Written on Bamboo and Silk: The Beginnings of Chinese Books and Inscriptions

New. Paleography, which often overlaps with archaeology, deciphers ancient inscriptions and modes of writing to reveal the knowledge and workings of earlier societies. In this classic paleographic study of China, T. H. Tsien comprehensively traces the development of Chinese writing from the earliest inscriptions to the advent of printing, organizing its history with specific attention to the tools and media used. Written on Bamboo and Silk - the only book of its kind available in English - has long been considered a landmark in its field. Now expanded and completely updated, this edition includes material that treats the many major documents and ancient Chinese artifacts uncovered over the forty years since the book's first publication. Critical in this regard is the excavation of numerous sites in ancient cities throughout China, where hundreds of thousands of documents written on bamboo and silk - as well as other media - were found, including some of the earliest copies of historical, medical, astronomical, military, and religious texts that are now essential to the study of early Chinese literature, history, and philosophy. Discoveries such as these have made the amount of material