The Liye Qin Slips () is a large collection of

bamboo slips Bamboo and wooden slips () were the main media for writing documents in China before the widespread introduction of paper during the first two centuries AD. (Silk was occasionally used, for example in the Chu Silk Manuscript, but was prohibit ...

which were unearthed from

Liye Ancient City The Liye Ancient City () is an archaeological site in Liye Town, Longshan County, Hunan Province, China. It was of seat of the ancient Qianling County () in Dongting Commandery () of the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC). It is known for 37,400 Liye Qin S ...

Longshan County Longshan County () is a county of Hunan Province, China, it is under the administration of Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture. Located on the western margin of the province and the north western Xiangxi, it is immediately adjacent to the borders of C ...

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...

, China in 2002. It is one of China's most important archaeological discoveries of the 21st century.The archaeological discovery of Liye bamboo slips of the Qin dynasty
china.org.cn (19-Jul-02)
/ref> Archaeologists found more than 37,000 pieces of bamboo slips, on which more than 200,000 Chinese characters record government and legal documents of the

Qin dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first Dynasties in Chinese history, dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin (state), ...

. It is considered the most important archaeological discovery of the Qin dynasty after the

Terracotta Army The Terracotta Army is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210–209 BCE with the purpose of protecting the emperor in ...

unearthed in 1973 in

Xi'an Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by #Name, other names, is the list of capitals in China, capital of Shaanxi, Shaanxi Province. A Sub-provincial division#Sub-provincial municipalities, sub-provincial city o ...

Main content

The Liye bamboo slip documents and archives fully embody a wide range of document types and terms, the constant growth of administrative and judicial document styles. Among them are more than 68 types of archives and content, which have high value of supplementing and testifying history facts. Some in the academic circles have argued that its importance is no less than those of

Oracle bone script Oracle bone script () is an ancient form of Chinese characters that were engraved on oracle bonesanimal bones or Turtle shell#Plastron, turtle plastrons used in pyromancy, pyromantic divination. Oracle bone script was used in the late 2nd millen ...

and

Dunhuang manuscripts Dunhuang manuscripts refer to a wide variety of religious and secular documents (mostly manuscripts, but also including some woodblock-printed texts) in Chinese and other languages that were discovered at the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China, durin ...

. The world's oldest example of a

multiplication table In mathematics, a multiplication table (sometimes, less formally, a times table) is a mathematical table used to define a multiplication operation for an algebraic system. The decimal multiplication table was traditionally taught as an essenti ...

was found here. The slips, used for writing in ancient times, have great significance in furthering research on Qin dynasty politics, economy and culture. All the historical artifacts from Liye are displayed at the Qin Dynasty Bamboo Slips Museum of Liye ().湖南里耶秦简博物馆开馆
sohu.com (29-Oct-10)chnmuseum.cn (29-Oct-10)
/ref>

Research value

The Qin bamboo slips of Liye are important for the research of the unification of the

Qin Empire The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first Dynasties in Chinese history, dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin (state), ...

and the cultural expansion of the Qin. The slips belong to a model of the local authorities in the Qin dynasty. They also filled in the blank pages of the ''

Records of the Grand Historian ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese hist ...

'' and ''

Book of Han The ''Book of Han'' or ''History of the Former Han'' (Qián Hàn Shū,《前汉书》) is a history of China finished in 111AD, covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to the fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE. I ...

'' on the Qin and Han dynasties, and fundamentally changed the face of the academic history of thousands of years on

warring States The Warring States period () was an era in ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded with the Qin wars of conquest ...

, Qin and

Han Han may refer to: Ethnic groups * Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group. ** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...

dynasties. The slips contain thousands of pieces of bamboo slips without words, which takes on a very high research value.《里耶秦简》特种邮票龙山里耶首发
rednet.cnjschina.com.cn
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also se
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References

{{Excavated Chinese manuscripts Longshan County History of Hunan Archaeological artifacts of China Qin dynasty culture 2002 archaeological discoveries Bamboo and wooden slips Legal history of China 3rd century BC in law