Bamboo slips reveal an ancient world

Chen says identifying these damaged pieces and putting them back in their original order was really a challenging but crucial step toward restoring and interpreting the texts. He says seven batches of zhiri slips have been unearthed at multiple archaeological sites across the country, making 23 volumes of zhiri altogether, among which 14 were found at Shuihudi.

Yueren's zhiri slips were woven together with three threads and read from right to left. For each year the dates started from lunar October, as it was then seen as the start of a year. There were extra slips for leap months.

The dates were pre-labeled, and Yueren only marked a small portion of the days with brief content.

During his career, Yueren served in various local departments in Anlu county and later Yangwu township, including the government, the military, and the judicial department, as well as the sector in charge of farming, land sales and agricultural tax.

He was also involved in the building of public facilities, collecting pearls, and grain transportation.

Yueren was hardworking. Several slips from April 170 BC show that he went back home upon his father's passing amid pressing affairs, and hastened back to work the day after the funeral.

"On average, he traveled 141 days for work per year. It seems common for grassroots officials at that time to spend one-third of a year taking business trips," says Kim Byungjoon, professor at the Department of Asian History at Seoul National University.

Yueren was proud of some of the tasks he tackled, such as sending the military papers and tributes of fresh food and other products to Western Han's capital Chang'an — today's Xi'an in Shaanxi province. For both urgent duties he took a carriage.

However, the official was accused and fined several times in the last three years of his career. It was not necessarily due to his own fault but might have been because of the unsatisfying overall situation of the area, according to Chen.

Yueren is believed to have passed away in 157 BC, in his 50s.

"He worked at the grassroots without promotion for 15 years. He must have been depressed with these punishments in his later years, which might have something to do with his passing," Chen says.

Historian Zhu Fenghan says that Shuihudi's zhiri slips help build a new understanding of this style of record-keeping. For example, it not only contained official affairs but also personal matters.

Yueren's zhiri slips also mentioned his mother's passing and the marriage of a female relative, who could either have been his daughter or a sibling.

According to Chen, one wooden tablet excavated from Yueren's tomb indicates that upon a female relative's passing in 175 BC, the family received donations from 81 people. In return, they sent money and gifts in the following decade to these people for funerals, marriage or journeys they undertook.

Contact the writers at fangaiqing@chinadaily.com.cn