Abstract:

With the combination of handed-down literature and excavated documents to revive the situation in which the scholar Liu Xiang and his son were proofreading books, the present paper attempts to approach the meanings of Pian and Juan in “Yiwenzhi” (the “Treatise on Literature”) of the Hanshu (Book of Han). In conclusion, the paper holds that (1) neither Pian and Juan is related to the writing materials of that period; (2) as far as their basic meanings are concerned, Pian refers to the unit for a composition, a composition with complete meaning of the whole text, while Juan refers to the unit for bamboo slips, and one Juan is a bunch of bound bamboo slips; (3) in terms of the quantity, both Pian and Juan mean a bunch of bamboo slips that are well-woven and bound; (4) as for the content reflected, Pian demonstrates the structure of the content of the literature concerned while Juan does not have this function.

Key words: “Yiwenzhi&rdquo, of Hanshu, Pian, Juan