ABSTRACT

On December 24 of the year 147 ce, not far from the Former Han capital of Chang’an (now Sanlicun in the north-east of Chang’an County), a burial was conducted for a woman of the Jia family, who had died at the age of twenty-four. We know nothing of who she was, or why she died so young. We know a great deal, comparatively speaking, of how her death was understood. In 1957 six earthenware jars were excavated from her grave, and on each of the jars there was written, in vermilion ink, the following text:

In the first year of jianhe, in the eleventh month, whose first day was dingwei, on the fourteenth, the Envoy of the Celestial Monarch respectfully on behalf of the Jia’s household separates and releases them from the subterrestrial (spirits). When the recently deceased woman Jia died, she was just twenty-four. [Re-]calculate [the lifespans] in your name-records! Perhaps it is an overlapping due to the year and month [of birth] being the same [as someone else due to die]. Collate the dates of death! Perhaps it is an overlapping due to the day and time being the same. Collate the dates of death!1