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woodslip

Or.8211/697

ink on wood

Overview

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Title

A triangular 'woodslip' giving the first ten terms of the sixty year cycle. It is written in seal script.

Find site

Dunhuang Limes

Measurement

height 34 centimetres

Material

ink on wood

Language / script

Chinese (lang.) Chinese (script)

Description

Scope and content : 1st century BC to 2nd century AD The form of Chinese characters - the 'spelling' - was standardised in the third century BC and the same standard has been used to the present day (although with different styles of handwriting). However, the form deriving from that used on the oracle bones continued to be used alongside the standard script, most especially for seals. It is here shown on part of this calendar inscribed on a prism-shaped piece of wood.

Institution

British Library

Date

undated

Provenance

Stein 1906-8

Find site identifier

DHL.

Stein site number

T.XIX.i.1.

Find site description

Chinese Han-dynasty defensive structures (walls, forts, beacon towers etc) runnning north of Dunhuang in the Gobi desert.

Chavannes, E.L'instruction d'un futur empereur de Chine en l'an 1193Mémoires concernant l'Asie Orientale116-641913astronomy

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