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Dated Chinese Manuscripts in the Stein Collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Lionel Giles
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Extract

The dated documents belonging to this last half-century of the Stein Collection are more numerous than ever, but also for the most part scrappy and fragmentary. There are very few Buddhist canonical texts, but a considerable variety of miscellaneous prayers, eulogies, certificates, letters, contracts, calendars, inventories, and so forth. The general impression one obtains is of a period of gradually increasing poverty and political unrest, in which the civilization introduced by the Chinese is seriously threatened, and Buddhism, though still maintaining its position as the dominant religion, has greatly degenerated since the palmy days of the early T'ang dynasty.

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Articles
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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , February 1943 , pp. 148 - 219
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1943

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References

Page 216 Note 1 Mār Sisim, Mani's successor who was crucified.

Page 216 Note 2 Parthian Yamag, Waldschmidt-Lentz, I, 12, presumably “Twin”, see B.B.B, 27, n. 3.

Page 216 Note 3 This name of a D'ien-d'dt = Dēodār = Monk (Uigur Dintar) may contain the prophet's name, or else the compound form of Sogdian mān “mind”, i.e. māne. The first part of*Tsi tâ (t'ś'ie)-mâng-niei is less clear. The whole reminds one of the word read as sytm'ntk by Lentz (W.-L., i, 89, Xo. 13) which, however, seems to be sytmn'w', the -'w'(k) abstract of *sytmn'k = *saydmane. Should Lentz's identification of the word with the eleventh šahrdārīft prove correct, the most likely meaning of Sogd. *saydmane would be “harmonious”.

Page 216 Note 4 The first words of the Middle Persian original text, or of some other MPers. hymn which had the same melody as the song translated by Tao-ming. That the original was in MPers. (and not in Parthian), is evident from the last word, â-piu-lâm MPers. āfurām “we praise” (Parthian āfrīnām). Since the original in all likelihood was an alphabet-acrostic, we may safely assume that the first character, niao (*tieu), stands in the place of wu (-uo). Thus, *.uo-liatpiuāt-āi, may represent MPers. 'wrt fr'y, and the whole, ārt(< awart ?) frāy āfurām could be translated as “Come! Let us praise more“.

Page 216 Note 5 *Ia-kiu-p'iu=Jacob, see Waldschmidt-Lentz, i, p. 8.

Page 216 Note 6 Should wei be a mistake for mo, then *Muât-Mâu might represent Mār-Ammō. It is likely that this famous disciple of Mani's, his apostle to the Parthians, was also the author of the Parthian hymn-cycles.

Page 216 Note 7 I.e. a Gāthā that begins with the syllables * â-p'iugt-lji = āfrī. This is not a complete word, but merely the first part of words such as MPers. āfrīn, āfrīd, āfrīdag, Parthian āfrīwan, āfrīnām, āfrīd, etc., all of which figure frequently at the commencement of hymns.―W. B. H.

Page 216 Note 8 = Srōš-Ahrai, the Middle Persian designation of the “Column of Glory”, the “Perfect Man”, cf. Chavannes-Pelliot, Traitè, 26, 522, n. 1. But in our text the first three characters are

Page 216 Note 9 Here and everywhere in Mr. Tsui's translation, “Sanskrit” renders fan, the transcription of Brahma, used for “Sanskrit, Pali”, etc. The Manichaeans evidently borrowed this term from Buddhists and employed it for the language of their own Scriptures (Middle Persian and Parthian).

Page 216 Note 10 Lit. “limb, part”, also used for the “limbs of the soul”. The peculiar phrase “collect your limbs“ (Mir.Man., iii, h 87, p 12) may have been borrowed from the Gospel ace. to Philip: “⃛ I have gathered together the dispersed limbs” (John, xi, 52, does not have the essential word “limbs”). Cf. Alfaric, ii, 182 sqq.

page 217 Note 1 The caption is illegible on the rotograph copy at my disposal.

page 217 Note 2 The mysterious word in the second line is “wysh = Buddh. Sogd. ” w'ys (on which see Benveniste, JRAS., 1933, 74 sq.).

page 217 Note 3 It comprised 561 w'ys = strophes (not “words”; formally = Av. vak-, but here in meaning = Av. vaĀastašti-); the average number of strophes in a handām was, therefore, 46 or 47.

page 217 Note 4 Also separated into 'nSm'yt in the Sogdian edition.

page 217 Note 5 Lit. “referring (-agān) to *qšud = Syriac qduš (qudšā)”.

page 217 Note 6 There was also a Middle Persian edition (for example M 379a = Parth. M 71).

page 217 Note 7 But see M 95v (Mir.Man., ii, 319 sq.), especially the pun in verse 6: kwm'b zwhr dy'd [thus to be read] kw zwrmnd bw'n; cf. M 653: z[wr] 'yg zwrmnd bryd zwhr 'w 'b 'wš td nyrwg kw bw'd zwrmnd (td = Saṃdhi form of dt = Pahlavi dt “he gives”, from Olran. dadāti by haplology). This passage strongly favours the assumption that the G. īg G.-zīndag had originally been written in MPers.

page 217 Note 8 Or “Friend of the rich Light Beings”.

page 217 Note 9 It is clear also from the outward appearance of the manuscript M 855. Lentz may have been mislead by the anticipatory caption of the recto page. Similarly, the fragment M 233 (cf. W.-L., p. 66) has the caption nys'r'd hwydgm'n on the recto page, although the text of Huvīdagmān begins only on the following verso page.

page 217 Note 10 Uncertain, but hardly to be read [hz]r.

page 217 Note 11 Illegible, possibly also iii, or even v. The number of the cantos of Huvīdagmān is unknown; there were at least six.

Page 218 Note 1 Sometimes, however, a Chinese strophe seems to cover two Parthian ones. Thus, the hymns with twelve Chin, strophes (185–196, 210–221, 223–234, 236–247, 249–260; one less in 198–208) may represent alphabet-acrostics which in Parthian have twenty-four strophes (incl. j - after z-, and n- after t-). E.g. in 236–247, Alef = 236a-b, cf. W.-L., 116, 12–3, but Beth = 236C-d, cf. W.-L., 116, 15 (see Mir.Man., iii, 871, n. 4) from a different hymn.

Page 218 Note 2 A closer study of Mr. Tsui's translation than I have been able to make so far will no doubt produce better results. Note the similarity between VV. 353 sqq. and BBB., pp. 26–7, lines 299 sqq. For the ritual use of the first verse of Huvīdagmān see above VV. 351 sq.

Page 218 Note 3 Orthography, etc., normalized. Full details will be given in the edition of the hymn-cycles I am preparing.

Page 218 Note 4 mānistān here = fa-t'ang = halls of Law = temples, ārām = ch'ia-lan = saṃghārāma (cf. also v. 274 sqq.). Fa-t'ang also in the edict of 719, but ssū in the edicts of 768 and 771, see Chavannes-Pelliot, 177 [153], 223 sq. [261]. In the Fragment Pdliot ssū, is used, = monastère, p. 132 [108], = temple, p. 137 [113]. The Manichaean mānistān was certainly a monastery; among its buildings was of course also a chapel (salle d'adoration). Parthian ārām “rest, resting-place, dwelling-place” may have been influenced in meaning by Skt. ārāma-.

Page 218 Note 5 Reading uncertain. Cf. 'šmg dr'wng, Sogdica, p. 24 (c 1–2), = incubus ? Ibid., c 5, 'mwstyg'n Parth. equivalent of MPers. hwstyg'n, hence = am-ōstīgān.