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The Jizhong (汲冢 or Jijun 汲君, northern part of present Henan) discovery in AD 279 is an important event in the
paleography Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") is the study of historic writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysi ...
of ancient China, recorded in the ''
Book of Jin The ''Book of Jin'' is an official Chinese historical text covering the history of the Jin dynasty from 266 to 420. It was compiled in 648 by a number of officials commissioned by the imperial court of the Tang dynasty, with chancellor Fang Xu ...
''. A grave robber Biao Zhun 不準 broke into the tomb of King Xiang of Wei (r. 318–296 BC) and found there a corpus of ancient
bamboo slips Bamboo and wooden slips () were the main media for writing documents in China before the widespread introduction of paper during the first two centuries AD. (Silk was occasionally used, for example in the Chu Silk Manuscript, but was prohibiti ...
. Their discovery became a source of textological studies that had been impossible since the editorial work of Liu Xiang and Liu Xin of Han. The importance of the Jizhong discovery is compared to the Guodian discovery for the modern scholarship. The initial editorial work for the found slips was done by Xun Xu (d. 289), Director of the Imperial Library, though it was questioned by his successors. Among his editions, only two have survived; the large number of quotations shows the extent of Xun Xu work's influence. Among Jizhong texts, the most profound influence was the ''
Bamboo Annals The ''Bamboo Annals'' (), also known as the ''Ji Tomb Annals'' (), is a chronicle of ancient China. It begins in the earliest legendary time (the age of the Yellow Emperor) and extends to 299 BC, with the later centuries focusing on the history o ...
'', but the ''Bamboo Annals'' was not the only text retrieved. Collectively known as ''Jízhŏng shū'' (汲塚書), it also included '' Guoyu'', '' I Ching'', the '' Tale of King Mu'', ''Suoyu'' 瑣語 ("Minor Sayings", anthology of the anomaly accounts ''
zhiguai ''Zhiguai xiaoshuo'', translated as "tales of the miraculous", "tales of the strange", or "records of anomalies", is a type of Chinese literature which appeared in the Han dynasty and developed after the fall of the dynasty in 220 CE and in the T ...
'' 志怪), several Warring States period glossaries, and other titles of interest. Though the majority of the collection have subsequently been lost, the restoration work, which involved identifying a great number of variant scripts as well as collating fragmented bamboo strips and finding parallels in the received literature of the time, sparked renewed interest in ancient texts and epigraphy among Xun Xu's contemporaries such as Lü Chen (呂忱), who extended upon ''
Shuowen Jiezi ''Shuowen Jiezi'' () is an ancient Chinese dictionary from the Han dynasty. Although not the first comprehensive Chinese character dictionary (the ''Erya'' predates it), it was the first to analyze the structure of the characters and to give t ...
'' to write the ''
Zilin The ''Zilin'' (; c. 350) or Forest of Characters was a Chinese dictionary compiled by the Jin dynasty (266–420) lexicographer Lü Chen (呂忱). It contained 12,824 character head entries, organized by the 540-radical system of the ''Shuowen Ji ...
'', Guo Pu (郭璞), who wrote annotations to ''
Erya The ''Erya'' or ''Erh-ya'' is the first surviving Chinese dictionary. Bernhard Karlgren (1931:49) concluded that "the major part of its glosses must reasonably date from the 3rd century BC." Title Chinese scholars interpret the first title cha ...
'', ''
Sancang The ''Cangjiepian'', also known as the ''Three Chapters'' (, ''sāncāng''), was a BCE Chinese primer and a prototype for Chinese dictionaries. Li Si, Chancellor of the Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE), compiled it for the purpose of reforming writt ...
'', '' Fangyan'', ''
Shan Hai Jing The ''Classic of Mountains and Seas'', also known as ''Shan Hai Jing'', formerly romanized as the ''Shan-hai Ching'', is a Chinese classic text and a compilation of mythic geography and beasts. Early versions of the text may have existed sin ...
'', and the '' Tale of King Mu'', and
Zhang Hua Zhang Hua (232–7 May 300According to Sima Zhong's biography in ''Book of Jin'', Zhang Hua was killed on the ''guisi'' day of the 4th month of the 1st year of the ''Yongkang'' era of his reign. This corresponds to 7 May 300 永康元年夏四 ...
, who wrote an encyclopedic treatise on wide-ranging topics, supposedly in a thousand scrolls, the ''
Bowuzhi ''Bowuzhi'' (博物志; "Records of Diverse Matters") by Zhang Hua (c. 290 CE) was a compendium of Chinese stories about natural wonders and marvelous phenomena. It quotes from many early Chinese classics, and diversely includes subject matter f ...
'', to note a few. Since the ''
Book of Sui The ''Book of Sui'' (''Suí Shū'') is the official history of the Sui dynasty. It ranks among the official Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written by Yan Shigu, Kong Yingda, and Zhangsun Wuji, with Wei Zheng as the lead author ...
'', the Jizhong cache is broadly referred as the source of the ''
Yi Zhou Shu The ''Yi Zhou Shu'' () is a compendium of Chinese historical documents about the Western Zhou period (1046–771 BCE). Its textual history began with a (4th century BCE) text/compendium known as the ''Zhou Shu'' ("Book of Zhou"), which was possibl ...
'' 逸周書. However, this statement should be accepted with caution. Its source, the
Book of Jin The ''Book of Jin'' is an official Chinese historical text covering the history of the Jin dynasty from 266 to 420. It was compiled in 648 by a number of officials commissioned by the imperial court of the Tang dynasty, with chancellor Fang Xu ...
, indeed lists "Zhou shu" 周書 among the titles of the Jizhong finds. However, some of the chapters presently contained in this compendium evidently postdate King Xiang'ai.Shaughnessy, Edward L. (1993), "I Chou shu 逸周書 (Chou shu)" in ''Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide'', edited by Michael Loewe, Institute of East Asian Studies, 231–232.


Sources

* Edward L. Shaughnessy, Rewriting Early Chinese Texts, NY Press, 2006 * Fang Xuanling et al., ''
Book of Jin The ''Book of Jin'' is an official Chinese historical text covering the history of the Jin dynasty from 266 to 420. It was compiled in 648 by a number of officials commissioned by the imperial court of the Tang dynasty, with chancellor Fang Xu ...
'' 晋书 * Zhang Hua, Bowu Zhi, 博物志


References

{{reflist Archaeological artifacts of China 279