敦煌遗书【英】

Dunhuang Posthumous Papers

定义

又称敦煌写本、敦煌卷子、敦煌文书等。指敦煌所出五至十一世纪多种文字的古写本及少量印本。包括官私文书。遗书形制包括写卷、册子本、刻本和拓本。敦煌写本题款有纪年的近一千件。汉文写本的百分之七八十写于中唐至宋初。敦煌遗书在内容上可分为宗教典籍、官私文书、中国四部书、非汉文文书等类。这批遗书绝大多数为佛家经、咒、疏，均为北朝写卷，其中属北魏者有五件。这批遗书是继清光绪二十六年(1900)( 一说二十五年)藏经洞发现之后，在莫高窟的第二次重要发现。

Dunhuang Posthumous Papers are sometimes also called the Dunhuang Manuscripts, Dunhuang Rolls and Dunhuang Documents. They are all the ancient manuscripts and a few printed copies written in many languages from the 5th to 11th century in Dunhuang, including both official and private writs. The forms of these posthumous papers include rolls, volumes, carvings, copes and rubbings. The quantity of Dunhuang Manuscripts with annals is nearly one thousand. Seventy or eighty percent of the manuscripts in Chinese were written from the mid-Tang Dynasty to the early Song Dynasty. The content of Dunhuang Posthumous Papers can be divided into religious books, official and private writs, four books in Chinese and manuscripts in other languages. These posthumous papers are mostly collections, incantations and prayers of Buddhism written in the Northern Dynasties; five of them from the Northern Wei Dynasty. These posthumous papers form the important second discovery in Mogao Grottoes after the cave preserving Buddhist sutras was discovered in the 26th year of Emperor Guangxu (1900); another saying is the 25th year in the Qing Dynasty.