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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The Dunhuang Star Chart

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The Dunhuang Star Chart (Or.8210/S.3326) is one of the most important manuscripts in the British Library Dunhuang collection. Dating from the second half of the seventh century AD, it is an example of the coloured star-map of Qian Lezhi and almost certainly the oldest extant manuscript star-chart from any civilisation.

A new research paper authored by Jean-Marc Bonnet-Bidaud, Dr Françoise Praderie and Dr Susan Whitfield presents an analysis of the star atlas included in the medieval Chinese manuscript. Although partially studied by a few Chinese scholars, it has never been fully displayed and discussed in the Western world. The paper is available to view via our Research page.

A further resource on the Dunhuang Star Chart for schoolchildren and teachers is currently under development and will be available soon.

The images below show details of the circumpolar map and a bowman in traditional clothes.
© British Library Board.


Comments

  1. vintage jewelryFebruary 23, 2011 at 6:01 PM

    Dunhuang Star charts are oldest one.they have unique way of representation.It won't be easy for an outsider to understand the chart.Images shown above have quite different way to represent information.I like this artistic and unique work.Want to see some more work of this kind.

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