Quick Answer: What Are the Dunhuang Manuscripts?
The Dunhuang manuscripts (敦煌文献, Dūnhuáng wénxiàn) are historical documents from Dunhuang in northwestern China. The best-known group comes from the Library Cave (藏经洞, Cángjīng Dòng), or Cave 17, at the Mogao Caves (莫高窟, Mògāo Kū). Its contents span roughly the fourth to the early eleventh century.[1][2]
- Discovery: The Daoist priest Wang Yuanlu (王圆箓, Wáng Yuánlù) found the sealed chamber in 1900.[1]
- Contents: Buddhist scriptures predominate, alongside letters, records and printed objects such as the Diamond Sutra (金刚经, Jīngāng Jīng) scroll dated to 868.[3][4][5]
- Languages: Chinese and Tibetan account for the bulk of the material. Smaller groups include Khotanese, Sogdian, Sanskrit and Old Uyghur texts.[3][4][6]
Cave 17 is the focus here. Catalogues can also use “Dunhuang manuscripts” for finds from other locations around the oasis.[9]
The papers from Cave 17 preserve voices rarely heard in the caves’ painted walls. Their subjects range from private agreements to Buddhist devotion and the workings of an imperial court.
How Cave 17 Became a Manuscript Cache
The Mogao Caves lie near Dunhuang, an oasis in present-day Gansu on the Silk Roads. The chamber now called Cave 17 opens off the corridor of Cave 16. It originally served as a memorial space for Hongbian, a ninth-century Buddhist monk. Its later use as a repository put written materials, paintings and textiles into a space built for a different purpose.[1][2]
The latest dated manuscripts place the likely closure in the early eleventh century. The dates of individual texts also cover several centuries, so the cave preserves material from different periods rather than a snapshot of a single year.[2][4]
What the Documents Reveal About Daily Life
The cache is primarily Buddhist. The everyday documents sit alongside that devotional material and add evidence that monumental Dunhuang murals rarely supply.[3][4]
| Material | What it helps explain |
|---|---|
| Buddhist scriptures and ritual texts | Copies show which texts circulated and which forms of practice were recorded. They provide a local view of Chinese Buddhism and of Buddhist traditions written in other languages.[3][4] |
| Contracts, letters and administrative records | They record relationships and obligations that rarely appear in formal histories, from private agreements to monastery and government business.[4][8] |
| Printed scrolls | The 868 Diamond Sutra preserves an illustrated frontispiece and a printed date. Its production belongs to the history of Chinese woodblock printing.[5] |
A text may also preserve evidence in its physical format. A rolled document and a stack of loose leaves read differently, even when both carry Buddhist scripture. The surviving examples include both scrolls and formats associated with manuscript traditions from India and Central Asia.[3]
Why So Many Languages Appear at Dunhuang
The Tibetan manuscripts preserve more than Buddhist literature. They include the Old Tibetan Annals, a year-by-year account of the Tibetan imperial court and its expansion. The annals help historians compare later histories with unusually early records.[7]
Khotanese and Sogdian are distinct Iranian languages represented at the site. The Khotanese material includes correspondence and Buddhist texts that point to contact with the kingdom of Khotan. At Dunhuang, a language could travel with an official message, a community of readers or a religious text. The language of a copy does not, by itself, identify the birthplace of its scribe.[3][6]
How the Collection Was Dispersed
Aurel Stein obtained bundles from Wang Yuanlu in 1907. Paul Pelliot examined and selected material in 1908. The acquisitions occurred during an era of foreign expeditions in Central Asia and helped divide the original cache among institutions. The British Library holds much of the Stein material, the Bibliothèque nationale de France houses the main Pelliot manuscript collection, and the National Library of China also holds major Dunhuang materials.[1][8][9]
Pelliot’s selection of secular and linguistically unusual texts helped shape the French collection. Its mix reflects both the original contents of the cave and what a particular collector chose to take.[8]
FAQs About the Dunhuang Manuscripts
Why Was the Library Cave Sealed?
The reason is uncertain. One proposal is that the chamber protected texts from a threat. Another is that it held materials deposited over time. The surviving evidence does not establish either explanation.[2]
Was the Dunhuang Diamond Sutra Written by Hand?
The dated copy now held by the British Library is a woodblock print on paper. Its 868 date belongs to that particular surviving scroll. Most of the Library Cave documents were handwritten.[3][5]
Can You See the Dunhuang Manuscripts Online?
The International Dunhuang Programme links catalogued objects and digitized material from collections in different institutions. For the 868 Diamond Sutra scroll, search for the British Library shelfmark Or.8210/P.2. The originals remain in their respective collections.[5][9]
Sources
[1] International Dunhuang Programme. Discovering Cave 17
[2] International Dunhuang Programme. The Mysteries of Cave 17
[3] International Dunhuang Programme. What Was Stored in Cave 17?
[4] Sam van Schaik. Dunhuang, Texts
[5] International Dunhuang Programme. Or.8210/P.2
[6] Yutaka Yoshida. DUNHUANG ii. Buddhist and Other Texts in Iranian Languages
[7] International Dunhuang Programme. Cave 17: The Library Cave Collection Items
[8] International Dunhuang Programme. The Bibliothèque nationale de France Collection
[9] Bibliothèque nationale de France. International Dunhuang Programme