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A Chinese Mahāyāna Catechism in Tibetan and Chinese Characters
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
In the India Office Library there exists an extensive and well-written MS. (A) in Tibetan writing and non-Tibetan language, belonging to the collection acquired by Sir A. Stein from the famous hidden library of Tun-huang (Ch'ien-fo-tung); it is described below. In the light of previous experience of such MSS. it was quickly apparent that the language was Chinese; but owing to the known difficulty of restoring Chinese characters from writing representing pronunciation, whether ancient or modern, an interpretation of the text seemed to be for the present practically out of the question.
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- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1929
References
page 37 note 1 India Office MS. Tun-huang (Ch'ien-fo-tung), Ch. 9, n, 17: paper scroll, 30 × 440 cm.; 11. 290 recto + 196 verso of good, rather calligraphic, cursive Tibetan writing, the lines being parallel to the breadth of the scroll and each c. 29 cm. wide, the characters varying in size and betraying probably more than one hand; elaborate, but not always correct, punctuation by means of dots, single and double daṇḍas, circles, one, two, three, or rarely more in number, etc.; paragraphs and some chapter-divisions indicated; fragmentary at beginning; at the end of the text a colophon mentioning the first volume of a work and invoking a blessing upon all creatures; blank at end, recto c. 25 cm., verso c. 160 cm.; eighth-ninth century?
page 38 note 1 India Office MS. Tun-huang (Ch'ien-fo-tung), Ch. 80, xi: paper scroll, 27·5 × 225 cm.: 11. 128 recto of poor Chinese writing in columns parallel to the breadth and each c. 20 cm. wide, with interlineations in small, cursive Tibetan writing, often faint or smudged or intruding upon the adjacent Chinese characters, but with care legible, although there is some difficulty in distinguishing c, b, and ẖ, c and ts, chi and tsha, 'a, y- and, ś and ź, -ṅ and -r, and so forth. The Tibetan syllables, which are transliterations of the Chinese characters to the left of each, are absent in about 50 per cent of the cases. Chinese writing between ruled lines, two hands, the second beginning 1. 80. Fragmentary and smudged at the beginning: the last line gives the title.
page 41 note 1 Square brackets indicate obscure, but probably certain, readings: what is in Italics has been supplied from other occurrences in the text; () indicates occurrences in the two Tibeto-Chinese MSS. previously published; () indicates corrections or additions, and small numerals point to transpositions not noted in the MS.
page 42 note 1 Omit.
page 42 note 2 Altered from 
page 44 note 1 Marked in MS. for omission.
page 49 note 1 “Mouth.”
page 50 note 1 “Mouth.”
page 51 note 1 Marked in MS. for omission.
page 52 note 1 “Endure taunts” = “sufferance.”
page 54 note 1 “Is called.”
page 56 note 1 Superfluous here.
page 57 note 1 “White.”
page 59 note 1 Proper name, “Go,” “Wu.”
page 63 note 1 Circumstances have prevented Mr. Miyamoto, who is in Japan, from revising the translation, which, however, is believed to be nearly everywhere correct.