Shuihudi: law in a Qin official’s work

Tomb 11 at Shuihudi in present-day Hubei belonged to Xi, a local Qin official who died around 217 BCE. Bamboo manuscripts excavated in 1975 preserve law, administration, chronology and calendrical practice. They connect official work with personal concerns and provide evidence beyond later histories. Alongside rules are explanations and methods of recording affairs. Imperial administration depended on routine documents written, kept and used by local personnel.

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Questions and answers explain how laws applied to status, property, flight and punishment. Other manuscripts regulate stores, agriculture, crafts and official duties. Procedures required cases, testimony and related records to be identified and checked before officials assessed responsibilities and applied rules to particular circumstances. Measures, deadlines and reports also supported resource management. These details show law serving administrative purposes alongside punishment, through continuing classification of households, labour and goods within official records.

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Shuihudi includes expectations for officials and guidance on understanding regulations. Local personnel collected resources and managed affairs while facing assessment and liability themselves. The burial of working knowledge reflects the connection between literacy and official identity. Comparison with other Qin documents, including those from Liye, shows commands becoming local transactions. Reports, storage accounts and recorded status make the routine workings of imperial government visible at the level of individual administrative tasks.

References: [1]