Introduction to silk books

The silk book of Chu was found in the Chu Tomb of Changsha Ammunition Depot, and 1942 was stolen. It is now in the Metropolitan Museum of America. Mo Bao of Chu has 1 piece in good condition, with more than 900 words * *, which is bizarre and difficult to understand, and is accompanied by supernatural figures. It is generally considered to be a lost book of numerology in the Warring States period, which is related to the popular calendar in ancient times. Silk books in the Han Dynasty are mainly found in the No.3 Han Tomb in Mawangdui, Changsha, with more than 65,438 words (see Mawangdui Silk Books). In addition, in 1979, a roll of silk script was found at the beacon tower site of Han Dynasty in Maquanwan, Dunhuang, which was cut from clothes. 30 words were written in ink, recording the price and source of silk.

The silk script of bullet Kuchu was unearthed in 1942, with a width of 38.7 cm and a length of 47 cm. It is written in Chinese ink, with more than 900 words * *, the font is Chu characters, and the image is drawn. There are 12 statues around the silk book, each with the name of God engraved on it, and there are images of plant branches and leaves in the four corners of the silk book.

During the period of 1973, the tomb was excavated by Hunan Museum, and it was determined to be between the middle and late Spring and Autumn Period. The earliest silk script appeared in1944 < <; ; . During the Warring States period, there was a kind of calligraphy with silk as the writing material-silk book, which was white silk. In the Han dynasty, silk was called silk or silk, or collectively referred to as silk, so silk books were also called silk books. The earliest existing silk paintings in China were found in the Chu Tomb in Changsha in 1930s. In recent years, a large number of bamboo slips have been unearthed. For example, Hunan Changsha 195 1 Wulibei, Changsha 1954 Yangtianhu Tomb, Changsha 1954 Yangjiawan Tomb, Henan 1957 Xinyang Balcony Tomb, Hubei 1975 Yunmeng Sleeping Tiger Tomb, etc. In addition, there are silk books unearthed from Chu Tomb in Changsha in 1942 (1945 flowed into the United States) and the book of Houma League in Shanxi. Whether it is written on bamboo slips or silk fabrics, it is the handwriting of the Warring States period. These bamboo slips and silk ink are not only precious cultural relics, but also have important historical value for studying the history of calligraphy.

Silk Books in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period

Silk book refers to the words written on silk book. The original meaning of silk is white silk fabric, that is, precursor fabric. At the latest in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, silk has generally referred to all silk fabrics. Silk was widely used at that time, among which bamboo and silk were often used as writing materials, and silk was one of the precious ones. The word silk script has been used in ancient books of Han dynasty at the latest. For example, in Wu Zhuan, it is said that the son of heaven shot Lin Deyan, which is enough for silk script. The actual existence of silk books can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period. For example, in Guoyu Yuyue, Betty Wong recorded books and silk books. But because silk is much more expensive than bamboo slips, its use should be limited to dignitaries.

The earliest extant silk script, the only complete silk script in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, was found in the Chu Tomb of the bullet depot in Changsha, Hunan Province in September 1942. According to the analysis of silk fragments unearthed from the same tomb, there may be 4 original silk manuscripts. A complete piece is about 33 cm long and 4 1 cm wide, with pictures and texts. There are two groups of words with opposite directions in the middle, a group of 13 lines and a group of 8 lines. Surrounded by images (see also silk images) and short notes. The whole silk book * * * has more than 900 words, with an inner circle and an outer circle, and numerous decorations. Guo Moruo pointed out in Dialectical Development of Ancient Chinese Characters that the style is simple and plain, which is close to the official script of later generations. run away

Chu Silk Book is an illustrated book written on silk fabrics. Font is a popular Chu script in the Warring States period. The book has more than 900 words, divided into two sections, with 12 images around it, a paragraph attached to each side, and images of plant branches and leaves in the four corners. It is the earliest ancient silk book among the unearthed cultural relics, and it is also a unique calligraphy work and imaginative romantic art work in Chu culture. Its content is extremely rich, including four seasons, astronomical phenomena, moon taboo, creation myth and so on. This is of great value to the study of Chu characters in the Warring States period and the ideology and culture at that time.

The process of the loss of Chu silk books is extremely tortuous, and the party directly dealing with it has also passed away. After several interviews and inquiries, the reporter learned what had happened.

Treasures are attached as waste.

1942 At the beginning, a group of grave robbers found a hole in Changsha ammunition depot and dug it together. Ren Quansheng is one of them. He joined the Hunan Provincial Cultural Relics Team in 1953, and made important contributions to the later archaeological excavations such as Mawangdui Han Tomb. After the founding of New China, Ren Quansheng once told colleagues in the museum about the process of stealing and digging the Chu tomb in the ammunition depot.

At that time, grave robbers discovered a Chu tomb in the Warring States period, and found a batch of bronze weapons, lacquerware, wooden figurines and some broken textiles. In the eyes of grave robbers, bronzes and wood products are the most sought after, so textiles were given to antique dealer Don as waste by grave robbers. They don't know that this kind of textile is one of the most exciting discoveries in the cultural history of China.

Shang Chengzuo learned that Chu silk was unearthed and planned to buy it. While in contact, Cai Jixiang, a famous antique dealer in Hunan, came back from other places and quickly bought silk and other cultural relics for 3,000 yuan.

When Cai Jixiang first got the silk book, he folded it several layers and put it in a bamboo basket with many pieces of silk under it. Subsequently, Cai cleaned the dirt and filth on the silk book with a brush, unfolded it and copied it. 1944, Cai printed the research results of silk calligraphy into a book "Late Zhou Shu Kao".

Ke Qiang, an American, cheated Chu Silk.

The original letter written by Cai Jixiang to Shang Chengzuo on August 2 1974+0 was published in the fourth collection of Hunan Museum Collected Works published on August 2 1998. In his letter, Cai Jixiang described in detail the process of Chu silk books flowing into the United States.

Because many words on silk are ambiguous, at 1948 (Shang Chengzuo wrote a question mark on the letter, changing "8" to "6", and it was suspected to be 1946), Cai Jixiang took the silk to Shanghai, and wanted to take infrared photos of the silk to show some words.

Cai found Ji antique shop and asked the owner Jin to find a photo studio for infrared photography to shoot silk books. Ke Qiang found someone to introduce him and took the initiative to find you. Ke Qiang's English name is Kirks. According to Shang Chengzuo, a few years ago in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Kirks appeared as a teacher of Yali Middle School, pretending to be a "cultural archaeologist" and plundered Changsha cultural relics.

Ke Qiang told Cai Jixiang that there are two new infrared cameras at home to help. Cai Jixiang took the silk book to Ke Qiang's residence. Ke Qiang fiddled with it for a while and asked Cai to keep the silk book for a day on the pretext that there was something wrong with the camera.

Cai was eager to find out the words on Chu silk, so he agreed. The next day, Cai asked Ke for a silk book. Unexpectedly, Ke sent someone to bring it back to the United States without authorization. Cai had a premonition that things were not good and angrily asked Ke to return the silk book immediately. Ke Qiang lied to Cai Jixiang that he could send the silk book back about a week after taking the photo. According to Cai's account, Ke Qiang was an American intelligence officer in Shanghai at that time. He has power and influence, and he can only be at his mercy.

Finally, the two signed an agreement stating that the silk book was worth $65,438+0,000, and Ke paid $65,438+0,000 on the spot. If you don't send it back when it's due, Ke Qiang will have to pay Cai another 9,000 dollars, which is actually equivalent to buying it. Cai Jixiang suffered a dumb loss.

Asking for silk books has been repeatedly rejected.

A week later, Cai Jixiang asked Ke Qiang for silk again. As expected, Ke Qiang made an excuse to evade. After that, every two or three days, Cai went to ask, and Ke either said "I have written to ask" or was simply not at home. When Cai urged Ke again, Ke's servant told Cai that he had flown back to America. Cai lived in Shanghai for more than a month in order to get information. With all the money in his bag used up, he had to go back to Changsha in frustration.

Cai later discovered that Wu Cunzhu, the son of the manager of Xiang 'e Printing Company, had studied at Columbia University in the United States and was a student of Ke Qiang. Cai immediately wrote a letter to Wu Cunzhu, asking him to ask Ke Qiang about the whereabouts of the silk book. After a long time, Wu Cunzhu wrote back that he had met Ke Qiang, but Ke Qiang never mentioned returning the silk book. He only said that the agreed price of $65,438+$0,000 was too high, and he was only willing to pay $6,000, hoping that Cai would lower the price. Cai immediately wrote to Wu Cunzhu, saying that the silk book could not be sold under any circumstances, and that Ke Qiang should send it back immediately, and he himself refunded the deposit of 65,438 yuan+0,000 yuan. Later, Wu Cunzhu wrote back that Ke was vague about returning the silk book, unwilling to reply and unwilling to pay as agreed. Cai Jixiang understood that Chu silk books were actually stolen.

Post-liberation efforts

1955, Cai Jixiang, as a representative of Hunan Provincial People's Congress, told the story of Ke robber cheating silk books at the conference and handed over the contract that he was forced to sign with Ke Qiang in that year to the Provincial Department of Culture.

In the same year, in order to confirm the truth of what Cai said, Hunan Provincial Museum sent Gao to Beijing to find Wu Cunzhu, then a professor of Peking University. Gao didn't see Wu Cunzhu in person, but after Wu Cunzhu knew Gao's purpose, he wrote a certificate and handed the correspondence with Cai 1946 to 1948 to Gao through the school personnel department, which showed that what Cai Jixiang said was true.

1974, Cai Jixiang wrote a letter to Shang Chengzuo, saying that although it was nearly 30 years ago, he still hoped to fight a transnational lawsuit to recover the Chu silk book for the motherland. Ke Qiang was still alive at that time.

1982, Gao went to the United States to attend an academic conference. He saw the original Chu silk book on display at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and measured its height of 38.5 cm and width of 46.2 cm.

In the mid-1980s, Gao, then the deputy director of the Provincial Museum, sorted out the materials written by Cai Jixiang and Wu Cunzhu's certificates and letters and gave them to National Cultural Heritage Administration, hoping to find a way to recover Chu silks, but later there was no following.