This is the publisher's version, which is being made available on KU ScholarWorks with permission. Copyright 2013, Society for the Study of Early China.This paper reconsiders the dating of the Houma covenant texts in light
of new findings from the Wenxian covenant texts. Dating of the Houma
covenants has focused on matching certain names found in the Houma
covenants to names and events in historical texts. These include the
name of the sanctioning spirit invoked in the covenants, and that of the
covenant lord overseeing the covenants. I argue that the sanctioning
spirit is not, as is often proposed, a former lord of Jin, but a mountain
spirit called Lord Yue, and, as such, has no bearing on the dating of the
texts. I further argue that the use of the personal name of a Han lineage
leader in the Wenxian covenants strongly supports the identification of
the figure referred to as jia 嘉 in the Houma texts as the historical Zhao
Jia (Zhao Huan Zi). I suggest that the mention of Zhao Jia in the recently
published Chu-slips Xinian implies that Zhao Jia came to the leadership
of the Zhao lineage around 442 B.C.E., well before 424 B.C.E., the date of
his single-year reign reported in the Shi ji. I conclude that the Houma
covenants include materials that may be linked to the Zhao Wu incident
of the early fifth-century B.C.E., but that those materials in which Zhao
Jia is named as the covenant lord probably date to sometime between
442 and 424 B.C.E.本文根據溫縣盟書中的新發現重新考察侯馬盟書的年代問題。判斷侯
馬盟書年代的主要根據是侯馬盟書中能夠與歷史記載相關聯的一些人
名和地名。這些名字包括盟書中被召監督參盟人的神的名稱以及盟主
的名字。本文推測該神非晉國的某位先君,而是一位叫做 “岳公” 的山
神,因而對推測侯馬盟書的年代不構成限制。此外,根據溫縣盟書中
可確認為盟主人名的例子,可以推測侯馬盟書中的 “嘉” 字應該就是指
趙嘉 (趙桓子)。根據清華簡《繫年》中關於趙嘉的記載,本文進一步
推測趙嘉在公元前 442 年左右已經是趙氏的族長 ,比《史記》中記載
趙嘉 424 年即位早十幾年。根據這些分析,侯馬盟書中有的盟書應該
與公元前五世紀初的趙午事件有關,但是那些提到趙嘉的盟書的年代
大概在公元前 442 到 424 年之間