Eco-Themed Wall Text of the Western Han Dynasty

The eco-themed wall text of the Western Han Dynasty is the inscription of Fifty Articles of Seasonal and Monthly Ordinances from the Imperial Edict Supervised by the Imperial Envoy and the Zhonghe Office, which was unearthed in 1992 at the Xuanquan Posthouse Site. During the excavation, one side of the text was found facing the ground and severely damaged. After restoration, it measures 222 centimeters in length and 48 centimeters in width, consisting of 101 lines of text. This wall text is a decree issued in the name of the then empress dowager in 5 AD, in the Western Han Dynasty. The name of the decree is written in the lower left corner, and the left side details the specific process of its issuance. Clearly, the text was copied and publicly displayed on the wall at Xuanquan Posthouse after being transmitted from Chang'an through Dunhuang Prefecture and Xiaogu County.

The center of the wall text contains the main body of the decree, which details specific provisions for each month of the four seasons. Each provision begins with a bullet point ("·") for emphasis, with the main text at the top and specific explanations below. The decree states that the empress dowager, feeling concerned about the "imbalance of yin and yang, and irregular wind and rain" during the late Western Han Dynasty, specially formulated these regulations based on the principles outlined in The Book of Rites: Monthly Ordinances, which underlines "spring growth, summer flourishing, autumn harvest, and winter storage". For instance, it prohibits disturbing bird nests in spring and cutting down large trees in early summer. These concepts align with contemporary environmental protection ideas, earning the text a reputation as "2,000-year-old environmental protection law". It is also regarded as the earliest known legislation concerning environmental protection discovered in China to date. As such, it serves as a valuable reference for the study of the drafting, content, dissemination, and processes of Han-dynasty decrees as well as an excellent resource for the examination of the socio-political life of the late Western Han period.

西漢生態環保墻書

西漢生態環保墻書指墻壁題記《使者和中所督察詔書四時月令五十條》，1992年出土于懸泉置遺址。發掘時，文字一面反扣地面，破損嚴重。復原后長222厘米、寬48厘米，全文101行。此墻書內容為西漢元始五年（公元5年）以太皇太后名義頒布的詔書，左下角書寫詔書名稱，左側是具體頒布過程，可知其由長安經敦煌郡、效谷縣被懸泉置抄寫公布在墻上。

墻書中間為詔書正文，詳細列出四時及孟仲季12個月的具體條文。每條令文首起有“·”標注，上端是正文，下部是具體解釋。詔書中說，因為太皇太后有感于西漢末年“陰陽不調、風雨不時”，專門按照《月令》“春生、夏長、秋收、冬藏”之義而制定的條令，如春天不能搗鳥窩，孟夏時不能砍伐大樹等。這些觀念與現在倡導的環境保護觀念相吻合，被稱為2000年前的“環境保護法”，是迄今為止我國發現最早的一部關于環境保護的法規。其本身既是研究漢代詔書起草、內容、傳布形式和過程的典型標本資料，也是研究西漢末年社會政治生活的絕佳素材。