The Book of Songs Discovered in Full Version in Haihunhou Tomb Along with The Analects
2025-11-17 16:25:34 來源:China News Service
At the 10th anniversaryof the archaeological excavationof the Haihunhou Tomb (Tomb of the Marquis of Haihun)andthe Academic Seminar on Regional Culture of Han Dynasty in Nanchang on the 8th, November,experts announced the latest progress in the restoration of the bamboo and wooden slips unearthed from the Haihunhou Tomb. Among the findings, approximately 1,200 bamboo slips related toThe Book of Songswere unearthed, and a complete version ofThe Book of Songsdating back to the Qin and Han Dynasties was discovered for the first time.
The owner of the Haihunhou Tomb was Liu He, the grandson of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. A total of more than 10,000 pieces (sets) of cultural relics were unearthed from the tomb, which systematically demonstrate the ritual norms, craftsmanship standards, and lifestyle of the Western Han Dynasty. Before the invention of paper, bamboo slips and wooden tablets were the primary writing carriers for ancient people, and more than 5,000 bamboo and wooden slips were unearthed from the Haihunhou Tomb.
Fang Beisong, Director of the Jingzhou Cultural Relics Protection Center in Hubei Province, stated that the bamboo and wooden slips unearthed from the Haihunhou Tomb suffer from various preservation difficulties: the slips themselves have problems such as decay, fragmentation, water saturation, and breakage, while the writing on them is affected by defects like incompleteness, blurriness, and deformation. Despite the high difficulty of restoration, most of the conservation work on the slips has been completed, and the full restoration is expected to be finished by 2026.
Yang Jun, a research librarian at the Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the leader of the archaeological excavation team of the Haihunhou Tomb, noted that about 1,200 bamboo slips related toThe Book of Songswere unearthed from the tomb. The text on the slips reads, "There are 305 poems in total, comprising 1,076 chapters and 7,274 characters"—a detail that confirms the slips contain a complete version ofThe Book of Songs, marking the first discovery of a complete version of this classic from the Qin and Han Dynasties.
Among the thousands of bamboo and wooden slips, over 500 are related toThe Analects, including the long-lostQi Version of The Analects(a regional version ofThe Analectspopular in the Qi State during the Warring States Period). In his report, Yang Jun mentioned that theQi Version of The Analectsunearthed from the Haihunhou Tomb is well-preserved with clearly visible writing. Additionally, the tops of the slips are neat with blank spaces before the text, while the bottoms are slightly damaged but show no traces of writing. The text on the slips is written in ink in the official script (lishu) style, with neat and standardized characters. Repeated characters are written out in full instead of using duplicate symbols, and the overall meaning of the text is relatively complete.
Yang Jun added that in addition toThe AnalectsandThe Book of Songs, the bamboo slips from the Haihunhou Tomb also include works such asThe Book of Rites,The Spring and Autumn Annals, andThe Classic of Filial Piety—which serve as important evidence of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty’s policy of "upholding Confucianism as the sole official ideology" and his efforts to collect various classics. Furthermore, there are approximately 200 slips related toThe Book of Changes, among whichYizhan(Divination with The Book of Changes)—a divination text—has never been seen before.
Yang Jun revealed that although the restoration of the Haihun bamboo and wooden slips has not been fully completed, a batch of newly restored slips will be displayed to the public in the near future, including those related toThe Analects.
Edit:董麗娜
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