An exhibition on "Ancient Chinese Bamboo and Wooden Slips" that showcases ancient Chinese writing in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, is offering visitors a glance into everyday life, governance and cultural traditions in ancient China.

These short slips of bamboo or wood were once the most important medium for writing before the invention of paper, each containing a narrow vertical column of dozens of characters.
The exhibition was jointly launched by 12 domestic museums and research institutions, featuring 230 sets of slips dating from the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) to the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420) on display.
The exhibits include early legal codes, culinary recipes and what is considered the most complete ancient multiplication table found to date.
"The multiplication table recorded on the slips is basically the same as the one we use today. We recite it from 'one times one equals one' upward, but this one starts from 'nine times nine equals 81' and goes downward, in contrast to the modern method," said Luo Qia, deputy director of the museum's academic research center.
The slips have also become core materials in Silk Road research and have helped correct inaccuracies in historical texts passed down through later dynasties, researchers said.
"The new and distinctive information revealed through the study of these slips supplements and supports many aspects of the development of Chinese civilization. They offer important tangible evidence for the continuity and unity of Chinese civilization," said Wang Xianfu, a researcher with the museum.
Archaeologists say more than 300,000 slips have been unearthed nationwide, with over 60 percent successfully restored and deciphered.
Meanwhile, museums across China are also using AI and digital tools to protect, decode and display the fragile relics, boosting character-recognition efficiency by several dozen times and allowing more ancient manuscripts to be showcased to the public.