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Primary sourceDocumentQin period (221-207 BCE)

Qin Dynasty Effectiveness Statute Bamboo Slips

Unknown Qin scribes · Qin period (221-207 BCE)

Bamboo slips recording Qin laws on auditing government property and accounts, evidence of the legal system under Qin Shi Huang's state.

A legal record from the Qin state Qin Shi Huang ruled, showing the administrative controls of his government.

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Nine narrow wooden bamboo slips laid in parallel on a grey textured mat under glass, each inscribed with vertical columns of brown ink characters, tied at top and bottom with dark cords.
Qin Dynasty bamboo slips, Effectiveness Statute, Qin period, excavated 1975 at Shuihudi, Yunmeng. Nantong China Audit Museum.

About this source

What it is

These nine narrow bamboo slips, tied with cords and inscribed in ink, record part of the Effectiveness Statute, a Qin law covering how officials checked government property and accounts. They were found in 1975 in a Qin tomb at Shuihudi, Yunmeng, Hubei, and are now kept at the Nantong China Audit Museum.

Why it matters

Written by unknown scribes of the Qin state, which Qin Shi Huang ruled before and after unifying China, these slips show the detailed legal and financial controls that underpinned Qin rule. They reveal a government obsessed with order, measurement, and accountability, not just conquest.

Look closer

  • What does a law about checking accounts tell you about how the Qin state was run?
  • Why might strict laws on officials have mattered to an emperor trying to unify a huge territory?
  • What is missing from this legal text that a modern law code might include?

This document is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Emperor Qin Shi Huang on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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