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Primary sourceDocument221-207 BCE

Qin Bamboo Fortune-telling Slips

221-207 BCE

Bamboo divination slips from the Qin period, unearthed at Shuihudi, showing popular beliefs during the era of Qin Shi Huang.

These divination slips date from the period of Qin Shi Huang's reign, showing popular beliefs among common people rather than imperial rule.

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Museum display case photo showing Qin bamboo slips laid out in glass cases on the left, with numbered labels, beside a printed diagram of a trapezoid with circles and a hook symbol, and Chinese text. A display placard with Chinese and English captions is below.
Qin bamboo fortune-telling slips (Gen Shan Tu), unearthed 1975 from Tomb 11, Shuihudi, Yunmeng, Hubei. Hubei Provincial Museum.

About this source

What it is

This photograph shows Qin-era bamboo slips displayed at the Hubei Provincial Museum. The slips, unearthed from Tomb 11 at Shuihudi, Yunmeng in 1975, contain a chapter called the Gen Shan Tu, part of a larger divination text called the Rishu. The text records fortune-telling methods and taboos based on ideas from the Book of Changes, and was used by common people of the time.

Why it matters

These slips date from the Qin period, during Qin Shi Huang's reign, but they show the everyday beliefs and superstitions of ordinary people rather than imperial decrees or government business. They offer a rare glimpse into daily life and popular culture under the Qin dynasty, separate from the official record of the emperor himself.

Look closer

  • What do these divination slips tell you about what ordinary people worried about or believed in during the Qin dynasty?
  • Why might this kind of everyday document survive less often than official documents or monuments?
  • How does this source change or add to your picture of life under the first emperor?

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