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Appendix III. The Kang-Mao Amulets

The mention of the kang-mao amulets in 99 B: 7a has induced the commentators to give us an account of these curious objects, which show the prevalence of superstition in that age.

Fu Ch'ien (ca. 125-195) glosses, "The Kang-mao [amulets] are made in the first month, on a mao day, and are worn at the waist. They are three inches 1 long, one inch wide, and foursquare [in cross-section]. Sometimes jade 2 is used, sometimes metal is used, and sometimes peach[wood] is used. A thong is attached to them to wear them at the waist. Now jade 3 ones still exist. The inscription on one of them, on its side, reads, `The first month Kang-mao [amulet].' " 剛卯以正月卯日作, 佩之, 長三尺, 4, 廣一寸,四方, 或用五, 5 或用金, 或用桃, 著革帶佩之。 今有五 6 在者, 銘其一, 面, 曰, 正月剛卯 Yen Shih-ku (581-645) adds, "Today frequently in the soil there are obtained jade Kang-mao [amulets]. According to my opinion, as regards their size and their inscriptions, the explanation of Fu [Ch'ien] is correct."

Chin Shao (fl. ca. 275) however glosses, "The Kang-mao [amulets] are one inch long, five fen broad, and four-square [in cross-section]. In the center, there is a hole made lengthwise, in order that it may be threaded 7 to the bottom with variegated silk, like the threads of the fringe on the top of a hat. Two lines of writing are engraved on their faces. The inscription says, `When the first month Kang-mao [amulet] is in the center [of the girdle ornaments], it is a supernatural baton 8 [which influences] the four quarters. Red, blue, white, and yellow, these four colors are my defences. The Lord [Shun] ordered Chu-yung 9 to teach K'uei and Lung 10 [to infuse power into it, so that] of the many epidemics and serious (kang) diseases, none will presume to touch me.' On the other [of the pair], the inscription says, `On the worst of unlucky days, [the day] mao, the Lord [Shun] ordered K'uei to transform [this object, saying], "In accordance with your firmness and subtlety, do you transform this thing into a supernatural baton. 11 It should be completely upright, completely straight, completely angular, and completely square, so that of the many epidemics and severe (kang) diseases, none will presume to touch me." ' " ### ### ### 12 ###, ###, ### 13 ###### 14 ### ###.

HHS, Tr. 30: 13a, b (by Szu-ma Piao, ca. 240-306) says, "The girdle ornaments are a pair of seals 15 one inch two fen long and six fen square. The emperor, vassal kings, dukes, and full marquises use white jade for them. [Officials ranking at] fully 2000 piculs and lower, down to [those ranking at] 400 piculs, all use black rhinoceros [horn. Those ranking at] 200 piculs [and lower, down] to disciples of private schools, all use ivory. They are attached above by silk. The Emperor uses a cord threaded with white pearls and red wool threads. Vassal kings and those of lower [rank] use a band with red silk threads. The cords and bands are each according to the material of the seal. The engraved writing reads, `When the first month Kang-mao [amulets] is in the center, 16 it is a supernatural baton, 17 [which influences] the four quarters. Red, blue, white, and yellow, these four colors are my defense. The Lord [Shun] ordered Chu-yung to teach K'uei and Lung [to transform this object into an amulet, so that] of the many epidemics and severe diseases, none will presume to touch me.' [The inscription on the other one of the pair reads], `On the worst of unlucky days, [the day] mao, the Lord [Shun] ordered K'uei to transform [this object, saying], "Do you care for subtle things all around. Transform this [thing] into a supernatural baton. 18 It should be completely upright, completely straight, completely angular, and completely square, so that of the many epidemics and severe (kang) diseases, none will presume to touch me." ' In all there are 66 words." ### ### ### ### ### #### 19 ### 20 #### #### 21 ### ###

Shuo-wen 3 B: 6b defines hai ### as follows: "The hai-szu ### is a large Kang-mao [amulet]. It is used to expel influences and demons." (From Shen Ch'in-han.)

Chi-chiu-p'ien 41b, a word-list written by Shih Yu during 48-33 B.C., contains the following line: "The Shih-ch'i [lit., "the shooter of infantlike demons"] and the Pi-hsieh [lit., "the expeller of perversities"] eliminate the many banefulnesses 射鬾辟邪除羣凶," and Yen Shih-ku explains, "Shih-ch'i and Pi-hsieh are both the names of supernatural animals. The ch'i is a demon [in the shape of] a small infant. Shih-ch'i means that it is able to hit and drive away infant-like demons. Pi-hsieh means that it is able to expel and ward off monstrosities and perversities. [These terms] refer to [articles made of] precious jade and the like. The forms of [these] two animals were used to hang on [peoples'] girdles to drive away baneful calamities and to protect their persons.

"It is also said that shih-ch'i refers to the large Kang-mao [amulets]. Gold, jade, and peach-wood were carved to make them. Another name for them is hai-szu. On top of them there was an inscription and on their sides a hole was pierced, which was threaded with many-colored silk. They were used to attach to the forearm and were also a means of expelling influences and animal-shaped demons." (Yen Shih-ku's error about the location of the inscription and hole on these amulets indicates that he had never seen them; he is merely summing up the literary tradition about them.)

Hui Tung (1697-1758) confirms Fu Ch'ien's implication that the day mao was evil, by quoting Tso-chuan, Dk. Chao, IX (Legge, p. 626), "If the day is tzu or mao, it is called an evil day." Motze, ch. 31 (Mei, p. 170) however mentions the day ting-mao as a propitious day for sacrifices. The difference was that there were both kang (severe)-mao and jou gentle)-mao days, and the day ting-mao belonged to the latter group.

T'ao Tsung-yi (fl. 1360), in his Cho-keng-lu 24: 5a-7b, discusses these Kang-mao amulets and states that they were called 大堅, great firmness." Hence the word kang may refer to the hardness of the material used for them, this hardness implying their strong power to ward off disease. The Kang found in the inscription on them says that they ward off kang (severe) diseases.

Kang also has a third meaning. Li-chi 3: 8b (Legge, I, 94; Couvreur, 60) says, "For external matters, a kang (odd) day should be used, and for internal affairs a jou 柔 (even) day should be used." K'ung Ying-ta explains, "Kang [refers to] the odd (chi 奇) days. In ten days there are five odd and five even (ou 偶). The five odd [days] chia, ping, mou, keng, and jen are Kang (strong). External affairs [need] strong (Kang) purposes, hence Kang days are used. . . . The five even [days], yi, ting, chi, hsin, and kuei are jou (gentle)." Kang and jou are also used in the Book of Changes to refer to the undivided and divided lines of the hexagrams. Thus the term Kang-mao has a number of meanings upon which diviners undoubtedly rang the changes. Kang refers to the strength of the amulet, the hardness of its material, the severity of the disasters it warded off, as well as the odd days in the decenary cycle of stems and certain lines of the hexagrams.

In Han times, the word mao had a special significance. The character liu 劉, which was the surname of the imperial clan, is made up of the three characters mao, chin (metal), and knife (tao), as Wang Mang notes (cf. 99 B: 7a and n. 7.2). Hence mao denoted the Han imperial house. The continuance of this interpretation is to be found in the biography of Liu Fang 昉, who in A.D. 586 was executed for conspiracy against the newly enthroned Emperor Wu, the founder of the Sui dynasty. Liu Fang is declared to have said, "My surname is mao, metal, and knife, and my given name is `one, ten-thousand, and days 一万日,' so that the Liu clan will infallibly rule as kings and be the sons of Heaven [emperors] for ten thousand days." (Pei-shih 74: 3b; Sui-shu 38: 4a). It is then not surprising that Wang Mang and the Wei dynasty did away with these Kang-mao amulets and that the Han emperors wore them.

Wu Ta-cheng (1844-1902), in his Ku-Yü T'u K'ao, pp. 130 and 132, presents drawings with a discussion of four jade Kang-mao amulets from Han times. He remarks that their construction and inscriptions are very similar and that many of the words are written in a cursive manner or with borrowed characters. The inscription on them all is as follows: "[When] the yu-month Kang-mao [amulet] is in the center [an unreadable word, possibly "it influences"] the four quarters. Red, blue, white, yellow, these four colors are my defense. The Lord commanded to hold and complete it. Of the many epidemics and severe sicknesses, (three characters unreadable) mao, none will presume to touch me." ##, ##3. Wu Ta-cheng asserts he has seen no Kang-mao amulets of the dimensions Fu Ch'ien speaks of, and states that his amulets are of the size described by Chin Shao. Possibly Fu Ch'ien's amulets were what the Shuo-wen calls "large Kang-mao [amulets]."

These Kang-mao amulets were part of the regular Han court costume during the Wang Mang and Later Han periods at least, and were worn in the center of the girdle ornaments. They were worn by all grades of officials, even students in private schools. Their function was frankly that of being amulets intended to ward off disease demons. Even the emperor and his highest officials wore them, which circumstance illustrates vividly the prevalence of superstition among the most educated persons of the age.

We do not know when they first became popular. Wei Hung (fl. ca. 25), in his Han-chiu-yi A: 1b, declares, "In the Ch'in and earlier [periods], the common people all wore seal-cords on their girdles, with seals, an inch square, made of gold, jade, silver, bronze, rhinoceros [-horn], or ivory, each one wearing what he liked." While the passage concerns itself with actual seals, yet these amulets were also called seals, so that they may date back to Chou times. They seem to have gone out of fashion some time after the Later Han and before the T'ang period, for Yen Shih-ku had not seen them and they are not mentioned in the Sung books on rites, such as Nieh Ch'ung-yi's San-li-t'u (presented 962) and Ch'en Hsiang-tao's (1053-1093) Li-shu.

Yen Shih-ku states that there were Kang-mao amulets made of peach-wood. The peach is indigenous to China, so that it was naturally used for apotropaic purposes. The Tso-chuan (Dk. Hsiang, yr. XXIX; Legge, pp. 544(2), 547b) recounts that when, in 544 B.C., Duke Hsiang of Lu was required to go in person to present shrouds to the deceased King K'ang of Ch'u, he first had shamans asperse the corpse with peach-wood and broom-straw in order to drive away the dead king's ghost and other evil spirits, so that no harm should come to the Duke. This book also (Dk. Chao, yr. IV; Legge, pp. 592(3), 596a) states that when stored ice was brought out of the ice-house, a bow of peach-wood and thorn arrows were used to drive away evil influences. It likewise (Dk. Chao, XII; Legge, 637(18), 641a) reports that when the first ancestor of the Ch'u line, Hsiung-yi, who was supposed to have lived at the time of King Ch'eng of the Chou dynasty, waited upon that King, he bore a peach-wood bow and thorn arrows. Tu Yü (222-284) states that these implements were for apotropaic purposes (Tso-chuan Cheng-yi 45: 19a). Chou-li 32: 8b (Biot, II, 248) states: "[The royal companion of the right in the war-chariot (jung-yu)] assists [at the making of a solemn oath by holding] the ox's ear, [which is cut off to secure blood for making the oath, and he assists by using] peach-wood and broom-straw [to asperse this blood and drive away any harmful influences]." Since peach-wood thus came to have the meaning of driving away harm, sword-makers were entitled "the Peach-wood Clan (t'ao-shih)" in the K'ao-kung-chi, which was appended to the Chou-li (Biot, II, 491, 496).

In Han-shih Wai-chuan 10: 11b (by Han Ying, fl. 179-141 B.C.), Duke Huan of Ch'i (685-643 B.C.) is represented as having met, while on a trip, an old man on foot, carrying a peach-wood baton (t'ao-shu). When the Duke asked him about it, he replied, "This is named a double [strength] peach-wood [implement]. The way peach-wood acts is called `to destroy.' . . . The warning to plebeians [against destructive conduct] lies in peach-wood batons." The story continues, "By the first month of the next year, the plebeians [at the Duke's court] all wore [these peach-wood batons]." Shen Ch'in-han, in his HS Su-cheng 36: 9b, 10a (my attention was called to this passage by P. van der Loon), quotes this passage and concludes, "In my opinion, this was the origin of wearing Kang-mao [amulets]." It appears to me, however, to have been more probably a rationalization, written in Han times, for a practise common then.

Wang Su's (195-256) Sang-fu Yao-chi (this book is lost and the passage is quoted from T'ai-p'ing Yü-lan 967: 3b by the Han-Wei Yi-shu Ts'ao , 2b) said, "When Duke Ai of Lu (494-468 B.C.) was sacrificing preparatory to the funeral of his father, . . . Confucius asked [Duke Ai], `Would it not be better to use triply [extracted] peach-wood water?' [The Duke] replied, `No. [The use of] peach-wood [water] arose when Duke Ling of Wei(s) [534-493 B.C.] had a daughter who was married to [the prince of] Ch'u. Her nurse was accompanying her to her husband's household, when she was a newly [wedded] wife, and on the way she heard that her husband had died. The nurse wanted to have the new wife return [home. But] the new wife replied, "A woman has the three obediences. Now I belong to this man. He has died and I must complete the mourning." Thereupon she had a plain chariot yoked with white horses and proceded to her husband's house. She made some triply [extracted] peach-wood water and used it to wash the hair of the deceased. She went out of the eastern gate at the northern corner [of the eastern wall of the city] and completed the ceremony with three bows, in order to make the deceased not hate her. My father has nothing to hate. What would be the use of triply [extracted] peach-wood water?' " Here is given a classical sanction for apotropaic implements and ceremonies put into the mouth of the greatest of sages. It is also a mere rationalization of a later practise.

Evidence that Kang-mao amulets were placed upon doors (as are the present door-gods) in Han times is furnished by HHS, Tr. 5: 4b-5a:

"In the central month of summer [the fifth month], all things are then flourishing and the sun comes to its summer maximum [northward journey]. The yin emanations [thereupon] begin to work, so that it is to be feared that things will not [continue to] grow. The [proper] rites for this [situation] are to employ scarlet cordage plants joining strong smelling vegetables, to exorcise injurious insects, rodents (?), black magic (ku), and noises (?), and to use peach-wood seals, six inches long and three inches square, vari-colored, on which are written characters according to the regular procedure, and display them on gates and doors.

"The [various] dynasties used as ornaments [articles] they esteemed according to [the elementary powers by which they ruled]. The clan of the Hsia sovereigns [had as their elementary power] metal. Their roads were made of the stalks of rushes, meaning that essences should mingle [and the people be fruitful]. The Yin people had water as their [elementary] virtue. They used snail shells, stressing cautiousness, that their closing up [against evil emanations] should be like that by snails. The Chou people had wood as their [elementary] virtue. They used peach-wood for apotropaic purposes, meaning that emanations should be blocked [from operating] upon them. In Han [times] all were used. Hence on the fifth day of the fifth month, scarlet cordage plants and varicolored seal-[shaped blocks of peach-wood] were used as ornaments for gates and doors in order to present obstacles and block evil emanations."

Huang Shan (fl. 1915) quotes the Shih-wu Chi-üan (by Kao Ch'eng, fl. 1078-1085, book later greatly added to) as recording, "In the Han [period, people] used scarlet cordage plants joining vari-colored Kang-mao [amulets] as decorations for their gates and doors." According to the passage from HHS, Tr. 30 translated above, the Kang-mao amulets worn at people's waists were also called "seals," so that these large "seals" on doors were likewise Kang-mao amulets.

Liu Chao (fl. dur. 502-520) glosses HHS, Tr. 5: 5a as follows: "The peach-wood seals were originally a Han institution and a means of reinforcing [the power of] the mao-metal-[knife clan, i.e., the Han dynasty]. The Wei [dynasty] did away with them." Perhaps Liu Chao's statement is as far as we can go concerning the origin of these amulets.

Notes

1. Wang Hsien-ch'ien's text reads 尺; the Ching-yu and the Official ed. read 寸.

2. Wang's text reads 五; the Ching-yu and the Official ed. read 玉.

3. Wang's text reads 五; the Ching-yu and the Official ed. read 玉.

4. Wang Hsien-ch'ien's text reads 尺; the Ching-yu and the Official ed. read 寸.

5. Wang's text reads 五; the Ching-yu and the Official ed. read 玉.

6. Wang's text reads 五; the Ching-yu and the Official ed. read 玉.

7. The text reads 茸; the Official ed. has emended it to 葺. The Ching-yu ed. reads ###.

8. 殳 should probably be read as hai ###. But it is better to read without emending or changing. Shen Ch'in-han, in his HS Su-cheng 36: 9b, quotes the Han-shih Wai-chuan 10: 8b (ed. "Ku-ching-chieh Hui-han") and thinks that ling 靈-shu denotes the tao 桃-shu, the peach-wood baton, which was a popular apotropaic implement.

9. Chu-yung was the Red Lord; he presides over the first month.

10. K'uei and Lung were ministers of Shun.

11. 殳 should probably be read as hai ###. But it is better to read without emending or changing. Shen Ch'in-han, in his HS Su-cheng 36: 9b, quotes the Han-shih Wai-chuan 10: 8b (ed. "Ku-ching-chieh Hui-han") and thinks that ling 靈-shu denotes the tao 桃-shu, the peach-wood baton, which was a popular apotropaic implement.

12. The text reads 茸; the Official ed. has emended it to 葺. The Ching-yu ed. reads ###.

13. 殳 should probably be read as hai ###. But it is better to read without emending or changing. Shen Ch'in-han, in his HS Su-cheng 36: 9b, quotes the Han-shih Wai-chuan 10: 8b (ed. "Ku-ching-chieh Hui-han") and thinks that ling 靈-shu denotes the tao 桃-shu, the peach-wood baton, which was a popular apotropaic implement.

14. 殳 should probably be read as hai ###. But it is better to read without emending or changing. Shen Ch'in-han, in his HS Su-cheng 36: 9b, quotes the Han-shih Wai-chuan 10: 8b (ed. "Ku-ching-chieh Hui-han") and thinks that ling 靈-shu denotes the tao 桃-shu, the peach-wood baton, which was a popular apotropaic implement.

15. These amulets were probably called seals because they were worn at the waist just as seals were.

16. The text reads 決; I have read 央, as in the HS note.

17. 殳 should probably be read as hai ###. But it is better to read without emending or changing. Shen Ch'in-han, in his HS Su-cheng 36: 9b, quotes the Han-shih Wai-chuan 10: 8b (ed. "Ku-ching-chieh Hui-han") and thinks that ling 靈-shu denotes the tao 桃-shu, the peach-wood baton, which was a popular apotropaic implement.

18. 殳 should probably be read as hai ###. But it is better to read without emending or changing. Shen Ch'in-han, in his HS Su-cheng 36: 9b, quotes the Han-shih Wai-chuan 10: 8b (ed. "Ku-ching-chieh Hui-han") and thinks that ling 靈-shu denotes the tao 桃-shu, the peach-wood baton, which was a popular apotropaic implement.

19. The text reads ###; I have read ###, as in the HS note.

20. 殳 should probably be read as hai ###. But it is better to read without emending or changing. Shen Ch'in-han, in his HS Su-cheng 36: 9b, quotes the Han-shih Wai-chuan 10: 8b (ed. "Ku-ching-chieh Hui-han") and thinks that ling 靈-shu denotes the tao 桃-shu, the peach-wood baton, which was a popular apotropaic implement.

21. 殳 should probably be read as hai ###. But it is better to read without emending or changing. Shen Ch'in-han, in his HS Su-cheng 36: 9b, quotes the Han-shih Wai-chuan 10: 8b (ed. "Ku-ching-chieh Hui-han") and thinks that ling 靈-shu denotes the tao 桃-shu, the peach-wood baton, which was a popular apotropaic implement.

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