The Chu or Chu script is a writing system used in the state of Chu during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.The Writing System of Scribe Zhou: Evidence from Late Pre-imperial Chinese Manuscripts and Inscriptions 5th-3rd Centuries Bce Haeree ParkShindei Chuken International Academic Search Center (Shindei Chuken International Academic Search Center) Osaka University Research Center for Chinese Philosophy Chinese Unearthed Documents Research SocietyBuried Ideas: Legends of Abdication and Ideal Government in Early Chinese Bamboo-Slip Manuscripts Sarah Allan文学部(Archived copy of this page at the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Letters, Tohoku University) The script was one of the different ancient writing systems used by various countries in China prior to the unification of the empire by Emperor Qin Shi Huang and the implementation of the policy of writing in the same script. It is also known as the “Chu System of Simplified Palm Script” because most of the excavated texts are on silk, in addition to bamboo and wooden slips.
Characteristics The Chu script was one of the six scripts used by the six Shandong states (Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Wei, and Zhao), and was widely used during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods of ancient China, but was banned after the Qin state annexed the six states and standardized the scripts, and then its use was drastically reduced and ultimately died out.
Since the 1950s, there have been a number of artifacts written in pre-Qin and early Qin-Han scripts on silk and silk unearthed in various places, including the “Wulipai Bamboo Kan” from the Chu Tomb in Changsha, the “Wangshan Bamboo Kan” from the Wangshan Chu Tomb in Jiangling, the “Xinyang Bamboo Kan” from the Chu Tomb at Changtaiguan in Xinyang, Henan, the Palm Script unearthed from the Han Tomb of Mawangdui in 1973, and the “Yumeng Nyinghudi Qin Kan” unearthed from the Qin Tomb in 1975.横田恭三,「戦国期楚系簡帛文字の変遷 ―字形を中心として―」『書学書道史研究』 1998巻 8号 1998年 p.57-75, The scripts in these texts are in the process of transition between seal script and clerical script. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to interpret them accurately.戦国楚系文字資料による漢語史再構のための予備的研究 日本学術振興会 科学研究費助成事業データベースKAKEN
One example of the difficulties in interpretation is the character “虎”, whose form is difficult to relate imaginatively to the concept of “tiger”, and which in certain contexts actually means “吾”, both in terms of the change in the character form and the way “虎” is written as the first person “吾”. Both the change of character form and the way the character “tiger” is written as the first person “吾” indicate that the ancient scripts were used very differently from today's. At the same time, the scripts were similar to those of today. At the same time, scripts and usages similar to today's are not uncommon, and the Shaanxi Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics describes on its official website the similarities and differences in the relationship between the Chu script “馬” which is much the same as the modern script “馬”.
The unearthed jiandu are presumed to record a number of texts and books that have been lost in ancient times, and deciphering and research is ongoing.
See also Mawangdui Han Tomb - Han tombs excavated after 1972 whose artifacts are exhibited in the same museum.
References
External links 湖南省博物館 Hunan Provincial Museum - 湖南省博物館官方网站)
-How to get the English version of listed site。其内楚文字と六国文字の画像比較が掲載されている。