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

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

BD02745《無量壽宗要經》

GUEST POST AUTHOR: LIU BO

Liu Bo is Manager of IDP China at the National Library of China, and currently a visiting fellow at Harvard-Yenching Library at Harvard University cataloguing their collections of ancient Chinese local histories.

最近,中國國家圖書館IDP工作室數字化了BD02745《無量壽宗要經》。這件敦煌遺書長達161釐米,由四張紙粘連而成,抄寫114行。《無量壽宗要經》是吐蕃統治敦煌時期(786—848)非常流行的一部佛經,這一個卷子也是吐蕃時期抄寫的,小字密行,具有顯著的吐蕃時期寫經的特點。

這個寫卷的末尾,有一個簽名“呂日興”。這位呂日興的身份,現在已經難以查考了。也許他曾是這卷經書的所有者或者施造者,也許他只是校勘人或讀者。寫卷的背面,署有“金”字。這是敦煌金光明寺的簡稱,它表明這個經卷是金光明寺的財產。金光明寺院在沙州城以西,在吐蕃時期和歸義軍時期,是一所大寺院,後唐同光年間(923—926)有僧人62人,頗為興盛。歸義軍節度使曹元忠曾在該寺做法事。寺內有寺學,索勳的孫子索富通就曾在該寺學習。寺內也有藏經,這個卷子就是其中之一。

這個卷子見證是過敦煌佛教的繁榮興盛,能在藏經洞中留存至今,可謂幸運。感興趣的人士,可以通過IDP網站仔細欣賞這一件千年前的佛經。

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