A broken covenant leads to broken promises. This 5th century BC covenants made between political parties bear truth to the consequences of broken promises.
First Class Artefact 一级文物
Houma Covenants 侯马盟书
Jadeite | Late Spring and Autumn (ca. 5th century BC) | Unearthed from sacrifice and oath site in Qincun village, Houma City, Shanxi Province (1965) | Shanxi Museum collection. 玉器｜春秋晚期（约公元前5世纪） ｜1965年山西省侯马市秦村盟誓遗址出土 ｜山西博物院藏
Unearthed in 1965 at the Jin State site in Houma City, Shanxi Province, these documents are considered one of the top ten archaeological discoveries in China since 1949. In the late Jin State period, the royal house declined, and the six ministers held absolute power. To seek internal unity and suppress opposing forces, these powerful ministers frequently engaged in “covenant oaths.” More than 5,000 covenant documents were unearthed at the Houma Jin State site, with over 650 of them legible. These are known in academic circles as “侯马盟书” “Houma Covenant Documents.”
These “covenant documents,” also called “written documents,” are mostly written in red ink on jade tablets shaped like gui (a type of jade tablet). They were written pledges made by feudal lords or high-ranking officials (mainly from the Jin state) during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty to strengthen internal unity and combat hostile forces. The content is divided into oaths of the chief covenanter, clan alliances, pledges of allegiance, marriage proposals, and curses. 1
Research on over 650 documents with relatively clear handwriting revealed that their contents fall into categories such as patriarchal alliances, pledges of allegiance, acceptance of marriage into a new household, curses, and divination. These documents are of great significance for exploring the ancient Chinese covenant system, ancient writing, and the history of the Jin State.2
Most tablets – made of jade or other stones – were buried in pits, yet separated from sacrificial animals like cows or pigs. Apart from the bones, the victim pits contain sacrificial jades (jiyu 祭玉), many of them in the shape of rings (bi 幣, i.e. bi 璧). The largest number of alliance tablets has an oblong shape, with pointed tip, which is the typical shape of gui 圭 “scepters” (insignia of office). The length ranges between 18 and 32 cm. Until today, more than 5,000 tablets were unearthed, but the texts of only 656 can be deciphered. The length of the inscriptions ranged between a dozen and more than 200 characters.
What are these Covenants
Since the 1930’s, tablets of jade and stone bearing ink inscriptions have come to light in several different locations in Shanxi and Henan Provinces in North China. Scholars identify these tablets as records of rituals of covenant and curse dating to the Eastern Zhou period. One large group of covenant inscriptions was discovered in the Kuai valley at Houma, on the perimeter of the site of the ancient city of Xintian, capital of Jin from 585 B.C. to 393 B.C.
The other large group was found on the perimeter of a smaller urban site in Wenxian, in the Qin valley, about 200 km across the Zhongtiao mountains from Houma. The excavators of the Wenxian texts identify the walled site as the town of Zhou. The vicissitudes in the ownership of this one town, by the royal house of Zhou, the princely houses of Jin and Zheng, the Jin noble houses of Xi, Luan and Han, and all three of Jin’s successor states of Han, Wei and Zhao exemplify the pivotal role of the region in contemporary power politics.3
The Purpose of the Covenant
The Houma Covenant texts are complete and systematic oaths of alliance with clear writing and a neat structure. Experts discern between five main topics dealt with in the covenant texts, namely declarations of allegiance to the ruling house and their ancestors (zongmeng 宗盟), the presentation of a hostage to the partner of the covenant (weizhi 委質), oaths not to appropriate the assets of the partner, like fields, or workforce (nashi 納室), the pronunciation of a curse against a perpetrator of law (zuzhou 詛咒), and preparatory divinations carried out before the sacrifice (bushi 卜筮). Most oaths are accompanied by a the announcement of sanctions in case of violation of the peaceful alliance.4
The characters of the inscriptions were written with a brush before being incised and coloured with cinnabar. Only a small number is coloured black. The ductus of the characters resembles those of late Spring and Autumn period bronze inscriptions. It found much interest by students of calligraphy and palaeography because the inscriptions are testimonies of the development of a clerical script (lishu 隸書) that deviated from the ancient seal or bronze script (zhuanshu 篆書).
The Historical Background of the Houma Covenant
In 497 BC, the Zhao clan of Jin split. Zhao Jianzi (Zhao Yang) killed his kinsman Zhao Wu, who was enfeoffed in Handan. Zhao Wu’s son, Zhao Ji, rebelled in Handan. The Zhongxing Yin and Fan Jishe families, who were related to Zhao Wu by marriage, attacked Zhao Jianzi, who fled from the Jin capital to his fief of Jinyang. Other Jin ministers who opposed Zhongxing Yin and Fan Jishe, acting on the orders of Duke Ding of Jin, attacked the Zhongxing and Fan families. The two families counterattacked Duke Ding but were defeated and fled.
Zhao Jianzi returned to Xintian and “made an alliance at the Duke’s Palace.” He then pursued the Zhongxing and Fan families relentlessly, forcing them to flee to the state of Qi (historically known as the “Rebellion of the Fan and Zhongxing Clans”). The Houma Covenant forbade any contact with Zhongxing Yin and “a certain ancestor,” referring to the Fan clan, whose ancestors had been enfeoffed in the former territory.5
What Happened in the End
The Jin State was divided into three parts – Han, Zhao, Wei – in what historians termed “三家分晋” “Partition of Jin.” In 453 BC, the three families of Han 韩, Zhao 赵, and Wei 魏 (all parties to the covenants) united to destroy the Zhi clan, dividing the Jin territory into three parts, rendering the Jin ducal house a mere shell. In 403 BC, King Weilie of Zhou enfeoffed Han Qian, Zhao Ji, and Wei Si as feudal lords, formally establishing the Warring States period with its seven major states. In 376 BC, Marquis Wu of Wei, Marquis Ai of Han, and Marquis Jing of Zhao divided the remaining lands of the Jin ducal house, deposed Duke Jing of Jin, and the Jin state ceased to have ancestral sacrifices (i.e. officially eliminated).6
All photos taken at Shanxi Museum Nov 2025, unless otherwise noted.
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Footnotes :
- 稀世之珍 | 山西博物院“十大镇馆之宝” ，你见过几个？
2022-09-07 09:15. https://www.sohu.com/a/583061574_121199942, accessed 24 Feb 2026
镇馆之宝：侯马盟书。1965年在山西省侯马市晋国遗址出土。被称为是1949年以来中国考古发现的十大成果之一。晋国晚期，“公室衰微，六卿专权”。权卿们为寻求内部团结，打击敌对势力，“盟誓”尘埃频繁。侯马晋国遗址出土盟书5,000余件，文字可辨者650余件，学界称为“侯马盟书”。“盟书”亦称“载书”，辞文多以朱笔写于圭形玉石片上，内容分为主盟人誓辞、宗盟类、委质类、纳室类和诅咒类等。
↩︎ - 盟书又称“载书”，是东周时期诸侯或卿大夫为了加强内部团结、打击敌对势力举行盟誓活动的约信文书。1965年在侯马普国遗址发现了盟誓遗址，共出土盟书5000多件，通过对字迹较清楚的650余件盟书的研究发现，其内容分为宗盟类、委质类、纳室类，诅咒类和卜筮等，对于探讨中国古代盟誓制度、古文字以及晋国历史具有重大意义。 Museum information, Oct 2025
↩︎ - Weld, Susan Roosevelt (1990), Covenant in Jin’s walled cities: The discoveries at Houma and Wenxian. Harvard University ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 1990. 9035624.
↩︎ - ChinaKnowledge.de, Houma mengshu 侯馬盟書, http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Historiography/houmamengshu.html, Jul 21, 2019 © Ulrich Theobald
↩︎ - 李學勤. 《東周與秦代文明》. 上海: 上海人民出版社. 2007. ISBN 9787501005284
前497年，晉卿趙氏家族分裂，趙簡子趙鞅殺了封在邯鄲的同族趙午，趙午之子趙稷據邯鄲叛亂，與趙午有姻親關係的中行寅、范吉射兩家進攻趙簡子，趙簡子從晉都逃奔自己的采邑晉陽。反對中行寅和范吉射的另一些晉國公卿奉晉定公之命，討伐中行與范二氏，二氏反攻晉定公，結果失敗逃走。趙簡子回到新田，「盟於公宮」，以後連續追擊中行與范二氏，迫使他們出奔齊國（史稱“范氏中行氏之亂”）。侯馬盟書中禁止與中行寅及「先某」來往，「先某」就是指范氏，因范氏的祖輩曾封於先地 。https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/侯馬盟書, accessed 30 Mar 2026.
↩︎ - 三家分晋是中国历史上具有划时代意义的重大事件，是春秋战国的分水岭。公元前453年，韩、赵、魏三家联合灭智氏，三分晋地，晋公室名存实亡；前403年，周威烈王册封韩虔、赵籍、魏斯为诸侯；前376年，魏武侯、韩哀侯、赵敬侯瓜分晋国公室剩余土地，晋静公被废，晋绝不祀。Museum information, Oct 2025
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