44 Taenzer
military, it seems likely that civil tasks were carried out—as can be seen in
the Chinese manuscripts dating to the time of the rule of the Cao clan (915
to 11th century). The circulars for the three-day watch and for the irrigation
work almost correspond to the circulars of worship clubs. But the phrase indi-
cating that the circular should be passed on is missing and consequently the
names of the participants do not always show the ‘acknowledged’ sign beside
each name.
The Tibetan manuscript may date earlier and may thus be regarded as a
model of arranging civil tasks in this particular way. In the Tibetan fragment
the term worship club (Tib. zha) is still used and the functionaries are the same
but the tasks—although not stated here—have no relation to the original idea
of a worship club—which was a religious one. As the punishments of not abid-
ing to the bylaws are unusually severe (e.g. 3 srang of gold and 15 lashes, com-
pared to one jug of beer) one can be sure that this club was not organised for
religious reasons.
3.2.2 The Economic Situation
Once local rule over Dunhuang was established in the middle of the ninth cen-
tury, the laws forbidding the sale of land seem to have been abolished or at
least not adhered to anymore. During the time of Tibetan domination over
Dunhuang employment contracts for one year were occasionally concluded.
For the period of the local rule of the Cao clan (from 915 onwards), however,
a great number of these contracts are extant. In these it is stipulated that the
worker has to bring his own tools and is not allowed to do any other farm work.106
This shows that there were a number of people who had no more land of their
own (had sold their land), but still possessed farm tools.
Generally, people were paid for the kind of work, that was during Tibetan
rule performed as corvé. The Chinese manuscript S. 5947 is a list of payments
for workers making bricks. Here, temple peasants and bondservants of the ten
temples and commoners were employed for three or five days receiving 0.33
dou of flour daily. This is a real wage, not just nourishment; as it is known that
the minimum requirement for survival was 0.2 dou of grain per day. Contracts
for grain loans decreased and private agreements without contract were
preferred.
106 See table in Taenzer, Dunhuang Region during Tibetan Rule, 334; 353.