Cited by 18Death, Funerary Practices, and MourningChinese history and philosophyAncient and Medieval Archaeology Studies

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 29 of the 29 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 128 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

SACRIFICE VS. SUSTENANCE: FOOD AS A BURIAL GOOD IN LATE PRE-IMPERIAL AND EARLY IMPERIAL CHINESE TOMBS AND ITS RELATION FUNERARY RITES

Open access
Selbitschka, Armin·2018·Early China

Abstract

One of the medical manuscripts recovered from Tomb No. 3 at Mawangdui (dated 186 b.c.e.) states that, “When a person is born there are two things that need not to be learned: the first is to breathe and the second is to eat.” Of course it is true that all healthy newborn human beings possess the reflexes to breathe and eat. Yet, the implications of death should have been just as obvious to the ancient Chinese. Once the human brain ceases to function, there is no longer a biological need for oxygen and nourishment. Nevertheless, a large number of people in late pre-imperial and early imperial China insisted on burying food and drink with the dead. Most modern commentators take the deposition of food and drink as burial goods to be a rather trite phenomenon that warrants little reflection. To their minds both kinds of deposits were either intended to sustain the spirit of the deceased in the hereafter or simply a sacrifice to the spirit of the deceased. Yet, a closer look at the archaeological evidence suggests otherwise. By tracking the exact location of food and drink containers in late pre-imperial and early imperial tombs and by comprehensively analyzing inscriptions on such vessels in addition to finds of actual food, the article demonstrates that reality was more complicated than this simple either/or dichotomy. Some tombs indicate that the idea of continued sustenance coincided with occasional sacrifices. Moreover, this article will introduce evidence of a third kind of sacrifice that, so far, has gone unnoticed by scholarship. Such data confirms that sacrifices to spirits other than the one of the deceased sometimes were also part of funerary rituals. By paying close attention to food and drink as burial goods the article will put forth a more nuanced understanding of early Chinese burial practices and associated notions of the afterlife., 馬王堆三號墓出土的一卷醫書(公元前 186 年)寫道:「人產而所不學者二,一曰息,二曰食。」 毋庸置疑,所有健康的新生兒都具備呼吸和飲食的本能。然而,死亡的意義對古人而言却没有那麼明顯。一旦大腦停止工作,人就無需氧氣和營養了。可是在晚前和早期中華帝國,人们往往用食物和酒飲作為陪葬。多數現代學者認為食物和酒飲的陪葬司空見慣,因而不值一提。在他們看来,這兩種陪葬品若不是用來供奉亡靈,就是為逝者獻祭而已。然而,對考古資料的進一步分析後,結論截然不同。通過分析晚前和早期中華帝國墓葬中食器、杯皿之確切位置,並全面解析器皿表面之文字,綜合相關食物之發現,本文証明實際情況遠比簡單的二分法複雜。一些墓葬表明,長期的供奉與偶爾的獻祭不謀而合。此外,本文將介紹目前學界未有涉及的第三類獻祭行為的證據。此證據表明,作為殯葬儀式的一部分,除了祭奠墓主的亡靈,其他亡靈也同樣得到祭奠。通過對作為陪葬品的食物和酒飲進行細緻分析,本文對早期中國殯葬傳統及相關的來世理念提出一種更細緻的解讀。

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1017/eac.2018.7

Cites

29 of 29 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

116 Own interpretation · 100 Sources not found · 44 No basis given · 16 Own result · 11 No full text of the sources · 9 Not checked yet · 2 Own method

Show all 143 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 73
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 102
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 3
155 of 155
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Large parts of the early Chinese population lived in dire conditions.

    “given the dire living situations of large parts of the population in early China, an alternative reading is more likely”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    If major feasts had occurred at late pre-imperial or early imperial tombs, they would have left material evidence in the archaeological record.

    “However likely feasts at the burial plot may have been in theory, early Chinese tombs offer no material confirmation at this point.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The excavated tomb structures reflect their original dimensions and capacity closely enough to estimate how many people could have been present.

    “At best, its dimensions and overall design would have made it possible for roughly 100 people to tightly cram into the chamber, and then only if none of the burial goods had been deposited before the visitors filed in.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The absence of references to food in historical records of imperial gifts and funerary processions indicates that the imperial court did not supply food for funerary feasts.

    “Since the processions mentioned above were also devoid of any references to food, one has to assume that the imperial court had no hand in the food supply of purported feasts.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The spirits or ghosts were easily offended and departed when offended.

    “remember, the spirits/ghosts seemed to have been fairly thin-skinned and”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Food and drink containers in grave good assemblages signify food and drink in a generic way.

    “When all of the food and drink containers from grave good assemblages signify food and drink in a generic way”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The material remains recovered from tombs reliably reflect the funerary beliefs and practices of the people who created them.

    “If judged purely on the merits of the archaeological record, storage containers discovered in niches seem to be related to the long-term nourishment of the dead in their post-mortem existence, while food represented by vessels close to the body was destined for immediate consumption, i.e. the artifacts are remnants of sacrifices to the spirit of the dead at the time of the burial.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The spatial arrangement of burial goods within a tomb reflects the chronological order of their deposition.

    “The spatial separation and eventual location of both kinds of food vessels bespeaks a chronological sequence of deposition.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The natural spirits were offended by humans digging tomb shafts.

    “They had been offended by humans, who intruded into their realms, by digging tomb shafts.”
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Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

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Citations

Cites

Research works printed but not linked: 8

  1. bowuguan, 1973, Changsha Mawangdui yihao Han mu, 111
  2. Renxiang, 1994, Yinshi yu Zhongguo wenhua
  3. Gu, 1962, Han shu
  4. Minao, 1975, Kandai no inshoku 漢代の飮食, Tōhō gakuhō, 48, 1
  5. Harper, 1984, Gastronomy in Ancient China, Parabola, 9, 38
  6. Huang, 2000, Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 6: Biology and Biological Technology, Part V: Fermentations and Food Science
  7. Bourdieu, 1986, Handbook of Theory of Research for the Sociology of Education, 241
  8. bowuyuan, 2002, Henan chutu Handai jianzhu mingqi, 13

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Metadata

Authors
Selbitschka, A.
Affiliations
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
Corresponding author
Selbitschka, Armin
Venue
Early China
Published
2018
Volume
41
Pages
179-243
ISSN
  • 0362-5028 (ISSN-L)
  • 2325-2324
OpenAlex
W2903335193
Cited by
17
References
23
Citations by year
2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2019: 12
FWCI
9.07
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Early China (publishedVersion)
  • Knowledge Commons (Lakehead University)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Chinese history and philosophy
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology (arts and humanities) › Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies
Keywords
afterlife beliefs, funerary inscription, spirits of the dead, pre-imperial China, early imperial China

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