The Power of an Alleged Tradition - CHINA Buchservice

had really died and instead claimed that he had reached the state of immortality.
Soon after Li’s death, we then learn from the account, he entrusted Kuan Shu �
�, a Scribe of Huang and Chui ��� 16 to adopt the techniques used by Li Shaojun.
17 Interestingly enough, Kuan Shu is later mentioned in the Shiji account of the
emperor’s close advisers. As an offi cial concerned with sacrifi cial matters (ciguan
��), and together with a representative from the offi ce of “The Lord the Grand
Scribe” (taishigong ���, Kuan Shu advised the emperor advised the emperor to
set up an altar to the Earth Lord in Fenyin �� where a precious tripod had been
found. 18
The discovery of this tripod in the sixth month of the year 113 B.C. – an event
of central importance for this study – seems to have been the result of a ceremony
carried out by a shaman priest. 19 She discovered that the earth close to the area of
the sacrifi ce had the form of a hook. When she dug up the earth, she discovered
a tripod which is said to have differed much from ordinary tripods. It bore some
incised lines but no inscription. 20 She found this strange and talked to the government
offi cers about it. The governor of Hedong reported the extraordinary discovery
to the imperial court, upon which the emperor sent an envoy who was ordered to
examine whether the mysterious discovery of the tripod was credible. As the envoy
could not fi nd any traces of deceit, he used the tripod in a sacrifi ce, took it with
him and handed it over to the emperor. Emperor Wu took it with him when he proceeded
to perform sacrifi ces at Zhongshan. There, we learn, a yellow cloud appeared,
and a deer passed the emperor’s entourage whereupon the emperor shot it and used
it for a sacrifi ce.
After his return to Chang’an, the emperor requested the responsible offi cials 21
to discuss the question of how the appearance of the tripod was to be interpreted.
The offi cials explained to him that already Taidi ��� (The Greatest Thearch) 22
16 Huang and Chui are explained by the Jijie commentator Pei Yin (5th cent.) as the names of two districts in
Donglai ��.
17 Cf. Shiji 28/1386; 12/455: ����������������������It thus seems as if Kuan Shu was
more or less urged by the emperor into the role of his former favorite Li Shaojun and thus into the role of a
fangshi – or at least he must have been an offi cial who had inherited the esoteric methods of a fangshi.
18 Fenyin was located northeast of Chang’an, to the east of the River He. It was a cult site to the deity Houtu (Earth
Lord).
19 The discovery of the tripod, as well as the composition of a ceremonial song at the occasion of the discovery, is
recorded also in the annals of Emperor Wu in Han shu 6/184.
20 Shiji 28/1392; 12/464 (the latter has � instead of �); Han shu 25A/1225: ���������������
����� This sentence has been rather differently translated by E. Chavannes and B. Watson. Chavannes,
Mémoires Historiques III, 482, writes: “Il était orné de dessins ciselés mais ne portait pas d’inscription gravée
en creux ou en relief.” Watson, Records II, 34, has instead: “It had a pattern incised on it, but no inscription.
Chavannes translation is certainly right that it is meant here that the tripod had an inscription, but due to the
fact that it was not incised in relief, its content was not decipherable.”
21 The term you si ���rendered here by “the responsible offi cials” means literally “those who are in charge of
something.” According to Charles O. Hucker, A Dictionary of Offi cial Titles in Imperial China (Stanford: University
Press 1985), no. 8081, the term should be understood as a vague reference to governmental offi cials in charge
of activities at issue in particular contexts […]. In the context given here, you si seems to denote the offi cials
entrusted to advise the emperor with regard to all the questions related to sacrifi cial matters.
22 According to Kong Wenxiang ���� quoted by the Suoyin commentary, Taidi ��� is to be identifi ed with
Taihao ��, i.e. Fuxi �� (Shiji 28/1392; cf. the character variant Dadi �� in Shiji 12/465). The Han shu
commentator Yan Shigu (Tang) quoted by Sima Zhen (added to Shiji 12/466) writes that Dadi is identical with
Master Taihao Fuxi and argues that he must thus date prior to Huangdi.������������������
�����
248
DOROTHEE SCHAAB-HANKE
BMFEA 74 · 2002