简“牍”一下，方知“楚楚动人”

简牍是中华优秀传统文化的重要载体，取材竹木，主要流行于战国、秦汉至魏晋时期，在纸张普及之前，是日常生活以及国家治理中使用最广泛的书写材料，也是最简便的书写方式，记录下了泱泱华夏波澜壮阔的历史篇章。20世纪60年代以来，湖北各地出土了大量的战国、秦汉时期的简牍。为先秦时期的历史、思想文化研究提供了极其重要的资料。湖北省简牍共有9家收藏单位，收藏简牍约2.36万枚（含木牍、遣册）。

Bamboo slips are an important carrier of Chinese excellent traditional culture, made of bamboo and wood, and mainly popular during the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties to the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Before paper became popular, they were the most widely used writing material in daily life and state governance, and were also the most convenient way of writing. They recorded the magnificent historical chapters of the vast Chinese nation. Since the 1960s, a large number of bamboo slips of the Warring States Period and the Qin and Han dynasties have been unearthed in many places of Hubei Province, and they have provided extremely important materials for studying pre-Qin history, ideology and culture. There are a total of 9 collections of bamboo slips in Hubei Province, with a total of about 23,600 slips (including wooden tablets and lists).

郭店楚简 |

Chu bamboo slips unearthed in Guodian

1993年10月，考古人员对湖北省荆门市郭店村的郭店1号楚墓进行了抢救性发掘。郭店1号墓是一座战国中期偏晚的土坑竖穴木椁墓，一棺一椁，椁室内除棺室外，还有边箱、头箱，随葬品主要集中在边箱、头箱里。此墓虽遭遇两次盗扰，边箱盗失一些文物，但从发掘清理情况来看，所失不多。在头箱发现了大批因编线腐朽而散乱无序的竹简，大部分完好，少量残断。

In October 1993, archaeologists conducted a rescue excavation of Chu tomb No.1 at the Guodian site in Guodian Village, Jingmen City, Hubei Province. The tomb, a vertical earthen-pit tomb with a wooden outer coffin, was built in the middle-late Warring States Period. It contained an inner coffin and an outer coffin. In the outer coffin chamber, in addition to the inner coffin chamber, there were side boxes and head boxes, in which most of the funerary objects were placed. The tomb was robbed twice, and some artefacts in the side boxes were stolen, but the excavation results showed that the losses were not too grave. In the head boxes, a large number of bamboo slips were discovered. Since the binding straps were decayed, the bamboo slips were scattered and disorderly. Luckily, most of them were complete, though a few were broken.

郭店楚简 图/湖北文物

秦始皇在焚书坑儒时将大量先秦书籍焚毁，而郭店楚简则幸免于难，它为我们提供了珍贵的历史资料。郭店楚简的出土解决了中国儒家思想发展史上遗留的重要学术问题，填补了孔孟之间一百多年的思想理论空白，向我们展示了先秦时期儒、道两家和平共处的信息，为我们提供了一种最古老的宇宙生成模式。郭店楚简的发现，为中国哲学、思想史、古文字学、简册制度和书法艺术等方面的研究，都提供了可贵的资料。

When Emperor Qin Shi Huang implemented the policy of burning books and burying scholars alive, a large number of pre-Qin books were destroyed. The Chu bamboo slips that survived in Guodian have provided us with valuable historical materials. The unearthing of these bamboo slips has solved some important pending academic issues concerning the development of Chinese Confucian thought and filled the more than 100-year ideological and theoretical gap between Confucius and Mencius. They have demonstrated the peaceful coexistence between Confucianism and Taoism in the pre-Qin period and provided us with a primeval model of cosmic formation. The discovery of these bamboo slips has provided valuable materials for studying Chinese philosophy, intellectual history, palaeography, book-compiling and calligraphic art.

包山楚简 |

Chu bamboo slips unearthed in Baoshan

1987年初出土于湖北省荆门市包山2号战国楚墓。墓主邵佗，官居左尹。墓内共出土竹简448枚，其中有字简278枚，有字竹牍1枚。总字数为12626字，其中竹简12472字，竹牍154字。单字达1605个，合文31个。包山楚简大多篆体结字，以隶行出之，可见由篆变隶的轨迹。书写风格有的雄强恣肆、粗犷豪迈，有的端严俊逸、神采爽朗，也有的纤巧柔媚、娟秀细腻。

These bamboo slips were unearthed in early 1987 from Chu tomb No.2 of the Warring States Period at the Baoshan site in Jingmen City, Hubei Province. The tomb owner was Shao Tuo, who held the official position of Zuoyin. In the tomb, 448 bamboo slips and tablets were unearthed, including 278 bamboo slips with characters and one bamboo tablet with characters. On these bamboo slips and the bamboo tablet are 12,626 characters, including 12,472 characters on the bamboo slips and 154 characters on the bamboo tablet. The text uses a vocabulary of 1,605 independent characters and 31 compound graphs. On the Chu bamboo slips unearthed in Baoshan, most of the characters adopt the structures of seal script but are written in the strokes of official script and running script, which reflects the transition from seal script to official script. In terms of calligraphic style, some characters are bold, vigorous and unrestrained; some are elegant, dignified and handsome; and others are slim, graceful and delicate.

包山楚简 图/湖北省博物馆

包山楚简内容丰富，纪年明确，涉及楚国的司法、历法、职官、地理等多方面的内容，尤其是有关楚先祖祝融、老僮、鬻熊的记载，为研究楚人世系提供了新的证据。为研究战国时期楚国乃至其他列国以及秦、汉时期的政治、经济、法律和历史地理，以及文字、书法研究提供了十分珍贵的资料。

The Chu bamboo slips unearthed in Baoshan are rich in content and clearly show the years. They cover the Chu judicial system, calendar system, official system and geography as well as other Chu-related aspects. In particular, the records about Zhu Rong, Lao Tong, Yu Xiong and other ancestors of Chu have provided new evidence for the study of Chu people. They have also provided valuable information for studying the politics, economy, laws, history and geography of Chu and other states from the Warring States Period as well as the same aspects in the Qin and Han dynasties, not to mention philology and calligraphic art.

云梦秦简 |

Qin bamboo slips unearthed in Yunmeng

1975年11月初，湖北省云梦县城西睡虎地的村民修建排水渠道时，发现新开的渠道里有一段青黑色的泥土，还现出了一角椁盖板，初步断定睡虎地葬有古墓，于是向相关部门汇报。接到汇报后，湖北省博物馆考古专家率领考古队赶到云梦，于1975年底至1976年春，对云梦睡虎地展开考古发掘。在30米长的地段，首次发掘出秦代木椁墓12座，共出土精美文物370余件。特别是11号秦墓内，发现了大量竹简。

In early November 1975, when the farmers of Shuihudi Village west of the downtown area of Yunmeng County, Hubei Province, were building a drainage channel, they found a section of green-black soil in the newly dug channel. Seeing that a corner of a coffin was exposed, they thought that it could be an ancient tomb and immediately reported to the competent department. After receiving the report, the archaeological experts of the HBPM led an archaeological team to Yunmeng. They carried out archaeological excavations of the Shuihudi site. Over a section of 30 metres, they unearthed for the first time 12 tombs with wooden outer coffins of the Qin dynasty, which contained more than 370 exquisite cultural relics. In particular, they discovered a large quantity of bamboo slips in Qin tomb No.11.

云梦睡虎地11号墓中共出土了秦简1155枚，近4万字，为秦始皇时期人所手书。秦简绝大多数保存完好，整简一般长为23.1厘米至27.8厘米，宽为0.5厘米至0.8厘米。简文为墨书，字体均为隶书，并带有从小篆脱胎而来的痕迹。

In Qin tomb No.11 at the Shuihudi site, archaeologists unearthed 1,155 Qin bamboo slips, on which nearly 40,000 characters were written by people during the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. These bamboo slips are mostly well preserved. The characters were written in ink in official script, with some traces of small seal script.

云梦秦简《为吏之道》 图/湖北省博物馆

这是我国首次发现的秦代竹简，反映了早到商鞅变法，晚到秦始皇三十年长达100多年的历史。内容包括《秦律十八种》《效律》《秦律杂抄》《法律答问》《封诊式》《编年记》《语书》《为吏之道》、甲种与乙种《日书》等。有一半以上是关于秦代的法律，它是我国迄今发现的最早最完整的法典。

These Qin bamboo slips are the first of their kind ever discovered in China. They reflect the history from the Shang Yang Reforms to the 30th year of the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Their contents include Qin LüShi Ba Zhong, Xiao Lü, Qin Lü Za Chao, Fa Lü Da Wen, Feng Zhen Shi, Bian Lian Ji, Yu Shu, Wei Li Zhi Dao, as well as Ri Shu (A) and (B). More than half of these bamboo slips are about the laws of the Qin dynasty, the earliest and most complete codes discovered so far in China.

云梦秦简其数量之多、内容之丰富，都是空前的。它的发现对于研究秦代的政治、经济、军事和文化等各个方面，都具有重要的学术价值。

The Qin bamboo slips unearthed in Yunmeng are unprecedentedly numerous and content-rich. Their discovery is of important academic value for studying the politics, economy, military, culture and other aspects of the Qin dynasty.

湖北是楚文化的发源地和秦汉多民族统一国家的重要区域。自1965年荆州江陵望山大墓发现楚简后，在荆楚大地上至今简牍层出不穷，且颇多开创性发现，如曾侯乙墓竹简是迄今所见年代最早的简册，郭店楚墓发现年代最早的《老子》抄本，包山楚简出土我国最早的行政和司法文书，云梦睡虎地秦简是首次发现的秦代简牍，张家山汉简、胡家草场汉简包含系统的汉代律典、令典等。

Hubei is the birthplace of Chu culture and an important region for the unification of multi-ethnic nations in the Qin and Han dynasties. Since the discovery of Chu bamboo slips at Wangshan Tomb in Jiangling, Hubei in 1965, numerous bamboo slips have been unearthed in the Jianghan Plain, many of which have groundbreaking discoveries, such as the bamboo slips from the tomb of Duke Ying of Zeng, which are the earliest bamboo slips ever found, the earliest copy of the Lao Zi from the tomb of the Chu in Guotai, the earliest administrative and judicial documents from Baoshan Tomb of the Chu, and the Qin dynasty bamboo slips from the tomb of the tiger at Yunmeng, which are the first bamboo slips of the Qin dynasty ever found. The bamboo slips from Zhangjiashan Han Tomb and Huajiacaofang Han Tomb contain a systematic collection of Han dynasty laws and decrees.