Changing Relations 47
Appendix: Dunhuang Manuscript Or. 8210/S. 2614
This scroll is an example of reuse (i.e. secondary use) of paper. Originally it was one
scroll containing the names of monks and nuns of the temples of Dunhuang. The back
was left blank. It was taken apart after the list was written. In order to write what is now
considered as recto it was reassembled whereby the middle was cut out and the begin-
ning was cut off. It now consists of around 13 sheets with 13–14 lines on each sheet. Two
sheets are extremely large: they contain c. 32 lines each.
Some time after the recto was written on the first sheet (= the last sheet of verso)
came off and was repasted. This can be seen as the ends of some strokes are invisible
now. Recto: incomplete at the right margin; left margin: the paper is cut off but the text
is complete.
This is a transformation text (Chin. bianwen 變文) on Mahāmaudgalyāyana rescu-
ing his mother from the underworld; one scroll with preface and colophon: “Written
by lay student Xue Anjun of Jingtu temple, in 921, forth month, 16th day; manuscript
of Zhang Baoda.”
Verso: the beginning is missing, the end is frayed but complete. It is a list of the
temples of Dunhuang with the names of monks and novices affiliated to them.
At the beginning the name of the temple is stated, followed by the names of monks
and the names of novices. At the end the number of monks and novices is stated,
followed by the total. At the end of the scroll the total of monks, nuns and novices is
given. They amounted to 1140 in number. Adding up the total of the various temples
results in the figure 1037. Thus 97 names are missing here.
Three names of temples do not occur. At the beginning parts (2 lines?) of the entries
a list of monks with the name of their temple is certainly missing. At the end of the
list of Sanjie temple the two parts of the scroll are pasted together so that the last line
of entries for Sanjie is now hidden (the line in which the last characters of the total
number is stated). From the other part of the scroll the first few lines of the names of
nuns of Puguang temple are certainly missing. Whether other sections with names of
monks of the so far unstated temples are missing here is not clear—they may have
been at the beginning of the scroll. There is an insertion of additional paper (between
line 42 and line 43 of the list of nuns of Dacheng temple). The paper was pasted on top
of the original manuscript in order to write the text on the recto side. Therefore two
lines of the list of nuns became invisible.
At the end, three identical lines of a different text written by a different hand than
recto and verso follow: (three times the heading of title of recto, end of first line: Zhang
Baoda). The whole manuscript is dotted with writing exercises in a hand different to
the aforementioned ones.