Qin Slips of Liye

The Liye Qin Slips (Chinese: 里耶秦簡; pinyin: lǐyē qínjiǎn) is a large collection of bamboo slips which were unearthed at the ancient town of Liye, Longshan County, Hunan Province, China in 2002. The event is one of the most important archaeological finds of the 21st century in China. The archaeologists found more than 37,000 pieces of bamboo writing slips in 2002 in the Ancient City Ruins of Liye (Chinese: 里耶古城遺址), on which more than 200,000 Chinese characters recorded the governing state secrets of the Qin dynasty. It was considered as the most important archaeological discovery of the Qin dynasty after the Qin Terracotta Army unearthed in 1973 in an eastern suburb of Xi'an.

The Liye bamboo slip documents and archives fully embody a wide range of document types and terms, the grown of constant administrative and judicial document styles. Among them are more than 68 types of archives and content, which have high value of supplementing and testifying history facts. Some in the academic circles have argued that its importance is no less than those of Oracle bone script and Dunhuang manuscripts. The world's oldest example of a multiplication table was found here. The slips, used for writing in ancient times, have great significance in furthering research on Qin dynasty politics, economy and culture. All the historical artifacts from Liye are displayed at the Qin Dynasty Bamboo Slips Museum of Liye (Chinese: 里耶秦簡博物館).

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