Ancient Chinese 'cheat sheets' discovered
Two ancient miniature "cheat sheets", designed to aid students sitting Imperial examinations, have been discovered in China.
The tiny booklets, printed on silk, date from the middle of the Qing Dynasty (1644 to 1911) and may have been used by students to jog their memories of Confucius' Analects and other works of literature required for the Imperial civil service examinations.
One of the texts, discovered in Qingdao, is thought to be the smallest book ever found in Eastern China. The 160 page text is two-and-a-half inches long and under two inches wide and can fit into a matchbox. It contains 140,000 characters drawn from exam texts.
The other book, found on the southern island of Hainan, is slightly larger but contains 32 million characters over 32 pages. Experts estimate it could be worth around £10,000.
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
The tiny booklets, printed on silk, date from the middle of the Qing Dynasty (1644 to 1911) and may have been used by students to jog their memories of Confucius' Analects and other works of literature required for the Imperial civil service examinations.
One of the texts, discovered in Qingdao, is thought to be the smallest book ever found in Eastern China. The 160 page text is two-and-a-half inches long and under two inches wide and can fit into a matchbox. It contains 140,000 characters drawn from exam texts.
The other book, found on the southern island of Hainan, is slightly larger but contains 32 million characters over 32 pages. Experts estimate it could be worth around £10,000.