University rescues ancient literature

Peking University has won praise for its efforts to save some of China's earliest literature that's now over two thousand years ago.

It's taken three months of examination and classification by the country's top authorities in the field. More than three thousand pieces of bamboo and wood slips have been placed in the safety of the university's library.

With the aid of modern technology, the experts determined the carved writings on bamboo and wood slips date back to the Western Han Dynasty in the first century BC. The finding is corroborated by place names and historical events found in the literature.

The collection arrived at the institution as a donation from overseas Chinese. The bamboo and wood slips will undergo further research by historians. It's believed the writings about the legal system and calendars will resolve a great many mysteries about the history of the early Han Dynasty.