[Yiin-meng]. A district in central Hubei province, China, about 100 kilometres northwest of Wuhan. This region was part of the Eastern Zhou state of Chu until the Chu capital at Jiangling fell to the Qin state in 278 bc. 12 tombs excavated in 1975 at Yunmeng Shuihudi belong to the period of Qin occupation (from c278 bc to the end of the Qin dynasty in 206 bc). Many of the nearly 200 fine lacquers found in the tombs carry inscriptions marking them as products of Xianyang, the Qin capital in Shaanxi province, suggesting that this craft so strongly identified with Chu culture was flourishing in Qin well before the Qin unification of 221 bc. Tomb No. 11, which belonged to a Qin official and dates from 217 bc, contained many books and documents written on some 1100 bamboo slips. The texts include philosophical works and a chronicle of Qin’s wars of conquest but are chiefly concerned with a wide variety of legal and administrative matters.
The Macmillan dictionary of archaeology, Ruth D. Whitehouse, 1983Copied