What do a bunch of narrow wooden or bamboo slips with Chinese characters on them tell us about the distant past?

Hard to say, but one researcher at Jilin University has started a five-year project-to crack the bamboo code and fill some gaps in research on the past by collecting these scraps of history with Chinese characters written by ink brush, with government help.

Liu Zhao, a PhD and a member of Jilin University’s team, explains that a vast number of Chinese bamboo slips that were unearthed have aroused a great deal of academic curiosita broad, and not just in China. This type of record, called "jiandu", goes back more than 2,000 years in China, with the first dating to the Shang Dynasty (c.16th century-11th century BC) and were abandoned by the Southern and Northern Dynasties (AD 420-581).

They stored an immense amount of information before the invention of paper, in China, and covered a wide range of material, including history, medicine, mathematics, archaeology, astronomy, the calendar, the military, and the law, so they are obviously important sources for many areas of study.

In addition, Liu adds, "Some slips on the Chu state (c.1030-223BC) contain information on the Chinese characters used by the Chu, which were abandoned after the Qin Wars of Unification (230-221BC), and a small number of those earlier Chinese characters appear on some bronze ware that was unearthed."

Liu Zhao, at Jilin University, studying bamboo strips. [Photo Zhang Yingnna/newculturenews]

These that are found on some slips during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476BC) are very important for understanding the much earlier Chu period.

 Archaeologists have spent decades digging for bamboo slips and have unearthed more than 100,000, mostly in Northwest China and Hubei and Hunan province, because, according to Liu, "Wooden or bamboo slips can be better preserved in the dry northern weather and in Hubei and Hunan’s wet soil."

And, during the same time period, Chinese and overseas scholars have published hundreds of books on this particular form of writing, but, there is still no complete compilation of all these research findings. One institution that has gained a lot from all the previous research on unearthed bamboo and wooden slips is Jilin University’s Classical Chinese Institute from the Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han to the Western Jin and to the Eastern Jin, started in 2011.

So, concludes Liu, "Why not compile a dictionary. We’ve done so much research and have great help from real experts."

Thus far, this dictionary project has attracted the interest of quite a few experts from China and abroad, and, "This will be the first dictionary of its kind even if it takes five years to get it done."

And, the team editors say the dictionary will be clear, readable and well-illustrated.