The remote Shang (c.16th-11th centuries BC) and Zhou Dynasty
(c.11th century BC-256 BC) saw widespread use of the written word
in the form of inscriptions on tortoise shells or animal bones.
They also used more or less standard forms of inscription on their
bronze-ware artifacts.
However from the Shang and Zhou right through to the Wei (220-265)
and Jin (265-420), bamboo and wood were to remain the main writing
materials. This prolonged period of some 2,000 years has come to be
known in Chinese history as the Age of the Bamboo Slip.
Sadly bamboo and wood fall easy prey to decay and their use in
antiquity was not recognized until the early years of the 20th
century. By the 1930s bamboo slips were being brought to light in
significant numbers. Discoveries were made in turn at the Loulan
townsite in Lop Nor and the Niya site in Minfeng, both located in
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Dunhuang in Gansu Province and
then at alarm signal sites in Juyan where Gansu borders on the
Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region.
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949,
outstanding progress has been made in paleography (the study of
ancient writing).
A
great many pre-Qin historical documents written on bamboo slips
have been unearthed in one Chu tomb after another, mostly in Hubei
Province. The pre-Qin is a term that describes that time spanning
the combined Spring and Autumn (770-476 BC) and Warring States
Periods (475-221 BC).
Chu was an ancient state under the Zhou Dynasty and later became
one of the seven states struggling for supremacy at the time of the
Warring States. It could trace its origins back to about the 11th
century BC. Sitting mainly astride today's Hubei and Hunan
provinces it survived as a discrete political entity right through
until its eventual defeat by the Qin in 223 BC.
One particular find at Guodian in Jingmen city, Hubei Province was
to cause quite a stir in academic circles. It was the discovery of
a partial copy of the Classic of the Way and Virtue. This
Taoist classic is attributed to the philosopher of the late Spring
and Autumn Period, Lao-tzu who was the founder of Taoism. Excerpts
from the Confucian classics were also found.
1970s
The 1970s saw a series of sensational bamboo slip discoveries. The
grave of Marquis Ruyin of the Western Han (206 BC-AD 25) in Fuyang,
Anhui Province produced The Book of Songs (China's earliest
collection of poetry) written on bamboo slips.
The earliest environmental protection statutes ever discovered in
China were written on wooden slips found in a tomb excavated in
Qingchuan, Sichuan Province. Dating back to the Qin Dynasty
(221-206 BC) they brought in measures to protect the farming
community and the countryside through the proscription of such
activities as free logging, hunting and gathering.
In
1975 over 1,000 bamboo slips came to light at Shuihudi in Yunmeng,
Hubei Province. They brought us the laws of the Qin. This
discovery, which attracted much attention at the time, afforded
important clues not only to the history of the State of Qin
(897-221 BC) towards the end of the Warring States Period but also
to the legal system of the Qin Dynasty which followed on from
it.
1980s
Some 50,000 wooden slips from the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) were
found at sites in Tianshui, Gangu, the Hexi Corridor and the Juyan
area, all in Gansu Province. They provide an abundance of firsthand
source material for researchers seeking to understand the social
order of the period.
By
1982 scholars could tell the story of the government sponsored
military-agricultural colonies called tuntian in northwest
China. They grew out of the Han Dynasty policy of having garrison
troops or newly settled peasants bring undeveloped land into
cultivation. The research was based on 20,000 wooden slips found in
Juyan over the period between 1972 and 1982.
To
the south, a Han Dynasty tomb at Zhangjiashan in Jiangling, Hubei
Province yielded up its secrets on some 1,000 bamboo slips. On them
were written the Book of Arithmetic, China's earliest
treatise on mathematics together with the legal code of the Han
Dynasty.
1990s
In
October 1996, an astounding 140,000 bamboo and wooden slips of the
Three Kingdoms (220-280) were uncovered at Zoumalou in Changsha
city, Hunan Province. This single major find exceeded the sum total
of all the bamboo slips that had previously come to light. These
important texts would fill many gaps in the written records of the
Three Kingdoms.
There were two different styles of writing. Some were written in
the regular kai script and others in the official script
known as li. Typically there would be 80 to 120 characters
on each wooden slip but only 30 to 40 characters on a bamboo slip.
The texts record the social life, economic structure, system of
land tenure and tax regime of the times of the Three Kingdoms. They
are of great archaeological value.
The bamboo and wooden slips can be divided into six categories
according to their format and function. There are vouchers,
judicial documents, muster rolls, visiting cards, official title
cards and accounting records.
In
1994 the Shanghai Museum made an acquisition from Hong Kong of
pre-Qin texts written on over 1,200 bamboo slips. The texts run to
some 30,000 characters and cover matters of philosophy, literature
and politics. They tell of life in the days of the State of Chu.
They have been classified as funerary objects from tombs of the
nobility and dated to the time before Chu moved its capital to Ying
in present Hubei Province.
Other important finds include:
Han Dynasty wooden slips excavated at the Xuanquanzhi site in
Dunhuang, Gansu Province
bamboo slips from Han tombs in Cili, Hunan Province
wooden slips from Han tombs at Yinwan in Donghai, Jiangsu
Province
The Analects of Confucius written on wooden slips from a Han
tomb in Dingxian County, Hebei Province
Sun-tzu's Art of War (the classic work of that renowned
military strategist of the Warring States Period) and Sun Bin on
the Art of War (Sun Bin was a descendant of Sun-tzu), both were
found on bamboo slips from Han tombs at Yinqueshan in Linyi city,
Shandong Province
the Confucian classic The Book of Rites together with
medical works on wooden slips from Han tombs in Wuwei, Gansu
Province
military texts on wooden slips from Han tombs at Shangsunjiazhai in
Datong, Qinghai Province
The Latest Discoveries
Over 20,000 bamboo and wooden slips were unearthed at Liye townsite
in Longshan County, Hunan Province in June 2002. Among the most
important finds so far this century, they fill a long standing gap
in the historical records of the Qin Dynasty.
The texts are written in zhuan characters (an early
standardized form also known as seal script). They address a wide
range of issues such as politics, military affairs, ethnology,
economics, jurisprudence, culture, administrative systems, the
postal service, geography and so on. The discovery also offers
testimony to the origins of the Tuchia ethnic minority in
northwestern Hunan.
Silk Books
From the times of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods,
silk has also been used as a writing material.
Silk books of the State of Chu were the earliest discovery on silk.
They came from a Chu burial at the Zidanku site in Changsha, Hunan
Province in 1942. Since then, many other silk books have come to
light in Hunan and Gansu provinces.
In
1973, Tomb No. 3 at Mawangdui in Changsha, Hunan produced 28 silk
books. Together they ran to a total of some 120,000 characters.
Dating from the Han Dynasty they cover military strategy,
mathematics, cartography and the six classical arts of ritual,
music, archery, horsemanship, writing and arithmetic. Most
strikingly the finds include such rare ancient texts as the
Classic of the Way and Virtue by Lao-tzu and the
Strategies of the Warring States. The latter is a collection
of dissertations by traveling scholars of the Warring States
Period. It was first compiled by Liu Xiang of the Western Han and
later revised and expanded by Zeng Gong of the Northern Song
Dynasty (960-1127).
The Advent of Papermaking
Bamboo and wooden slips are heavy and bulky. Silk is light and
compact but unfortunately it is also expensive. Such disadvantages
coupled with a strong demand for writing materials hastened the
invention of papermaking technology.
This was to be an innovation that would not only facilitate the
dissemination of the written word in ancient China but would also
do much to accelerate the development and spread of civilization
itself.
A
Western Han grave at the Baqiao site in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province
yielded 88 sheets of paper made of hemp. This 1957 discovery
demonstrated that papermaking technology had already been mastered
in China as early as the 2nd century BC.
In
the years that followed, the "underground museum" of the
Astana-Karakhoja Ancient Tombs in Turpan, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
Region, produced approximately 2,700 paper documents. These date
from the time of the Western Jin (265-316) through to the Tang
Dynasty (618-907).
Maps excavated in 1986 in a tomb at the Fangmatan site in Tianshui,
Gansu Province are significant for being on the oldest paper ever
found in China. They are from the early years of the Western Han
(206 BC-AD 25). The paper is remarkable for its smooth texture and
its quality shows that the technology was already well developed by
that time.
Paleographic Studies in the Ethnic Regions
The Dangxiang, a branch of the Ch'iang ethnic minority founded the
Tangut Dynasty (1038-1227) in northwest China. It spread its
dominion largely across the present day Ningxia Hui Autonomous
Region and parts of Gansu, Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia. The many
cultural relics and official dispatches written in the Tangut
language found in Ningxia and Gansu have shed new light on this
remote and mysterious state.
The Dunhuang Grottoes in Gansu Province dating from 366 are famous
throughout the world for their rich collection of Buddhist statues,
frescoes and scriptures. A total of no less than 50,000 official
dispatches has been found, yielded up by 248 of the grottoes. These
documents cover many diverse topics and have significantly
broadened the scope of the Dunhuang Studies with many scholars both
at home and abroad becoming involved in the research.
Handwritten Tibetan Buddhism Scriptures dating back 1,000 years
have recently been renovated in the Kyerulhakang Monastery in
Tibet. Bound in book form they make up over 300 volumes. These
religious texts provide important clues for an understanding of the
early spread of Buddhism and the development of the Tibetan
language.
In
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China's west, inscriptions and
texts not only in Chinese but also in Arabic and Indian scripts
have been found on coins, wooden slips, silks, seals and stone
tablets. The ancient texts in Chinese include official dispatches
and epitaphs excavated in Turpan together with official documents
and correspondence found at the Niya and Loulan sites.
The Major Finds
Many written treasures from antiquity have been found across the
country. They trace the path of development from prehistoric
symbols on earthenware to the oracle bone inscriptions of the
Shang, inscriptions on the bronze-ware of the Shang and Zhou, texts
written on bamboo and wooden slips during the Qin and Han together
with stone inscriptions from all ages.
An
ever increasing wealth of archaeological finds tells the story of
China's very long written tradition. The major sources include in
chronological order:
prehistoric: Banpo in Xi'an, Dawinkou, Yangshao
Burials at Yuanjunmiao, Liuwan in Qinghai
Shang and Zhou: Erligang in Zhengzhou, Burials of the
Dukedom of Guo at Shangcunling, The Tomb of Fuhao in
Yinxu, An Ancient Town of the State of Lu in Qufu, A
Cemetery of the State of Chu at Yutaishan in Jiangling
Qin and Han: Qin Burials at Shuihudi in Yunmeng, Tomb No.
1 of the Western Han Dynasty at Mawangdui in Changsha, Han
Dynasty Graves in Mancheng and Guangzhou, An Ancient
Graveyard at Shizhaishan in Jinning, Yunnan Province,
Artifacts Associated with Water Transport in the Sanmen
Gorge
Tang and Song: Daming Palace in Chang'an, Sui and Tang
Graves in the Suburbs of Xi'an, Yaozhou Kiln in Tongchuan,
Shaanxi Province
Important encyclopedic publications like the Collection of
Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Collected Inscriptions on
Bronze-ware of the Yin and Zhou, Archaeological Discoveries
and Studies of the People's Republic of China and China's
100 Great Archaeological Finds in the 20th Century have
followed each other into print.
The insight the world of today has into these ancient writings is
the product of the work of many renowned archaeologists and
paleographers. Prominent among them are such key figures as Guo
Moruo, Liang Siyong, Yin Da, Xia Nai, Su Bingqi, Jia Lanpo, An
Zhimin, Zou Heng, Yu Xingwu, Wang Zhongshu, Chen Mengjia and Guo
Baojun.
(China.org.cn, translated by Shao Da, June 6, 2003)