Testaments

Testaments (顧命, gah-m.ringh) is a collection of ancient Themiclesian documents that mostly related to the disposal of property, commands, and funerary rites of certain aristocrats. Traditionally, they are divided into two books, the Elder Testaments and the Younger Testaments, said to be compiled at separate times; however, they are frequently treated as one collection by modern scholars, many of whom are not convinced they were collected or edited separately.

History

Individual testaments were quoted in the end-Classical history the Histories of Themiclesia in order to explain the succession of power and property amongst communities in the Archaic Period, but it appears that these testaments had already formed a closed collection by the end of the Classical Period.

Content

The two Testaments consist of 144 documents together, most of which appear to be with the last words of nobles and deal with political arrangments after their impending death; however, about a dozen also record post-mortem probate disputes, usually arbitrated by several other nobles. There is generally a list of persons given by name described to be present at the moment the last words were spoken, though some historians doubt the actual presence of these people given their absence in subsequent judicial inquests.

Of the 144 documents, only 38 testaments, of which 20 are in the Elder and 18 in the Younger, are considered reliable documents dating to the period they allege. Note that this does not necessarily mean the content is authentic—merely that they were contemporary to the alleged period. A further 27 testaments are considered plausible candidates, while the rest are found to be later additions during the Classical Period. One document considered reliable is the "Testament of Elder Ts′e":

蔡公死，作蔡命。公曰南公皮、否公吕、子與、子還、子赤、子考、子午、亞中、亞魚。子赤田非、厄，還、考石美又田二，南公畀非、美年四。中子亞午。丙子，與才不公東宮立，奠。九日既死，走族才祊公生有十又一日，用賓邑。

Elder S.r′es [is dying], [and so is] making Testament of S.r′es. The Elder said to Elder Nem [named] Prjar, Elder Prji [named] Ra, Prince Gwrja, Prince Gwrên, Prince L′rjek, Prince K.ru, Prince Ng′ja, Lieutenant Trjung, and Lieutenant Ngja. Prince L′rjek shall [open] the fields of Pjei and Ngak; [Princes] Gwrên and K.ru shall receive [the] two fields in Mrjei. Elder Nem [shall be given] four harvests in Pjei and Mrjei. The [Middle Prince] shall [be] Lieutenant to Prince Ng′ja. On P.rjang-tsje′, Gwrja was established at the East Compound of Elder Prji, and [shall?] provide goods. [Elder S.r′es] having died in nine days, [someone?] has run to the clan [or armed group] on the eleventh day after the Prang ceremony to Elder Srêng. Use [...] Prjin ceremony [at?] settlement [meaning unclear].

The following document is the "Testament of Patriarch G′or", which is considered apocryphal:

伯曰：離侯、魯侯，余一人以崩。余震邦人弗寧，大命非祳我乂民，茲以乃躬受訓，亂保我邦我家。女在茲邑用御朕事維二十有五年，勘哲能多聰明。朕小子臨房邦厥十有九年，協諸侯用正四鄙于多方，女勿背我祖其世迪于女用昏昧則眚于貝貨。命女立朕大子商于朕位，尹四方三寮，厥公卿事厥諸侯田，用左右于商監邦，拯房邦于艱難。

The Patriarch said: the Baron of Rjar and the Baron of Ra, I the one person is about to die. I fear that the people of my domain are unsettled and the Great Mandate will not assist my governing the subjects, [and] so I have summoned your persons to take my charge, so as to order and protect my domain and my house. You have served in this city my business, for 25 years, and you are capable of intelligence and clarity of vision. I, the little child, have watched over Pjang for 19 years, and I have co-operated with the barons to conquer the four quarters and the many neighbours, and you shall not betray my ancestors' trust in your generations because you are stupified by monies. I command you to establish my eldest child Stjang in my place, to rule the four sides and three offices, and the elders and counsels, and the barons and manors, and supoprt Stjang in monitoring this domain, and save Pjang from disasters and difficulties.

Analysis

Since the Historical Revolution of 1750 – 1850, Testaments has been given renewed attention as original documents that predate the Classical Period. In the spirit of the movement, some documents have been identified as apocrypha, even though they are also of considerable antiquity and remain valued by historians, especially in the study of historical consciousness by early authors living in the Classical Period.

Generally speaking, authentic documents that 18th- and 19th-century historians identified usually contain the following characteristics:

• Dates are given in terms of sacrifices, rather than months and regnal years.
• Main focus is on the disposal of property and the appointment of executor(s) by the testator.
• Lack of references to offices that logically developed after the Colonial Period, or political relationships characterizing the same.
• Property is more evenly divided by inheritors, and some inheritors may not be the testator's children.
• Most importantly, the "death date" is not the date of biological death, but ritualistic death—the spiritual transition from a living person to an ancestral spirit.

The question of the difference between the Elder and Younger Testaments has troubled Themiclesian scholars for over a millennia, since antiquity. Over 100 theories have been forwarded to explain why a similar set of documents was split into two books, but none have been accepted as conclusive. The theories range from the age of the testators, to the causes of their deaths, to the quantity of things disbursed, to the identity of executors, and even to the compiler's personal beliefs about their relative importance to history. Modern scholars tend towards the idea that the two books may have been compiled by two relatives who travelled on different paths or times to collect materials and thus completed two volumes named after their relative seniority. This is a precedented practice but in this case remains unproveable because the identity of the compiler(s) is lost, and because the lack of editorial activity obscures any sign indicating two compilers.

See also

• Themiclesia