The birth of the book in China

Different versions of Tao Te Ching, written either on silk or bamboo strips, which also vary from the version that has been passed down through history, have been discovered in the Mawangdui Han Tombs in Changsha, Hunan province, which date back to the early Western Han Dynasty, and in a Chu state tomb from the Warring States Period in modern-day Guodian village in Jingmen in Hubei province.

While they are similar in terms of words and sentences, they differ in the sequence of paragraphs and chapters. Yet, ancient bamboo manuscripts reveal that people at the time already possessed a sense of textual integrity, and would therefore have undertaken additional proofreading and other precautionary measures to ensure the texts did not become disordered.

Kern points out that there's no real reason to privilege any of the versions, including the received one, over the others. None of the written versions was more authoritative, and none can be considered earlier, or better.