The Rong Cheng Shi () is an ancient

bamboo manuscript 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 ...

from the Chinese

Warring States period The Warring States period () was an era in History of China#Ancient China, ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded ...

(ca. 453–221 BCE) that was discovered and purchased on

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

's antiquity market in 1994. It is now kept at the

Shanghai Museum The Shanghai Museum is a museum of ancient Chinese art, situated on the People's Square in the Huangpu District, Shanghai, Huangpu District of Shanghai, China. Rebuilt at its current location in 1996, it is considered one of China's first world-c ...

. It was published in the second volume of the ''Shanghai Bowuguan can Zhanguo Chu jian shu'' 上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書. Like the entire collection, it is dated to the mid through late 4th century BCE. To date, it is the only historical narrative from that runs from ancient times to the beginning of the

Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by th ...

. It addresses abdication as an ideal way of ruling, and describes history as devolutionary.

References

External links

* History of China {{china-hist-stub