Records of Han Administration Author:Dr Michael Loewe, Michael Loewe The documents collected here derive from the day-to-day work of governing the Han empire (202 BCE to 221 CE). — Found first in 1900 and in more extensive caches of the 1930s and 1970s, they contain surviving fragments of orders and reports which were written on narrow strips of wood, then bound together to form a complete text. The present work a... more »ssembles some 700 strips seen as the constituent parts of 43 original documents, whose form, content, and date may be reconstructed with some confidence. The inscriptions on these strips provide revealing glimpses of military life and army organization, and illustrate the process involved in major administrative tasks such as the implementation of the laws, the collection of tax, and the maintenance of security.
This set, illustrated with numerous black and white photos, includes an accessible full-volume survey and discussion of the inscriptions, followed by a volume containing full transcriptions, with translations and extensive notes. _« less