Multiple-Text Manuscripts in Medieval China

: One of the striking features of Chinese manuscripts from Dunhuang is that often texts from originally distinct sources are gathered together into one manuscript. Some of the components are assembled from pieces of older manuscripts written by different persons at different times, producing a composite item with an amalgam of codicological features. But there are also physically homogeneous manuscripts with distinct texts copied together into a new collection. This paper examines such physically homogeneous multiple-text manuscripts (MTMs) and attempts to shed light on the circumstances of their production. As a case study, I analyse the codicological characteristics and the textual composition of manuscripts S.5531 and P.3932, both of which are codices with a series of shorter Buddhist texts written in succession. The Dunhuang manuscripts represent the largest body of manuscripts that survive from China’s medieval period. The material was discovered at the beginning of the twentieth century in a hidden library cave, which had been sealed around 1006, possibly in order to safeguard its predominantly Buddhist contents from the advancing Islamic forces. 1 The cave contained a vast amount of written material in a dozen and a half languages and scripts, demonstrating the cosmopolitan nature of local society of the period. Manuscripts written in Chinese were by far the most numerous, numbering in the tens of thousands. 2 During the medieval period Dunhuang was a thriving oasis city at the western end of the Gansu corridor which connected China with Central Asia and regions farther west, and thus it was the first Chinese city when coming from the West. The rich collection of manuscripts provides an ideal opportunity to study medieval Chinese manuscript culture in a way that would not be possible using the considerably smaller