A Preliminary Analysis of the Eighty-Fascicle Huayan jing Manuscripts of the Stein Collection at the British Library
Name
WU_Luchun_research_report_20250515.pdf
Description
visibility:open
Size
983.67 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (CRC64NVME)
HjIZGSZWMbs=
Resource type
Research report
Creator (person)
Luchun, Wu
Date published
September 1, 2025
Abstract
From October 2023 to May 2024, I had the privilege of conducting research on Dunhuang 敦 ç…Œ manuscripts in the Stein Collection at the British Library. This opportunity was made possible through the J. S. Lee Memorial Fellowship Programme åˆ©æ¦®æ£®ç´€å¿µäº¤æµ è¨ˆåŠƒ, generously supported by the Bei Shan Tang Foundation åŒ—å±±å ‚åŸºé‡‘æœƒ.
My research project as a J. S. Lee Memorial Fellow focused on a comparative analysis of Buddhist sÅ«tras and dhÄ raṇīs that circulated in the Dunhuang and Wuyue å ³è¶Š regions between the ninth and tenth centuries. In particular, I concentrated on the 80-fascicle (juan å ·) version of the Dafangguang fo huayan jing å¤§æ–¹å»£ä½›è ¯åš´ç¶“ (Flower Garland SÅ«tra; Skt. MahÄ vaipulya BuddhÄ vataṃsaka sÅ«tra; hereafter 80-juan Huayan jing)—translated in 699 by Åšiká¹£Ä nanda å¯¦å ‰é›£é™€ (652–710) and his team—and the Qianshou qianyan Guanshiyin pusa guangda yuanman wu’ai dabeixin tuoluoni jing å ƒæ‰‹å ƒçœ¼è§€ä¸–éŸ³è ©è–©å»£å¤§ 圓滿無礙大悲心陀羅尼經 (Great Compassion DhÄ raṇī SÅ«tra of the Thousand-Hand and Thousand-Eye AvalokiteÅ›vara Bodhisattva).
The primary goal of this seven-month research period was to collect data for more in-depth analysis at a later stage. However, as many readers will recall, the British Library suffered a major cyber-attack in late October 2023, disrupting access to key resources. Thanks to the dedication of colleagues at the International Dunhuang Programme (IDP), I was eventually able to access manuscripts by late February 2024. In the interim, I consulted catalogues of Dunhuang manuscripts (e.g., Giles 1957; Fang Guangchang 2000) to identify Huayan jing copies in the Stein Collection and reviewed existing scholarship on the Huayan jing, as well as studies on Dunhuang papers and manuscripts. Over the final four months of my stay, I gathered data on the codicological, palaeographic, and textual features of the 80-juan Huayan jing manuscripts and began preliminary dating analyses, laying the foundation for future research.
Contributor (person)
Doumy, Mélodie
Publisher
British Library
Place of publication
UK
Official URL
Keywords