A written bamboo slip documenting a workplace dispute 2,200 years ago could strike a chord with people today who have grown weary of delicate people-to-people relationships.
For Zhao, a township head during the reign of Emperor Qinshihuang, who established the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC), the summer of 219 BC was an unhappy one.
In a later report, Zhao said he had caught a female bird on the orders of his superior, the county magistrate. He handed over the bird, together with the accompanying official document, to Wen, a countylevel official responsible for delivering them to the county court.
Wen, however, refused to accept them. He erased his name from the document and passed the task to his junior clerk, Shi, who dared not take it on. Wen then vented his anger on Shi and went on to hit Zhao with a boat oar and curse him.
Zhao said he reported the incident and asked the county court to judge Wen's misconduct. He also said he had a witness who heard the insults.
Zhao's unpleasant workplace experience may evoke some empathy today. The bamboo slip on which he recorded his complaint is now on display at the National Museum of China in Beijing.
The slip is among more than 36,000 bamboo slips, bearing over 200,000 characters, discovered during an archaeological excavation in Liye town, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao autonomous prefecture, Hunan province, in 2002.
Known collectively as "Liye Qin slips", the documents are believed to be administrative records of Qianling county, under whose jurisdiction Zhao's township fell. They cover a wide range of subjects, including politics, military affairs, the economy and law, offering an encyclopedic picture of Qin administration and helping people understand how China's first unified imperial dynasty functioned at the grassroots level.
Yet, fully understanding Zhao's report is no easy task. The characters inscribed on the slip look markedly different from those used today. Visitors must rely on explanatory texts to decipher them, a process made possible by decades of research by archaeologists, historians and paleographers.
The display of Zhao's slip at the exhibition, Wonderful Chinese Characters: Recent Advancements of the Paleography and Chinese Civilization Inheritance and Development Program (2021-2025), celebrates years of research in the field.
