In 1973 a cache of silk manuscripts was discovered inMawangdui tomb number three in Hunan province. Thiswas the first extensive collection of silkmanuscripts unearthed from such an early period: 168BCE, during the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 202 CE).Guodian village in the province of Hubei was thesite of another exciting discovery in October of1993. Here archaeologists uncovered a tomb theylabelled M1 from 300 BCE in the pre-Qin state of Chuthat contained texts written on 804 bamboo strips.These two tombs are separated by one of the mostsignificant period-defining events in ancienthistory, Qin Shihuang's unification of China.Excavated manuscripts now bridge this historicdivide. Some are early editions of major works knownfrom the received tradition. Others were previouslyunknown having been lost for over two millennia. Ofthe received texts, the Daodejing has beentranslated into English based on each of theeditions found in Mawangdui and Guodian. The onlyother text that appears in both of these tombs is“The Five Aspects of Conduct”, which will be madewidely available to an English speaking audience forthe first time at the end of this article.