Collecting Literary Works: Medieval Chinese Multiple-Text Manuscripts (MTMs) from Dunhuang (9th and 10th Centuries)

Abstract

Recent research underscores the significance of thorough manuscript analyses to deepen our understanding of manuscript cultures and facilitate cross-cultural comparisons. Despite extensive research on Chinese manuscripts from Dunhuang dating back to the 9th and 10th centuries, the Multiple-Text Manuscripts (MTMs), containing various literary texts like poems, ballads, and primers, remain largely underexplored in terms of their production and usage. This study offers a comprehensive analysis of such MTMs, shedding light on their production and usage within Dunhuang manuscript culture. Employing both qualitative and quantitative evaluations, the methodology includes comparisons with other Dunhuang manuscripts. In Chapter 2, Setting the Stage, I demonstrate how comparing features across different MTMs contributes to our understanding of their disparities and similarities. Chapters 3 through 6 present detailed case studies: Chapter 3 examines two Poetry Selections, contrasting them with the Student MTMs in Chapter 5. Chapter 4 analyses a Scribe’s Notebook similar to the Poetry Selections, while Chapter 6 explores Three MTMs with Two Core Texts, likely also produced by students. Chapter 7 synthesises and interprets the most important findings. The study illustrates how simultaneous consideration of various features such as codicology, visual organisation, core content, paracontent, and further content enables nuanced arguments about the similarities and differences of MTMs, enhancing our comprehension of their production and usage. Notably, the level of ‘consistency’ across various features reveals where initially similar MTMs diverge. For instance, comparisons between Poetry Selections and the Scribe’s Notebook highlight significant differences in visual organisation and paracontent. Similarly, comparisons between Student MTMs and the Three MTMs with Two Core Texts, which likely also were produced by students, unveil notable distinctions in core content and paracontent. Most significantly, the study unveils that literary texts in MTMs reflect specific production and usage settings rather than arbitrary copies. This study also provides fresh insights into Dunhuang manuscript codicology, revealing that intact manuscripts are rare and shedding light on unconventional methods for assembling and handling manuscripts. It challenges assumptions about the use of long scrolls and suggests that their existence was more common than previously thought. Additionally, consistent features across diverse MTMs offer crucial insights into Dunhuang and Chinese manuscript culture, such as the consistent placement of author names beneath titles, which shows that Dunhuang manuscripts predate the emergence of single-author collections of poems. The study also emphasises the importance of understanding the function of titles within the context of their respective core content, illustrating how titles, which often blend topical and occasional information, can serve to contextualise heterogeneous poems for literary intentions.