---
license: apache-2.0
task_categories:
- image-classification
- text-to-image
- token-classification
language:
- zh
tags:
- chinese
- ancient-script
pretty_name: 'CHUBS: A Large-Scale Dataset of Chu Bamboo Slip Script'
size_categories:
- 100K<n<1M
---

# CHUBS: A Large-Scale Dataset of Chu Bamboo Slip Script

<div align="center">
  <a href="https://github.com/THUNLP/Chujian">Code</a> | <a href="">Paper (upcoming)</a>
</div>

## Introduction

This is a large-scale dataset of Chu bamboo slip (CBS, Chinese: 楚简, chujian) script, an ancient Chinese script used during the Spring and Autumn period over 2,000 years ago. This dataset consists of two parts: 

1. The main dataset where each example is an image and the corresponding text label. This part is contained in the `glyphs.zip` ZIP file.
2. A character detection dataset where each example is a bamboo slip and the corresponding bounding boxes of each CBS character. This part is contained in the `detection-data.zip` ZIP file.
3. A POS tagging dataset where each example is a sentence and POS annotations (using the BIO format). This part is contained under the `pos-tagging-data` directory.

This data is compiled to foster applications of NLP methods in the study of Chu bamboo slip script, and possibly other forms of ancient Chinese.

## Data Source

The sources for this dataset are shown in the following list.

| **Source name**            | **Chinese name** | **# documents** | **# slips** | **# characters** |
|----------------------------|------------------|-----------------|-------------|------------------|
| Tsinghua University Slips   | 清华简           | 50              | 1,402       | 31,468           |
| Shanghai Museum Slips       | 上博简           | 60              | 881         | 25,795           |
| Baoshan Slips               | 包山简           | 4               | 337         | 12,647           |
| Guodian Slips               | 郭店简           | 18              | 705         | 11,865           |
| Geling Slips                | 葛陵简           | 8               | 743         | 6,209            |
| Zenghouyi Slips             | 曾侯乙简         | 4               | 198         | 6,016            |
| Jiudian Slips               | 九店简           | 2               | 232         | 2,956            |
| Wangshan Slips              | 望山简           | 3               | 273         | 2,218            |
| Changtaiguan Slips          | 长台关简         | 3               | 148         | 1,504            |
| Zidanku Silk                | 子弹库帛         | 7               | 7           | 1,471            |
| Yangtianhu Slips            | 仰天湖简         | 1               | 42          | 335              |
| Wulipai Slips               | 五里牌简         | 1               | 18          | 109              |
| Xiyangpo Slips              | 夕阳坡简         | 1               | 2           | 54               |
| Ynagjiawan Slips            | 杨家湾简         | 1               | 38          | 41               |
| Caojiagang Slips            | 曹家岗简         | 1               | 7           | 34               |
| **Total**                   |                  | **164**         | **5,033**   | **102,722**      |

## Copyright

As mentioned in the paper, the main CHUBS dataset is extracted and processed from existing openly available textbooks and quality-checked by our team. Compiling and analyzing such data is a common practice within the paleography field in ancient Chinese script, and we have consulted with legal experts to make sure that this data can be released under a permissive license such as Apache 2.0. The POS tagging data is annotated by our team, and also has no legal concerns related to its usage.