ABSTRACT
Since the 1970S there has been a succession of manuscript discoveries in late-fourth to second century B.C. tombs in several regions of China, the provinces of Hubei and Hunan being particularly fertile ground for manuscripts. Han manuscripts later than the second century B.C. have also been discovered, but Warcing States, Qin, and early Han manuscripts have been more numerous. It is evident that the manuscripts were selected from the book collections of the well-to-do tomb occupants; that is, they were not prepared solely as burial goods. Contemporary records are silent on the custom of book burial. Perhaps manuscripts were placed in tombs because they were intrinsically valuable objects that bespoke expertise and status, or because they were imbued with a magical efficacy that suited the underworld environment. I Whatever the rationale was at the time, the modem consequence is the recovery of manuscripts from the very period when books and book collecting first became popular in China. The spread of literacy and the transmission of books were themselves manifestations of intellectual ferment, which reached a high point by the third century B.C. Each tomb has yielded a unique collection of manuscripts-no doubt a reflection of their owner's avocations-all of them containing editions of texts that circulated in the Warcing States, Qin, and early Han periods. While some of the texts have been preserved in received literature, most are lost works. 2 Collectively, the excavated manuscripts shed new light on a pivotal period in Chinese civilization. They may contain lacunae due to rotted bamboo, wood, or silk (the ma-
1Harper (forthcoming) speculates on the magical properties attributed to manuscripts. Before the 1970S the bulk of early manuscript material consisted of Han administrative documents, which were often excavated at the remains offortifications in several northwestern provinces (Tsien 1962: 90-102; Loewe 1967). The tomb manuscript discoveries which include an array of literature have mostly occurred since 1972 (Loewe 1977; Shaughnessy forthcoming). 21 follow the definitions of text and edition proposed by Roth (1993: 227): "A text is the unique complex and expression of ideas of an author or authors, an edition is a distinct record containing a unique state of a text." An edition of a text exists on a manuscript, which is the physical object. My application of Roth's definition of "text" to the excavated manuscripts is discussed more fully in Section One. In addition to the meaning given, I also refer to "text" in the ordinary sense of the words ofsomething written.
