Codicological, Palaeographic, and Textual Evidence from the British Library’s Dunhuang Manuscripts of the 80-Fascicle Flower Garland SÅ«tra (Åšiká¹£Ä nanda’s 699 Translation)
Name
Tang_version_Dafangguang_fo_huayan_jing_of_the_Stein_Collection_20250714.xlsx
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25.41 KB
Format
Microsoft Excel XML
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Resource type
Dataset
Creator (Person)
Luchun, Wu
Date published
2025
Abstract
From October 2023 to May 2024, the British Library hosted WU Luchun of the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, who conducted research on Dunhuang manuscripts in the Stein Collection. This research was made possible through the J. S. Lee Memorial Fellowship Programme, generously funded by the Bei Shan Tang Foundation. Luchun was supervised by Mélodie Doumy, Lead Curator of Chinese collections (Stein and Hoernle) and IDP Manager. Her project focused on a comparative analysis of Buddhist sÅ«tras and dhÄ raṇīs that circulated in the Dunhuang and Wuyue regions between the ninth and eleventh centuries.
During the initial months of her placement, Luchun consulted key catalogues of Dunhuang manuscripts to identify copies of the Flower Garland SÅ«tra in Chinese from Cave 17 within the Stein Collection. She also reviewed existing scholarship on the scripture, alongside studies on Dunhuang papers and manuscripts.
Over the final months of her stay, Luchun focused on the 80-fascicle version of the Flower Garland SÅ«tra, translated in 699 by Åšiká¹£Ä nanda (652–710). She systematically gathered codicological, palaeographic, and textual data, highlighting the importance of integrating these approaches when attempting to date manuscripts. For example, a Tibetan inscription on the front of Or.8210/S.348 indicates that the manuscript was produced before circa 850.
This dataset is the product of this work.
Contributor (person)
Doumy, Mélodie
Version
1
Publisher
British Library
Official URL
Keywords