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The Tsinghua Bamboo Slips () are a collection of Chinese texts dating to the Warring States period and written in ink on strips of bamboo, that were acquired in 2008 by Tsinghua University, China. The texts originated through illegal excavation, probably of a tomb in the area of Hubei or Hunan province, and were acquired and donated to the university by an alumnus. The very large size of the collection and the significance of the texts for scholarship make it one of the most important discoveries of early Chinese texts ever. On 7 January 2014 the journal ''Nature'' announced that some Tsinghua Bamboo Slips represent "the world's oldest example" of a decimal multiplication table. ==Discovery, conservation and publication== The Tsinghua Bamboo Slips (TBS) were donated to Tsinghua University in July 2008 by an alumnus of the university. The precise location(s) and date(s) of the illicit excavation that yielded the slips remain unknown. An article in the ''Guangming Daily'' named the donor as Zhao Weiguo (赵伟国), stating that the texts were bought at "a foreign auction", but without naming either an auction house, a location or a sum. Li Xueqin, the director of the conservation and research project, has stated that the wishes of the alumnus to conceal his identity will be respected. Similarities with previous discoveries, such as the manuscripts from the Guodian tomb, indicate that the TBS came from a mid-to-late Warring States Period (480–221BC) tomb in the region of China culturally dominated at that time by the Chu state. A single radiocarbon date (305±30BC) and the style of ornament on the accompanying box are in keeping with this conclusion. By the time they had reached the university, the slips were badly afflicted with mold. Conservation work on the slips was carried out, and a Center for Excavated Texts Research and Preservation was established at Tsinghua on April 25, 2009. There are 2388 slips altogether in the collection, including a number of fragments. A series of articles discussing the TBS, intended for an educated but non-specialist Chinese audience, appeared in the Guangming Daily during late 2008 and 2009. The first volume of texts (photographic reproductions, transcriptions, and commentary) was published by the Tsinghua team in 2010.〔Li Xueqin (2010).〕 A 2013 article in ''The New York Times'' reported on the TBS's importance to understanding the Chinese classics.〔Didi Kirsten Tatlow (2013-7-10). (Rare Record of Chinese Classics Discovered ), ''The New York Times''.〕 Sarah Allan, a sinologist at Dartmouth College, stressed the significance of the circa 305 BC date when the bamboo manuscripts were buried, about 100 years before Qin Shi Huang conducted a "literary holocaust" with the (213–210 BC) burning of books and burying of scholars. By predating that textual censorship, Professor Allan said: "These manuscripts speak directly to the core issues of the Chinese intellectual tradition and were recorded at the height of the formative period." "The classics are all political", said Li Xueqin, "It would be like finding the original Bible or the 'original' classics. It enables us to look at the classics before they were turned into 'classics.' The questions now include, what were they in the beginning, and how did they become what they became?" 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tsinghua Bamboo Slips」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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