Shaping the Stein collection’s Dunhuang corpus (2): the items from Cave 17’s ‘miscellaneous’ bundles

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In a previous blog post , we looked at the instrumental role played by Wang Yuanlu during the selection of the items from the Cave 17. Wang, who directly chose from the small repository what to hand over to Stein for inspection, was very keen to divert his attention from the so-called ‘regular’ bundles, which were composed for the most part of Buddhist sutras in Chinese and Tibetan. During their first ever transaction, which took place between 21 May and 6 June 1907, Wang Yuanlu therefore began by handing over the ‘miscellaneous’ bundles, which he seemed to hold in low estimation. To Stein’s delight, these contained mixed and diverse materials, such as manuscripts in non-Chinese languages, illustrated scrolls, paintings, drawings, ex-votos, textiles, etc. Stein picked out any of the items that jumped at him as being particularly interesting and made sure to put them aside for ‘further examination’, the phrase that he used to refer to their removal in his transaction with Wang. This
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Teaching Chinese Astronomy

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For many thousands of years, man has attempted to make sense of the sky by naming and grouping stars into recognisable patterns. At the turn of the twentieth century, Marc Aurel Stein, a Hungarian-born, British archaeologist uncovered the world’s oldest existing star chart in a Buddhist cave complex in Dunhuang, China. The chart, now known as the Dunhuang Star Atlas and probably dating from before AD 700, was just one of a large number of important manuscripts, printed documents and paintings which were found at the site, and which tell us much about social, religious and political issues in medieval China and Central Asia. But the Star Atlas – now held at the British Library in London – is also proving important for our current understanding of astronomical history due to the accuracy and detail it provides about the sky seen from China from such an early period.

Visit the IDP website to download a free classroom wallchart on the Chinese Sky, view educational material on many Silk Road themes, and view our new resource on Chinese Astronomy which aims to :

• Introduce the Dunhuang Star Atlas and explain its importance as a historical and scientific document
• Offer an introduction to astronomy and explain the place it has occupied in Chinese history and culture.
• Introduce the most important Chinese constellations and the myths associated with them.
• Look at the links between Chinese astronomy and astrology and explore the Chinese ‘zodiac’.
• Offer ideas for classroom activities and downloadable resources for teachers.
• Link to related websites and other sources of information.

Comments

  1. antique ringsApril 25, 2011 at 9:43 AM

    Great post. Every religion do have symbolized the sky in their own way but the end is that they do posses the same meaning. The points that you have listed are very interesting. I am really excited to know more about the Chinese Astronomy.

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