The desert is lonely and desolate. More than 2,000 years ago, when the ancients in Tuntian were faced with the vast border fortress, how could they express their affection?
The Hexi Corridor in Gansu Province was historically located in the border fortress of the Tunshu, so most of the brochures scattered in the depths of the Hexi are documents related to the ancient military garrison. From the vast "Jianhai", archaeologists have sorted out many art classics and records of the repeated recitation of these classic passages by the soldiers of the Han Dynasty.
Bamboo is not produced in the northwest, so there are fewer bamboo slips, and a "Cangjie Chapter" Jane unearthed in the Juyan area of the Han Dynasty is not only made of bamboo, but also leads to reverie. This slip is written on two sides, with a total of 59 characters, which is the largest number of single characters in the "Cangjie Chapter" found in the Northwest Han Simplified Script.
This is one of the "Cangjie Chapters" in the collection of the Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum. (Photo courtesy of Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum)
Xiao Congli, director of the Finishing and Research Department of the Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum, introduced that from the handwriting, the first side of the word spacing is small, and the second side of the writing gradually becomes sloppy, and the word "appreciation" at the end of the Jane is not even the original text of the "Cangjie Chapter". "We speculate that this bamboo slip may have been brought to Biansai from his hometown by a soldier from the southern inner county, and in his spare time he wrote the "Cangjie Chapter" that he had learned on the bamboo slip, probably because he was not very serious in his childhood study, so some words and sentences could not be remembered clearly, and he wrote the word 'reward' in a hasty book later. Xiao Congli said.
Xiao Congli said that the fragments of the contents of the "Book of Filial Piety", "Analects", "Cangjie Chapter" and "Urgent Chapter" have been found in the northwest border fortress sites, and these simple texts should be the practice of the border guards to recite and copy the Mengxue readings. "With the migration of people, Chinese classics also spread to the northwest, which is enough to explain the development of the process of ideological unification in the Han Dynasty. ”
In addition to reading and learning calligraphy, these soldiers who have lived in the border for a long time will also tell their friends about the boredom and boredom of life. A large number of private letters unearthed in the Hexi Corridor are a window to reflect their inner world.
"Wei Qing's feet are unharmed, kowtow, the idler lives without it, very good, virtuous and only gives right...... Cheng asked about the dampness of daily life and kowtowed. Wei Qing is strong and self-loving, cautious and springy, but it will not be long after the truth, to self-love, for Qi Shucheng to ask Yong Juncheng to live, and return to ...... Please, prostrate because thanks. Yin Heng kowtowed to the north and stuffed the one who was honest and not the ......"
This is the "Book of Yin Heng to Weiqing" in the collection of the Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum. (Photo courtesy of Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum)
Xiao Congli introduced that this Han Jane unearthed at the site of the Han Dynasty Shoulder Water Jinguan in Jinta County, Gansu Province, is a greeting letter written by Yin Heng to Wei Qing. The Beibei mentioned in the letter was under the jurisdiction of the Shoulder Water Houguan at that time, Yin Heng was in Juyan, and Wei Qing may be a person from Yin Heng's hometown. Yin Heng's sincere greetings to Wei Qing were expressed in many places in the letter, such as "dry and damp daily life", "strong rice and thick self-love", "cautious spring", etc., which are all common greeting idioms in Han letters. Yin Heng's sentence in the letter, "Plugging sincerity is not what it can do", shows that only when writing letters to friends can he dispel the boredom of life and talk about homesickness.
In addition to written records, some officials will also use "graffiti" to pass the time when they are free.
The front and back of this slip unearthed at the site of the Jinguan in the shoulder water are painted with clearly identifiable horses, and the two pictures are opposite, and the image of the horse bowing its head and galloping is very vivid. Xiao Congli said that this shows that the graffiti artist has a certain level of painting and is also familiar with the running movements of horses.
This is a Chinese slip depicting a horse in the collection of the Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum. (Photo courtesy of Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum)
"The border officials are far away from their homeland and take responsibility for defending the land, showing a strong sense of family and country, but they can also read and write and paint in their spare time, reflecting a certain degree of cultural quality, which shows that the Han Dynasty attached importance to culture and education and popularized it. Xiao Congli said.
More than 60,000 slips have been unearthed in Gansu, of which Han slips account for more than half of the total number in the country, which has important academic value for the study of the history, geography, customs, social economy, culture and education of the regions along the Silk Road in the Qin, Han and Wei and Jin dynasties.
(Author: He Wen)
(Source: Xinhua News Agency)