From the Baoshan Chu Bamboo Slips to the Zhangjiashan Han Bamboo Slips: The Evolution of Evidentiary Institutions from the Warring States Period to the Early Han Dynasty

Yuepei Luo; Chuan Lu

doi:10.54691/e6v2dw70

Authors

Yuepei Luo School of Humanities and New Media, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China
Chuan Lu School of Humanities and New Media, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54691/e6v2dw70

Keywords:

Baoshan Chu bamboo slips; Zhangjiashan Han bamboo slips; evidentiary institutions; judicial transformation; litigation oaths.

Abstract

The Baoshan Chu bamboo slips preserve original records of judicial practice in the Warring States state of Chu, while the Zhangjiashan Han bamboo slips document the judicial order of the early Western Han. As direct historical sources, the two corpora make it possible to trace changes in judicial institutions from the pre-Qin period through the Qin and Han dynasties. Their evidentiary systems differed in fundamental ways. Chu practice remained closely connected to the Western Zhou tradition of litigation oaths. Oath-based testimony (mengzheng) drew its authority from sacred belief and retained considerable weight in determining the facts of difficult cases. The collection and evaluation of evidence, however, continued to depend heavily on customary rules and local judicial practice. The Zhangjiashan slips reflect a different institutional order. By the early Western Han, the evidentiary system had completed its transition to a secular form. Documentary evidence, physical evidence, inspection, and forensic examination had been incorporated into a diversified framework, with standardized rules governing the collection and assessment of evidence. Evidentiary force no longer rested on fragmented regional practices but on standards applied uniformly throughout the state. In the development of the Chinese legal tradition, this change marked the replacement of an early trust mechanism founded on divine authority by one grounded in secular law. It was an inevitable consequence of the centralized state’s effort to construct a unified judicial order.

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