Was the writing on the bamboo slips carved with a knife or written with a brush?

The writing on bamboo slips was written with a brush, not carved on with a knife.

The writing material from the Warring States to the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Is cut into long narrow bamboo (also wood), bamboo called Jane, wood called Zha or牍, collectively known as Jane, now generally said bamboo slips. All ink book with a brush. Han Dynasty, the length of the booklet, such as writing edicts and orders of three feet long (about 67.5cm), copying the scriptures of two feet four inches long (about 56cm), folk writing letters of one foot long (about 23cm). There have been important discoveries in Changsha, Hunan Province, Jingzhou, Hubei Province, Linyi, Shandong Province, and northwest China, such as Dunhuang, Juyan, Wuwei, etc., in which Juyan has unearthed the compiled documents of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Bamboo slips are made of bamboo, each piece of writing a line, all the pieces of an article will be woven together, known as "jianzhi". This is the earliest form of books in ancient China. The wooden pieces used for writing were called jianzhi (wooden documents), and they were mostly used for writing short texts.

Jianzhu originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty and was more widely used during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Around the 4th century A.D., as paper was widely used, it was replaced by paper copies.

The most famous ones are:

1. In 279, the people of Kap County, Jin Dynasty, excavated dozens of carts of written bamboo slips from the tomb of King Xiang of Wei during the Warring States period.

2. In July 1953, 42 bamboo slips were unearthed from the ancient tomb of Yangtian Lake in Changsha, Hunan Province, the longest of which was 22 centimeters long and 1.2 centimeters wide, in seal script, with 2-10 characters per slip, dating from the Warring States period.

3. In 1957, more than 800 pieces of bamboo slips were unearthed from the Chu Tomb in Xinyang, Henan Province, and the text on the slips is still clear.

4. 1972, Shandong Linyi Yinquan Mountain found "Sun Tzu's Art of War" and "Sun Bin's Art of War" bamboo slips. About five thousand pieces.

5. December 1975, Hubei Yunmeng Sleeping Tiger Earth Qin Tomb unearthed more than one thousand one hundred bamboo slips. It is from the first year of King Zhao of Qin (306 BC) to the 30th year of Qin Shihuang (217 BC).

Bamboo slips not only occupy an important position in ancient cultural history, the history of books, but also has an important influence on printing, especially the form of the slips, that is, for the predecessor of the scroll binding, for the early engraved printing is widely used. Modern bamboo jane is more of a collection and home.

In 2001, the Chutian green using laser in the bamboo material carved bamboo, the font is timeless and clear, the peak of the pen strong and rich charm, its bamboo pen holder, bamboo business card holder is the bamboo craft will be a good home decoration.

The ancients wrote on bamboo slips, in order to facilitate the writing and prevent insect infestation, the first green bamboo slips with fire dry moisture, called killing. Later, it was generally referred to as the writing of the book.

Historical tradition of bamboo slips on the word is not engraved, indeed, is written with a brush,

But the ink is not today's ink, but a kind of gelatinous material containing a very thick black liquid,

Adhesion is very strong, writing that is dry, and even not afraid of water, mud and other substances erosion,

At present, some of the Chinese slips in the canopied tunnel of many Han tombs, the moisture content of the mud is very high.

At present, some of the Han slips are dug out in many of the Han tomb canals in the mud with high moisture content,

While the slips are washed and cleaned to be pure black, nothing can be seen, but after soaking in chemical water,

The ink characters on the bamboo slips are very clear and are not engraved on the slips.