Research on the Turpan Documents Obtained by Stein

Author: Chen Guocan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1994-12-01
Features: In the late Qing Dynasty, the British explorer Aurel Stein visited China multiple times, taking away ancient books and cultural relics discovered in Dunhuang and Turpan. The Turpan unearthed documents obtained by Stein during his third visit to China were compiled by the Frenchman Paul Pelliot and published only after his death. However, Pelliot did not understand the relationship between the numbering of Stein's documents and the tombs, so he did not return the documents to their original burials, leaving most of the undated documents undatable.
Mr. Chen Guocan has long been engaged in the collection and study of Turpan documents. He was the first to discover the relationship between the document numbers and the burials, which allowed him to conduct the interpretation, transcription, removal, and combination of the documents. He then dated, categorized, and explained them, completing the burial classification of this batch of documents. In the process, he corrected many of Pelliot's errors and supplemented the documents he had omitted, restoring the important value of these documents.
At the same time, this book also explores other academic topics in the context of its historical background, providing significant benefits for the academic community's research on Turpan documents and the history of the Sui and Tang dynasties.