After 79 years in the US, two ancient silk scrolls dating from the Warring States Period (475-221 BCE) returned to China on May 16.
The two texts, known as the Zidanku Silk Manuscript volumes II and III, named Wuxing Ling and Gongshou Zhan, are the only known silk manuscripts dating from the period. They were stolen from a tomb in 1942 at the Zidanku site in Changsha, Hunan Province, and smuggled out of China in 1946.
The manuscripts were bought by American collectors who donated them to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in 1992. The first volume, known as Sishi Ling, has yet to be returned to China.
Written on silk and bamboo, Wuxing Ling details taboos and auspicious practices based on Chinese traditional cosmology, and Gongshou Zhan recorded siege warfare strategies.
Peking University archeologist Li Ling, an expert on the Zidanku manuscripts, said the 2,300-year-old manuscripts are of the same high significance to China as the Dead Sea Scrolls to the West.
Chinese Ambassador to the US, Xie Feng, said at the handover ceremony in Washington, DC, that the repatriation “is a cultural milestone and a testament to China-US cooperation in heritage preservation, bringing new vitality to people-to-people exchange and friendship.”
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