Dated Mss in the Stein Collection 9-1

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Dated Chinese Manuscripts in the Stein Collection

Author(s): Lionel GilesSource: Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, Vol. 9, No. 1 (1937),pp. 1-25Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the School of Oriental and AfricanStudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/608171

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BULLETIN

OF THE

SCHOOLOF ORIENTALSTUDIESLONDONINSTITUTION

PAPERS CONTRIBUTED

Dated Chinese Manuscripts in the Stein Collection

By LIONEL GILES

(PLATE I)

III. EIGHTH CENTURY A.D.

HIS century is cut in two by the fateful rebellion of An Lu-shan.

The first half was a period of halcyon peace and prosperity,hardly affected by the Palace intrigues and massacres that followed

the abdication of the Empress Wu. The long reign of the Emperor

MingHuang has some claim to be regardedas the GoldenAge of China;for the magnificence of the Court was solidly based on the well-beingof the people, and while trade and commerce flourished, the arts of

poetry and painting reached a height which has never since been

equalled. Buddhism, however, suffered a partial eclipse after its great

patroness had passed away; and even in the remote region ofTunhuang a gradual decrease in its influence is clearly observable.

Several copies of the new translation by I-ching of the Suvarna-

prabhasa-sftra appear in 703; but during the fifty years followingthere is a striking dearth of orthodox Buddhist texts in our list, while

Taoism, fostered as it was by the Court, enjoyed a brief spell of

popularity.The second half of the century presents a melancholy contrast

to the splendours of the first. Civil warfare brought widespread ruin,and the dynasty tottered under the onslaught of border tribes. The

Tibetans swept over large tracts of Eastern Turkestan, and though theisolated cities appear to have offered a gallant resistance to the flood of

invaders, all were ultimately engulfed. The dated texts of this periodinclude a number of quasi-legal and other secular documents, some of

VOL. IX. PART 1. 1



BULL. S.O.S. VOL. IX, PART 1. PLATE I.



L. GILES-

which throw a glimmer of light on the conditions of poverty and

distress prevailing in the Tunhuang region. That Buddhist doctrine

was undergoing a radical change is shown by the emergence of theAmida cult and the appearance of several new apocryphal suitras

in which increasing importance is attached to the repetition of meaning-

less formulae,charms, or spells. From now onward the practice of

copying sfutrasas a means of gaining merit seems to have steadilydeclined.

703 (CHOU usurpation of the Empress Wu).

S. 4268, 1252, 523, 3712, 3870, 4989, 6033. 3E] )Chin kuang ming tsui sheng wang ching (N. 126), ch. 1, p'in 1, 2;

*ch. 6, p'in 12; *ch. 8, p'in 15-20. These are the earliest dated

specimens of the Suvarna-prabhasa-uttamaraja-suitra,as translated

by I-ching. Nanjio states that Dharmaraksa's translation (see under

A.D. 568) was the most popular in China; but it does not appear to

have been so at Tunhuang, for although the latter is represented by

forty-tworolls in the Stein

Collection,there are nearly five times as

many of the other.

For some reason, the copies of this siutraalmost invariably include

a sort of phonetic glossary at the end. In S. 523 only two characters

are selected for ) -JJ analysis, namely, f ([ ,) and A

( E). The colophon of this roll is in tabular form, and the first two

columns run thus: * J -- I a #DJ+ A

: NI i3F ]E T"

Newly translated at the Hsi-ming Templein Ch'ang-an, in obedience to imperial command, by the san-tsangand Masterof the Law I-ching, who also gave unity to the compositionand corrected the characters, on the 4th day, jen-hsii, of the 10th

moon, the first day of which was chi-wei, of the year kuei-mao, the

3rd of Ch'ang-an in the Great Chou dynasty " [17th November,

703]. The above agrees with the statements in K'ai yiian lu, ch. 9,

and Sung kao seng chuan, ch. 1. From the remainder of the colophon

we learn that V , j, Pao-ssut-wei, an Indian monk, e M si"verified the meaning of the Sanskrit "; another Indian, ~ fIj

%~ Shih-li-mo-to, whose name appears in two other Stein MSS.

(the first character is accidentally omitted here), a ~ 3 "read

the Sanskrit text" ; eleven scholars e t "verified the meaning";two E~* " wrote from dictation ", and two |Jj pi "examined the

final result ". These monks belonged to no fewer than eleven different

2



DATED CHINESE MANUSCRIPTS IN THE STEIN COLLECTION 3

monasteries, four of which are known to us only from this MS., whereas

the ]f PJ Hsi-ming and the " ] Lung-hsing occur very frequently.The {f 4 H Fo-shou-chi and the X ~ T'ien-kung are mentioned in

S. 2278 (see Bull. S.O.S., VIII, p. 23), which also has the J* M

to balance the * J ]Sjf here.

We cannot be certain that 703 was the actual date of copying, but

the occurrenceof " Empress Wu " characters in S. 523 and 4989 makes

it highly probable that these two rolls at least were copied before the

beginning of 705, when the Empress retired from active life; for our

MSS. seem to show that the use of her characters was discontinued

immediately after that event. Those in S. 523 are $*, )q, jE, X,and & ; curiously enough, El is written in its ordinary form. The

second character in the name gL ), which is not to be found in the

dictionary, may stand for _, though I cannot find that this was ever

taboo, or one of those altered by the Empress. In S. 4989, 0 appearsfor X, f5 for iE, and E[ (though not consistently) for M]. S. 523 is

one of the few examples of a poorly written sfutra. S. 6033 is a tiny

fragment containing only part of a phonetic glossary and the beginningof a tabulated colophon dated 703, but it evidently belongs to this

series. S. 4268 contains ch. 1 complete, though extensively patched,S. 1252 the end portion of ch. 6, and the other rolls ch. 8. All haveas colophon the first two columns quoted from S. 523, above, only inS. 4989 it is left unfinished. The handwriting varies from good to

mediocre, and no Empress Wu characters occur.

704 (CHOU: usurpation of the Empress Wu).S. 622. This is a good, widely spaced MS. on soft yellow paper,

28-5 x 34-5 cm., containing the end of what is probably quite ashort siutra,dated R 5 El $ E:i + tff El " the 15th day of the5th moon of the 4th year of Ch'ang-an" [21st June, 704]. That it is

apocryphal appears not only from its similarity in parts to the ~j

g Hsin p'u sa chingand b H iJ Ch'iianshan ching, but also fromits allusions to Li T'ai Shan and the Chinese kingdom ofWestern Liang. The following Empress Wu characters are found inthe text as well as in the final note: $l, , (written gf), )A (writtenJ ), and El.

708 (T'ANG).

S. 2136. ;k )R M Ta pan nieh p'an ching (N. 113), ch. 10,p'in 4(7)-5(1). A fine MS. on a roll of very good paper dyed a

remarkably rich yellow, and 281 feet long.



L. GILES-

The colophon is in two parts, the first in handwriting of the same

size as the text of the sultra. It expresses, in an ultra-elegant literary

style, the sorrow of two brothers and their family for the loss of their

parents: a J i a a f M E m , [for ]

A I ?iW a A nk mpH ,! >Ztt W Hfi^& a a j T^ ^V t ffi sit

;t ~ , X + ~ ~ i,

f,i ,. - [for

1]W i a iZ I ZJ Pi as

fX J iX 9 a m X @M i i-

-if fi IJ [for ~] _ h f~j "Because it is impossibleto requite the tender, unremitting care [of parents], which indeed is

illimitable as Heaven itself; and because the fleeting shadow [of

existence] and the feelings evoked by separation cause grief that will

last one's life long : realizingthat, unless one relies on a firmfoundation

of merit, there is nothing wherewith to repay their kindly deeds,

Ch'ung-huiand

Ch'ung-su, havinghad the misfortune to lose all too

soon their revered parents, have watered their graves with tears, but

only increased their sorrow, have looked up in prayer to the canopyof heaven, but all to no purpose. Furthermore, as the recipients of

bounty as children at their knee, having felt at an early age the joyof united brotherhood; calling to mind the love experienced when

under their control, and how erstwhile they were imbued with the

wisdom of their precepts [lit.' the beauties of pearls and jade'] ;

reflecting on past nurture and upbringing, with the memory of theirassiduous care deeply engraved in the heart; reverently gratefulfor their pains and toil, and conscious that any attempt to make due

return must necessarily fall short: Ch'ung-hui and Ch'ung-su have

on behalf of their deceased father and mother reverently caused a

section of the Nieh p'an chingto be copied, in the hope that this slight

offering, made in all sincerity, may bring about for sentient souls

who have crossed the distant ford a tranquillization of karma and a

heightening of happiness, that those in the darkness of the underworldmay be brought across to salvation, that the barriers [of passion] maybe dissolved, and virtue made complete ".

For i f, etc., see Shih ching, ii, 5, viii, 4; for ;It -N, see Shih

ching, ii, 1, iv, 4, and T'oung Pao, xxiv, p. 368. The * $ ~ g Pen

ts'ao shih ming, quoting from the ancient ~ l "Bird Classic ",

informs us that the raven feeds its mother for a period of sixty days

4



DATED CHINESE MANUSCRIPTS IN THE STEIN COLLECTION

in return for the feeding [j PiJ] which it receives during the first

sixty days of its life as a nestling.

What may be termed the formal part of the colophon now followsin the same hand but much smaller writing: ; : I --

P5 a 1H : a 4 ? tR A a l IX; "Copied to the order

of the disciple Hsieh Ch'ung-hui, ch'ao-i-lang,Magistrate of T'ung-kuHsien in Ch'eng-chou [south Kansu], and shang-chu-kuo, on the

26th day, ting-ssui,of the 5th moon, the first day of which was jen-

ch'en, of the 2nd year, mou-shen, of Ching-lung in the great T'ang

dynasty " [18th June, 7081. Then comes the list of personsbelonging to

the family who associate themselves with this act of piety: Chung-hui's wife, Madame Jt Yin, fi * M Lu-she-na; his younger brother

Hsieh Ch'ung-su, also an official; his brother's wife ;k 9

Ling-hu Ta-fa; his grandson ~ j| Ying-yen, with the title of shang-chu-kuo; Ying-yen's wife 4 *t j R Ling-hu Ch'eng-shih-

hsiang; his grand-daughter Pfl iE f Ming-cheng-hsin; his grandson

: t Ying-liang;his

grandsonA jC

Wei-cheng;his

grand-daughter3J E Hsiao-yii; his grand-daughter -Xi 4 Mu-niang; his grand-

daughter PA fI to Ming-shang-chih; and his grandson i|

Hung-hao.The three-syllable personal names of some of the women are

explicable as being derived from Sanskrit; thus, Lu-she-na is Rocana,which means " illuminating ", and Ch'eng-shih-hsiangis Satya-siddhi-

laksana, or " sign of complete truth ". The absence of any sons or

daughters of Ch'ung-huiis remarkable, and one wonders if % J and4. *k may not denote the grandchildrenof the deceased, that is to say,the children of Ch'ung-huiand his brother. These seem to be arrangedin order of seniority. On the other hand, f undoubtedly refers to the

younger brother of Ch'ung-huihimself. Altogether, this enumeration

of a Chinesefamily is decidedly interesting, and may be comparedwith

the families given in the Census of Tunhuang of A.D. 416 (see T'oungPao, ser. 2, vol. xvi, pp. 469 seq.).

710 (T'ANG).

S. 2424. [*A mi t'o ching.] This is another copy of the smaller

Sukhavati-vyuha in Kumarajiva's translation (N. 200), of which we

had an earlier and better example dated 694. The present MS. is only

mediocre, but there is a colophon of some interest, which closelyresembles one written thirty-five years before (see under date 675):

5



L. GILES-

--- HE-$ + - X +-H 1~~~_ I 1--

~_m? ;, > "Copied by Li Feng-yii at home in the wei hour

[1-3 p.m.] on the 11th of the 12th moon of the 3rd year of Ching-lung

[15th January, 710]. On the 11th day of the 12th moon, the female

devotee Madame Teng reverently caused a copy of the Amita Sutra

to be made, firstly for the benefit of our Divine Emperor and Empressthat their sovran influence may never be exhausted; and secondly,on behalf of the living beings of the universe, that they may one and

all reach the Western regions [i.e. Amitabha's paradise] and togethershare in the highest degree of felicity ". This pious aspiration appears

grimly ironical in the light of subsequent events; for only a few months

later the Emperor (Chung Tsung) was poisoned by his " divine"

but adulterous consort (j JR Wei Hou), who then tried to seize the

supreme power, but was herself massacred with all her clan.

The roll is of thin, whitish buff paper, 6 feet in length.Mr. Clappertoncalls it a " cream-coloured,long-fibredpaper: 22 laid

lines to the inch. Soft and tough with a very long tear, and inclined

to be wild-looking, yet well closed, with a smooth, even surface.

Thickness -004 inch. The laid lines are even and parallel, and the

mould has been a good one. The surface, though smooth to write upon,is covered with fine, hairy fibres. Composition: Paper mulberry".

711 (T'ANG).

S. 2723. -X I tC g *Tsan a mi t'ofo ping lun. "Eulogyof Amitabha Buddha, together with a dissertation," ch. 1 (_h). The

present roll contains only the end of the eulogy (a note tells us that it

consisted of 195 columns, of which twenty-two remain in whole or in

part) but the whole of the dissertation, which has the separate heading

BP &_ :: ? i " A brief dissertation on the meaning of the Land

of Peace and Joy " (Sukhavati). This will be found in K. Supp. B. xii,3 (1), no. 1402 in Saeki's catalogue of that collection, whence we learn

that it was composed by i , T'an-luan, a monk of the Wei dynasty.The text is the same as ours, with some slight variations, but the word

f is inserted before _? in the title, and there is also appended a

glossary (- j) of considerable length, giving the meaning as well as

the sound of a number of words. I am inclined to think that ~ _? in

our text must be a mistake, as the MS. appears to be quite complete,being finished off by the following note: s J + JL E]

6




-* _T~j 7Y A ; " Copied by the Buddhist disciple Chang Wan-chi

on the 19th of the 3rd moon of the 2nd year of Ching-yiin " [llth

April, 711].The whole of this roll, which is 13 feet long, has been photographed

and reproduced in Professor K. Yabuki's P,%V |, pl. 100, with

a brief description in the accompanying j -pt, p. 297.

715 (T'ANG).

S. 3563. i;% - g~ * T'ai hsiian chen i pen chi ching,ch. 2. Only 31 feet of this roll remain: it is a Taoist siutra,part of the

same text as S. 3135 (see under A.D.678), written in a very good handon yellow paper. Colophon: ml j - t -Jt- F H3

-i in tA " Reverently copied by the Taoist priest So

Tung-hsiian on the 25th of the 11th moon of the 2nd year of K'ai-

yiian" [5th January, 715]. So Tung-hsiian appears again as copyistof the next roll, and also as the owner of an important MS. (S. 1857)entitled t j- -f - Anf g

"Sfutraof Lao Tziugoing up into the

West and converting the Tartars ", ch. 1.

715 (T'ANG).

S. 2999. *; ?_- . l* A m # * T'ai shangtaopen t'ungwei miao

ching, ch. 10, p'in 1-4. Another Taoist sutra not to be found in the

Canon, with exactly the same colophon as the preceding. It is a

fine MS. on bright yellow paper of good quality, 15 feet long.

718 (T'ANG).

S. 80. _i ? . - * Wu shang pi yao, ch. 10. The title may betranslated " Secrets of supreme importance ". This is a very small

portion of an enormous Taoist compilation in 100 chiian which is

contained in vols. 768-779 of the _ Ip jE t il I. Pere Wieger

speaks of it in his Index (no. 1124) with his usual bluntness as " un

amas informe d'ineptes balivernes ". Ourfragment is only 3 feet long,but has a certain interest in that ch. 10 happens to be missing in the

present Canon. It deals, inter alia, with the hells corresponding to

each of the five sacredmountains, the last two being a it Ming-lingbeneath '[r llj Heng Shan in the north, ruled by the Black Emperor,and t ~ P'u-liao beneath W tll Sung Shan in the centre, ruled bythe Yellow Emperor. Colophon: m, 7~ A H" ,*H

e t 2ndA ) 4 1oX y o 'i1 Mr Xc"h,'Onthe 8th of the 2nd moon of the 6th year of K'ai-yuiian 14th March,



L. GILES-

718] this sfitra was reverently copied as an act of worship to the order

of Ma Ch'u-yu, priest of the Shen-ch'iian Monastery at Tun-huang

Hsien in Sha Chou, and his nephew the Taoist priest Ma Pao-i, on

behalf of their deceased ancestors in seven previous incarnations, the

parents that begot them, and all the living beings of the universe ".

Although the transmigration of souls is in no sense a Taoist doctrine,

we see that it has been duly taken over from the Buddhists, while the

phraseology of the Buddhist colophon is also minutely copied. On the

other hand, it would appear that Taoist priests or monks still retained

their own names instead of adopting religious appellations like their

rivals.

This is a good MS. on dark yellow paper, much defaced by the

intrusion of a Vinaya text which has been scribbled between the

columns rectoas well as covering the back of the roll.

720 (T'ANG).

S. 1910. HiP % g * A mi t'oching. Yet anothercopy ofthe smaller

Sukhavati-vyfuha (see under A.D. 710), with dharani. What remainsis a mere fragment hardly more than 2 feet long, but it has a postscriptwhich also appears, though in a somewhat differentform, in the Korean

edition of the Tripitaka: ti nR - Bmffl m f a a a

^- -t" Theprecedinghran has

^ ? ' ~ C ? "The preceding dharan.mIas

already been translated and issued for circulation. If, after

cleansing the mouth in the morning with a willow twig, scatteringflowers and incense before the image of Buddha, kneeling and joiningthe palms of the hands, it be daily recited seven, fourteen, or twenty-

one times, the four grave sins, the five wicked acts, and other trespassesmay be wiped out, the existing body will be afflicted by no untimely

calamities, one's final destiny will be the realm of immeasurable

longevity, and reincarnationin a female form will be escaped for ever.

Now that the Sanskrit text has been re-examined, and the Indian

Vinaya monk Buddhasangha and others have been consulted, we know

that the majestic power of this dharani is beyond all conception:

8




if recited one hundred times in the evening and again at noon, it

destroys the four grave sins and the five wicked acts, and will pluck

out the very roots of sin, ensuring rebirth in the regions of the West.

If in sincerity of spirit one is able to complete 200,000 recitations, then

perfect intelligence is born, and there will be no backsliding; if

300,000, then one will see AmithabhaBuddha face to face, and with

absolute certainty be rebornin the Pure Land of tranquillity and bliss ".

This is followed by the note: xj; $A ji A/ H ~Bp X

- 4 ," &.-

t "Copied by the disciple of pure faith Sun Ssiu-

chung on the 8th of the 4th moon of the 8th year of K'ai-yiian"[19th May, 720].

721 (T'ANG).

S. 3510. # - *Miaofa lien hua ching, ch. 5, p'in 14-17.

A good MS. of the Lotus Sfitra on soft brownishyellow paper, 363 feet

long, with a note at the end: H fH i ' X X X " Received and

[its precepts] upheld by the lay devotee Yin Hsiian-tan." This seems

to be the meaning of - j, a phrase which is often found in the

Tunhuang MSS. Another note follows in a different hand: f [;C]

JL T iAX - H V P v X i t )J ^I " -4 VJ

--- " On the 1st day of the 5th moon of the 9th year of K'ai[-yiian]

[31st May, 721] the lay devotee Yin Chia-liunrolled [and read through]

the whole of the sultraon behalf of all the living beings in the Ten

Regions of Space ".

721 (T'ANG).

S. 5714. A mutilatedfragment

of a letterending: f

jx Lt-- H , WE n " On a day in the llth moon of the 9th

year of K'ai-yiian [Nov.-Dec., 721]. From the Military Councillor

Wang [ ] ". This is followed by a hardly legible docket in large

characters, and another scribbled note.

723 (T'ANG).

S. 610. Three separate texts are included in this roll: (1) The

longest, P al ,t Ch'i yen lu, or " Face-expanding Record ", is a

collection of some thirty or forty humorous anecdotes. Two sub-headings are given after the title, namely, f 4 "Nimble wit " and

U f" Awkward situations ", while a third, fJJ 'fi"Jests ", appears

only in the body of the text. This work does not appear to survive

elsewhere,but its title will be found in the list of sources quoted at the

beginningof the ;* 2f )& T'ai p'ing kuangchi, that vast miscellany

of folklore and marvellous tales from which I have already extracted



L. GILES-

the story of the Sha-chou dragon (Bull. S.O.S., VII, pp. 554, 555).The latter was compiled in A.D. 977, some two and a half centuries

after the date of our MS. Colophon: f ?C+ -- 4;J Yi ti

B 7 " Copied on the 5th of the 8th moon of the 11th year of

K'ai-yiian " [9th September, 723]. Parallel to this, but in a different

hand: gl E :T j [for . ?] - M "Given by Liu Ch'iu-tzuf o his

second maternal uncle ".

(2) Jm a ~ ~ { "A miscellaneouscollection

of 1,300 important characters in current use ". There are fewer than

200 characters in this list as it stands, and they are grouped under

three headings: mn % "The Two Primordial Principles ";

a nli , " Clothing "; and g % " Music ".

(3) Verso,in a more careless hand: a short note on lucky days.The roll is 19 feet long, composed of dark yellow paper, and slightly

damaged at the end.

729 (T'ANG).S. 2624. No title remains to this, but from the body of the text

we find it to be the apocryphal sfitra -X gJ E

Chufo yao hsing she shen kung te ching, which is first mentioned in

K'ai yiian lu, A.D. 730, that is the year after the date of our presentroll. There are altogether nine copies of this sutra in the Stein

Collection, two of them complete. The title in all cases is A(3 m) INH * A I

Colophon: f P M pt p - ~ 5- l

f^E tf t -$ +Ai H J"

Copied by the

lay disciple Shih Kou-jen on behalf of his parents in seven previousincarnations and the parents who begot him [in this life], those who

have died in the past and will die in the future. Recorded on the 15th

of the 6th moon of the 17th year of K'ai-yiian" [15th July, 729].The roll is 5 feet long, and only 24 cm. wide. The paper is soft, buff-

coloured, and rather unevenly dyed.

743 (T'ANG).

S. 316. k ~ , e P *Ta sheng ch'i hsin lun, 1 ch. This, likeboth the other copies of the Mahayana-sraddhotpada-sastra(without

commentary) in the Collection, is Paramartha's translation (N. 1250,K. xxii, 5, d), although Siksananda had producedhis new version some

forty years before. Similarly, Kumarajiva's popular version of theDiamond Sfitra was never ousted from its dominant position, thoughthe great Hsiian-tsang was one of the rival translators.

10



DATED CHINESE MANUSCRIPTS IN THE STEIN COLLECTI ON 11

Colophon: i W-

A q + E= -l & ` ft N Al

"Copied by the monk Ling-hui of the Ch'ao-suMonastery on the 13th

of the 8th moon of the 2nd year of T'ien-pao" [15th September,743]. In

red: J m] " Examined and found to agree ". I have not found another

mention of the Ch'ao-suMonastery. The name seems to mean, "Bringthe laity to salvation." This is a very good MS. Verso is part of a

Buddhist sutra with commentary of the Dharmalaksana school, in a

runninghand, covering 8 feet. The total length of the roll is 19 feet.

749 (T'ANG).

S. 1324. The end of an official letter written in a good bold hand byf1J , Chang Ho-chung to S ;X I Teng Kuang-chao, and dated

X A ] J3 t+ "the 10th of the 4th moon of the 8th yearof T'ien-pao " [1st May, 749], with a docket in large characters. It

will be noted that ij is used here instead of *. The substitution was

officially made in the 1st moon of the 3rd year of T'ien-pao [744], and

remained in force until the 2nd moon of the 1st year of Ch'ien-yiian

[758]. I can discover no reason for the change.

749 (T'ANG).S. 4216. i

-L t a ? ; ,fi, g Ta pan jo po lo mi to hsin

ching, 1 ch. The bas been wrongly added to the title both at the

beginning and at the end, in fainter ink. This is the only occurrence

among our dated MSS. of the Prajina-paramita-hrdaya-sfitra, rans-

lated by Hsiian-tsang (N. 20), although there are over 100 copies of

this very short sutra in the Collection.

Colophon: X )I $ ;L n MT v a Wf A : X t

"Copied in the 9th moon of the 8th year of T'ien-pao [Oct.-Nov.,749] by the disciple Yin Yu-yen on behalf of his deceased father ".

721 (T'ANG).

S. 6454. +~ 5 ~ Shih chieh ching. A work on Taoist discipline,in imitation of the BuddhistVinaya. It treats of the ten commandments,

the first five of which are the same as the Buddhist, and of + E E

J Z p", fourteen kinds of personal demeanour when conversing with

different classes of people. Immediately after the text, eight lines ofcomment in verse have been inserted in a schoolboy hand.

Colophon: +] - ica ^ ip E , Z-

e*H

*" W A )^ W 1fa: p1 Pi k #ff m q1 W



L. GILES-

This long effusion, in small, closely written characters, is the work

of one Chang Hsiian-pien, aged 27, a lay member of the K'ai-yiianTaoist monastery in Feng-i Li, Yii-kuan Hsiang, Tun-huang Hsien,

Tun-huangChiin, and dated the 26th day,

keng-hsii,of the 1st moon,

the first day of which was i-yu, of hsin-mao,the 10th year of T'ien-paoin the great T'ang dynasty [26th February, 761]. It sets forth his sense

of guilt after slaying a man, and his redemption by means of this text.

The phraseology, as usual, shows strong Buddhist influence. Yii-kuan

(Jade Gate) Hsiang is one of the country districts enumerated in

S. 2669: see Bull. S.O.S., VII, p. 551.

This is a good MS. on yellow paper, 21 feet long.

751 (T'ANG).S. 6453. ; i ti g *Lao tzi tao te ching, ch. 1, 2 (_, T).

As always in the Stein MSS., the text is divided into two parts, Tao

ching and Te ching. The former begins with chapter 7 (of which onlytwo or three characters remain, while chaps. 8 and 9 are mutilated),the latter is complete. The handwriting is the same as in S. 6454,

above, and the colophon begins in exactly the same words, but breaks

off at X3 f JO. The paper is rather more coarse. The variations from

the received text are numerous, and should be carefully studied by

any future editor or translator.

753 (T'ANG).

S. 3686. -]J] 4 g *Chinkangpan jo ching(N. 10). This copyof the Diamond Sutra is well written on dark yellow paper, forminga roll nearly 15 feet long. The colophon shows the date in an unusual

place: yiJ j iV ^ X 3 +_ *~ , * t fm g f

"[Copy made to the order of] the field officerWang Feng in the 12thyear of T'ien-pao for the general benefit of all living beings in the

universe, that they may all share in the happiness resulting therefrom".

754 (T'ANG).S. 6006. 0 4 P Wei hsing lun, " Reflections on the [Buddha-]

nature." This short discourse, which unfortunately is in a badlymutilated condition, appears to be complete, though it has no title

12




beyond that given in the colophon: X-- __t =i: ? t

mme;MW Wa ^^ 5 iA Ml"On the 13th of the 5th moon of the 13th year of T'ien-pao

[8th June, 754], after having superintendeda feast and merry-making,about midday I rested awhile at home with Shih Huai-ch'ing, dis-

cussing the Law of Buddha; Shih Huai-ch'ing then proceeded to take

the pen, and Huai-pao dictated this Wei hsing lun in one chiian.

Known firstly as Chang Huai-pao, secondly as Huai-kan, thirdly as

P'u-chiao. Fifth appellation, I-lun. Designated by the elders Meng,Fan, and others as the lay disciple Hai-shen ".

The composition of this note is clumsy, and the meaning of the last

portion is somewhat obscure. The roll is about 2 feet long, and at the

end we find the heading of another text: --+ k K -T flt T

"Eulogy of the Ten Great Disciples, by Seng Tzui-chieh". A sub-

heading is half torn away, but appears to be * SIj ^ t ,, V -

" No. 1. The Wise Thoughts ofSariputra

". The handwriting is clear,the paper whitish but discoloured.

755 (T'ANG).

S. 3392. This MS. was removed from a fragmentary copy of the

Diamond Suitra,to which it served as backing. It is part of an official

document, 4 feet long, containing three brief reports in a bold hand,dated respectively the 2nd May, 22nd June, and 24th June, 755.

These dates, and also the text of the last report, are covered with

repeated impressions of a large red seal, which reads , N I,=1Ht,J f;? fl1 "Seal of Mr. Chi, shang-shuand ssu-hsiin ". j X "Superin-tendent of meritorious deeds" was originally the title of an officer

whose functions are described in ChouLi, xxx, 1. Between the reports,in minute but widely spaced characters, are titles of functionaries.

The end of this year, 755, saw the outbreak of An Lu-shan's rebellion,the repercussions of which were felt so disastrously in Tunhuang.

755 (T'ANG).S. 2500. ~ 1 * P'u sa chieh pen su, commentary on

Bodhisattva-pratimoksa, agreeing with K. Supp. A, lx, 1 (2). This

roll, 74 feet long, is made up of three fragments containing practicallythe whole work in 3 chiian, but not quite consecutive. At the end is

a note: pq 1] f [for R] ; _" Composedby the Buddhist

sramana I-chi". s ; is the name of a well-known Korean monk



whose biography will be found in Sung kao seng chuan, iii, 7. This is

followed by a colophon: R [W1] + P i A. g&1 IA Pq R

M ~ i 1ll I; { >Pr ?P3 ek '= " Copied andheard [i.e. taken down from a lecture] in this school of sila in the 14th

year of T'ien[-pao]. This [commentary] is truly the way of salvation,

inasmuch as it establishes a guide for our conduct. Note by the

sramana T'an-yu, a native of Tunhuang". The date is renderedcertain

by the use of &, which as we saw superseded p from 744 to 757

inclusive. This is a fine cursive MS. on thin, soft, whitish paper, some-

what damaged by a series of holes.

756 (T'ANG)

S. 717. t J NE *Miao fa lien hua ching (N. 134), ch. 6,

p'in 21-3. The end of the roll is mutilated, and only the first part of

the colophon remains: X, V + t * A I EHI "On the 20th

of the 8th moon of the 15th year of T'ien-pao . . ." [18th September,

756]. A good, bold MS. on rather thick yellow paper, which

Mr. Clapperton describes as having a " smooth surface, well polished

without any hairs. Thickness, -0055 inch. Hard, thick, and tough,with a very resistent tear. Very closely woven and even in texture.

Laid lines scarcely discernible. Very hard-sized and easy to write on.

This paper was made just before the rapid deterioration in the quality

of. Chinese papers [due to An Lu-shan's rebellion]. Composition:

Paper mulberry".

757 (T'ANG).S. 1698. This is a roll

containing)

]: ,

i*Ta

panjo po lo mi to ching, ch. 112. On a patch at the back is inscribed:

-+ g -- a " Sftra of the Ten Commandments.

2nd year of Chih-te " [757].

758 (T'ANG).

S. 5856. Apparently the end of a letter, with date:-

'i- F H "Respectfully . . . on a day in the 2nd moon

of the 3rd year of Chih-te " [March-April, 758]. The regnal period

7C Ch'ien-yiianbegan in the 2nd moon, but, of course, the changewas not reported in Tunhuang until much later.

759 (T'ANG).

S. 5357. *Miao fa lien hua ching, ch. 1, p'in 1, 2. Colophon:

xF= $-L X +ti F 3i P93 MJMREA a - tlf i* Mx i ftVT?B~$SP fl !Easa ^gt^>&Af,

14 L. GILES-




J_ x ~a ] "A,, IL, Af ]-

~ B" Note of personalcopying done by Huang-fu Ming-luan, Assistant commissioner at the

military station of the Jade Gate, hsiao-wei of Chao-wu,Right Garrisoncommander of P'eng-ch'ih Fu in Ning Chou, che-ch'ung-yiian-wai,

chih-t'ung-cheng uan, decorated with the purple-and-goldfish-satchel,

shang-chu-kuo,on behalf of his deceased wife Madame Shang, on the

15th of the 7th moon of the 2nd year of Ch'ien-yiian" [12th August,

759].Chao-wu was in i ] ][ Chang-i Chiin (the modern Kanchow).

The official designation , p was first used under the T'ang. This is

a fairly good MS. on light yellow paper.

760 (T'ANG).

S. 3824. A 4-ft. roll of buff paper. Recto: part of a dharani sutra,in mediocre handwriting. Verso: The end of chapter 18 of the Filial

Piety Classic, with title: t * X X -- _ Yil chu

hsiao ching chi i ping chu, 1 ch. The commentary, though said to be" imperial ", is not that which has come down to us under the name of

Hsiian Tsung. There is further text in red, then four lines in Tibetancharacter, though the language appears to be Turkish. Next comes

part of a calendar, or list of days, perhaps for divination purposes.Below this is an " order " (!j), with the date $ ; --$ " 3rd yearof Ch'ien-yiian" [760]. The month and the day are added in a little

frame: : Y = t - IJ" 27th of the 5th moon" [14th July].

The handwriting verso is very clumsy and inaccurate, probably that of

a schoolboy.

762 (T'ANG).

S. 4000. f{- f g I * Fo shuo chih hui hai tsangching,ch. 2 (T). This is an apocryphal siutra ncorporating certain passagesfrom the Nieh p'an ching (N. 113). Four copies are preserved in the

Stein Collection: S. 2169, which contains the whole of ch. 1, gives the

complete title as ; ft i OR t V N Pt B L, I f. S. 5181 is

dated 659, and has already been discussed. S. 4103 contains ch. 2,

without the beginning. All these are very good copies of the middle ofthe seventh century. The present roll, though not so fine a MS., is

interesting on account of its colophon, which records a personal

experience of the owner: k) : . ;t )t X JL H + g

Ajf t; ~: ~fi g -TN1~~ 1_~ W~ -P [forgi]

sIJ 4 i g * -A e e A TNHii w XdX?e



L. GILES-

~ff ? i {fXi " On the 29th of the 6th moon of the 1st year

of Pao-ying in the Great T'ang dynasty [25th July, 762], the monk

Ch'ang-huiof the Yen-hsing Monasteryat the MiddleCapital [Loyang],

having been requested to proceed to this desert station west of the

city of Tunhuang to make an offering, accidentally came upon this

sfitra, an imperfect copy without a title at the beginning. Now he is

about to go to the east branch of the Sung watercourse in order to

report to Buddha, and is hoping to procure the first roll of the sutra,

and thus form a complete copy. For the information of posterity he

has inscribed this note at the end of the roll, setting forth this

unexpected occurrence. And he, with all his companions, prays that

the merit accruingtherefrom may fall upon them all, and that togetherwith all living beings they may participate in the Way of Buddha ".

The roll is 20 feet long. The paper is unevenly dyed, and rangesin colour from a pale pink to a sort of reddish yellow at the end.

763 (T'ANG).

S. 2436. * ~ X ~ ~-~ ~; ~ Ta sheng ch'i hsin lun liieh shu,ch. 1. An unknown commentary on Asvaghosa's

" Awakening of

Faith " (N. 1250), by the monk - B) T'an-k'uang. It would seem to

be a slightly abbreviated version of his Ta sheng ch'i hsin lun ) "

kuangshih, of which there are three MSS. in the Collection, containing

ch. 3 and part of ch. 4. Colophon: ~ t nc )^]"E ^ ]^ i, " Record of copy made in the Lung-hsing Monasteryat Sha-chou at the beginning of the 9th moon of the 2nd year of

Pao-ying " [October, 763].The nien-hao had been changed to fi W Kuang-te in August,

but the news had not yet reached Tunhuang. i[ for 4 is probablyan inadvertence, as the latter had been in use again for nearly six

years (see above, A.D.749). This lost commentary is of great interest

to Buddhist scholars, and Dr. Yabuki reproduces the whole roll,

441 feet long, in his n, , f , pl. 56-61 (1). It is a good cursive

MS. on thin buff paper.

764 (T'ANG).

S. 721. ~ ~IJ jffe R Chin kang pan jo ching chih tsan,ch. 2 (T). A commentary on the Diamond Sutra, also by T'an-

k'uang, ch. 1 of which is preserved entire in S. 2782. This is one of the

longest rolls (76 feet), and the whole of it is in cursive script. Colophon:

X X = t ' X i f " A w is' AXHEA X Pt

16




" Copying completed by the Buddhist scholar P'u-tsun in the Lung-

hsing Monastery at Sha-chou on the 5th of the 6th moon of the 2nd

year of Kuang-te " [8th July, 764].Verso is a patchwork of various texts, the sheets of which have

been put together more or less at random in order to make a roll for

the Diamond Sftra commentary. We find (1) a commentary on the

Nirviana Sftra; (2) a compilation from several sftras by ~ l a.

3E Prince Wen-hsiian of the Ch'i dynasty (A.D. 479-501); (3) a com-

mentary on the Vimalakirti Sfitra; (4) a fragment of the " Three

Stages " teaching. The handwriting of these ranges from cursive to

k'ai-shu. The paper is thin, soft, and whitish in colour.

765 (T'ANG).

S. 2616. | gp % 4J [* r X m Yao shih liu li

kuangju lai pen yian kung te ching (N. 171). The text is complete

except for mutilation at the beginning. This is our second dated

specimen of the Bhaisajyaguru-purvapranidhana-sfitra (cf. A.D. 695,

S. 5005), which became a great favourite in the Tunhuang region, no

fewer than sixty-nine copies having been brought thence by Sir AurelStein. Colophon in a fine neat hand : g - N f^ !2,i W

-- A t -- ) -] : E , ~ f ~-- - " The discipleChia Ch'ung-chiin, praying for peace, copied out the Yao shih chingin 1 chtian with pious intent on the 15th of the 12th moon of the 2nd

year of Kuang-t"e [llth January, 765]. The empire was still in a very

disturbed condition after An Lu-shan's rebellion, hence the special

prayer for peace.

This is a good MS. on yellow oiled paper, 19 feet long. On a patchat the back is inscribed k e e ff "Priest of the Great Cloud

Monastery ".

769 (T'ANG).

S. 514. Recto: f . ~ 3 Chungchingyao ts'uan*, with preface.A series of short extracts from nearly fifty miscellaneous Buddhist

works, mostly sfitras, though Vinaya and Abhidharma are also repre-

sented. These passages"

are selected for the profundity of theirmeaning and the beauty of their expression " (W, { H - *), and

are grouped under ten chapters (_), which are enumerated at the

beginning: (1) ; (2) p f ; (3) a ^ ; (4) Dt [ 5; (5) jit;

(6) JR :; (7) e *; (8) * OM; (9) J S_; (10) l ; ,,.

Chapters8-10 are missing in the present roll.

Verso: a list of the population of 1S I-ho Li, a hamlet inVOL. IX. PART 1. 2



L. GILES-

Im , g5 Hsiian-ch'iian Hsiang, Tun-huang Hsien, Sha Chou, withtheir holdings in land. Of each member of a household the name, age,

relationship, and description (e.g. T " adult male of military age ")are given, and sometimes a further note recording his or her death

subsequent to the actual taking of the census. The date of the final

compilation appears to be the 4th year of Ta-li (769). The documentis covered with brick-redimpressions of a seal reading f ,~ ;Z F11"Seal of Tun-huang Hsien ", and, at the joinings of the sheets, with

orange-coloured impressions of another seal, which may be ~J )H

I ] j fFP

"Seal of the[ ]

Fu at Sha Chou". A section of thistext was printed in 1924 by Lo Chen-yii in his ~jJ+Fj3k %i ;" Sha

chou wen lu pu, ff. 9-11, with notes. The roll is about 251 feet long,a mediocre but clear MS. on whitish paper. The handwriting rectois bolder and more careless.

774 (T'ANG).

S. 4052. This roll of thin buff paper contains a commentary on

the Diamond Sutra in good cursive script; but it is chiefly remarkable

for its length (99 feet), in which respect it stands easily first amongthe Stein MSS. It has no title remaining, but there is a short colophonin faint red ink: i , L $ R l is uI I, Z?Yd " Note made at the close of a lecture at the Lung-hsingMonastery in Sha-chou, on the 30th of the 6th moon of the 9th yearof Ta-li " [12th August, 774]. I take , to be a homophone for J.

776 (T'ANG).

S. 6203. This is the composition of a layman, written in elegantliterary style-a good MS. on buff paper, 21 feet long. The mutilateddate at the end has several points of interest: r kt J~ [Lk ~]t- -- g 1A M A ElFi . In the first place, "the

Dragon settles " is a phrase equivalent to j ~. In Huai-nan Tzu,

p3 " " Black Dragon" is a name for the spirit of the Great Year,and thus the Year-star came to be known as the Dragon. -,: is the

ordinary substitute for the cyclical character pq, which became

taboo because a character with the same phonetic [IjJwas the personalname of the first T'ang emperor'sfather. The regnal period is missing,but there were only five ping-ch'enyears in the T'angdynasty, namely,656, 716, 776, 836, and 896; and of these, 776 is the only one which isalso the 11th year of a regnal period, so this must be the one required.i seems to be a mistake, and one might hazard the emendation

EA,were it not that the two words are more similar in sound now than

18




they were a thousand years ago. The note will thus run: " Com-

posed (?) on a day in the 8th moon in the ping-ch'en year, the 11th

of [Ta-li] in the Great T'ang dynasty" [Aug.-Sept., 776].

776 (TIBETAN KINGDOM).

S. 3475. K 3 T ] j if * Ching ming ching kuan chung su,ch. 1, p'in 2 (end only)-4. Out of 167 sfitra-commentariesin the Stein

Collection no fewer than fifty-six, or just over one-third, are com-

mentaries on the Vimalakirti or " Pure Name " Sfitra. The presentroll is one of a

largenumber

containingcommentaries on it S

Seng-chao's t t S Chu wei mo, compiled in Kuan-chung, the

metropolitan province. Thus it is really a commentary on a com-

mentary. In S. 3770 the full title, Ching ming ching _ ) chi chieh

kuan chungsu, is given, and the compiler is said to be j t Tao-i of

the R V Tzti-sheng Monastery at Loyang.

Colophon: E :X /- X ,jA PqL fi t.

m t X Vi 1J Ei *1 7 mk f 9 X

the 2h ofA r mf e7M Er X; tf " Onthe 28th of the 3rd moon of the 7th year of Ta-li in the Great T'ang

dynasty [5th May, 772], the sramana T'i-ch'ing copied out this com-

mentary at the K'ai-yiian Monastery in Kuo-chou [Honan] for the

benefit of monks and nuns, clerics and laymen, in order to extend

the knowledge of this stitra for transmission to future students, praying

that its hidden treasure may ever remain open, and the principle ofthe bh-utatathata be widely published, that the Lotus Palace [thePure Land of the Sambhogakaya] may be eternally fair, and the

sources of Prajinaplentifully distributed. Again, on the 16th of the

9th moon of the ch'en year [1st November, 776 ?], the lay discipleSo Yu-yen finished copying out this roll afresh at Sha-chou, a

dependency of the Great Tibetan [kingdom], on behalf of P'u-i, a

nun of the P'u-kuang Convent ".

I have already tried to explain the puzzle of the double dating inthis colophonin Bull. S.O.S., VII, p. 560. It will be noticed that in the

ch'en year (which it seems reasonable to suppose is 776, though it

might be 788 or even later) Sha-chou had lost its independence andwas incorporated in the Tibetan empire. Both parts of the colophonare written in the same hand, which, of course, must be that of So

Yu-yen, who seems to have copied T'i-ch'ing's note as well as the



L. GILES-

commentary itself. This is a fairly good MS. on soft buff paper,43 feet long.

780 (T'ANG).S. 2851. Among the miscellaneous Buddhist documents in the

Stein Collection there are a number of so-called Jt fJ, or certificates

showing that certain persons solemnly " accepted ", that is, undertook

to observe, five, eight, or ten Buddhist commandments. The ceremony-was performed in a temple by a priest, whose name is always given.The present certificate, which is rather badly mutilated, publishes the

fact that a woman named # ft Miao-te accepted ten commandmentsin the 3 J Ling-t'u temple at Sha-chou on the 30th of the 1st moon

of the 15th year of Ta-li [10th March,780]. This is the only certificate

in which the commandments are actually enumerated; they differ

a little from the usual list, being directed against (1) i& ; jt -r tJi

wilfully killing sentient beings; (2) fi ft AkPt 4 stealing other

men's property; (3) t [~] lustful desires ; (4) i- lying; (5)

fi& E [, ft[{] ~t ij buying wine for oneself or others; (6)

-feI t a ~ E X publishing the sins of monks or laymen;(7) - X O self-commendation; (8) M|':: Jt ~ avarice,ormeanness;

(9) ~ Pj k )k PyJanger, and the causing of anger in others; (10)

~p i~ 4ftI p slanderingthe Triratna, or causing others

to do so. The officiating.priest was j a J il1i )| "Chih-kuang,transmitter of sila and Master of the Law . The size of the sheet is

27-5 x 36 cm.

781 (T'ANG).S. 5864. This is a petition for the return of a donkey lent ten

months previously, dated in the 2nd moon of the 16th year of Ta-li

[March, 781]. The regnal period Ta-li ended in 779, so that not only

this petition but the loan itself must have been made several months

after the beginning of the new period (Chien-chung). The document,

which is in a mutilated condition, measures 24-5 x 12-5 cm.

782 (T'ANG).

S. 5871. (See Plate I.) There are some fifty legal documents inthe Stein Collection. The present is a contract, somewhat mutilated,

relating to the repayment of a loan, consisting of seventeen piculs of

grain, made by k Ch'ien-ying, a monk of the IS : Hu-kuo

monastery, in the 17th year of Ta-li [782]. This date shows that the

change of nien-haowas unknown in the Tunhuang district for as long

as three years after it had taken place. At the end of the document

20




are seen the names of the borrower, one OJff t Ho Hsin-yiieh,aged 37, his wife A% - 4J Ma San-niang (Tertia), aged 35, and his

daughter * AftHo Ta-niang, aged 13. Ho promises repayment inthe 9th moon; if he defaults, Ch'ien-ying is authorized to recouphimself from his debtor's live stock. The formula ? A 1i t a

$1 | "for fear faith should not be kept, a personal agreement is

herewith drawn up ", appears regularly in these contracts. ($L maybe a homophone for v this ". In S. 5826 its place is taken by Jfl.)A curious feature is the impression of the finger-tip in ink as a sort of

guarantee of good faith, alluded to here in the wordsI f

; gg.It must not be imagined that this served any purpose of identificationlike our modern finger-prints, for the impression is merely a smallblob of ink in which no fine lines are traceable. It seems comparableratherwith the custom of " making one's mark " practised by illiteratesin this country; for the names of the debtor and his family are notactual signatures. The document is in somewhat cursive handwriting,on a single sheet of thin grey-buff paper, 29 x 36 cm.

782 (T'ANG).S. 5867 is another contract, this time correctly dated the 12th of

the 7th moon of the 3rd year of Chien-chung[25th August, 782], andalso relating to the repayment of a debt. The creditor is again the monk

Ch'ien-ying, who seems hardly to observe the Buddhist preceptinculcating a mercifulspirit; for the debtor, Mg ,J MaLing-chuang,is a novice aged only 20, who having borrowed1,000 cash binds himselfto pay interest at the exorbitant rate of 10 per cent per month!

Principal and interest are both to be repayable on demand, and failingthis, distraint may be made on Ma'sproperty in lieu of cash. Appendedare the names of Ma himself, his mother (whose maiden name is

illegible), aged 50, and his younger sister MaSecunda, aged 12, togetherwith their finger-marks. This is a faint manuscript, on thin grey-buffpaper like the last, measuring 28-5 x 38-5 cm.

787 (T'ANG).

S. 5869. A mutilatedfragment of

acontract, with names attached,dated the 20th of the 4th moon of the 8th year of Chien-chung[12th

May, 787]. Again we find the Tunhuangchronologylagging far behind,for the year should actually be the 3rd of Cheng-yiian. A semi-cursiveMS. on thin buff paper, 13 5 x 36 cm.

788 (T'ANG).S. 6972. Small mutilated fragments of a contract, one of which



L. GILES-

contains a reference to the hiring of a donkey ( g ^ -) and bears

the datej;7 IlV l

"4th[year]

ofCheng-yiian

".

789 (TIBETANKING1DOM).

S. 3485. ~4jWNiJ : , *Chinkangpojo ching. The Diamond Sfitra

(N. 10), a mediocreMS. on yellow oiled paper, 16feet long. Note ~ ,

the old transliteration for prajnd, which is not used by Kumarajiva.The colophon, in very small characters, has already been translated

inBull. S.O.S., VII, p. 561: * k e -L t+ - fI

i? A ~ TA- [for [];& iL t " On the 11thof the 7th moon of the chi-ssu year of the Great Tibetan dynasty,

reverently copied by Wang T'u-hun to secure the blessing of peace for

his whole family, the country having fallen into turmoil ". There can

be very little doubt that this chi-ssu year is 789, in which case the exact

date is the 11th August. There are a few inscribedpatches on the back,

one being the end of a Buddhist text dated the 17th of the 7th moon

of a ting-maoyear.

790 (T'ANG).

S. 5862. A fragment,* 10 x 5-5 cm., from the beginning of a

document, with the date A 7x * 4 "6th year of Cheng-yiian".

793 (T'ANG).S. 1185. This roll consists of two sheets stuck together, each con-

taining a short apocryphal siutra: (1) - X Chiu

chu chung sheng k'u nan ching, a popular text of which there are

sixteen copies in the Collection. The handwriting is fairly good.Colophon: i $v A aC, i E l HI] t ai

; F X X, k-] Xl 1t k "On the 4th of the lst moon of

chi-hai, the 4th year of T'ien-fu [26th January, .939], the disciple and

monk Yuan-hui upheld and recited this dharan.isuitra[in order to be

delivered from] his trouble and affliction ". (2) ~J H ,f Ch'iian shan

ching, 1 ch. In a somewhat freer hand. Colophon: A 7C t l iE

kt H Tf"

Promulgated on the 23rd of the 1st moon of the

9th year of Cheng-yiian " [9th March, 793]. The differenceof date issurprising, especially as the quality of the paper is much the same in

both portions of the roll. If -F has the meaning I assign to it, the

obvious explanation would seem to be that 793 is not the actual date

of copying. But, as we shall see, there are strong reasons against that

view. The sutra itself opens with the formulaj _W IB {

[for _mlr 1t 9 EJ Q fAE{ T

22




[: Di ,9 H H " The ch'eng-hsiangof the Left, Chia Tan, is com-

manded topublish

this in all districts(chou),

that allliving beings maybe stimulated to goodness, and by daily repeating ' Amida Buddha '

one thousand times may get rid of evil and walk in the path of virtue ".

Chia Tan is the famous cartographer: for his biography see T'ang shu,

ch. 166; Chiu t'ang shu, ch. 138.

793 (T'ANG).

S. 4923. Another copy of the Ch'iian shan ching, in all respectssimilar to the preceding. A good MS. on thick brownish buff paper,

30-5 x 43-5 cm.

793 (T'ANG).

S. 4924. Chiu chu chungshengk'u nan ching, 1 ch. Cf. S. 1185 (1),above. The colophon, paper, and handwriting are the same as in

S. 4923.

800 (TIBETAN KINGDOM).

S. 2729. (1) An official report, written in a small hand, and dated

in the 3rd moon of the ch'en year, giving a list of monasteries andnunneries (in Tunhuang ?), with the names of their inmates. There

are 139 monks, distributed as follows among these nine monasteries:

g ^ Lung-hsing (28), ; Ta-yiin (16), e e Lien-t'ai (10), m g|

Ling-t'u (17), t PJ)Chin-kuang-ming (16), ;C c Yung-an (11),T 7C;Ch'ien-yuiian 19), & 7C K'ai-yuiian(13), X , Pao-en (9).

The nunneriesare only four in number, yet they hold as many as 171

nuns: g {~ Ling-hsiu (67), - ; P'u-kuang (47), ;k ^ Ta-sheng

(44), jm ,K Se-yiian-pao (13). (2) In a different hand, a *phoneticglossary* to the ff , Shih ching, pt. 1, books 1-10, including preface.This is a good bold MS., which has been joined on to the preceding in

order to make a roll for (verso)a *treatise on divination. Here, amongother things, the following planets and towns are paired off together:'

,~ Ying-huo (Mars) is assigned to j AZ Wu-wei (the modern

Liang-chou); AJ Chen-hsing (Saturn) to M 1a Chiu-ch'iian (Su-

chou); i j T'ai-po (Venus) to ] i Chang-i (Kan-chou); ,

Ch'en-hsing (Mercury) to ~ H Chin-ch'ang (east of An-hsi); and

li Sui-hsing (Jupiter) to Tunhuang. Colophon: ;g [for I]

A x t! 35i -t- E HF H1[I"

[Copiedby .. .] ofSha-chou

on the 23rd of the 5th moon of the keng-ch'enyear in the Great

Barbarian [i.e. Tibetan] dynasty " [18th June, 800]. See Bull. S.O.S.,

VII, p. 560. Written in a neat hand on light drab-coloured paper,about 133 feet long.



L. GILES-

803 (T'ANG).

S. 912.K

Ch'iian shanching. This

is afairly good MS.on what Mr. Clapperton describes as " a dirty brown, coarse, flabby

paper ... Very poorly made, but tough on account of the great length

of the strong fibres ... Soft-sized and difficult to write upon, on account

of a very rough and hairy surface. Eight coarse laid lines to the inch,

very uneven and irregular. Composition: Paper mulberryand ramie ".With it commences a new series of this sfitra, all the copies of which

are dated the 23rd of the 1st moon of the 19th year of Cheng-yiian

[18th February, 803]. The roll is nearly 11 feet long.803 (T'ANG).

S. 1349. Ch'iian shan ching, 1 ch. There are two copies of the siutra

on this roll, the first dated simply the 23rd of the 1st moon of chia-shen,the 19th year of Cheng-yiian,while the second has a more detailed note:

T 1&i ;L A_" Text issued on the 23rd of the 1st moon of chia-shen,the 19th [year] of Cheng-yiian; copied out on the 29th day of the 5th

moon [21st June], and this note made accordingly". The cyclical datepoints to A.D. 804, which does not agree; I have preferredto take the

19th year as being correct, for in S. 4739, below, we find this date

without any cyclical characters. It is hard to decide whether I 3means exactly the same thing as -~ seemed to mean in S. 1185 (2),namely, "published" or "promulgated"; for, though the dates

are different, yet we do find the term T- used in S. 4739, which is

also dated the 18th February, 803.

803 (T'ANG).

S. 2853. [Ch'iianshan ching.] A mutilated fragment bearing the

date A JC+ JL .I.

803 (T'ANG).S. 3792. Ch'iian shan ching, 1 ch. An indifferent MS. on coarse

buff paper, with date : A x + JL * q3 q~ a iE ) A -= H-.

803 (T'ANG).

S. 3871. Another copy of the same, with the significant additionof A " copied " to the colophon. The text is precededby four columnsof scribbled characters from the initial portion of the sutra. Variants

are: ;t for ; ; the insertion of & before J; the omission of-before ^. At this point there has been added in different ink:

7c 4 9 A ;Il f. LA-, []. For the Ch'ien-yiianmonastery, see

S. 2729 (1), underA.D. 800, and several other MSS. But the note seems

24




to be merely scribble, as Vg -J A makes no sense, and Hj f is an

unsatisfactory name for a priest.

803 (TANG).

S. 4739. Ch'iian shan ching, 1 ch. The date is again the same, but

without cyclical characters, and with the addition of -F. A mediocre

MS. on coarse yellowish paper.

803 (T'ANG).

S. 5113. Ch'iian shan ching, 1 ch. In large handwriting on rather

coarse buff paper. Colophonas in S. 3792, above. Versoare two notes:

(1) - " ii X fI - '- " One bundle of bamboos taken at the

South Gate ". (2) ~y : pe, f "Notes on the Pofa [ming men

lun] taken down by hand, and other bundles ".

This concludes the sequence of dated copies of this sftra. While

all nine are dated the 23rd of the 1st moon, it is remarkablethat two

should be assigned to the 9th year, and the other seven to the 19th

year, of Cheng-yiian; for the latter year, as we have seen, is said to be

that in which the text was issued. One is almost driven to conjecturethat JL in S. 1185 (2) and S. 4923 is a mistake for +t )L. The fact

that one of the rolls at least is definitely stated to have been copiedon the 18th February, 803, establishes a strong presumption that the

others were also copied on that date.

803 (T'ANG).S. 5820. (See Plate I.) The purport of this document,* 27 x 14 cm.

in size, is the bartering of a three-year-old black cow ( try Z4-

gf- -- j), absolutely unmarked (jX; f jp ?B), in exchange for12 piculs of wheat and 2 piculs of millet, by the nun ) *BMing-hsiang,on account of her lack of food and her outstanding debts. The other

party to the bargain is one ] j Chang Pao-yii, and it is stipulatedthat the exchange be effected immediately. Dated the 25th of the

intercalary 10th moon [f for fq] of the wei year. Intercalary moons

after any particular month are so rare that they are most useful in

helping to fix a date. In the present instance, the only date within

the bounds of probability works out as the 12th December, 803, andthis may safely be accepted as correct. Ming-hsiangappears again as

the vendor of a _ Mf4? "first-class ox " in S. 5826. Her age is giventhere as 53.

A gap of forty-five years now intervenes before we reach our next

dated document. This was the period of Tibetan domination which was

brought to an end by the revolution of Chang I-ch'ao.

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Dated Mss in the Stein Collection 9-1

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