Even among the many important tombs of pre-Han China, tomb 2 at Baoshan near Jingmen in Hubei Province is exceptional. Other tombs have yielded magnificent bronzes and jades or important texts that have altered our view of early Chinese philosophy. But no other tomb has revealed so much about its occupant, a certain Shao Tuo, an official of the state of Chu, who was buried in 316 BCE. Our information comes not merely from the well-preserved contents with which it was furnished but also from a divination text that records the efforts of diviners, initially to discover why Shao's career was not flourishing, but increasingly to find the cause of an illness that over three years gradually worsened and eventually killed him. This text records the sacrifices that were performed in an effort to placate the malevolent ancestors and spirits who were assumed to be the cause of his affliction....

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