How have the "multiplication formulas" dating back more than 2,000 years been discovered and deciphered one after another? Why is the "Liye Qin Jian" called "one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the mainland in the 21 st century" and an "encyclopedia" for interpreting the Qin Dynasty? In addition to the house full of gold, what other precious text imprints have been "checked-in" at the Nanchang Han Dynasty Haiyang Marquis Ruins Museum? What stories on the ancient Silk Road have been outlined by the accidental discovery of the "Hanging Spring Han Jian" in Gansu......
In the past 100 years since the 20th century, new materials on the unearthed slips from the mainland have been continuously published, new research has continued to advance, and some earth-shattering discoveries have greatly supplemented the shortcomings of the classics, helping us to more accurately understand the historical outlook and development of the Warring States, Qin, Han, Wei and Jin dynasties. The "Great Bamboo Slip Provinces" represented by Hunan, Hubei, Gansu and Jiangxi have improved their conservation research methods, explored novel exhibition methods, and promoted the "turning cold into heat" of the Bamboo Slip culture, so that the public can get closer to the long-standing and profound Chinese civilization.
On March 6, the staff displayed the use of interactive installations in the Chu Jian exhibition hall in the new Jingmen Museum. Photo by Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter Hu Jingwen
An "encyclopedia" of archaeological finds
In the midsummer of 2023, in a cemetery of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty about 1 km east of the ruins of Ji Nancheng, the ancient capital of Chu in Jingzhou, Hubei, a Chu tomb in the middle of the Warring States period - Qinjiazui M1093 unearthed a large number of bamboo slips, which is the tomb with the largest number of Chu slips and characters unearthed in the mainland at present.
After the bamboo slips were unearthed, the archaeological staff immediately extracted them properly and transported them to the Jingzhou Cultural Relics Protection Center, a key scientific research base of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage for the protection of unearthed wood lacquerware, for indoor excavation, protection and sorting research. "The preservation of this batch of bamboo slips is not very good, basically in the critical state of saturated bamboo slip fiber saturation point, and by the squeeze of soil and other unearthed artifacts, the bamboo slips are damaged and deformed seriously, which greatly increases the difficulty of the work of uncovering and peeling bamboo slips. He Qiaoyun, a simple bamboo restoration worker of the Jingzhou Cultural Protection Center, recalled.
The "revealing" she refers to is the first step to explore the value connotation of these bamboo slips. In the end, with the cooperation of archaeologists and cultural preservation personnel, this batch of more than 3,900 bamboo slips was uncovered one by one according to the original superimposed order of the bamboo slips from top to bottom, and the ten pieces were preliminarily scanned in a group, and more than 30,000 characters were presented! Then, the researchers carefully identified the contents of the bamboo slips on the computer screen, and one of the broken bamboo slips actually had a clearly identifiable "number" -- "...... Two, five, seven, thirty, five, four, seven, twenty, eight, three, seven, twenty, and one,......" This is the "multiplication formula" more than 2,300 years ago! This bamboo slip numbered 1645 was tentatively named "Ninety-Nine Techniques" by experts, and was carefully selected and walked on the "green channel" of cleaning, protecting, researching, and displaying.
"Qinjiazui Warring States Chu Jian's "Ninety-Nine Techniques" is more than a century earlier than the earliest known Liye Qin Jian's "Ninety-Nine Table", which is the earliest multiplication formula found by archaeology so far, and also shows to a certain extent that it was widely used in Chu at that time and made important contributions to the development of mathematics in the mainland. Yang Kaiyong, head of the archaeological project of Qinjiazui cemetery and deputy director of Jingzhou Museum, said.
Qinjiazui Warring States Chu Jian's "Ninety-Nine Techniques" (left) and Liye Qin Jian's "Ninety-Nine Tables" (right) comparison chart. Courtesy of Jingzhou Museum
In the pre-Qin and Qin and Han dynasties, multiplication formulas were the basic knowledge of mathematics learning, which were widely used in the calculation of manpower, material resources, and assets in daily life.
The preliminary collation and research show that the contents of the Warring States Chu Jian unearthed in M1093 cemetery in Qinjiazui cemetery in Jingzhou involve many fields such as pre-Qin "books", "languages", zhuzi, mathematics, medicine, animal husbandry, literature, Japanese books, etc., and are indeed the "encyclopedia" of ancient books of the pre-Qin period in mainland China, which provides valuable new materials for the study of history, culture and thought in the pre-Qin period, and has important archaeological research, classic book collation, cultural relics protection, display and utilization and other values. The archaeological project was selected as the "Archaeological China" project of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage in 2023, shortlisted for the preliminary evaluation of the "Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries in China" in 2023, and won the "Six New Archaeological Discoveries in Hubei" in 2023.
Rewind to June 2002. On the banks of the Youshui River, at the foot of the eight-sided mountain, the ancient city of Liye. Archaeologists found a bamboo slip with words in an ancient well at the ruins of the ancient city of Liye. "The discovery of words in an ancient well is of extraordinary significance. Zhang Chunlong, a researcher at the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, recalled that Liye at that time coincided with the rainy season, and the rain did not stop, and the most critical thing to rescue the bamboo slips under the well was time.
Zhang Chunlong and Long Jingsha, an archaeological expert from the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture Administration of Cultural Relics, quickly formulated a rescue and excavation plan. Underground, Long Jingsha and other operators raced against time and did not dare to slack off.
As the minutes ticked by, the rain continued to seep into the ground, and cracks appeared in the walls of the well. The excavation work is still deep, and once the ancient well collapses, the consequences are unimaginable. Everyone's hearts hung in their throats, anxious and expectant. Finally, when Long Jingsha carefully peeled off a layer of silt again, his fingertips touched some regular wood chips. Slowly peeling back the silt wrapped around the wood chips, he saw the words on the wood chips again.
On April 8, 2024, Long Jingsha gazes at a photo of the excavation site of the 2004 Qin Jian at the Qin Jian Museum in Liye. Photo by Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter Zhai Xiang
To everyone's surprise, more than 300 slips were transported to the ground in one day. The date of the Qin Dynasty is clearly written on the slips, and the place name "Qianling" also appears frequently on the slips, which seems to prove to people that the ancient city of Liye, this mysterious city, is the county seat of Qianling in the Qin Dynasty. For a time, the archaeological team was deeply shocked by this sudden and significant discovery......
Since then, a total of about 36,000 Qin slips have been unearthed in Liye, most of which are from the No. 1 well, which is ten times the sum of the Qin slips unearthed before, and the date is from the year before the unification of the six kingdoms of Qin to the year before the fall of Qin.
These inconspicuous wood chips have become a treasure trove of information for future generations to understand the actual life of the Qin people. One of the "Ninety-Nine Tables" became the empirical evidence of the multiplication formula in the pre-Qin period, and the written record of "two halves and one" proved that there was decimal operation at that time, and there was innovative development on the basis of Chu Jian's "Ninety-Nine Techniques".
"Shaped like patent leather, soft and rotten like noodles" is the first impression of the archaeological team members. In November 2015, more than 5,200 bamboo slips and more than 170 versions of wooden slips were unearthed in the document archive of the Tibetan coffin of the tomb of Liu He, Marquis of Haiyang in the Han Dynasty in Nanchang. Yang Jun, the leader of the archaeological excavation team of the Marquis of Haiyang and a researcher at the Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that the tomb of the Marquis of Haihuang is a typical mud tomb in the south. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there was a major earthquake here, the tomb collapsed, and the entire coffin was immersed in water. Due to the influence of light, temperature and water level changes in Poyang Lake, the preservation of bamboo slips is extremely deteriorating, and the cultural preservation work continues to this day.
"In order to grasp the contents of the slips as soon as possible and release them to the public, we have cooperated with the Institute of Unearthed Literature of Peking University to carry out a preliminary compilation and interpretation of the written materials on them according to the infrared photos scanned for the purpose of cultural preservation during the cleaning of the slips. Yang Jun told reporters that the Haiduan slips are currently the country's single tomb, a single archaeological unearthed most of a batch of Han Dynasty slips, which contains rich historical information of the Western Han Dynasty, like the treasure in the tomb once again amazed the world.
So far, Gansu Province has unearthed a total of more than 60,000 slips. Among them, the most special archaeological discovery not only unearthed more than 20,000 Han Jane, but also revealed an exact official post reception agency on the ancient Silk Road in the Han Dynasty.
In the autumn of 1987, after many archaeological investigations, He Shuangquan, a research librarian of the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, picked up a complete oil seal on the Gobi Desert in Dunhuang City, Jiuquan City, Gansu Province. He wiped off the soil and clearly saw the six neat official books of "Hanging Springs and Pavilion Lines". The Han Dynasty Hanging Spring Ruins were thus found.
Archaeological excavations were carried out at the site from 1990 to 1992. Bamboo slips are buried in various areas of the site, and these slips are mixed with sand, firewood and grass, vaguely revealing ink characters, and unearthed together with the relics of ancient people's lives. The gray area in the west of the site is the area with the most unearthed bamboo slips, with more than 7,000 wooden tablets.
"We opened the doors of Hanging Springs, which had been closed for more than 2,000 years, and saw lifeless buildings, collapsed houses, falling walls, broken doors and windows, and rudimentary paper...... Everything seems to be so ruined, what kind of unit is it, and how do the people here live?" The more He Shuangquan explored, the more curious he became about the past of this Silk Road.
He Shuangquan introduced that after combing in the later stage, "Hanging Spring Han Jian" is not only a record of the politics, economy, culture, transportation and many other aspects of the Han Dynasty, but also a first-hand information on the exchanges between the Han and the 36 countries in the Western Regions and the founding, operation and management of the Silk Road after Zhang Qian's passage to the Western Regions.
This is the Han Dynasty Hanging Spring Dragon and Phoenix Painting Wooden Slip now in the Gansu Bamboo Slip Museum. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Duo Lei
Ancient books that "spread across time and space".
What is "Slips"? In ancient China, before paper was widely used, slips were the main writing carrier. As far as archaeological discoveries can be seen, it was mainly popular in the Warring States period, the Qin and Han dynasties, and even the Wei and Jin dynasties. Roughly inheriting the oracle bone inscription and the golden inscription, and the manuscript and engraved documents on the lower paper, it has an important historical position and unique academic value in the context of the development and inheritance of Chinese civilization.
Simplified literature can be broadly divided into two categories: documents and classics. As far as the intention of the author and the circulation situation at that time are concerned, the former is within a specific scope or path and has a limited time limit, while the latter belongs to the pursuit of "cross-time and space communication".
"It is worth noting that if a document is handed down to future generations, it will lose its immediate and practical color, and be transformed into historical materials and cultural resources, thus transforming into classics. Chen Wei, a senior professor of humanities and social sciences at Wuhan University, director of the Simplified Silk Research Center, and a member of the Expert Committee of the "Ancient Characters and Chinese Civilization Inheritance and Development Project", said that the unearthed Jianzhu documents of the Warring States, Qin, Han, Wei and Jin dynasties are rare documents that record Chinese history and the development and evolution of Chinese civilization, and should be included in the category of today's ancient books like ideological and cultural classics.
Roughly slender bamboo and wood slices are simple, and relatively wide and thick bamboo planks are bamboo planks. Because the material is easy to obtain, easy to make and write, it can be connected with rope and thread to form a book, so as to carry long documents, and can also be engraved with teeth, cutaways, seals to add anti-counterfeiting, confidentiality and other functions. Therefore, before the passage of paper, the slip was the main writing medium.
"But the ancestors of Yin have books and canons. Since the character "book" resembles a simple book, scholars believe that the Shang Dynasty already used simple scrolls. "The Book of Songs: Out of the Car" laments that the soldiers of the expedition "don't they want to return home and fear this simple book"; in the "Zuo Chuan" in the 25th year of Xianggong's account of the Cui Shu Rebellion, "the Nanshi clan heard that the great history was dead, and the past was simplified", which can be regarded as a reliable record of the use of bamboo slips in the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period.
This is the original Chu Jian stored in the warehouse in the new Jingmen City Museum, taken on March 6. Photo by Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter Hu Jingwen
At present, the earliest physical object found is the Chu Jane in the middle and late Warring States period, and a large number of subsequent Qin, Han, Wei and Jin slips have been unearthed. Western Han paper has been found many times, and there are also words or maps in Juyan, Dunhuang, Fangmatan and other places, which are obviously used for writing. Some experts speculate that before paper became an official writing carrier in the last years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, it was still widely used.
There are also distinct features and functional differences between "Jane" and "牍". The southern part of the mainland is rich in bamboo, so most of the bamboo slips found at present are found at present, while the climate in the northwest region is dry, and there are fewer bamboos, and most of them are woody slips. The two lines are slightly wider than the Jane, generally about 2 cm, and the width is twice that of the Single Line Jane, and because each line of text is written in two lines, it is called the "Two Lines" Jane, which can be connected or used separately. It is wider than the "two lines" Jane, some can be as wide as 6 cm, the length is mostly the same as the ordinary Jane, mostly wooden, used to write letters, contracts or transcribe medical prescriptions, almanacs, etc., most of the Bamboo Slips found in the tomb are used to record the catalogue of items buried with the tomb.
Xiao Congli, director of the Finishing and Research Department of the Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum, introduced that in order to better prevent leakage, the written bamboo slips should be tied with rope knots and sealed with mud. In particular, after the official document is written, in order to prevent it from being dismantled and read without permission during the transmission process, a wooden board called "inspection" should be covered on the slip with the official document, and then the inspection and the official slip should be tied together with a rope, and the sealing mud should be placed on the inspection, and then the seal of the official in charge of the seal on the sealing mud is also the origin of the idiom "three silences". In addition, the ancient books written by the slips are rolled up first, and to read the books, you have to open the volume, which is called "opening the book is beneficial".
In oracle bone inscriptions, the Chinese character "book" looks like a string that is connected one by one. In order to fix the bamboo slips when weaving them, a triangular notch is carved on the side of the bamboo slips. According to the length of the Jane, there are two series, three series, and even more than four ways of the form of arrangement. Because Confucius liked to read the book "Yi", he broke the string of the series of books many times, and later generations used the idiom "Wei compiled three uniques" to describe the hard and diligent reading.
To this day, the writing format and writing method of some books still inherit the traditions formed during the Jianzhu period, and many idioms and allusions formed by Jianzhu have also been handed down to this day. For example, "volumes", "chapters", "compilations", "accumulation of articles", and "compilation of three uniques" are all related to the form of the slips; "finishing the work", "sweating and greening", and "running out of bamboo and difficult books" are related to the production and materials of the slips; "deletion and modification" and "swordsmen and pen officials" are related to the stationery and calligraphy knives of the Slips era; and "contracts", "rulers" and "seals" are related to the clerical system of the Slips era.
This is a slip unearthed at the Han Dynasty Fengsui site in Maquanwan, Dunhuang, and is currently in the collection of the Gansu Bamboo Slip Museum (data picture). Xinhua News Agency
Chinese wisdom in "broken chapters" and "fragments".
The Warring States Qin and Han dynasties were at a major juncture in the historical transformation of the mainland. The Shang and Zhou dynasties of "Concord and Wanbang", after the Spring and Autumn Wars and the annexation of the Warring States, moved towards the unified empire of the Qin and Han dynasties that implemented the county system. Private learning flourished, writings sprung up, and the code system and scripture culture created at that time inherited the past and the future, and had a far-reaching influence. As the original record and direct remnant of this historical process, the slips have a special value that cannot be matched by the handed down documents.
The survey shows that Hubei has unearthed a total of 82 batches and more than 25,000 pieces of Chu slips from the Warring States period, Qin and Han dynasties to the Six Dynasties, with an estimated value of more than 500,000 words. Among them, the Baoshan Chu Jian, Guodian Chu Jian, Sleeping Tiger Qin Jian, Zhangjiashan Han Jian, etc., which were discovered in Hubei, are all major discoveries that shocked the academic circles at home and abroad. The cultural classics headed by Guodian Chujian, the scientific and technological documents such as the Arithmetic Book of Zhangjiashan Han Jian, and the legal documents such as the Qin Jian of the Sleeping Tiger Land are all rare and unique books unearthed in this province, which have irreplaceable documentary value for exploring the early form of Confucianism and Zhuzi classics, as well as their evolution and dissemination.
Among the more than 5,200 bamboo slips unearthed from the tomb of the Marquis of Haiding, the largest part is the Confucian classics and their teachings, among which there are several lost versions or earlier versions, which have high academic value for the study of the transmission and evolution of Confucian doctrine and its classics. Zhu Fenghan, director of the Institute of Unearthed Literature of Peking University, said that for example, there are more than 1,200 pieces of the "Book of Songs", which provide people with the most ancient copies of the "Book of Songs" that they have seen today. Another example is the "Analects" of more than 500 pieces, which preserves the title of "Wisdom Dao" and some brief texts that are not found in this book. There are also more than 100 pieces of "Spring and Autumn", which is the earliest physical object of the Spring and Autumn Classics found by archaeology, which provides valuable information for understanding this history.
The wise and romantic Chu people love music, and for decades the archaeology of Chu has found a large number of musical instruments such as bells, drums, gongs, qins, and seers, as well as ornamental patterns depicting music and dance scenes, but there has been no musical score. In 2021, archaeologists found more than 3,200 Warring States slips in the Chu tomb in Wangjiazui, Jingzhou, of which 160 were tentatively named "Musical Scores" with musical symbols. The brief text consists mainly of the heavenly stem and a number of concise symbols, presumably a rich string of rhythmic rhymes, and their excavation has made it possible for future generations to "listen" to music more than 2,000 years ago.
This is a scene in the Guodian Chujian Exhibition Hall of the Jingmen Museum (taken on March 6). Photo by Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter Hu Jingwen
Chen Wei pointed out that due to the insufficient number of unearthed and most of them fragmented, the significance of the slips in academic research is generally only to prove history and supplement history, and it is in an auxiliary and supplementary position. At present, due to the accumulation of materials, especially the excavation of large quantities of well-preserved materials such as the Sleeping Tiger Qin Jian, Liye Qin Jian, Zhangjiashan Han Jian, and Hujia Caochang Han Jian, through proper collation and mutual survey and collation, the Bamboo Slip Literature has become the main historical basis, and even the only source of information, in the research fields such as the border defense system, the document system, and the legal system.
In Hunan, a "big province of bamboo slips", archaeological excavations have unearthed more than 20 batches and more than 200,000 pieces of bamboo slips, accounting for two-thirds of the total number of bamboo slips unearthed in the country. The Liye Qin Janes reveal the true face of the grassroots society of the Qin Dynasty; the Mawangdui Han Jane, the West Han Jane of Zoumalou, and the East Han Jane of Wuyi Square record the social customs and social and political systems of the Han Dynasty; and the Wu Jane of the Three Kingdoms of Zoumalou shows the life of the Changsha people during the Three Kingdoms period. At the same time, these Qin and Han scripts are rich in style, beautiful handwriting and vivid rhyme, and are important materials for the study of the evolution of Chinese characters and the art of calligraphy.
Yang Xianyun, a staff member of the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that the hand-me-down documents mainly record the stories of the central government and princes and generals, but it is rare to see the lives of ordinary people in cities, counties and townships at that time. However, a large number of information about ordinary "little people" are recorded in the bamboo slips unearthed in Hunan, which vividly show their daily life.
Yang Xianyun introduced as an example that there are 12 Qin Dynasty debt collection documents in the Liye Qin Jane, which records the story of 12 soldiers who owed money to the government due to crimes and punishments, but could not repay it due to poverty at home. Because of the Qin Dynasty's policy of stationing in different places, these soldiers were stationed and served in Qianling County, and the government of their original place of origin issued a document to recover the money from the Qianling County Government, requiring the officials of Qianling County to continue to collect the arrears from the soldiers in accordance with the law.
In the "Accounting Book" of the Han Jian of Huxi Mountain, Yuanling, it is recorded that in the early Han Dynasty, there were 1,612 households and 6,481 people in the Yuanling Marquis, including 924 minors. Hou Guo collected and paid a total of 526,483 yuan a year, that is, the poll tax for adults. "The Hunan unearthed slips and nobles elaborate on the life stories of the 'little people', looking at the whole country from the locality, which is a comparison of the legal, economic and ideological history at that time, and makes up for the gaps in the records of the handed down documents. Yang Xianyun said.
2,000 years ago, what are the moving stories of the ancient Silk Road? Archaeological discoveries have enabled the reproduction of these "communication codes" clearly recorded in the archival documents of the Han Dynasty in China. In the early 90s of the 20th century, archaeologists found the site of the hanging spring set up in Dunhuang County of the Western Han Dynasty in Dunhuang City, Gansu Province, and unearthed a large number of Han Jane, whose content involves the political, economic, military, diplomatic, post, transportation and other aspects of the Han Dynasty, and truly recorded the economic and trade exchanges between the envoys of the ancient Silk Road, which is precious. In 2014, when the application for the "Silk Road: Road Network of the Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor" World Heritage Site was applied, the relevant brief text supplemented the application materials.
There is a volume of Han Jian in Hanging Spring, which is named by scholars as "The Book of the Messengers of King Kangju", which is extremely precious. This compendium consists of 7 compendiums and 293 characters in a volume, which records the injustice reported by the imperial court in 39 BC when the envoy of King Kangju and other people came to pay tribute to the camels of the Western Han Dynasty, and the court accepted and solved the problem.
The details of the exchanges and exchanges between the two Han Dynasty and the countries of the Western Regions recorded in the slip have not been compiled and revised by the historians, and are the most authentic content. In the new era of continuing the historical context and writing a contemporary chapter, it is the best historical material to explain Chinese culture and Chinese spirit. Zhu Jianjun, director of the Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum, said.
Among the more than 170 versions of wooden slabs unearthed from the tomb of the Marquis of Haiding, a precious "Edict of Removal of the Country" was sorted out, which recorded the whole process of the removal of the Marquis of Haihuang after Liu He's death. This is also the first Western Han Dynasty edict unearthed so far.
"The information in the wooden slip revealed that before the removal of the Marquis of Haidu, a meeting of ministers attended by high-ranking officials of 2,000 stone or more was held to discuss it, not only after the discussion of the ministers, but also the names of hundreds of officials. According to Yang Bo, an associate researcher at the Institute of Ancient History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Han Dynasty had parallel counties and many vassal states, and they were all social units at that time and were worth studying.
Han Jian's "Book of the Messengers of King Kangju". Xinhua News Agency (Photo courtesy of Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum)
Sincere cooperation to promote the "live" of cultural relics
As the research materials become more and more abundant and diverse, it is urgent to collate and reorganize the known historical materials. In the past few days, the reporter visited research institutions around the country and learned that the current group of workers consciously and actively engaged in the research and sorting of the slips, and are committed to promoting cooperation with collection units to promote the collaborative research and research of bulk slip materials.
Taking Wuhan University Jianbao Center as an example, the Chinese collection "Jianbao" was founded in 2006 and was selected as a CSSCI source journal in 2014. The academic website "Wuhan University Silk Slips" has published more than 4,000 papers, developed the "Ancient Chinese Silk Slips Glyphs and Lexicon Database", and entered a total of 160,000 glyphs and examples of the Qin and Han Slips of the Warring States Period, which are open to peers. For a long time, Wuhan University has cooperated with the Department of East Asian Studies of the University of Chicago and other units to hold 11 consecutive academic conferences "International Forum on Chinese Simplified Silk Studies".
In the Silk Slips Research Center of Wuhan University, the reference room is full of all kinds of Chinese and foreign periodicals related to the slips, and important documents such as the "Collection of Warring States Briefs Unearthed in Chudi" and the "Collection of Qin Slips" are arranged in turn. The reporter learned that most of the slips unearthed in Hubei in the early days have been sorted out and published, and in the content of the re-collation and publication, the quality of the images, explanations and annotations of the slips has been significantly improved, becoming a more accurate, reliable and convenient version. There are also a number of important slips that have been included in the planning or received funding, and will be completed and published in recent years, including the first and second volumes of the forthcoming Five Kinds of Chu Slips Unearthed in Hubei, the Western Han Slips of the Sleeping Tiger Land (multi-volume) and the Western Han Slips of the Hujia Grassland (multi-volume).
At the beginning of this year, Wuhan University announced the research results of the first volume of "The Quality of the Day" in the Western Han Dynasty of the Sleeping Tiger Land. Chen Wei summed up the cultural connotation of "Quality Day" with three "ones" - "a 'diary' of the Han Dynasty for 14 consecutive years, a grassroots official named 'Yue Ren', and some reactivated historical memories".
Behind the highly concise interpretation is the team's tackling of key problems again and again. The correct conjugation and positioning of fragments is the most difficult, and it is only by piecing together valid information that the text can be restored and interpreted. In the conjugation work of "Quality Day", Chen Wei led the relevant members to form a 6-member "fragment conjugation" group, and the members of the research group usually wrote their findings into small papers, posted them in the WeChat group for discussion, and then after repeated scrutiny, they were finally able to "tie the words into a text".
The staff of the Jingzhou Cultural Relics Protection Center recorded the restored slips. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xiong Qi on March 16, 2017)
Sometimes it is necessary to start from the lower half of the simplified text, sometimes it is necessary to judge the correspondence of the simplified text by referring to the above, font style, the height of each column and other factors, and sometimes a new word is interpreted or reinterpreted, which provides new clues and perspectives for the puzzle...... Chen Wei said that the correct conjugation and positioning of the fragments is very difficult, and it takes many attempts and repeated pondering. Sometimes with a bit of luck, you can find several sets in a day. There are also times when I sit all day long and can't do anything. We use "inch by inch" to motivate, diligently, little by little.
In the Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum, the bamboo slips are placed in slender glass tubes, and the ink books are shrouded in a layer of dim fog against the backdrop of the light. Visitors were immersed in the bookish pavilions, some of them stopped and leaned over to read the Chinese characters, some interacted with the screens, connecting the ancient and modern fate of different place names, and some were attracted by the beauty of the calligraphy that adorned the museum, and raised their mobile phones to take photos.
"The first time I heard the name 'Hanging Spring' was when I watched the documentary "Hexi Corridor", and entering the Jianzhu Museum can almost be said to make the viewer 're-walk' the Hexi Corridor, because there are generals who once drank Ma Hanhai, there are princesses who are far away from the border passes, and there are unknown officials who have no nationality but have dedicated their lives to expanding the territory and guarding the border pass......" Tourists with the screen name "Sayaka Sauce" wrote such words on social platforms after visiting the museum.
Since its opening in September 2023, the Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum has become an "Internet celebrity check-in point" in Lanzhou because of its profound Han style heritage. Many lovers of traditional culture come in Hanfu to experience the feeling of "crossing". Up to now, the Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum has received more than 300,000 visitors.
In view of the more than 40,000 bamboo slips in the museum's collection from the Qin and Han dynasties to the Western Jin Dynasty, researchers accelerated the publication of unearthed documents by using infrared scanning, high-definition photography and interpretation at the same time, so as to promote a wider range of research on the bamboo slips through social sharing. The reporter learned that up to now, in addition to the "Hanging Spring Han Jian" is still being launched one after another, the other collection of slips has been released to the society and the academic community.
In addition, in order to expand the social popularization of the bamboo slips, since 2020, the Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum has cooperated with the School of Literature of Lanzhou University to open more than 80 "reading classes", leading teachers and students in colleges and universities to study ancient books together and stimulate the enthusiasm of teachers and students in colleges and universities for "unpopular and unpopular studies".
In the exhibition hall of the "Golden Haidu" exhibition hall of the Han Dynasty Marquis of Nanchang Han Dynasty Ruins Museum, the six wooden slips on display are the original documents of the highest level of the Han Dynasty that can be seen so far, they are the documents of the Han Emperor Xuan Emperor and the Empress Dowager Shangguan by Liu He, the Marquis of Haidu, and his wife, involving the contents of Chaohe, Jin, Autumn Invitation, etc., which are of great value to the study of the official document system of the Western Han Dynasty. The text on the song is the standard Han Li, the text is beautiful, solemn and elegant, and it is also a rare calligraphy treasure in this period. In front of the showcase, visitors often stop for a long time to admire it.
"Why did Liu He and his wife choose to write to the Empress Dowager Shangguan at the same time, does it mean that in their hearts, the Empress Dowager Shangguan may still give them the strength to support?" For example, Liu He played Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty and asked to participate in the autumn invitation, while his wife also wrote to the Empress Dowager Shangguan to express the same wish. This shows that Liu He is extremely eager to restore his right to sacrifice, which is of great significance to him, and the phrase "worship and smell after death" in the recital also reveals the caution of Liu He and his wife.
In order to "bring cultural relics to life", in recent years, the Changsha Bamboo Slips Museum has joined hands with Hunan Radio and Television to create a series of programs called "Hearing the Bamboo Slips", focusing on the essence of Chinese Bamboo Slips culture, telling the archaeological discoveries, functional functions, ideological connotations and vivid and interesting stories of the Bamboo Slips. On the basis of this program, the Changsha Bamboo Slips Museum excavated the connotation of the cultural relics of the Bamboo Slips and held the "Avenue to Simplicity - Chinese Spirit Theme Exhibition in the Bamboo Slips", in which the curator personally taught and explained the stories behind the selected collections, so that the children could have a deeper understanding of the Chinese wisdom, Chinese spirit and Chinese values contained in the ancient bamboo slips.
"When I used to mention museums, I thought of bronzes, gold and silverware, but when I walked into the Changsha Bamboo Slips Museum, I felt that they are also living cultural relics full of vitality. Li Can, a citizen of Changsha, said that she signed up for social education activities for her 9-year-old daughter, learned in detail about the "past and present life" of the bamboo slips, and felt that the well-restored bamboo slips in the museum are really precious!
This is an interactive installation in the Guodian Chujian Exhibition Hall of the Jingmen Museum (taken on March 6). Photo by Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter Hu Jingwen
This is Guodian Chujian's "Lao Tzu Jia" (taken on March 6) on display at the Jingmen Museum. Photo by Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter Hu Jingwen
With the popularity of traditional Chinese culture by the public, especially the popularity of ancient Chinese characters and ancient texts, the trend of research on simplified silk characters has risen, and the number of public speeches and popular articles on the culture of Chinese characters has also increased. At all levels of society, the knowledge of Jianxue has gone from the study to the public and has been understood by more people.
Unearthed in Jingmen, Hubei Province in 1993, Guodian Chujian is known as "a classic book that rewrites the history of Chinese thought", and its advent has set off a research boom of Guodian Chujian at home and abroad. The reporter recently came to the cultural relics warehouse of Jingmen Museum, and more than 620 pieces of Guodian Chujian were packed in a special bag box in a group of four pieces and stored in the safe. In addition, a small part of the original manuscript such as "Lao Tzu" was taken out of the warehouse and placed in the cultural relics display cabinet in the exhibition hall in turn.
"Technology is the bridge between the protection and use of cultural relics. Wu Han, head of the collection preservation section of Jingmen Museum, said that it is a miracle that Guodian Chujian can regain his sight after more than 2,000 years, and whether they can continue for a long time in the future requires the workers in the field of cultural relics protection to devote themselves to research and exploration. We firmly believe that with the continuous innovation and development of science and technology, the protection of cultural relics will have a more solid basis, the audience will get a better spiritual and cultural experience, and the bamboo slips that have passed through more than 2,000 years will be preserved forever and fresh.