At 3:55 a.m. on May 18, 2025, a tarmac at Beijing Capital International Airport was brightly lit. A special plane carrying the treasures of Chinese civilization slowly landed. The earliest silk book discovered in China so far, the second and third volumes of the Bullet Library Silk Book, "Five Elements Order" and "Attack and Defense", ended their 79 years of wandering in the United States and finally arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport and returned to their homeland. The Paper Art Review learned that the State Administration of Cultural Heritage will continue to promote the early return of the Bullet Library Silk Book "Four Seasons Order".
As the earliest silk book discovered in China, the return of the Bullet Library Silk Book not only fills the gap in the Warring States literature, but also reveals a vicissitudes of life intertwined with looting, deception, academic persistence and civilization pursuit. As the old saying goes: "Only heaven can bless, and God can rule it" - the continuation of civilization requires both respect for heaven and protection of humanity. The return of this silk scroll is not only a physical return of cultural relics, but also a cultural return across time and space.
The plane carrying the second and third volumes of the Zidanku Silk Book arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport. CCTV photo
Part of the Zidanku Silk Book
"Five Elements Order" and "Attack and Defense" will be exhibited to the public for the first time at the "Returning Home Across Thousands of Miles - Exhibition of the Results of the Recovery and Return of Cultural Relics in the New Era" held at the National Museum of China in July 2025.
The Zidanku Silk Book was unearthed in the Chu Tomb of Zidanku in Changsha in 1942. It is the only silk book of the Warring States Period unearthed so far, and it is also the earliest silk book and the first ancient book in the sense of classics discovered in China so far. It has irreplaceable and important value for the study of ancient Chinese characters and ancient documents, as well as the history of academic and ideological studies. The Zidanku Silk Book is divided into three volumes. The "Five Elements Order" and "Attack and Defense" returned this time are the second and third volumes of the Zidanku Silk Book. The contents are the taboos of the four seasons and twelve months, and the taboos of attacking and defending cities.
Li Ling, a professor and well-known scholar at Peking University, has been studying the Zidanku Silk Book since 1980. He has traveled to the United States many times to participate in the peeling of the Zidanku Silk Book fragments and has carried out research on the protection and restoration of the silk book with American experts. In the introduction to his book "Ancient Bamboo and Silk Books and the Origin of Academics", he said: "Ancient bamboo and silk books are the source of Chinese academics. No matter from which angle, they are the source. The pre-Qin and Han dynasties were the era of bamboo and silk books, and books were all written on bamboo and silk. Our discovery of bamboo and silk and our study of bamboo and silk are actually a great historical return. Whether studying ancient characters, ancient documents, academic history, or the history of thought, no one can ignore this source."
Text of Attack and Defense
Moon Name Chart from "Five Elements Order"
Return: The State Administration of Cultural Heritage took the initiative to recover the artifacts, and the U.S. decided to return them after careful consideration.
The Bullet Library Silk Book was illegally brought to the United States in 1946.
In 2023, after the Smithsonian Institution issued a policy document on returning cultural relics obtained through unethical means, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China immediately paid attention to it. After forming a chain of evidence on the illegal loss of the Bullet Library Silk Book, it launched the pursuit of the Bullet Library Silk Books "Five Elements Order" and "Attack and Defense" preserved in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Asian Art in April 2024. Based on the solid and complete chain of evidence formed by the historical research on tracing the origin and circulation, and based on the consensus of correcting historical mistakes through the return of cultural relics and promoting long-term cooperation between the two sides in professional fields, after many rounds of consultations, the US side agreed to withdraw the cultural relics from the collection and return them to China.
On May 16, local time in the United States, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China received the silk books "Five Elements Order" and "Attack and Defense" from the Bullet Library returned by the National Museum of Asian Art of the Smithsonian Institution at the Chinese Embassy in the United States. Rao Quan, Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism and Director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said in a video speech at the handover ceremony that the return of the silk books "Five Elements Order" and "Attack and Defense" by the National Museum of Asian Art of the Smithsonian Institution to China demonstrated its efforts to abide by museum ethics in cultural heritage protection cooperation. It is a successful practice of the Qingdao Proposal, which was formulated under the leadership of China, to promote the concept of protection and return of lost cultural relics in history through dialogue and cooperation. After the return of the silk books, they will be protected and studied more comprehensively and systematically in the original environment of the cultural relics, so that the value of the cultural relics can be understood and explained more accurately and completely.
The box containing the silk book of the moon names is opened. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li He
Chase Robinson, director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Asian Art Museum, said at the handover ceremony that the return was a "deliberate decision that reflects the Asian Art Museum's focus on good stewardship and the idea that these artifacts should be in dialogue with their cultural and archaeological contexts. The return agreement opens up new and important research avenues for the Asian Art Museum. Over the past few months, we have had fruitful dialogues with our Chinese partners and look forward to future collaboration."
Previous life: the "rags" in the hands of tomb robbers and the academic thunder
The fate of the Zidanku Chu Silk Manuscript has been legendary since its unearthed - given away at a low price, deceived, lost abroad... This precious cultural relic is like a child lost in a foreign country, and only today can it partially return home.
Southeast of Tianxin Pavilion on the Yangtze River, there was originally a small hill running east-west, and the Bullet Library was located between the hills (now the Hunan Forestry Survey and Design Institute). According to relevant documents, in 1942, the Chu Silk Book, a rare treasure, was unearthed from a Chu tomb here by tomb robbers: a group of tomb robbers found a hole in the Changsha Bullet Library, and the tomb robbers dug out a batch of bronze and lacquerware from the tomb, as well as a piece of "old cloth full of characters" - this piece of silk fabric, 47 cm long and 38.7 cm wide, was the Bullet Library Chu Silk Book that later shocked the academic community.
At that time, no one knew its value, so it was sold to antique dealers at random, and later bought by Changsha collector Cai Jixiang. In 1946, Cai Jixiang encountered American intelligence officer Ke Qiang in Shanghai. The latter cheated the silk book by taking infrared photos and secretly took it to the United States. Since then, this "Warring States only copy" has been lost in a foreign country, and has been passed around at Yale University and the Freer Gallery of Art, and finally collected by the Sackler Foundation.
In 1955, Cai Jixiang, as a non-voting representative of the Hunan Provincial People's Congress, recounted at the congress how Ke Qiang stole the silk book, and handed over the contract that he was forced to sign with Ke Qiang to the Hunan Provincial Department of Culture.
In 1974, Cai Jixiang wrote to Shang Chengzuo that although nearly 30 years had passed, he still hoped to fight a transnational lawsuit to recover the Chu Silk Manuscript for his motherland. Ke Qiang was still alive at that time.
In 1982, Gao Zhixi went to the United States to attend an academic conference and saw the original Chu Silk Manuscript on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He measured its dimensions, which were 38.5 cm in height and 46.2 cm in width.
In the mid-1980s, Gao Zhixi, then deputy director of the Hunan Provincial Museum, sorted out the materials written by Cai Jixiang, as well as Wu Cunzhu's certificates and correspondence, and submitted them to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, hoping to find a way to recover the Chu Silk Manuscript.
The Bullet Library Silk Book was photographed at the handover ceremony of the Chinese Embassy in the United States in Washington on May 16. Xinhua News Agency
In September 2024, the University of Chicago in the United States disclosed a collection letter from Ke Qiang's archives, proving that Ke Qiang obtained the cultural relics through fraudulent means; in June 2024, the box cover that had been used to mount the silk book was transferred from the United States to China, becoming a key piece of evidence. At the same time, the power of conscience in the international academic community surged: American scholar Rothstein cited Sackler's last wish and called for "cultural relics to return to their cultural matrix."
Professor Xia De'an of the University of Chicago said: "When the Zidanku Silk Book was brought from Shanghai to the United States (in 1946), it was placed in this box. The lid of the box is the evidence. The lid of the box originally contained the Zidanku Silk Book. The lid of the shoe box is among the materials of his granddaughter. There are many handwritings on it, some written by individuals, and some labels from museums, such as Harvard University and the Fogg Museum. They are related to the registration record, so the remaining lid has become a very important piece of evidence."
In 2024, the box cover that once contained the silk book was transferred from the United States to China
It is worth mentioning that in 1973, under the guidance of the tomb robbers, the Hunan Provincial Museum officially excavated the Chu tomb where the silk book was unearthed. Among the many unearthed artifacts, there is a "silk painting of a person riding a dragon". This silk painting is not only a precious cultural relic and historical material for studying the history of Chu, but also has a very high status in the history of Chinese painting. Researchers believe that this silk painting is used to guide souls to heaven.
Figure Riding Dragon Painting
From the sack of tomb robbers to the copy on the desk of scholars, from the spotlight of the New York exhibition hall to finally returning to its hometown and being exhibited in the National Museum, the fate of the Bullet Library Chu Silk Manuscript reflects the blood, tears and resilience of civilization. As the Book of History says: "Only heaven can bless, and God can rule it" - the continuation of civilization requires both respect for heaven and protection of humanity. The return of this scroll of silk is not only a physical return of cultural relics, but also a cultural dialogue across time and space: it reminds the world that only by respecting the source of civilization can we write the poems of the future.
Value: Mythology, astronomy and the “living fossil” of creation myths
As the earliest silk book discovered in China so far and the "first ancient book" in the sense of classics, the value of the Zidanku Silk Book is far beyond that of ordinary cultural relics. The more than 900 characters written in Chu characters on silk not only fill the gap in the literature of the Warring States Period, but also open the door to reinterpreting the civilization of the pre-Qin period like a key.
The silk book is written on silk. On this piece of silk, which is 47 cm long and 38.7 cm wide, there are three texts, multiple images, and a special structure: there are two texts in the middle of the silk book, one written upright and the other upside down, with eight and thirteen lines respectively. There are three color pictures on each side, a total of twelve pictures, each picture is accompanied by text, which is the third text.
The Chu Silk Manuscript, Chapter A, "Four Seasons", records that Fuxi and Nuwa got married, gave birth to four sons and created the world; Emperor Yan ordered Zhurong to "establish the three heavens and four poles", and Gonggong formulated the calendar. Scholar Feng Shi once pointed out that this is "the only complete creation myth in the pre-Qin period". Its narrative combines the witch culture of Chu and the five elements thought of the Central Plains, subverting the single perspective of handed-down documents such as "Classic of Mountains and Seas", and revealing the ideological landscape of the Warring States period intertwined with multiple historical perspectives.
Feng Shi, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that this is "the only complete creation myth system in the pre-Qin period", integrating the witch culture of Chu, the five elements thought of the Central Plains and the astronomical tradition of Bashu, forming an "ideological landscape of the integration of multiple civilizations"89. For example, it juxtaposes Central Plains gods such as Yan Emperor and Zhu Rong with the Chu "Taiyi" belief, proving that cross-regional cultural integration existed during the Warring States Period. This mythological narrative not only provides the source for "Huainanzi" and "Chuci", but also reveals the complex construction process of China's early cosmology.
Chapter B "Astronomical Phenomena" and Chapter C "Monthly Taboos" constitute the earliest "integration of mathematics and divination" in ancient China. Li Xueqin and other scholars have found that "Wu Xing Ling" creatively divides the 360 days of a year into five sections: wood, fire, earth, gold, and water. Each section is 72 days, corresponding to 30 solar terms, forming a calendar system different from "Book of Rites·Monthly Ordinances", proving that there was a multi-calendar practice of "Five Elements Seasons" and "Four Seasons Monthly Ordinances" in parallel during the Warring States Period. The military taboos arranged by direction in "Attack and Defense" combine the movement of stars with war strategies, reflecting the militarized application of the idea of "heaven-man induction". Professor Xia De'an of the University of Chicago commented: "This system that combines astronomical evidence with philosophical speculation shows systematic scientific thinking earlier than ancient Greek astrology."
The silk manuscript was called "a model of cursive seal script" by Guo Moruo. Its flat and square characters and continuous brushstrokes reveal important evidence that the change from official script to official script began in Chu during the Warring States Period. Professor Li Ling of Peking University pointed out through a comparison of the Yunmeng Qin Bamboo Slips that the silk manuscript was more than a hundred years earlier than the Qin Bamboo Slips. Its "silkworm head and swallow tail" brushstrokes and simplified structure directly influenced the formation of official script in the Han Dynasty.24 More noteworthy is that the silk manuscript was written in red and black (the main text was written in black, and the deity was painted in red), which pioneered the mixed layout of text and pictures in Chinese classics. Its folding binding method is even regarded as the prototype of the book format in later generations.
The "Attack and Defense" records in detail the taboos on the direction of attack and the time of defense, such as "the east is auspicious for attacking" and "the time of Xu is taboo for defense", reflecting the deep connection between military activities and the time and space order during the Warring States Period. The provisions in the "Monthly Taboos" such as "no northern expedition in the first month" and "ban marriage in the eighth month" constitute the original sample of the norms of folk life in the pre-Qin period. These contents not only provide first-hand materials for the study of the military and social history of the Warring States Period, but also prove the symbiotic relationship between "ritual law" and "numerology" in early Chinese civilization37. 2. Cultural significance: the "spiritual totem" of the reconstruction of the matrix of civilization
The fate of the Zidanku Silk Book is closely intertwined with the destiny of modern China. Its process of loss and return is not only a history of cultural relic recovery, but also an epic of civilization revival.
(This article refers to the materials of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the writings of scholars such as Shang Chengzuo, Li Xueqin, Gao Zhixi, Li Ling, and Chen Zhenjian)