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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
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| 0184 |
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2 |
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But that this point must have been occupied far earlier
by a post of some importance soon became evident when
my search revealed extensive refuse layers not only on the
slopes below the débris mound but also on others farther
away. As inscribed pieces of wood recovered from the
latter ranged from 61 B.C. onwards, it seems probable that
this rubbish had been thrown out from some structures
which existed earlier and have completely disappeared.
These various refuse deposits yielded so rich a harvest
of Chinese documents that from the first I could not
doubt that they marked the position of an important post,
probably the quarters of some sectional commandant.
M. Chavannes' analysis and translation of the records
recovered from this post (T. XV. A), altogether over 160
pieces, have fully confirmed this conclusion. They have
also revealed the existence of so large a number of specially
interesting pieces that I cannot refrain here from at least
alluding to a few of them.
Foremost in importance from the philological point of
view is a beautifully written and perfectly preserved
triangular tablet about fourteen inches long, which contains
the first chapter of a lexicographical work, the Chi-chiu-
chang, famous in Chinese literature and the subject of
much learned commentary. As it is known to have been
composed between 48 and 33 B.C., and as the tablet dis-
covered by me must have been written within a century or
two later, the critical importance which it possesses for the
history of the traditional text can be easily understood
even by the non-Sinologist. In any case M. Chavannes,
in a preliminary notice communicated to the Académie des
Inscriptions, has declared this tablet to be the earliest
authentic specimen of a Chinese literary text. The par-
ticular work has always been much in use among Chinese
students; and the discovery of pieces from it, not here
alone, but at other Limes stations, proves that the studious
habits of the race were represented even among the
soldiers exiled on this desolate border.
Another very curious find consisted of a batch of eleven
neatly written bamboo slips, scattered but clearly marked
by their identical shape and writing as originally belonging
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