Pre-paper writing in China

[Chu State]. Bamboo manuscript slips.

€ 45,000.00

An early collection of bamboo slips from the Warring States Period (c. 475-221 BCE), written in Chu State. Bamboo and wooden slips (jiandu) could be bound together to make longer documents, and were the main media for writing in China before the widespread introduction of paper during the first two centuries CE.

Finds such as this have allowed for a revolution in the understanding of early Chinese culture, as previously the discovery of ancient manuscripts was a rare and piecemeal event. This changed with the rise of modern archaeology, with several notable finds of texts since 1973. These slips originate in Hubei province, where thousands of bamboo slips were unearthed in the 1990s and 2000s. The moist, heavy clay soil of Hubei lends itself to preservation of such items, which have made such finds treasure-troves of ancient Chinese historical and literary monuments.

One notable document from this period originally preserved on bamboo is the so-called "Bamboo Annals" (or "Ji Tomb Annals"), written c. 296 BCE, which were discovered in the third century CE and copied onto scrolls, becoming an important account of the Warring States Period.

The Hubei provenance and the fact that these slips entered Japanese hands in 1995 places them temporarily close to the finds of Guodian Bamboo Slips (c. 800 slips of philosophical texts excavated in 1993), and the Shanghai Museum bamboo slips (c. 1200 slips, acquired in 1994 on the private market in Hong Kong). Slips of this date are however a relative rarity on the private market, particularly outside of China.

The Warring States Period spanned the final centuries of the Zhou dynasty and culminated in the consolidation of power by the State of Qin, which founded China's first, albeit short-lived, imperial dynasty in 230 BCE, before giving way to the Han in 202 BCE.

A remarkable cultural find from a crucial period of transition in China's history.