Book on bamboo

Author: Qian Cunxun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-03-01
Features: A century ago, China was renowned worldwide for major archaeological discoveries such as the oracle bones from Yinxu, bamboo slips from the western frontier, and Dunhuang manuscripts. Since the classic work A Study of Bamboo Slips and Their Seals by the renowned scholar Wang Guowei, only Qian Cunxun, a Chinese scholar living in the United States, has been able to comprehensively synthesize and conduct systematic and in-depth research on the many aspects of the history of written artifacts. Before him, Dr. Joseph Needham of the University of Cambridge once said, "We can confidently assert that Qian's work and Carter's masterpiece (The Invention and Dissemination of Chinese Printing) are fully comparable and stand shoulder to shoulder." The book introduces all "outsiders" of textual studies to the evolution of ancient Chinese writing, its carriers, and writing tools, offering a multi-faceted perspective on its long-standing and colorful history. As for its academic insights, they are numerous and cutting-edge, making it an indispensable reference for scholars of Chinese material culture, archaeology, cultural history, and the history of science.