Hostname: page-component-669899f699-swprf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-01T21:15:45.338Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Redeeming the orphaned souls: fragments of a Mongolian translation from Khara-khoto

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2024

Imre Galambos Open the ORCID record for Imre Galambos [Opens in a new window]
Imre Galambos*
Affiliation:
Academy of Xixia Studies of Ningxia University, China
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In 1983 and 1984, archaeologists excavated at the ruins of Khara-khoto, Inner Mongolia, about 3,000 fragments of handwritten and printed texts from the Yuan period (1271–1368). The texts were chiefly written in Chinese and Tangut but also included a handful of other languages. Among a small group of texts in Mongolian were fragments of a woodblock-printed book with illustrations, using the Uyghur script. The content of the text, as well as the presence of a few interlinear Chinese characters, made it clear that this was a translation of a Chinese work, probably of Daoist content. Because the folios were incomplete, the narrative framework of the text could only be reconstructed partially, which is also why the source text has not been identified so far. This article locates Chinese versions of the story and identifies one of them as the closest to that used by the translator. This, in turn, helps to improve our interpretation of the Mongolian fragments and provide background information for understanding the context of the text's circulation in the Khara-khoto region. My primary aim here is to engage with the original Chinese story, rather than the translation and its place in Mongolian literature.

Keywords

Mongolian bookfragmentDaoismKhara-khotowoodblock printing
Type
Article
Information
Bulletin of SOAS , Volume 87 , Issue 3 , October 2024 , pp. 519 - 532
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of SOAS University of London

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

References

Lidai chongdao ji 歷代崇道記 (Records of Worshipping the Dao throughout the Past). 2000. Du, Guangting 杜光庭. bianweihui, Zhonghua yeshi 中華野史編委會 (ed.), Zhonghua yeshi, juan 1: Xian-Qin zhi Tangchao juan 中華野史, 卷1 先秦至唐朝卷, vol. 1, 715–21. Xi'an: Sanqin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Liu Zhi wenji 李贄文集 (Collected Works of Liu Zhi). 2000. Liu, Zhi 李贄, (ed.) Jianye, Zhang 張建業. Beijing: Shehui kexue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Siku quanshu cunmu congshu 四庫全書存目叢書 (Collection of Works Preserved in the Catalogue of the Complete Books of the Four Storehouses). 1995. Jinan: Qilu shushe.Google Scholar
Taiping guangji 太平廣記 (Extended Records of the Taiping Era). 1986. Fang, Li 李昉 et al. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.Google Scholar
Yuan shi 元史 (History of the Yuan Dynasty). 1997. Lian, Song 宋濂. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.Google Scholar
Borjigin, Otgon. 2018. “Some remarks on page fragments of a Mongol book of Taoist content from Qaraqota”, in Apatóczky, Ákos Bertalan and Atwood, Christopher P. (eds), Philology of the Grasslands: Essays in Mongolic, Turkic, and Tungusic Studies. Languages of Asia, vol. 17, 80–100. Leiden/Boston: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Guang'en 陳廣恩. 2015. “Heishuicheng chutu yuandai daojiao wenshu chutan” 黑水城出土元代道教文書初探, Social Sciences in Ningxia 3, 125–9.Google Scholar
Cleaves, F. W. and de Rachewiltz, I.. 2006. “An early Mongolian version of the Hsiao Ching. 1. Facsimile of the bilingual text”, Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hung 59/3, 241–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drège, Jean-Pierre. 2014. “Les manuscrits illustrés”, in Drège, Jean-Pierre and Moretti, Costantino (eds), La fabrique du lisible: la mise en texte des manuscrits de la Chine ancienne et médiévale, 317–22. Paris: Collège de France, Institut des hautes études chinoises.Google Scholar
Du, Jianlu 杜建錄. 2009. “Heishuicheng Hanwen wenxian zongshu” 黑水城漢文文獻綜述, Xixiaxue 西夏學 4, 3–14.Google Scholar
Eskildsen, Stephen. 2004. The Teachings and Practices of the Early Quanzhen Taoist Masters. SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galambos, Imre. 2015. Translating Chinese Tradition and Teaching Tangut Culture: Manuscripts and Printed Books from Khara-khoto. Berlin: De Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haenisch, Erich. 1954 (repr. 2022). Mongolica der Berliner Turfan-Sammlung. Teil 1: Ein buddhistisches Druckfragment vom Jahre 1312. Berlin: De Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, Shih-shan Susan. 2007. “Tianzhu Lingqian: divination prints from a Buddhist temple in Song Hangzhou”, Artibus Asiae 67/2, 243–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, Shih-shan Susan. 2012. Picturing the True Form: Daoist Visual Culture in Traditional China. Harvard East Asian Monographs 342. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Asia Center.Google Scholar
Kara, György. 2000. The Mongol and Manchu Manuscripts and Blockprints in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.Google Scholar
Kara, György. 2005. Books of the Mongolian Nomads: More than Eight Centuries of Writing Mongolian. Bloomington: Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies/Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Kepping, Ksenia B. 1979. Sun’ Tzy v Tangutksom perevode. Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar
Kimikura, Michiko. 2022. “The reception and reworking of Empress Renxiao's Book of Exhortations: Chinese works in Japan as mediated through printed Buddhist texts”, Studies in Japanese Literature and Culture 5, 167–86.Google Scholar
Knapp, Keith Nathaniel. 2005. Selfless Offspring: Filial Children and Social Order in Medieval China. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.Google Scholar
Li, Yiyou 李逸友. 1991. Heicheng chutu wenshu 黑城出土文書. Beijing: Wenwu.Google Scholar
Yongjuan, Mao 毛永娟. 2011. “Ecang Heishuicheng Sun zhenren Qianjin fang canye kaoshi” 俄藏黑水城《孫真人千金方》殘頁考釋, Xue lilun 學理論 4, 163–4.Google Scholar
Miya, Noriko 宮紀子. 2006. Mongoru jidai no shuppan bunka モンゴル時代の出版文化. Nagoya: Nagoya daigaku shuppankai.Google Scholar
Oh, Young Kyun. 2013. Engraving Virtue: The Printing History of a Premodern Korean Moral Primer. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qiu, Zhicheng 邱志誠. 2010. “Liang jian xinkan Zhongguo Heishuicheng Hanwen wenshu canpian kaoshi” 兩件新刊中國藏黑水城漢文文書殘片考釋, Xixiaxue 西夏學 6, 97–108.Google Scholar
van Schaik, Sam. 2016. “The uses of early Tibetan printing: evidence from the Turfan Oasis”, in Diemberger, Hildegard, Ehrhard, Karl and Kornicki, Peter F. (eds), Tibetan Printing: Comparison, Continuities, and Change, 171–91. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tala, 塔拉, Du, Jianlu 杜建錄 and Gao, Guoxiang 高國祥. 2013. Zhongguo Heishuicheng minzu wenzi wenxian 中國藏黑水城民族文字文獻. Tianjin: Tianjin guji chubanshe.Google Scholar
Yampolskaya, Natalia. 2015. “A note on foliation in Mongolian pothi manuscripts”, Rocznik Orientalistyczny 2, 258–65.Google Scholar
Yoshida, Jun'ichi 吉田順一 and Chimedodoruji, チメドドルジ [Chimeddorji]. 2008. Harahoto shutsudo mongoru monjo no kenkyū ハラホト出土モンゴル文書の研究 [English title: Study on the Mongolian Documents Found at Qaraqota]. Tokyo: Yūzankaku.Google Scholar
Lidai chongdao ji 歷代崇道記 (Records of Worshipping the Dao throughout the Past). 2000. Du, Guangting 杜光庭. bianweihui, Zhonghua yeshi 中華野史編委會 (ed.), Zhonghua yeshi, juan 1: Xian-Qin zhi Tangchao juan 中華野史, 卷1 先秦至唐朝卷, vol. 1, 715–21. Xi'an: Sanqin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Liu Zhi wenji 李贄文集 (Collected Works of Liu Zhi). 2000. Liu, Zhi 李贄, (ed.) Jianye, Zhang 張建業. Beijing: Shehui kexue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Siku quanshu cunmu congshu 四庫全書存目叢書 (Collection of Works Preserved in the Catalogue of the Complete Books of the Four Storehouses). 1995. Jinan: Qilu shushe.Google Scholar
Taiping guangji 太平廣記 (Extended Records of the Taiping Era). 1986. Fang, Li 李昉 et al. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.Google Scholar
Yuan shi 元史 (History of the Yuan Dynasty). 1997. Lian, Song 宋濂. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.Google Scholar
Borjigin, Otgon. 2018. “Some remarks on page fragments of a Mongol book of Taoist content from Qaraqota”, in Apatóczky, Ákos Bertalan and Atwood, Christopher P. (eds), Philology of the Grasslands: Essays in Mongolic, Turkic, and Tungusic Studies. Languages of Asia, vol. 17, 80–100. Leiden/Boston: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Guang'en 陳廣恩. 2015. “Heishuicheng chutu yuandai daojiao wenshu chutan” 黑水城出土元代道教文書初探, Social Sciences in Ningxia 3, 125–9.Google Scholar
Cleaves, F. W. and de Rachewiltz, I.. 2006. “An early Mongolian version of the Hsiao Ching. 1. Facsimile of the bilingual text”, Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hung 59/3, 241–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drège, Jean-Pierre. 2014. “Les manuscrits illustrés”, in Drège, Jean-Pierre and Moretti, Costantino (eds), La fabrique du lisible: la mise en texte des manuscrits de la Chine ancienne et médiévale, 317–22. Paris: Collège de France, Institut des hautes études chinoises.Google Scholar
Du, Jianlu 杜建錄. 2009. “Heishuicheng Hanwen wenxian zongshu” 黑水城漢文文獻綜述, Xixiaxue 西夏學 4, 3–14.Google Scholar
Eskildsen, Stephen. 2004. The Teachings and Practices of the Early Quanzhen Taoist Masters. SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galambos, Imre. 2015. Translating Chinese Tradition and Teaching Tangut Culture: Manuscripts and Printed Books from Khara-khoto. Berlin: De Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haenisch, Erich. 1954 (repr. 2022). Mongolica der Berliner Turfan-Sammlung. Teil 1: Ein buddhistisches Druckfragment vom Jahre 1312. Berlin: De Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, Shih-shan Susan. 2007. “Tianzhu Lingqian: divination prints from a Buddhist temple in Song Hangzhou”, Artibus Asiae 67/2, 243–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, Shih-shan Susan. 2012. Picturing the True Form: Daoist Visual Culture in Traditional China. Harvard East Asian Monographs 342. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Asia Center.Google Scholar
Kara, György. 2000. The Mongol and Manchu Manuscripts and Blockprints in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.Google Scholar
Kara, György. 2005. Books of the Mongolian Nomads: More than Eight Centuries of Writing Mongolian. Bloomington: Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies/Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Kepping, Ksenia B. 1979. Sun’ Tzy v Tangutksom perevode. Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar
Kimikura, Michiko. 2022. “The reception and reworking of Empress Renxiao's Book of Exhortations: Chinese works in Japan as mediated through printed Buddhist texts”, Studies in Japanese Literature and Culture 5, 167–86.Google Scholar
Knapp, Keith Nathaniel. 2005. Selfless Offspring: Filial Children and Social Order in Medieval China. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.Google Scholar
Li, Yiyou 李逸友. 1991. Heicheng chutu wenshu 黑城出土文書. Beijing: Wenwu.Google Scholar
Yongjuan, Mao 毛永娟. 2011. “Ecang Heishuicheng Sun zhenren Qianjin fang canye kaoshi” 俄藏黑水城《孫真人千金方》殘頁考釋, Xue lilun 學理論 4, 163–4.Google Scholar
Miya, Noriko 宮紀子. 2006. Mongoru jidai no shuppan bunka モンゴル時代の出版文化. Nagoya: Nagoya daigaku shuppankai.Google Scholar
Oh, Young Kyun. 2013. Engraving Virtue: The Printing History of a Premodern Korean Moral Primer. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qiu, Zhicheng 邱志誠. 2010. “Liang jian xinkan Zhongguo Heishuicheng Hanwen wenshu canpian kaoshi” 兩件新刊中國藏黑水城漢文文書殘片考釋, Xixiaxue 西夏學 6, 97–108.Google Scholar
van Schaik, Sam. 2016. “The uses of early Tibetan printing: evidence from the Turfan Oasis”, in Diemberger, Hildegard, Ehrhard, Karl and Kornicki, Peter F. (eds), Tibetan Printing: Comparison, Continuities, and Change, 171–91. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tala, 塔拉, Du, Jianlu 杜建錄 and Gao, Guoxiang 高國祥. 2013. Zhongguo Heishuicheng minzu wenzi wenxian 中國藏黑水城民族文字文獻. Tianjin: Tianjin guji chubanshe.Google Scholar
Yampolskaya, Natalia. 2015. “A note on foliation in Mongolian pothi manuscripts”, Rocznik Orientalistyczny 2, 258–65.Google Scholar
Yoshida, Jun'ichi 吉田順一 and Chimedodoruji, チメドドルジ [Chimeddorji]. 2008. Harahoto shutsudo mongoru monjo no kenkyū ハラホト出土モンゴル文書の研究 [English title: Study on the Mongolian Documents Found at Qaraqota]. Tokyo: Yūzankaku.Google Scholar