Research From Several Perspectives On Text Bricks In Cao Cao’s Clan Tombs

Since the1970s,13of more than40Cao Cao’s clan tombs have been unearthed in the southern suburbs of Bozhou City (formerly Bo County), Anhui Province. Up to now, nearly600text bricks, on which a total of nearly2,000characters were carved, have been cleared from seven tombs. In addition to a kind of positive text printing bricks and a small amount of red-character and lime-powder-character bricks, most of the text bricks carry incised characters. Text bricks take on3shapes of small strip, medium strip and wedge. Characters were mostly carved on the largest side with rope figure. Parts of them were engraved on the brick side or the brick top. They were set and placed in the tomb very casually, the majority part were placed on the front, middle and back walls and on the arch. In addition to seal characters, Running scripts, most of the characters are clerical scripts. About more than half of the bricks record the number of bricks, brick-making time and brick-making marks. And usually such a text was carved in the end position or side position. The adobes were generally erected in order so as to be air-dried. These characters were clearly inscribed at this time for a clear practical purpose. Other similar characters, some of which are extremely incoherent and make no sense, were casually engraved on the brick front and back, the largest two sides. As to those bricks recording Cao Cao’s clan and official positions, they were carved and placed without any distinction or unique position. These brick texts were most likely to be written casually by supervisory officials or craftsmen. Most of the recording characters and marks on the brick end or side were carved with shallow lean strokes, apparently on air-dried bricks. Characters, including some highly skilled running scripts, were carved casually with deeper strokes on the front and back of the bricks, on which rope figures had already existed. This suggests that these characters were written by brick-makers with fine rods when the adobes had just been demoulded. Marshy flat bricks were larger than the bamboo slips, which offered bigger room for writing. There texts were completed in one go with casual content, which makes it possible for different scripts, especially for those precious running scripts.13of Cao Cao’s clan tombs that have been excavated in Bozhou were all stolen or destroyed. However, nearly600precious text bricks cleared from seven tombs carry a long history and a rich content (Some record names of Cao Cao’s clan or local officials, and some write people’s complaining about the society, etc.) Placed in tombs the same way as other bricks without characters were put, those text bricks in Cao Cao’s clan tombs offer extremely valuable historical material, although their sizes and conditions vary much and there is still much left to be further studied. Characters include seal characters, Running scripts, regular scripts and clerical scripts. All these text bricks are extremely valuable for studies of the social conditions in Han and Wei Dynasties, the ideology and culture in the late East-Han Dynasty, the evolution of ancient Chinese chirography. Based on photos, rubbings, interpretations, and cultural relics of unearthed text bricks, this paper makes exploration, summarization and classification by using historical science and philology to reveal their historical significance, the evolution of chirography and calligraphy value.