Bamboo and wooden strips of State of Wu, the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280)

Location: Changsha, Hunan Province

Period: 220-237

Excavated in 1996

Significance: It has supplied important materials to the study of the social, political, economical developments and other related systems of State of Wu during the Three Kingdoms Period.

Introduction 

Bamboo and wooden strips: (left-up, length 47.6 cm-53.6 cm); Bamboo and wooden strips: (right-bottom)

From July to November 1996, the Cultural Relics Work Team from Changsha in Hunan province, in coordination with construction work in the city, excavated 57 ancient wells inside the walls of the construction site on the southwest side of Zoumalou Street in downtown Changsha. In the process, they excavated several thousand items of all sorts made of steel, iron, ceramics, and bamboo. Approximately 100,000 bamboo manuscripts from the Wu Dynasty (222-280) of the Three Kingdoms period were unearthed from the site. The earliest date recorded in these bamboo strips was the 25th year (220) of the Jian'an era under Emperor Xian of the Eastern Han, and the latest was the 6th year (237) of Jiahe reign of the Wu Dynasty.

Because of the damp climate of the south, relatively high underground water level and soil pressure, and concentrated pollution at the bottom of the excavation, the condition of the bamboo documents is relatively poor, but a small portion are well-preserved. The documents that have been sorted out include bamboo strips, wooden tablets, bamboo plates, inspection seals, and sealing-clay boxes. Judging by the surviving vestiges, the bamboo and wood-strip documents were bound together to form a volume, generally read from top to bottom, were first bound and then written on, with several volumes left blank at the bindery. The bamboo documents recorded taxes, census registers, storehouse management, land tax flow, military and civilian opening of wasteland for cultivation, and correspondence -- touching on every aspect of social economy, government, and law.

In the 20^th century, bamboo slips have been found continually all over China, before the excavation of Zoumalou, the total of these items had already surpassed 90,000 pieces. But there were approximately 100,000 pieces found just at Zoumalou! Discovering such a vast number of ancient documents in one place at one time is incredibly rare, and can be called a find of the century. Only a small amount of historical documentation survives from the Three Kingdoms Period. The bamboo documents unearthed from Zoumalou, which recorded the reign of the Wu Dynasty, possess academic value from various perspectives.