Ancient silk manuscripts returned by US museum arrive in Beijing

Two volumes of the over 2,300-year-old Zidanku Silk Manuscripts arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport at 03:55 Sunday after being returned by the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art on Friday.

The return journey started from the U.S. capital Washington D.C. and took over 10 hours.

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Ancient silk manuscripts returned by US museum arrive in Beijing

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Ancient silk manuscripts returned by US museum arrive in Beijing

The silk manuscripts, which consist of three volumes, were unearthed in 1942 from the Zidanku site in Changsha, central China's Hunan Province, and were illegally taken to the United States in 1946.

The silk manuscripts are currently the only known silk manuscripts from the Warring States period (475-221 BC).

The work team sent by China's National Cultural Heritage Administration successfully brought back the volumes II and III: Wuxing Ling and Gongshou Zhan from the United States.

The returned volumes will be sent to the administration's cultural relics warehouse after inspection and will meet the public in National Museum of China in July.

As the only known silk manuscripts from the Warring States period unearthed in China, the Zidanku Silk Manuscripts are the earliest silk text discovered to date, representing the earliest known example of a classical Chinese book in the true sense.

It is of foundational significance for the study of ancient Chinese script and literature, as well as for the history of Chinese scholarship and thought.

China and the United States have made "notable progress" in heritage cooperation, with around 600 artifacts sent back to China -- including more than 40 pieces since the start of this year.

China's outstanding aggregate social financing -- the total amount of financing to the real economy -- reached 442.12 trillion yuan (about 63.4 trillion U.S. dollars) as of the end of 2025, up 8.3 percent year on year, central bank data showed on Thursday.

The country's aggregate social financing stood at 35.6 trillion yuan (about 5.1 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2025, up by 3.34 trillion yuan (about 479 billion U.S. dollars) from the year 2024, said the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the country's central bank.

According to the data, the M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 8.5 percent year on year to 340.29 trillion yuan (about 48.8 trillion U.S. dollars) as of the end of December.

In addition, outstanding yuan loans stood at 271.91 trillion yuan (about 39 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of 2025, up 6.4 percent year on year.