Previous research on ancient East Asian bamboo and wooden strips used for writing has focused on the similarities of their shapes or format, which have been useful in disclosing their choronology. Nevertheless, such work does not explain the influence of Chinese characters on ancient East Asian culture. Since the bamboo-strip Analects were excavated from Pyongyang in North Korea and a variety of sites in Japan, which were estimated to be from the first century BC to the late eighth century AD, it has been possible to study their connection with the introduction of Chinese characters into far-away regions throughout East Asia, as a way to properly understand ancient East Asian society and culture. In this paper, I examine the role of ancientbamboo and wooden-strip editions of the Analects in terms of the introduction of Chinese script-based bureaucracy and culture and their influence on ancient East Asian countries. For this study, various wooden and bamboo-strip versions of the Analects excavated from Korea, Japan, and China, dated from approximately the Han dynasty period to around the eighth century AD, will be compared. In particular, the Nangnang bamboo-strip version of the Analects, discovered in 2009, provides critical clues supporting new interpretations that better explain the spread of Chinese script and Confucianism in East Asia. It is to be noted that the wooden and bamboo-strip Analects unearthed from East Asian countries have certain similarities not only in their shape, but also in their active usage in document-based administration, which was closely connected to the establishment of Chinese-style legal systems and a ruling ideology based on Confucianism.