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DAVID H. S. CHAU
The books made of bamboo slips (44) and wooden slips (♎) varied in size, and the longer in length the more important events were recorded,
The longest bamboo slips were about two Chinese old feet and four inches (at the early days one Chinese foot (山) only equalled about 23 cm.) in length and were used to record state laws (法) or important historical events (史). The shorter slips of one foot two inches were used for text books (教) while the shortest bamboo slips of eight inches were used to record biographies (传).
The wooden slips were used only for events of minor importance such as official documents, notices, accounts or inventories, correspondence etc. Usually they were two to three times wider than bamboo slips and wide enough for five lines of writing. Wooden slips were sized by three feet, two feet, one foot and five inches in length. The most common sizes in wide use were the one foot slips and the five inch slips. One foot slips were used for writing letters(信) and the five inch slips were used as certificates or identities (身) issued by the army authorities or the local governments to their soldiers or common citizens for passing through the city wall gates and other check-points.
Bamboo slip books (籍) and wooden slip books (♎) were heavy and clumsy. The number of slips used for a book depended on how long the event or text to be recorded. There was an old popular Chinese saying to signify a learned scholar with "five cart-loads of knowledge" (车) which meant the scholar had studied at least five cart-loads of bamboo slip books.
In the year 213 BC, an edict to destroy all books was issued by the Chin First Emperor (秤). This was done to punish authors or scholars who dared to criticize the Emperor's actions or deeds. The Emperor is said not only to have burnt all books that could be found but also to have buried hundreds of scholars alive. Ever since, burning books and killing scholars of the previous dynasty became a standard practice in Chinese history by the new ruling powers in order to blacken the reputation of their predecessors,
After the book burning incident only a few bamboo and wooden slip books escaped the burning, and very few of these manuscripts are still in existence as most of the bamboo and wooden books that were produced thereafter probably were destroyed by decay over many centuries.