(Translated by A.F.P. Hulsewe)
   

Translator’s Note: In order to remain consistent，I have called also this 1ast section a group, although it only consists of one single rule．Alerted by a chance discovery，during the years 1979-1980 three archaeological campaigns were devoted to the excavation of a Warring States cemetery，located c．1 km．south of Ch'ing-ch'uan（青川）Prefecture in northern Ssu-ch'uan(close to the Kansu border at c．32 degree 40’N and l05 degree l0’E)．Here，tomb No．M 50 produced two strips，both 46 cm．long．One，3.5 cm．wide，had become completely illegible，but the other，2.5 cm．wide．proved to contain the clearly legible text -- written in three columns -- of a Ch'in Statute on Agriculture with a full date．equivalent to 27 September  309 B．C．The great length of the strips，namely two Ch'in-Han feet，shows that they contain commands of the ruler：the use of 2 ft．strips for similar purposes persisted during the Han，as witnessed by the Tu tuan（独断）and by the lost Han chih-tu（汉制度），quoted in the commentary to HHCC Ann．A1．17a．
 
The text of the statute was published in facsimile and in modern transcription in“Ch'ing-ch'uan Report”, P.11，and in transcription only in Yv Hao-liang，“Ch'ing—ch'uan”，P．22，and in Li Hsuieh-ch'in，‘‘Ch'ing-ch'uan’’，P．68．Additional studies were written by Li Chao-ho，“Ch'ing-ch'uan”，Yang K'uan，“Ch'ing-ch'uan”，Huang Sheng-chang，“Ch'ing-ch'uan”，and T'ien and Liu．
 
The following transcription is that of the“Ch'ing-ch'uan Report”．to which have been added the emendations suggested by Yv Hao-liang (marked Yv)，Li Chao-ho (marked LC)，Huang Sheng-chang (marked Huang)，Li Hsveh-ch'in (marked LH)，and T'ien and Liu (marked TL)．
 
Because of a number of doubtful points．the translation presented here is tentative as regards details．but the general ideas are clear enough．

[G1] In the second year，the eleventh month，the first day (of which is indicated by the cyclical signs) chiyu，on the first day，the King commands the Chan-cellor Mou and the Minister of Finance Yen...again to prepare and make a Statute on Agriculture．(The Statute reads)：For a field，one pace wide and eight paces long make the paths；one mu has two paths and one East-West road．One hundred mu are one ch'ing with one North-South road；the road is three paces wide．A border-mound is four feet high：its size corresponds to its height．A partition is one foot high：at the bottom it is two feet thick．In autumn，in the eighth month，one repairs the border-mounds and the partitions and corrects the borders and the field-limits, as well as cutting "the tall grass on the East-West and the North-South roads．In the ninth month there is a great clearing of the roads as well as of the dangerous passages．In the tenth month，bridges are made, embankments and dikes are repaired，fords and bridges are cleared，and weeds are cut．(Although) it is not the time for clearing the roads，whenever there are holes and bad places，making it impossible to proceed，(clearing) is to be undertaken．