The Rite of Yinzhi (Drinking Celebration) and Poems Recorded on the Tsinghua Bamboo Slips

This paper is based on a series of articles regarding the Tsinghua bamboo slip (hereafter TBS) texts published on Wenwu and Guangming Daily from late 2008 to August 2009.1 Although not intended for specialists, Li Xueqin’s 李學勤 (1933–2019) article on August 4th, 2009 introduces a TBS text entitled “Qi du” 耆 （graphic of non-Unicode Chinese character）夜, which details a wine celebration immediately after King Wu’s military campaign against the state of Li 黎 in the eighth year of his reign.2 The conquest of the state of Li, alternatively written as qi 耆, as stated in the chapter “Xi Bo kan Li” 西伯戡黎 of Old-text Shang shu was trad both Xu Guang 徐廣 and Sima Zhen 司馬貞 itionally attributed to King Wen.3 According to Li Xueqin, the bamboo text records of the wine celebration after the conquest of the state of Li called together many leading figures in early Zhou history, such as the duke of Zhou 周, the duke of Shao 召, the duke of Bi 畢, the duke of Xin 辛, Jiang Shang 姜尚, and Zuoce Yi 作策（冊）逸 (recorded as Shi Yi 史佚 or Yin Yi 尹佚 in transmitted documents).4 It was reported in Li Xueqin’s article that there are four poems in the style of Shi jing written in the bamboo slips. Since the pictures of the bamboo slips have yet to be published, I can only provide my understanding of these poems based on Li Xueqin’s interpretation of them.