In 1942, a long-sealed tomb from the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) in the Zidanku (literally "bullet storehouse") area on the outskirts of Changsha, Hunan province, was plundered by grave robbers who stole the earliest silk manuscripts ever found in China.

Eight decades later, they are still the only known silk manuscripts of the Chu state from the Warring States Period excavated in China.

Not long after they were unearthed, they were collected by Cai Jixiang (1898-1979), a local dealer in antiques and amateur historian who studied them. In 1946, John Hadley Cox (1913-2005), an American teacher at Yali High School in Changsha, is said to have cheated Cai and illicitly took the silk manuscripts to the United States.

The artifacts then passed through many hands in the US and were finally housed in the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art. At the same time, Cai attempted to retrieve them but never succeeded.

More than 80 years later, hope has resurfaced of reuniting the precious artifacts with China from the return of a box cover that is viewed as evidence of their circulation in the US handed over from the University of Chicago to China. The box was used to hold the manuscripts, with labels from Fogg Art Museum that can prove the manuscripts were collected at the museum on Sept 16, 1946, an important piece of the evidence chain of the manuscripts' complex journey in the US.

The returning ceremony was held at the International Conference on the Protection and Return of Cultural Objects Removed from Colonial Contexts in Qingdao, Shandong province, on June 20 as part of the 2nd council meeting of the Alliance for Cultural Heritage in Asia.

"Since its unearthing in Changsha in 1942, the Zidanku silk manuscript story has spanned 82 years. It's a fragmentary story with bizarre plots that make people feel heartbroken," says Li Ling, a veteran archaeology professor at Peking University, who has devoted himself to studying the manuscripts for 44 years.

He explains that the story of looted artifacts has many similar versions in colonial and semi-colonial countries, where items from ancient sites were sold or robbed and are now spread around the world.

"As a result, when we want to study these sites, we need to investigate where the relics are now and piece together information," says Li.

Li says from the Warring States Period to the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), silk coexisted with jiandu, or bamboo and wooden slips, as writing materials before the wide use of paper.

Studies show that the Zidanku manuscripts describe the relationship between humans and heaven with more than 900 Warring States Period characters and pictures of mythical gods. They have three parts — the former two are about traditional Chinese almanacs and the third part is about the application of shushu, or ancient China's occultism in military affairs, Li says.

One of the highlights is the "ordinances of the five agents", an ancient way of dividing a year into 30 solar terms and five parts, each lasting 72 days based on wuxing, or five agents, the five elements in ancient Chinese philosophy. This is different from the systems now followed dividing a year into four seasons, 12 months and 24 solar terms.

"Zidanku manuscripts are important not only as the earliest silk manuscripts in China written with Warring States Period characters but because they reflect the outlook on the universe, philosophy and religion of ancient China," Li says.

He says Zidanku manuscripts are just like China's version of the Dead Sea Scrolls, one of the oldest surviving manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible. "The scrolls, dating back to 200-100 BC, were unearthed five years later than Zidanku manuscripts, which date back to 300 BC. Just as the Dead Sea Scrolls are important for the study of Western and Christian culture, the Zidanku manuscripts open a door for us to glimpse into the ancient Chinese world of occultism," says Li.

He says people often have the impression that ancient Chinese people highlighted liberal arts more than technologies, but it has been found not true. For example, in Yiwenzhi, a section of the Book of Han authored by historian Ban Gu (32-92), more than half of the content is about the art of war, shushu and technology.

"Ancient Chinese cared a lot about natural law, the universe, the human body, medicine and military affairs. These things occupy half of ancient China's academic studies," says Li. "This half is often ignored, but unearthed discoveries like the manuscripts help us open the door to this world."

Li has traced every part of the manuscripts' journey from China to the US and published his famous collection Zidanku Silk Manuscripts in 2017, elaborating on his investigation of how the artifacts were unearthed, transported to the US and their circulation.

Archaeologist Lothar von Falkenhausen at the University of California, Los Angeles, says although the manuscripts have been in the US for eight decades, they have only been seen by the people over two days — once in 1968 and the other in 1990.

"Since they are fragile and cannot be exhibited for a long time, they have rarely been showcased. And ordinary people can hardly understand their significance," says Von Falkenhausen.

"The manuscripts should be returned to China's academia as soon as possible, since almost all scholars who can understand and study the manuscripts are in China," he adds.

Li also mentions the tomb that yielded the Zidanku manuscripts was re-excavated by the Hunan Museum in 1973, uncovering another big discovery of a silk painting depicting a man riding a dragon. It is one of the only two Warring States Period silk paintings preserved to date.

"Half of the cultural relics from the same tomb are in China and the other half are in the US. I hope they can be brought together for academic research," says Li.

Sinologist Donald John Harper, a professor at the University of Chicago, has also been involved with studying the manuscripts for decades. He highlighted the cooperation between Chinese and US scholars in the research of the artifacts.

"I have been acquainted with Li for four decades. We are colleagues and good friends and I think highly of our friendship. Chinese and US Sinologists have had good cooperation for nearly half a century, which is good for our research and protection of such relics," says Harper.

Li says silk manuscripts have only been found in the Zidanku tomb and the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24) Mawangdui tombs in Changsha. The latter has been known for the discovery of a perfectly preserved female body in 1972.

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