File:元康五年夏至改火詔書.jpg

English: The restoration of bound slips is mainly based on handwriting, format, and contents, excavation site, type of document, size, material, and approaching of Han institutions. Handwriting is the key in judging which slips should be grouped together, a connection which is undoubtedly strengthened if their format and contents share similarities. The restoration of "Yuankang wu nian zhaoshu" (Imperial edict of 61 B.C.), for example, was started by researchers Yu Shun and Lao Kan and later completed by Japanese scholar Oba Osamu. Noticing that two slips were written in the same format, Oba focused on other slips unearthed from the same location and compared forms and styles through his understanding of official documents. He was able to rejoin the original appearance of an imperial edict which could only be learned from historical records and stone inscriptions.