The Writing Materials Wood, Bamboo, Silk and Paper in Ancient China (B09)

• Subject Area: Asian Studies
• Term: from 2015 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 178035969

The project reconstructs practices or patterns of use relating to ancient and medieval Chinese manuscripts and investigates in particular the influence the materiality of different writing materials (wood, bamboo, silk, paper) had on the formation and change of these practices and patterns. During the upcoming period, the project will focus on the ways in which technical knowledge – astrological, arithmetic and medical, among others – was organized in manuscripts, how they were used and what differences can be detected in manuscripts of antiquity, late antiquity and the middle ages.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 933: Material Text Cultures. Materiality and Presence of Writing in Non-Typographic Societies
• Applicant Institution: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
• Project Head: Professor Dr. Enno Giele