Unearthing an Imperial Paper Trail

Archaeological excavations at the former Han capital Chang’an have uncovered one of the most intriguing administrative artifacts of ancient China – 63,883 bone tags (骨签) dating from the Western Han dynasty (206 BCE-9 CE). These slender animal bone slips, primarily crafted from ox bone, represent the largest cache of inscribed administrative documents ever discovered from China’s early imperial period.

The vast majority (63,850 pieces) were found concentrated in the Central Government Office complex within Weiyang Palace – the primary imperial residence covering 4.8 square kilometers, larger than Vatican City today. Smaller caches emerged from the Armory site (31 pieces) and the southwestern city corner (2 pieces), creating a spatial distribution that reveals much about Han bureaucratic practices.

Architectural Context: Fortresses of Administration

The Central Government Office site formed a heavily guarded compound in Weiyang Palace’s northwestern sector, featuring:

– A large walled courtyard divided east-west by a drainage channel
– Two parallel rows of multi-story buildings (109-215 m² each) with stairway remains
– Defensive weapons including iron halberds and armor discovered near doorways
– Systematic placement of bone tags along walls, suggesting original shelf storage

This contrasts sharply with the Armory’s architecture – thick walls (5-8m wide), linear buildings with weapon racks, and orderly stone pillar bases. The physical differences underscore the bone tags’ non-military administrative purpose.

Crafting Imperial Records

These durable alternatives to bamboo slips and silk documents exhibit remarkable standardization:

– Dimensions: 5.8-7.2cm long × 2.1-3.2cm wide × 0.2-0.4cm thick
– Materials: 90% ox bone, showing white/yellow-white coloration (some gray/black from aging)
– Design features:
– Rounded ends with slightly convex front surfaces
– Polished writing surface (3.5-4cm area) for microscopic engraving
– Moon-shaped notches for pairing tags with reverse-facing grooves

The painstaking craftsmanship – including near-microscopic engraving on hard bone – suggests these were permanent records rather than temporary notations.

Decoding the Inscriptions

The 57,482 inscribed tags reveal three primary content categories:

### 1. Inventory Records
Single-line notations documenting:
– Military equipment: “Crossbow drawing six stone strength” (00761)
– Coded classifications: “Category A, Number 32,039” (03507)
– Sequential numbering: “Sequence 53,400…” (41290)

### 2. Workshop Accountability
Multi-line production records from three imperial workshops:
– “First Year, Henan Workshop Director Ding, Assistant Wenli…” (02824)
– “Yuanfeng 2nd Year, Nanyang Workshop Director Juan…” (07103)
– Recording workshop officials, craftsmen, and production details

### 3. Central Administration
Documents linking to nine key government agencies including:
– “Yongguang 3rd Year, Imperial Archery Office…” (01008)
– “6th Year, Palace Guard Department…” (08354)
– Often ending with “repair” (缮) versus workshop tags’ “manufacture” (造)

Historical Timeline

Dating evidence reveals these tags span nearly the entire Western Han period:

– Earliest:高祖 (Gaozu, r. 206-195 BCE) era unmarked tags
– First reign-marked:武帝 (Wu Di) “Taichu 3rd Year” (102 BCE)
– Latest:元帝 (Yuan Di) “Jianzhao 5th Year” (34 BCE)
– Armory outlier: “Yuanshi 2nd Year” (2 CE) from Wang Mang’s interregnum

This 200-year continuity makes them invaluable for studying administrative evolution.

Purpose and Significance

These tags served multiple critical functions:

1. Permanent Archives – Their durable bone material and microscopic engraving created weather-resistant records unlike perishable bamboo slips.

2. Quality Control – Detailed workshop inscriptions created accountability for arms production across Henan, Nanyang and Yingchuan commanderies.

3. Military Logistics – Crossbow strength ratings (from 6 to 40 “stone” draw weights) and range testing (“shot 402 paces”) aided equipment standardization.

4. Calligraphic Evolution – With nearly 100,000 characters, they provide the largest corpus of Western Han engraving, revealing:
– Transition from seal to clerical script
– Regional stylistic variations
– Practical vs ceremonial writing styles

Enduring Legacy

These unassuming bone fragments revolutionize our understanding of early Chinese bureaucracy by:

– Demonstrating sophisticated record-keeping predating paper
– Revealing arms production networks spanning multiple provinces
– Providing names of hundreds of otherwise unknown officials and craftsmen
– Offering physical evidence of “quality assurance” systems described in texts like the Zhou Li

Recent scholarship suggests they may represent the physical counterpart to the “jiance” (计策) accounting system mentioned in Han documents – permanent verification copies of bamboo slip records. Their concentration in the Central Government Office confirms this area functioned as a national archives, while scattered Armory tags may represent inspection samples.

For historians, these tags are like finding the filing cabinets of Rome’s Tabularum or the ledger rooms of medieval exchequers – tangible connections to the mundane machinery that sustained empires. Their survival reminds us that beyond emperors and battles, civilization rests on the painstaking work of clerks keeping track of crossbow strengths and arrow counts, one bone slip at a time.