Title: Eighteen lectures on Dunhuang /
Authors: Rong, Xinjiang,; Galambos, Imre,
Year: 2013
Subjects: Dunhuang manuscripts.; Dunhuang (China) History.
Abstract: In 'Eighteen Lectures on Dunhuang', Rong Xinjiang provides an accessible overview of Dunhuang studies, an academic field that emerged following the discovery of a medieval monastic library at the Mogao caves near Dunhuang. The manuscripts were hidden in a cave at the beginning of the 11th century and remained unnoticed until 1900, when a Daoist monk accidentally found them and subsequently sold most of them to foreign explorers and scholars. The availability of this unprecedented amount of first-hand material from China's middle period provided a stimulus for a number of scholarlyfields both in China and the West. Rong Xinjiang's book provides, for the first time in English, a convenient summary of the history of Dunhuang studies and its contribution to scholarship.
Contents: Introduction -- Lecture 1. Dunhuang in Chinese history -- Lecture 2. Dunhuang and the Silk Road -- Lecture 3. The discovery of the Dunhuang cave library and its early dispersal -- Lecture 4. The nature of the Dunhuang library cave and the reasons for its sealing -- Lecture 5. Major collections of Dunhuang manuscripts -- Lecture 6. Scramble for the treasures of Khotan, Kucha, Loulan and Gaochang -- Lecture 7. Dunhuang studies and Oriental studies in the West -- Lecture 8. Dunhuang studies in China and Japan -- Lecture 9. The political and economic history of the Sui, Tank and five dynasties in light of Dunhuang studies -- Lecture 10. Dunhuang studies and the social history of the medieval period -- Lecture 11. The history of Central Asian peoples and China's contacts with her neighbors in light of Dunhuang studies -- Lecture 12. The significance of Buddhist and Daoist manuscripts from Dunhuang -- Lecture 13. Dunhuang copies of traditional Chinese texts and medieval intellectual history -- Lecture 14. Language and literature in light of Dunhuang studies -- Lecture 15. Dunhuang studies and the history of science and technology -- Lecture 16. Dunhuang in light of art and archaeology -- Lecture 17. Dunhuang and manuscript studies -- Lecture 18. Forgeries and the authentication of Dunhuang manuscripts -- Epilogue.