敦煌和居延出土簡牘成千上萬，它們原本絕大部分是漢代邊塞行政裡的公文書和簿籍。就行政作業而言，它們不是正本、底本、副本，就是草稿。不適度掌握正、副本和草稿等的特徵以及它們在行政流程中所居的位置，即不易重建當時行政作業的面貌，也就難以深一層認識秦漢官僚制最基本和最日常的一面。目前對秦漢文書的形成、傳送和保存等等雖然知道稍多，要十分明確地指出哪些是正本、副本、底本，哪些又是草稿，還存在著相當大的困難。本文試圖從出土簡牘尋找不同性質文書的某些特徵，並解析其間的差異，但不得不承認還面臨著頗多認識上的盲點。最近幾十年來，除了居延和敦煌邊塞，秦漢內郡地區也陸續出土了許多與地方行政相關的簡牘文書。湖南龍山里耶的秦遷陵縣城出土文書簡多達三萬餘件即為一例。湖北江陵和荊州、湖南長沙走馬樓、東排樓和五一廣場等地更有大量地方性政府文書簡牘等待整理和刊佈。這些資料一旦出版，我們對秦漢地方行政和文書管理的理解必將遠勝於今日，本文暫作的若干結論也可得到檢驗。

Thousands of wooden slips have already been excavated from the Dunhuang and Edsen-gol sites. The large majority of these slips contain official documents and account records from Han dynasty border region administration. Speaking from the perspective of administrative work, if these slips are not the original versions, master copies, or other copied versions of official documents, they are then drafts of these documents. If we do not adequately understand the characteristics of original versions, copies, and drafts, as well as their respective places within the administrative process, it will be difficult both to re-construct administrative work as it existed during the Qin and Han dynasties and to gain a deeper understanding of the most basic and everyday aspects of bureaucracy during that period.Although, at the present time, we possess some knowledge as to the formation, transmission, and preservation of official documents during the Qin and Han dynasties, distinguishing definitively between the originals, copies, master copies, and drafts of these documents is still quite difficult. This article attempts to identify some of the characteristics of the different documents found on excavated wooden slips and analyzes the differences between them. However, it must be admitted that the author has run into several problems in carrying out this type of analysis. In recent years, aside from wooden slips excavated from the Edsen-gol and Dunhuang border regions, several slips containing official documents related to local administration have also been unearthed from regions previously within Qin and Han dynasty interior prefectures. Take, for example, the town of Liye in Hunan's Longshan county, where over 30,000 wooden slips containing official documents have been unearthed from what was once the Qin dynasty's Qianling county seat. In Hubei's Jiangling county and Jingzhou city and the Zouma Building, Dongpai Building, and Wuyi Square in Hunan's Changsha city, large numbers of wooden slips containing local government documents also await further compilation and publication. As soon as these materials are published, our understanding of Qin and Han dynasty local administration and document management will be far greater than it is today. The preliminary conclusions arrived at in this article can also be more thoroughly examined at that time.