are found in ancient Chinese musical (pipa, guqin and guzheng) scores. Partial characters and their derivatives are building blocks for the writing systems of some historical (such as Khitan and Tangut) and modern languages, such as Japanese. In addition to partial characters mentioned above, the two-silk texts sometimes use characters different from those in later versions. This is similar to the English "She flowered the table" compared with "She floured the table", and the older version provides insight into a text's original meaning. Tao Te Ching Most received versions of the Tao Te Ching are in substantial agreement, and most text is simple and straightforward. Occasionally two versions will have a homonym, and a third text with a character which is a synonym for one of the first two characters is useful. D. C. Lau and Robert G. Henricks have made new translations of the Tao Te Ching based on the silk text, largely ignoring the received texts, although Henricks' translation compares received versions with the text found in the tomb. In 1990, sinologist Victor H. Mair translated the Ma-wang-tui version; Mair considered this earliest-known version (by 500 years) more authentic than the most-commonly-translated texts. The two silk books are part of the Cultural Relics from the Mawangdui Tombs collection at the Hunan Provincial Museum. Translations See also Book of Silk Chu Silk Manuscript Guodian Chu Slips Mawangdui Shuanggudui Shuihudi Qin bamboo texts Yinqueshan Han Slips Zhangjiashan Han bamboo texts References 168 BC 2nd-century BC manuscripts 1973 archaeological discoveries Archaeological corpora Archaeological artifacts of China Chinese classic texts Chinese manuscripts History of Changsha Han dynasty texts Silk