Mawangdui Bamboo Slips "Laozi" (Yi Version)

Author: Editorial Group of Jianba Calligraphy Selection
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2000-12-01
Features: Before the invention of paper in ancient China, people primarily used tortoise shells, animal bones, pottery, metal, bamboo, wood, and silk to record events and inscribe documents. Due to the spread of culture and societal progress, from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period and the Qin and Han dynasties, people increasingly used bamboo slips, wooden tablets, and silk documents as writing materials for social communication and cultural dissemination, owing to the convenience of material acquisition and reading.
The Laozi manuscripts discovered in the No. 3 Han tomb at Mawangdui consist of two versions: the Jia ( ) manuscript, written in seal script, and the Yi ( ) manuscript, written in clerical script in red ink. The Jia manuscript is severely damaged with many missing characters, while the Yi manuscript is slightly damaged but mostly clear. Laozi was a famous thinker of the Spring and Autumn Period and the founder of Taoism, proposing the Taoist doctrine of "tranquility and non-action." His simple dialectical thought had a significant impact on the development of ancient Chinese philosophical thought.
The presence of two Laozi manuscripts in the same tomb, with different scripts (seal and clerical), and varying avoidance of the names of Han dynasty emperors, suggests that the Jia manuscript was created earlier. The original Laozi text must have been widely circulated during the Western Han dynasty, indicating that its composition dates even earlier. The discovery of the Jia and Yi Laozi manuscripts in silk form has provided invaluable primary artifacts for studying the history of Chinese literature and the evolution of calligraphy.
The Jia manuscript, written in seal script, is slightly earlier than the Yi manuscript, which is written in clerical script, as evidenced by the avoidance of Han dynasty names. The discovery of the clerical script Yi manuscript has particularly filled the long-standing gap in the of the transition from seal script to clerical script from the Qin to the Han dynasty.
The Yi Laozi manuscript in clerical script belongs to the early Western Han period. Although it retains some seal script characteristics, its brushwork has shifted from round to the angular style of clerical script. Horizontal strokes slightly slant upward to the right, with slight wave-like endings. The thickness of the brush varies, with heavy red ink, especially in the thick and powerful "nà" () strokes, giving it an archaic and rustic style typical of early clerical script.
The characters are arranged in a balanced and uniform manner, with varying spacing and well-composed structures, demonstrating excellent overall layout. The Yi manuscript is considered one of the finest works of clerical script from the early Western Han period.