40 Taenzer
The temples charged 100% interest on grain loans, which seems incred-
ibly high.90 Far fewer grain loan contracts were concluded then than under
Tibetan rule91 but private agreements without written contracts seem to have
prevailed.92 The income of the temples thus consisted of the lease of the
monastic fields, interest on loans and revenue from mills.
3.1.2 Monks and Nuns
At the beginning of local rule a further increase in the number of monastics
seems to have taken place (see table 1.1). This becomes clear when investigat-
ing the number of nuns affiliated to Dacheng temple, which rose between the
years 870 to 895 by 64 nuns.93 There are no complete lists of the number of
monastics for the tenth century. Thus it is not known whether this trend contin-
ued. But there is a high probability that it reversed. This can be demonstrated
by looking at the development of the number of monks of Jinguangming and
Sanjie monasteries. The former had 16 monks in 788, 26 at the beginning of the
ninth century, is missing from the list of the end of the ninth century, and had
again 16 monks in 974.94 The tendency to join the clergy at an old age can be
seen as well. On two manuscripts, which were written two years apart (in 947
and 949), ten dignitaries are named for Jinguangming temple each year but
four of them cannot be found on the second list—presumably they had died
within the previous two years.95 At the end of the ninth century 17 ordained
monks were affiliated to Sanjie temple while in 986 the number had fallen to
14.96 Although the material is not abundant the evidence at hand gives rise
to the suggestion that the number of monks started rising at the beginning
of the ninth century, had its peak at the end of that century and declined in
90 E.g. S. 5811, translated in Trombert, Credit, 138.
91 Grain loan contracts extant: Tibetan rule 134, Zhang Guiyijun 5, Cao Guiyijun 4; see table
in Taenzer, Dunhuang Region during Tibetan Rule, 334.
92 Dx01432 is a fragment of a list of creditors and borrowers, which only states the amount
borrowed. It has a painted bird seal on its back which is otherwise blank, therefore pre-
sumably the whole document dates from the time of the rule of the Return-to-Allegiance
Army (on painted bird seals which only occur during their late rule—dated documents
stem from the second half of the 10th century): see: Eliasberg, Danielle, “Les signatures
en forme de l’oiseau dans les manuscrits chinois de Touen-houang,” in Contributions aux
études sur Touen-houang, ed. Michel Soymié (Paris, Genéve: Droz, 1979), 29–44.
93 S. 2669 and S. 2614 respectively.
94 S. 2729, S. 5676, S. 2614 and S. 5855 respectively.
95 P. 3388 and S. 5718 respectively.
96 S. 5855.