About 20,000 bamboo slips dating back to the Qin Dynasty
(221BC-206BC) have been recently excavated in Liye ancient town of
Longshan County, western
Hunan
Province. The slips, depicting letters sent to Dongting Lake,
multiplication tables and monthly consumption figures for army
provisions, vividly "revive" the history of the Qin Dynasty in
words.
In
mid-April this year, Hunan Institute of Cultural Relics and
Archaeology started digging along the riverbanks to salvage
cultural relics from the ongoing construction of the Wanmipo
Hydropower Station. A rich variety of relics belonging to different
periods have been found in the inner part, outer part, walls and
moats of the ancient city. It was initially concluded that the town
flourished from the Warring States Period (475BC-221BC) to the Qin
and Han (206BC-220AD) dynasties.
Many pits have been found in the town. The No.1 pit, having been
excavated, was first built in the Warring States Period and
abandoned at the end of the Qin Dynasty. The pit mouth is three
meters from the ground and the pit is 14.28 meters deep.
At
the beginning of June, the unearthing and collation work started.
The excavated relics include common things in life such as fruit
cores, animal bones and wooden shovel, stake, mallet, wedge and
cudgel. There are also some articles woven from bamboo strips,
shoes and ropes made from fibrous crops, pottery arched tiles and
plate tiles, pots and beans. The metal tools include knife, axe,
hammer, arrowhead, awl, sword, hook, urn and iron and bronze
wires.
The most important part of the unearthed relics is bamboo slips.
They first appeared at the fifth level of the pit (3.8 meters deep)
and continued until the 17th level. Some are together, while others
are separated. An initial estimation shows there are at least
20,000 said to carry over 200,000 words.
The contents are mainly archives of government offices, covering
all aspects of society, politics, economy and culture. They
recorded the post, military equipment, arithmetic, big events,
administrative establishment, official posts and ethnic groups at
that time. The places mentioned include Qianling, Dongting
(Prefecture), Linyuan, Yiyang, Youyang, Yuanling and Yangling; and
the official posts include Sikong (minister of public works) and
Simacheng (minister of defense), attached to which are usually
names of persons who once held the posts.
"This is an encyclopedic logbook with extreme significance. It is
the first time that bamboo slips dating back so early, in such a
large number and with so great importance have been found in China.
It is the second astonishing discovery about the Qin Dynasty
following the unearthing of terra-cotta warriors in Xi'an [capital
of northwest China's Shaanxi Province]. The potential academic
value is unprecedented," said Guo Weimin, deputy director of Hunan
Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology.
Since the first bamboo slip was found at Liye ancient town on June
4, it has attracted much attention from scholars. China unearthed
no more than 2,000 bamboo slips in the 20th century. This is the
first time that over 20,000 bamboo slips dating from the Spring and
Autumn Period (770BC-476BC) and Western Han Dynasty (206BC-25AD)
were discovered at one time, said Gao Chongwen, head of the School
of Archaeology of Peking University,
in great excitement.
The Qin Dynasty, started in 221BC, led China's feudal society. The
first emperor Qin Shihuang had a lot of precious books burnt and
Confucian scholars buried alive. Therefore, few records are left
about the administrative system of the Qin Dynasty and fewer about
social life during this period.
(Xinhua News Agency,
translated by Li Jinhui, July 19, 2002)