Changing Relations 39
Even if one assumes that the nunneries were excluded in the latter cases,
one could suggest that possibly one temple was closed temporarily in the
tenth century.85 Two invitations to memorial services dating to the end of
the tenth century and an undated Tibetan manuscript list seventeen temples,
in all of which a different temple is not named.86 Thus there were actually
eighteen temples at the time. Xiande temple was founded before 979 and
Qianming temple after that year.
During the time of local rule at Dunhuang, not only was a change in the
administrative system of the temples carried out, but also a change in their
economic situation took place. Hongbian died between 853 and 863.87 In order
to please the Chinese Emperor, Zhang Yichao issued an edict calling for the
release of the temple peasants.88 Thus theoretically there were no more work-
ers to plant the fields of the temples. However, a few years later (yet before
867)89 when Zhang Yichao had gone to the Chinese court—never to return—
his decision was reversed. But quite a few temple peasants seem to have left
already as there are records of commoners paying lease for monastic fields
called kitchen fields (Chin. chutian 廚田). The reason for this unusual termi-
nology is that in view of the situation in China a differentiation between treas-
ures of the Buddha (Chin. fowu) and things necessary for the upkeep of monks
and nuns (Chin. changzhu chu) was made; and it is in the course of this process
that the fields of the temples were registered under the latter category. Thus
the government could not confiscate these fields.
85 S. 5947 and P. 3556v respectively; the latter is dated to the year 936: Dohi Yoshikazu
土肥義和, “Bakkōkutsu senbutsudō to taiji to rannya to 莫高窟千仏洞と大寺と蘭
若と [The Mogao Thousand Buddha Caves and the Great Temples and Āranya], in Kōza
Tonkō 3: Tonkō no shakai 講座敦煌 3: 敦煌の社會 [Lectures on Dunhuang 3: The Society
of Dunhuang], ed. Ikeda On 池田温 (Tokyo: Daizo Shuppan, 1980), 358.
86 P. 3218, P. 3156 and P. tib. 994; Puguang nunnery and Dayun and Jinguangming monaster-
ies, respectively, are missing.
87 The last manuscript in which he is mentioned is dated to 853; the first dated manuscript
with his successor stems from 863. Chikusa Masaaki 竺沙雅章, “Tonkō no Sōkanseido
敦煌の僧官制度 [The Clergy in Dunhuang in the Late Tang],” in Tōhōgakuhō 東方學報
[Reports of the Oriental Society] 31 (1961): 143.
88 Jiang Boqin 姜伯勤, Tang Wudai Dunhuang sihu zhidu 唐五代敦煌寺戶制度 [The
System of Temple Peasants of Dunhuang during Tang and Five Dynasties] (Beijing: Peking
Zhonghua shuju, 1987), 138 citing P. 2187. Jiang further cites P. 2222, which according to
Chikusa proves that this event took place around 865 (cf. p. 139).
89 Ibid., 143.