Sweated [Bamboo] Strips (
Hanjian 汗簡) is a paleographic dictionary compiled by Guo Zhongshu 郭忠恕 (d. 977), a well-known painter, calligrapher and paleographer of the Five Dynasties 五代 (907-960) and early Song dynasty. The compilation follows the
Explaining single-component Graphs and Analyzing compound Characters (
Shuowen jiezi 說文解字) tradition to arrange Chinese characters by radicals (部首), and it draws on a variety of seventy-one textual sources, such as
Shuowen jiezi, Confucian classics like
Ancient Book of Documents (
Gu shangshu 古尚書) and
Ancient Book of Changes (
Gu zhouyi 古周易), and inscriptions from stone steles.
Commentary and Corrections to the Sweated Strips (
Hanjian jianzheng 汗簡箋正), the first in-depth evidential research on
Hanjian , was written by Zheng Zhen 鄭珍, a scholar of late Qing dynasty. The ex libris seal \"獨山莫繩孫字仲武印\" on the displayed page comes from Mo Shengsun 莫繩孫 (c. 1844-1919; courtesy name 字 Zhongwu 仲武), second son of Mo Youzhi 莫友芝 (1811-1871) who was a prestigious late Qing scholar, book collector and bibliophile.
Donated by Dr. Chow Tse-tsung. Printer's colophon (牌記) date: 1889 (Jichou year of the Guangxu reign 光緒屠維赤奮若, i.e. 光緒己丑年). Edition: 影印石印本.
Further Reading:
- Hay, Jonathan. “Guo Zhongshu's Archaeology of Writing.” Journal of Chinese History 3, no. 2 (2019): 233–324. doi:10.1017/jch.2018.39.