User:TheNothingNihilates/Bamboo and wooden slips (writing material)

Bamboo and wooden slips were one of the main media for literacy in early China, and then subsequently in medieval Japan. The long, narrow strips of wood or bamboo typically carry a single column of brush-written text each, with space for several tens of Chinese characters. For longer texts, many slips may be bound together in sequence with thread. The earliest surviving examples of wood or bamboo slips date from the 5th c. BC during the Warring States period. However, references in earlier texts surviving on other media make it clear that some precursor of these Warring States period bamboo slips was in use as early as the late Shang period (from about 1250 BC). Bamboo or wooden strips were the standard writing material during the Han dynasty and excavated examples have been found in abundance. Subsequently, paper began to displace bamboo and wooden strips from mainstream uses, and by the 4th c. AD bamboo had been largely abandoned as a medium for writing in China.