China is intensifying its efforts to recover the first volume of the over 2,300-year-old Zidanku Silk Manuscripts from the United States following the return of the second and the third volumes this Friday.
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 U.S. in 1946. The silk manuscripts are currently the only known silk manuscripts from the Warring States period (475-221 BC).
Unlike volumes II and III: Wuxing Ling and Gongshou Zhan, which remain only in fragments, volume I: Sishi Ling is comparatively complete, and was written on a piece of silk about 47 centimeters long and 38.7 centimeters wide.
The volume was divided into three sections, with two being written on one side of the silk piece and the remaining section on the other side.
The sections written together consist of two separate paragraphs whereby one is upside down compared with the other.
The isolated section contains 12 paragraphs and 12 images of gods, arranged in a circle for a seamless reading experience.
The unusual layout represents the ancient Chinese philosophical concept of the interplay of Yin and Yang and the cyclical flow of the four seasons.
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 continues efforts to recover lost ancient silk manuscripts from US
