# List of ancient Chinese manuscripts

This page lists discoveries of ancient Chinese manuscripts. The timeframe is Eastern Zhou dynasty to Eastern Han dynasty. The focus is on bamboo and silk manuscripts. The table complements the Manuscript Database by the University of Heidelberg, which currently covers discoveries to 2015 (the table supplies discoveries that predate 2015 and that are not listed in the database). It aims to provide an overview and references to an Anglophone audience of major discoveries in the last 10 years.

## Table listing discoveries of ancient Chinese manuscripts

| Excavation year (begins) | Name | Location / Period | Materiality of Written Artifacts | # | Content | Report | Year of publication | Notes |
| 1992 | 老河口安崗竹簡M1, M2 | Late Warring States | Bamboo Strips | 21 | tomb inventory | 《湖北老河口安崗楚墓竹簡概述》，《文物》2017.7 | 2017 | Strips are very damaged. |
| 2009 | 严仓 1 号 | Chu State, Warring States | Bamboo Strips | 650 | divination; prayers | 文物 2021.04 | 2021 | Texts are dated between 307-299 BCE. |
| 2012 | 高龍東漢墓 | Emperor Ling of Han 漢靈帝 | steles | 2 | | 文物 2023.08 | 2023 | |
| 2012 | 山西太原 complex | Han Dynasties | wall inscription | 1 | | 文物 2015.12 | 2015 | |
| 2014 | 湘鄉 | Chu State, Warring States | ? | ca. 900 | Administrative Documents | Not yet published | | |
| 2019 | 胡家草場漢簡 | Han Wu Di | Bamboo Strips | 4642 | calendars; medicine; legal texts; daybooks; registers | 荆州博物館:《湖北荆州市胡家草場墓地M12發出簡報》，《考古》2020年第2期，3—20 | 2020 | The corpus also includes 4 wooden tablets. The content includes records of events that took place during the Qin dynasty. |
| 2019 | 龍會河 | Chu State, Warring States | Bamboo Strips | 324 | military; writings | | | |
| 2019 | Wangjiazui 王家嘴 | Chu State, Warring States | Bamboo Strips | 3,200 | Philosophical writings; poetry. | Jingzhou boquguan 荊州博物館. “湖北荊州王家嘴798號楚墓地法掘簡報” 江汉考古 2, no. 185 (2023): 2–14 | 2023 | |
| 2019 | Zaozhi 棗紙 | Chu State, Warring State | Bamboo Strips | 704 | Philosophical and historical narratives. See below. | Current introduction by Zhao 2020 | | From tomb 46 the 造紙廠 section of the Zaolinpu 棗林鋪 cemetery, Hubei |
| 2019 | 唐維寺 M126 | Chu State, mid to late Warring States | Bamboo Strips | 8 | Divination to inquire about illness | Current introduction by Zhao 2020 | | From the Zaolinpu Cemetery |
| 2019 | Xiongjiawan 熊家灣 M43 | Chu State, mid to late Warring States | Bamboo Strips | 2 | Divination to inquire about illness | Current introduction by Zhao 2020 | | From the Zaolinpu Cemetery |
| 2019 | Pengjiawan 彭家灣 M183 | Chu State, mid to late Warring States | Bamboo Strips | 12 | Divination to inquire about illness | Current introduction by Zhao 2020 | | From the Zaolinpu Cemetery |
| 2020 | Hebosuo 河泊所 | Western and Eastern Han | Bamboo strips; wooden tablets | ~4K | Administrative; chapters from the Analects; legal texts. | Archeology 考古 2023.7 | 2023 | |
| 2023 | Qinjiazui 秦家嘴 | Chu State, Warring States | Bamboo Strips | 1,500 | Introductions to the discovery talks of 5 genres of writings: 1) 六艺類 six arts 2) masters' writings 諸子類 3) writings in the style of ci 辭 and fu 賦 ("rhapsody") 4) writings on numbers and divinations, 术数 5) writings on "Recipes and Methods” 方技 | | | |

## Overview of contents
### Wangjiazui strips

* One manuscript reproduces the “Guo feng” 國風 section of the Book of Odes;
* A manuscript titled by the editors *Confucius said 孔子曰 collects sayings attributed to Confucius.
* A text is an annotation of what appears to be a music score.

### Zaozhi strips

* One manuscript is "Words from the Shi and the Shu" 詩書之言, a text that collects citations of texts known to use from the 詩經, 尚書, and 墨子.
* A manuscript of 99 strips has been titled *Duke Huan of Qi returns to Qi from Ju 《齊桓公自莒返于齊》. This narrative was previously attested in the Speeches of the States 國語 and Guanzi 管子.
* A manuscript titled 《吳王夫差起師伐越》, which parallels the Tsinghua manuscript 《越公其事》, hence confirming the authenticity of the latter corpus, which has been unfortunately looted and purchased by Tsinghua University in 2008 to preserve it. Li Hong 李泓 has discussed a few differences in terminology.

## See Also

* Bamboo and wooden slips