Introduction to the Tsinghua Bamboo-Strip Manuscripts

Authors:
Liu, Guozhong 劉國忠

Translators:
Foster, Christopher
French, William N.

Publication Date:
18 February 2016

Publisher:
Brill

Abstract:

The Tsinghua University bamboo-strip manuscripts are among the most extraordinary collections of ancient texts discovered in China to date. In Introduction to the Tsinghua Bamboo-Strip Manuscripts, Liu Guozhong, one of the scholars intimately involved in editing the Tsinghua strips, offers a straightforward overview to the complexities inherent in researching this collection. Liu provides an invaluable glimpse into how these artifacts were cleaned, preserved, and prepared for publication, while also situating them within a history of similar finds. He moreover explores in detail a number of crucial questions raised by the Tsinghua strips, from the transmission of the Shangshu 尚書 and the nature of the oft-neglected Yi Zhoushu 逸周書, to the implications these texts have for our understanding of early Western Zhou history.