XXII. Tun Huang Lu: Notes on the District of Tun-huang

Extract

The low ebb of sinological studies in this country is all too clearly indicated by the fact that the present text is actually the first to be published out of the enormous mass of Chinese manuscripts brought home by Sir Aurel Stein tive years ago. It is not altogether unbefitting, however, that the place of honour should be accorded to a brochure giving some account of the Tunhuang district, and including a description of the famous grottos where the whole collection of manuscripts was found. The Tun Huang Lu is indeed tantalizingly brief, consisting as it does of only 893 characters all told. But within that small compass it touches on many interesting points, the proper discussion of which would require more space than can be given to them here; and one passage, at least, throws a flood of light 011 a vexed question of topography which has never yet been solved. It is worth reading, in any case, as a short summary of what was known about this remote but highly important region towards the close of the T'ang dynasty. My reasons for assigning the text to this period are duly set forth in the accompanying notes. The handwriting is bold, and for the most part clear enough. A few characters, however, are to be found which the penman has allowed to lapse into “grassiness”—the especial bane of every foreign student. These I have deciphered to the best of my ability, but in the lack of any assistance from native or other experts I cannot feel quite certain of the correctness of my readings. As regards the style of the document, its terseness frequently verges on obscurity, and the punctuation (omitted as in nearly all Chinese MSS.) has been by no means easy to supply in certain passages.