What can ancient wooden copies of the Analects reveal about how learning spread across East Asia?

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To understand the significance of the Ssangbuk-ri Analects wooden tablets for the exchange of texts across East Asia, this comparative historical study reviewed their excavation context, previous research, and cases of Analects wooden tablets excavated in Korea. It then compared the characteristics of the excavated Analects writing tablets with those from Chinese dynasties and ancient Japan.

The Ssangbuk-ri tablets differed considerably from the Bonghwang-dong and Gyeyangsanseong Analects tablets, which appear to have been excavated in Silla territory. Their only shared feature was their form as multifaceted gu (觚) tablets. Unlike the other finds, the Ssangbuk-ri tablets came from what was then a royal capital rather than a provincial location. The surviving material was nearly complete and was not narrow and elongated; it also bore the very beginning of the Xue Er (學而) section of the Analects.

When the comparison was expanded to Analects writing tablets from North Korea, China, Japan, and elsewhere, the Ssangbuk-ri tablets shared specifications with Han-dynasty book tablets. The Bonghwang-dong and Gyeyangsanseong tablets, meanwhile, shared the practice of writing one textual chapter on each gu tablet (1章1觚) with wooden book tablets excavated in the Hexi region. Both sets of Korean finds thus shared features with other kinds of Chinese book tablets rather than with Analects tablets excavated in China.

For ancient Japan, the study suggests that writing the Xue Er section and using tablets for portable study reflected the influence of Baekje, represented by the Ssangbuk-ri Analects tablets. In contrast, using large wooden tablets with one textual chapter per gu for public education could be attributed to the influence of the Bonghwang-dong and Gyeyangsanseong Analects tablets.

The underlying text used for the Ssangbuk-ri tablets is thought to have been either the Lunyu Jijie (論語集解) or the Lunyu Yishu (論語義疏), but the study could not currently identify one rather than the other.