Study On Several Issues Of Chariots Recorded On Warring States Bamboo Strip Manuscripts

Warring States bamboo strip manuscripts have been unearthed one after another since 1951, including those from Wulipai, Xinyang, Wangshan, Tianxingguan, the tomb of the Marquis Yi of Zeng, Baoshan and Xincai. This dissertation focuses on the characters on those bamboo slips that concern chariot accessories and harnesses, loading articles and the chariot and horse system in the pre-Qin period. We will attempt to solve some problems that have been studied but not answered by unifying the opinions of various scholars.There are four sections in this dissertation——foreword, main text, appendix and summary.In the foreword, we provide a sketch of how those manuscripts had been discovered, sorted out, published and studied, and give a brief explanation of the significance of the topic and the research method applied.Chapters 1 and 2 classify and study the chariot accessories, harnesses and loading articles recorded on Warring States bamboo strip manuscripts. The first chapter is divided into three subsections—chariot Accessories, harnesses and trappings. The second chapter, on loading articles, is divided into four subsections—matting and shelters, arms, banners, and sundries. We evaluate the studies of various modern scholars, and then consider both excavated and received texts.Chapter 3 is a synthetic study of the chariot and horse system, as recorded on Warring States bamboo strip manuscripts. Section 1 studies names of chariots by using the methods explained in the first and second chapters and contrasts the chariots'names in the three sections of the manuscripts from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng——"storing chariots", "corsets" and "driving horses". Section 2 restores the formation recorded on the manuscripts from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng and studies some related issues. Section 3 studies the relation between special articles and chariot types and combines broken bamboo strips from the tomb of the Marquis Yi of Zeng. Section 4 groups chariots recorded on the Bamboo Strip Manuscripts from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng and Baoshan. According to the information provided in the "driving horses" part of this chapter, section 5 studies the redistribution of chariot horses, battle formation and the gifting of horse and chariot sets, and contrasts the content of bamboo strips with that of received texts.The appendix is a preliminary discussion of undefined articles.