| In 1994, about 1,200 pieces of bamboo slips were purchased by the Shanghai Museum from the Hong Kong antique market with the help of Dr. Cheung Kwong Yue, a professor of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Dated to the mid-late Warring States period, this batch of bamboo slips becomes valuable materials for research in the philosophy, literature, history, religion, military affairs, education, political comments, music and palaeography, as well as Confucianism, Taoism, the School of Positive and Negative Forces of the Warring States period. The "Shanghai Museum bamboo slips" have therefore been highly regarded by scholars recently.; Specimens from the Chu State in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period are one of the most important sources for the study of the early history of Chinese calligraphy. The large quantity of bamboo slips and writings on silk unearthed from early Chu tombs has added new dimensions to the decipherment of the written words and the understanding of the art of calligraphy of the period. Also, the ink writings on bamboo slips, which demonstrate distinctive styles in both brushwork and composition, are better calligraphic specimens than the Shang oracle-bone script on tortoise shells and the Zhou inscriptions carved on ritual bronzes. The distinctive style of the "Shanghai Museum bamboo slips" not only enriches the understanding of the calligraphic style of the Warring States period, but also provides relevant materials to solve such problems as "decorative brushwork" and "the relationship of content and script-forms" in the history of Chinese calligraphy.; This thesis attempts to compare the calligraphy of the bamboo slips in the Shanghai Museum with the calligraphy of other bamboo slips, wooden tablets and writings on silk from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period to the early Western Han so as to explore the changes of calligraphy style over the period. Genealogical excavations also provides the evidence to explain the similarities in culture heritage and the calligraphic style among the Chu States, the Qin Dynasty and the early Western Han. The uniqueness of the Chu culture also had an impact on the distinctive characteristics of the Chu bamboo slips. |
