The Yinqueshan Han Slips () are ancient Chinese writing tablets from the

Western Han dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a war ...

, made of

bamboo strips 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 prohibiti ...

and discovered in 1972. The tablets contain many writings that were not previously known or shed new light on the ancient versions of classic texts. The Yinqueshan Han Tombs were accidentally unearthed by construction workers on April 10, 1972. Archaeologists arrived a few days later to excavate the site. The bamboo slips were discovered in Tombs no. 1 and 2 at the foot of Yinqueshan (), located southeast of the city of

Linyi Linyi () is a prefecture-level city in the south of Shandong province, China. As of 2011, Linyi is the largest prefecture-level city in Shandong, both by area and population, Linyi borders Rizhao to the east, Weifang to the northeast, Zibo t ...

in the province of

Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...

. Discovered in Tomb no. 1 were 4942 bamboo strips covered in closely written words and included portions of known texts, as well as a number of previously unknown military and divination texts, some of which were shown to resemble chapters in '' Guanzi'' and '' Mozi''. The occupant had been identified as a military officer bearing the surname Sima. Tomb no. 2, unearthed the same year, contained 32 strips of bamboo writings which clearly represent sections of a calendar for the year 134 BC. The time of burial for both tombs had been dated to about 140 BC/134 BC and 118 BC, the texts having been written on the bamboo slips before then. After restoration and arrangement, the slips were organised into a sequential order of nine groups and 154 sections. The first group included 13 fragment chapters from

Sunzi Sun Tzu ( ; zh, t=孫子, s=孙子, first= t, p=Sūnzǐ) was a Chinese military general, strategist, philosopher, and writer who lived during the Eastern Zhou period of 771 to 256 BCE. Sun Tzu is traditionally credited as the author of ''The ...

's ''

The Art of War ''The Art of War'' () is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The work, which is attributed to the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu ("Master Sun"), is com ...

'', and 5 undetermined chapters; the second group were the 16 chapters of

Sun Bin Sun Bin (died 316 BC) was a Chinese general, military strategist, and writer who lived during the Warring States period of Chinese history. A supposed descendant of Sun Tzu, Sun was tutored in military strategy by the hermit Guiguzi. He w ...

's ''

Art of War ''The Art of War'' () is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The work, which is attributed to the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu ("Master Sun"), is comp ...

'', which had been missing for at least 1,400 years; the third included the 7 original and lost chapters from the ''Six Strategies'' (before this significant find only the titles of the lost chapters were known); the fourth and fifth included 5 chapters from the ''Weiliaozi'' and 16 chapters from the ''

Yanzi chunqiu The ''Yanzi chunqiu'' (" Yanzi Annals" or "Annals of Master Yan") is an ancient Chinese text dating to the Warring States period (475221) that contains a collection of stories, speeches, and remonstrations attributed to Yan Ying, a famous offic ...

''; the rest of the groups included anonymous writings. The slips are kept in the

Yinqueshan Han Tombs Bamboo Slips Museum The Yinqueshan Han Tombs Bamboo Slips Museum () is a museum dedicated to archaeological finds from two Western Han Dynasty tombs excavated on site in Lanshan District, Linyi City, Shandong Province, China. The tombs were excavated in 1972 ...

and in the Shandong Provincial Museum.

More than 38% of slips (1887 out of total 4942) were heavily damaged, which made the texts' reconstruction a very difficult task. Preliminarily, apart of the most famous texts of Yinqueshan, some 80 more were identified.Yates, Robin. "The Yin-yang Texts from Yinqueshan", ''Early China'', Vol. 19, 1994, pp. 80–81.

References

Citations

Sources

* * * * {{cite book , author = Li Xueqin , author-link = Li Xueqin , title = The Lost Bamboo and Silk Texts and the Academic History , publisher = Jiangxi Education Publishing House , location = Nanchang , year = 2001 , isbn = 753923606X

External links

《銀雀山漢墓竹簡》
at the

Chinese Text Project The Chinese Text Project (CTP; ) is a digital library project that assembles collections of early Chinese texts. The name of the project in Chinese literally means "The Chinese Philosophical Book Digitization Project", showing its focus on books ...

Bamboo and wooden slips Archaeological artifacts of China Han dynasty texts Linyi 1972 archaeological discoveries

Contents

See also

References

Citations

Sources

External links