Dunhuang Buddhist Canon Catalogue Compilation and (Volume 1, Volume 2)

Author: Fang Guanglang (compilation and editing)
Publisher:
Publication Date: 1999-10-01
Features: Since the discovery of Dunhuang manuscripts, scholars from both the East and the West have explored and studied numerous aspects such as politics, economy, culture, ethnicity, religion, language, literature, and science and technology, achieving significant accomplishments. However, due to historical reasons, Dunhuang manuscripts are scattered across libraries and museums worldwide, including Beijing, London, Paris, St. Petersburg, and others, with some privately held in secret collections, making it difficult for people to access them entirely. Since the 1950s, major collections from China, the UK, and France have been microfilmed and made publicly available, providing readers with unprecedented convenience. However, due to the scattered nature of the materials and the often unclassified editing methods, researchers still find it somewhat inconvenient to use them. In light of this, in the early 1980s, we began planning to categorize and organize the Dunhuang manuscripts into specialized volumes for publication. In 1983, the editorial committee was officially established, and this series was included in the national philosophy and social sciences "Six-Five Plan" as a key project. Over the past decade and a half, the editorial committee has actively planned, dedicated itself to scholars, implemented the project, reviewed manuscripts, and overcome various difficulties. Today, we have finally presented this series, The Collected Works of Categorized and Collated Dunhuang Manuscripts, to the academic community and the public. This is our contribution to the field of Dunhuang studies.