Mawangdui Silk Texts

They include some of the earliest attested manuscripts of existing texts (such as the I Ching), two copies of the Tao Te Ching, a copy of Zhan Guo Ce, works by Gan De and Shi Shen, and previously unknown medical texts such as Wushi'er Bingfang (Prescriptions for Fifty-Two Ailments).

Their approximately 120,000 words cover military strategy, mathematics, cartography, and the six classical arts: ritual, music, archery, horsemanship, writing, and arithmetic.

[2] The texts were buried in tomb number three at Mawangdui (which was sealed in 168 BC), and were hidden until their late-20th-century discovery.

In general, they follow the same sequence as the received versions, which were passed down by copying and recopying texts collected and collated during the fifth century AD.

The two silk books are part of the Cultural Relics from the Mawangdui Tombs collection at the Hunan Provincial Museum.