According to legend, when Confucius was reading ancient books, he forgot to eat and sleep, so that the reed rope wearing bamboo slips was worn off three times. This allusion was later called "Bian Wei's Three Musts" to describe people's obsession with reading.
If people who are not familiar with the history of China see the word "Bian Wei's Three Musts", they will inevitably wonder what the reed rope has to do with reading. It is necessary to introduce a writing recording tool-bamboo slips that appeared more than 2,000 years ago.
The method of making bamboo slips is very simple. Slim bamboo or wood chips are arranged side by side and then woven with ropes. You can roll it up and save it when you don't look at it. Oracle Bone Inscriptions's word "book" (pictured) is like making a long film into a book.
Oracle Bone Inscriptions's "book"
All bamboo slips and wooden slips are written with a brush dipped in ink and arranged vertically from the right. When making bamboo slips, you should dry fresh bamboo to prevent it from deteriorating over time. At this time, water drops will ooze from the bamboo slices, just like sweating. So bamboo slips are also called "history"; Over time, "history" has become synonymous with "history", and sometimes history is also called "historical history".
When writing large-scale works, you need to use a lot of bamboo slips, which are very difficult to carry and read. According to legend, Dong Fangshuo, the minister of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, wrote a letter to the throne, and it took two mature soldiers to carry it into the palace. People often use the word "sweating all over" when describing a person's rich collection of books, which means that his books are too many for cows to pull and can be piled on the roof. For people in the era of bamboo slips, this experience is probably very common!
Although bamboo slips and wooden slips are still difficult to preserve after sun exposure and anti-corrosion, most of the ancient bamboo slips we can see today are works after the Warring States Period. But also widely distributed in very arid areas such as Gansu and Qinghai, or very humid areas such as Hubei and Hunan. However, there are few reports of bamboo slips unearthed in the Central Plains where the Han civilization is relatively concentrated in the semi-dry and semi-wet areas.
The writing material used at the same time with bamboo slips is silk, and it is also written in ink, which is called silk. Compared with bamboo slips, silk books are more expensive, so they are preserved less. Moreover, due to the age, the silk, which should be smooth and smooth, has become yellow, brown and fragile after 2000 years of underground wind and rain; However, fragile fragments bear the eternal cultural spirit.
The bamboo slips in the picture 1993 were unearthed in Chu Tomb No.1 in Guodian, Jingmen City, Hubei Province. This bamboo slip was written about 2,300 years ago in the middle of the Warring States Period. Its main contents are the original works of Confucianism and Taoism in the pre-Qin period, including the earliest version of Laozi, the lost old school book Taiyishui and more than 10 historical materials on the thoughts of Confucius and his disciples, many of which are long-lost ancient books. This is one of the great discoveries of ancient books in the pre-Qin period. These bamboo slips provide the most valuable information for studying the history of thought, literature and philosophy in the pre-Qin period.
The picture above shows the Han bamboo slips unearthed in Juyan, Gansu.
The picture above shows the wooden slips of Han Dynasty, which are more yellow than bamboo slips.
The picture shows/kloc-0 Qin bamboo slips unearthed in Yunmeng, Hubei Province in February, 975. It is the first Qin bamboo slip found in history, which shocked the archaeological and calligraphy circles and provided real information for the study of calligraphy history. Qin Lishu is not a mature official script, but it has special characteristics of the times in font structure: it changes the circular stroke of seal script into a straight and square form-the elements of official script, which contains the characteristics of seal script; This is more like a quick stamp script.
The picture shows 1973 silk book unearthed from Mawangdui No.3 Han Tomb in Changsha, Hunan Province. The silk calligraphy era includes the late Qin Dynasty and the early Western Han Dynasty, including the calligraphy in the late Qin Dynasty and the early Western Han Dynasty. Unearthed from No.3 Han Tomb in Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan 1973. Including Letters of Warring States Policy, Lao Zi, A and B, etc. , is the first-hand information to study calligraphy in the Western Han Dynasty. In the history of the development of China characters, a topic that has been debated by predecessors is: Were there any official scripts in the Western Han Dynasty? The font on Mawangdui silk script in Changsha is unique, which is different from Xiao Zhuan and immature official script, reflecting the writing characteristics of the official transition from official script to official script, making the so-called official script of the Western Han Dynasty self-defeating.
Laozi's ancient books unearthed from Mawangdui silk book. Mawangdui silk calligraphy pen is steady and healthy, giving people a meaningful and mellow feeling. Its composition is also unique, different from simple books and stone carvings. Free length and strong sense of rhythm.