Dunhuang and Turpan Text Selection

Author: Rao Zongyi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-05-01
Features: The Selected Works of Literature has been a must-read for scholars of literature since the Sui Dynasty to the present day. Dai Zhen once remarked, "Writing articles is extremely difficult. Yan Ruqiu could assess but not write, while Gu Yanwu and Jiang Yong excelled in writing. As for me, I am like a large furnace casting fine and exquisite works." The Preface to the Selected Works of Literature by the Prince of Zhao Ming (Turbfan manuscript preserved in the Chinese History Museum), an early Tang Dynasty manuscript unearthed from the tomb of Zhang Huaji in the three castles of Turpan, discovered in 1928, contains seventeen lines, starting with the sentence "The will to commit suicide by sand, the weary traveler in the marsh" and ending with the sentence "Since the great queen of the Han dynasty." It is included in Huang Wenbi's Archaeological Records of Turpan and also featured in A Grand View of Calligraphy in the Chinese History Museum.