiciousness of the results of particular actions
should probably be understood as part and parcel of the hemerologist jargon.
80 Harold Roth, “Evidence for Stages of Meditation in Early Taoism,” Bulletin of the School of
Oriental and African Studies 60.2 (1997), 295–314.
81 David Pankenier, “Getting ‘Right’ with Heaven and the Origins of Writing in China”, in Li
Feng and David Prager Branner eds. Writing and Literacy in Early China: Studies from the
Columbia Early China Seminar (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2012), 19–50.
82 Wang Guowei 王國維: Liang Zhou jin shi wen yundu《兩周金石文韻讀》, Chuangsheng
Mingzhi daxue 倉聖明智大學，1916. Tharsen “Chinese Euphonics”, 114–5, 197; Behr,
“Reimende Bronzeninschriften,” Michael Nylan, The Shifting Center: The Original “Great
Plan” and Later Readings (Monumenta Serica Monograph Series, 1992), 125, 130 dis-
cusses the uses of nasal endings in the “Hong fan” 洪範 chapter of the Shang shu 尚
書; David Schaberg, “Command and the Content of Tradition,” in Christopher Lupke ed.
The Magnitude of Ming: Command, Allotment, and Fate in Chinese Culture (Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 2005), 37–41 discusses impure rhymes in Western Zhou lan-
guage broadly. As Behr, personal communication 12/8/2019 reminds me, however, such
investigations need to be backed up by statistical analysis of a corpus in order to convinc-
ingly show a particular preponderance.

The transmission of these language habits of the daybooks should also prob-
ably not be understood as a purely written phenomenon, but would addi-
tionally include oral and mnemonic components, possibly going back much
earlier than the daybooks themselves and drawing on earlier special language
use seen in divinatory and astronomical materials. If correct, this would pro-
vide an important avenue for understanding not just the language habits
of the user-producers of these texts, but also for tracing commonalities and
inheritances across discursive practices beyond the use of shared phrases and
key terms.
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bamboo and silk 4 (2021) 291–335

A Preliminary Analysis of Rhymed Passages in the

rhyme – daybook manuscripts – (in-)auspiciousness – divination – discursive practice

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/24689246-00402013

韻文, 日書, 吉凶, 占卜, 話語實踐

bamboo and silk 4 (2021) 291–335

bamboo and silk 4 (2021) 291–335

7 Hubei sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo 湖北省文物考古研究所 eds., Suizhou Kongjiapo

On Zi days you cannot raise earth works,….….

bamboo and silk 4 (2021) 291–335

bamboo and silk 4 (2021) 291–335

1. Organizing and structuring text, including the marking of line breaks,

2. Recitation, reading, and memorability;

Because of the clarity and audibility of the structure, rhymed text—especially

bamboo and silk 4 (2021) 291–335

3. Organizing activity and result, and marking key content;

4. Marking the special properties of “magical,” “authoritative,” or “ele-

bamboo and silk 4 (2021) 291–335

empower the perception of efficacy of prayers, curses, and medical formulas.

5. Marking intertextuality and genre affiliation.

2 Memorability of the Texts

bamboo and silk 4 (2021) 291–335

suggests an orderly pattern, established beyond doubt. Importantly, they also

bamboo and silk 4 (2021) 291–335

辰不可舉 喪(*s-mˤaŋ) ，出入三月，必復有 喪(*s-mˤaŋ) 。 (“*Ji ri”

毋以子卜筮，視□□□□□，命曰: “毋38上剛(*kˤaŋ)。” (“*Za ji” 雜忌

吉日兮辰良(*[r]aŋ)，穆將愉兮上皇(*[ɢ]ʷˤaŋ)。(Chuci 楚辭, “Jiu ge” 九

38 I do not read wu 毋 (*mo) as wu 無 (*ma). The context is clearly a prohibition.

bamboo and silk 4 (2021) 291–335

The recurrence of phrases composed of similar rhymes and topic suggests

3 Marking Key Content and Abstract Consequences

features a loose and unstructured rhyme, at times even appearing forced or

bamboo and silk 4 (2021) 291–335

True Yang days:

True Yang days,

The abstract consequences are spelled out in a technical vocabulary recurring

bamboo and silk 4 (2021) 291–335

If vermin eat your cap, then X;

In short, then, we are faced with a situation wherein the consequences of

Using rhyme to highlight consequences and conclusions in particular bears

bamboo and silk 4 (2021) 291–335

Performing travel offerings. Travel offerings, when travelling to the east

bamboo and silk 4 (2021) 291–335

Many divinatory materials feature comparable uses of rhymed language, and

57 Translation follows Harper, “A Chinese Demonography,” 480–1. Harper’s, and Sterckx’s

on the same manuscript as Daybook B, it should nonetheless be considered as

bamboo and silk 4 (2021) 291–335

If four moons appear together, this is called disorderly brightness, the

天箾（簫） (*sˤiw) ，出，天下 𥝩( 愮 )(*law) ， 61 小人負 | 子姚（逃）

● 德在木 : 名曰柖榣 (*law)，以此舉事，眾心大勞 (*[r]ˤaw)，君子

bamboo and silk 4 (2021) 291–335

64 Following Chen Weiwu 陳偉武, “Mawangdui jianbo kaoshi xiaoji” 馬王堆簡帛考釋小

【東首】偃者，名曰卬陽 (*laŋ)，利事侯王 (*ɢʷaŋ-s)， □暨至天，吉

67 Wang Mingqin 王明欽, “Wangjiatai Qinmu zhujian gaishu” 王家臺秦墓竹簡概述, in

bamboo and silk 4 (2021) 291–335

69 See note 20 above.

would then best be understood as part of a performative use of language,

Compared to piercing the shell and reading the stalks, it is preferable to

72 Beijing daxue chutu wenxian yanjiusuo 北京大學出土文獻研究所 ed., Beijing daxue

bamboo and silk 4 (2021) 291–335

The Jing jue is rhymed throughout and is composed of four-character lines.

These examples are set in a Yang-rhyme marking positive or negative con-

1. Organizing and structuring text, including the marking of line breaks,

4. Marking the special properties of “magical,” “authoritative,” or “ele-

辰不可舉喪(s-mˤaŋ) ，出入三月，必復有喪(s-mˤaŋ) 。 (“*Ji ri”

毋以子卜筮，視□□□□□，命曰: “毋38上剛(kˤaŋ)。” (“Za ji” 雜忌

吉日兮辰良([r]aŋ)，穆將愉兮上皇([ɢ]ʷˤaŋ)。(Chuci 楚辭, “Jiu ge” 九

38 I do not read wu 毋 (mo) as wu 無 (ma). The context is clearly a prohibition.

天箾（簫） (sˤiw) ，出，天下𥝩( 愮 )(law) ， 61 小人負 | 子姚（逃）

● 德在木 : 名曰柖榣 (law)，以此舉事，眾心大勞 ([r]ˤaw)，君子

【東首】偃者，名曰卬陽 (laŋ)，利事侯王 (ɢʷaŋ-s)， □暨至天，吉