Afterlife of a poem from Dunhuang
A Dunhuang manuscript from the tenth century preserves a poem, which appears amidst a multitude of random notes on the verso of a scroll. Most of the texts in the scroll were written in unskilled handwriting by students studying at a local Buddhist monastery. The poem is unattested anywhere else in...
| Subtitles: | New Perspectives on the Localization and Globalization of Buddhism in Medieval China and Beyond |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2024
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| In: |
Studies in Chinese Religions
Year: 2024, Volume: 10, Issue: 3/4, Pages: 325-337 |
| Further subjects: | B
Dunhuang manuscripts
B Students B Northwest China B Poems B Chinese Muslims |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | A Dunhuang manuscript from the tenth century preserves a poem, which appears amidst a multitude of random notes on the verso of a scroll. Most of the texts in the scroll were written in unskilled handwriting by students studying at a local Buddhist monastery. The poem is unattested anywhere else in the pre-modern period but reappears in sporadic references from the end of the nineteenth century onward in sources by Chinese-speaking Muslims in China’s northwestern region. The poem, therefore, seems to have survived primarily in oral form for nearly a millennium without a trace in the written record. Although its socio-religious context changed dramatically, the text itself remained relatively stable over the centuries, evidencing that oral transmission could be remarkably conservative. This paper traces the quatrain through time and demonstrates its extraordinary continuity despite being primarily transmitted in non-written form. |
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| ISSN: | 2372-9996 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Studies in Chinese Religions
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/23729988.2025.2466973 |
