What are the ancient books made of bamboo tubes like (ask)

Bamboo slips are a form of books, in which characters, images or other specific symbols are written and drawn on pre-processed bamboo pieces.

Origin of Bamboo Slips: The early characters were engraved in Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Zhong Ding, and it was difficult to spread widely due to the limitation of their materials. Therefore, until the Shang Dynasty, only a hundred people in the upper class mastered writing, which greatly restricted the spread of culture and ideas, and all this was not changed until the appearance of bamboo slips.

Bamboo slips are the longest-used book form in the history of China, the main writing tool before the invention of papermaking and the popularization of paper, the cultural preservation and communication medium determined by our ancestors after repeated comparisons and difficult choices, and an important revolution in the history of media.

Extended data

origin

Production background

The early characters were carved on Oracle bones and Zhong Ding, which were limited by their materials and were difficult to spread widely. So until the Shang Dynasty, only a few hundred people in the upper class mastered the writing, which greatly restricted the spread of culture and ideas, and all this was not changed until the appearance of bamboo slips.

The significance of bamboo slips

Bamboo slips are mostly bamboo pieces, each piece writes a line, and all the bamboo pieces of an article are woven together, which is called "bamboo slips". This is the earliest book form in ancient China, and the wood chips used for writing characters are called wooden slips, which are mostly used for writing short articles.

Bamboo slips are the main materials for ancient China ancestors to write books, documents and other text carriers before the invention of paper, and they are one of the oldest books in China.

Bamboo slips, together with Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Dunhuang suicide note and Ming and Qing archives, are listed as the four major discoveries of oriental civilization in the 20th century. At present, the study of bamboo slips has also formed a worldwide discipline at an alarming rate. It has opened up a brand-new field for the academic research of China's history and culture from many angles and fields, such as history, archaeology, ancient philology, philology and calligraphy.

Bamboo slips appeared almost at the same time as Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jinwen, and it was the most popular period from the Spring and Autumn Period to the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. After the invention of paper, bamboo slips and paper went hand in hand for hundreds of years, and it was not until Heng Xuan ordered it at the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty that the bamboo slip system ended.

Baidu encyclopedia-bamboo slips