Shuihudi Qin bamboo texts

The Shuihudi Qin bamboo texts (Chinese: 睡虎地秦简; pinyin: Shuìhǔdì Qín jiǎn) are early Chinese texts written on bamboo slips, and are also sometimes called the Yúnmèng Qin bamboo texts. They were excavated in December 1975 from Tomb #11 at Chéngguān Shuìhǔdì (城關睡虎地), Yunmeng County, Hubei Province, China. The tomb belonged to a Qin administrator.

Written in the Qin Dynasty, they record Qin laws and public documents. Their contents have been published in a Chinese book entitled 《睡虎地秦墓竹簡》 (Shuìhǔdì Qínmù Zhújiǎn). This cache of bamboo slips is of great importance for research into the government, economics, culture, law, military affairs, etc. of the late Warring States to Qin Dynasty period.

While the Shuihudi cache is deemed to be among the most valuable epigraphic sources on the Qin history, 2002 and 2005 discoveries in Liye (Longshan County, Hunan province) 龍山里耶 are regarded as being of equal, if not bigger, importance.

See also

• Guodian Chu Slips
• Shuanggudui
• Yinqueshan Han Slips
• Zhangjiashan Han bamboo texts

Bibliography

• Hulsewé, A.F.P. Remnants of Ch'in Law: An Annotated Translation of the Ch'in Legal and Administrative Rules of the 3rd Century BC. (Sinica Leidensia, No 17) Leiden: Brill, 1985.