Chapter 34 Wooden slips and Chinese book styles

Wooden slips and Chinese book styles The batch of Juyan wooden slips that were deposited in the United States during the Anti-Japanese War and have not yet been returned, regardless of the records on the slips Not to mention the precious historical materials about the social, economic and cultural life of our country in ancient times, only these wooden slips In itself, it has great value in the history of cultural development in our country, because the wooden slips are the oldest in our country. One of the most popular writing instruments, it is the ancestor of the books we read and use today.

We often see the pictures of Guan Gong reading the Spring and Autumn Period painted by people today and find it funny, because these painters painted The "Spring and Autumn Annals" in the hands of Guan Gong is actually a thread-bound book that we often see today.actually, In the Three Kingdoms era, the books that everyone read at that time, whether it was "Spring and Autumn", or The form of books at that time has not yet evolved to the thread-bound books we use today, but like our today's book Like the hand scroll, it is written on a long and narrow piece of paper or silk fabric, and then rolled into a roll.sometimes,

It will also be folded into piles like today's Buddhist scriptures or mounted inscriptions.Guan Gong Most of the "Spring and Autumn" that Guangxia read looks like this, because the books in the Three Kingdoms period still look like this child's. However, if what Guan Gong read was an ancient copy of "Spring and Autumn", it might still be like Juyan's bamboo slips. In that way, it is a book that is penetrated by pieces of wood.Because the evolutionary program of book form in our country It's like this: first there are "short booklets" written on wood and bamboo, and then there are "booklets" written on paper and silk.

"examination paper".When the production of paper became popular and cheap, it was combined with the art of engraving invented at that time, Book forms such as Song Banshu, which we call ancient books today, appeared. Therefore, in terms of the evolution of book forms, wooden slips are our ancestors of books. This kind of wooden slips has been used since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and has been used until the Eastern Han Dynasty (second century AD). It was gradually eliminated by the newly invented paper at that time.The wooden slips are cut from wood chips and are more than one foot long and wide.

less than an inch.Sometimes it is also made of bamboo slices, which are called bamboo slips.The words are written on it.at that time The "pen" used is harder than today's brushes, and the "ink" is something like lacquer.The font written is It is between seal script and official script, and sometimes in a hurry, there will be a few "quick chapters", which say in calligraphy, This is the origin of our cursive today. Because the wooden slips are long and narrow, they cannot accommodate many characters.A note, or an account, can certainly be It can be finished with a slide, but if it is an official document, a contract, or a piece of writing to be transcribed,

It would take several or dozens of wooden slips to apply.At this time, these wooden slips have to be worn several times up and down. Each hole is pierced with cowhide ropes or straw ropes, and stacked together, it is called "Jianbao". The word "book" is Pictographic, symbolizing the situation of many pieces of wood threaded together, so we still call a book a "volume". So wooden slips are really the ancestors of our book form.This alone, it is in the history of our cultural development It has great historical value.