The “times of the Qin and the Chu” 秦楚之際, also known as the Qin-Han transition within related literature, refers to the historical period from the uprising against the Qin Empire led by Chen Sheng 陳勝 (?–208 BCE) and Wu Guang 吳廣 (?–208 BCE) to the end of the Chu-Han Contention. According to historical records, anti-Qin forces had restored the old systems of the six states—excluding the Qin—of the Warring States period, yet had also retained some of the Qin’s, creating an amalgamation of the two. As a measure of the rebellion, the scripts of the six states, also known as liuguo guwen 六國古文 or simply guwen, had been restored as well. However, due to the significant influence of the shu tong wenzi 書同文字 policy, namely the standardization of written characters, launched by the Qin regime, characteristics of both the Qin and Chu writing systems were merged into most of these scripts, which can thus arguably act as a yardstick in identifying the restored scripts in question.
This article first illustrates the above phenomenon by focusing on the characteristics of the characters “Zhangchu zhi sui” 張楚之歲 (“the year after the foundation of the Zhangchu regime”) on an unearthed gu 觚 vessel from Well No. 8 at the Tuzishan archaeological site in Yiyang. This article then demonstrates that some of the textual materials considered relics of the Warring States period are actually written in the restored style of the times of the Qin and the Chu, including the bamboo slips from Well No. 8 at Tuzishan, the wooden tag from Wanghuling tomb M3 at Yuci, the bamboo slips with guwen from Well No. 1 at Liye, the bronze inscriptions and a seal written in guwen from Han tomb No. 1 at Beishantou in Chaohu, and another eight bronze seals. These are pieces of physical evidence for the revival of the scripts of the six states, as well as firsthand relics and historical records of the times of the Qin and the Chu, ultimately proving to be of great importance to both historical and paleographical studies.
times of the Qin and the Chu; scripts of the six states; Zhangchu regime; Tuzishan; Liye
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