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Chinese primers along the north-western frontier
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 September 2024
Abstract
By the second half of the first millennium CE, a substantial body of texts written in Literary Sinitic developed into a shared repertoire of writings throughout Central and East Asia. In no small part, this was the result of the spread of Buddhism, which, in many regions, was adopted in its Sinitic form and relied on Chinese versions of the scriptures. As part of the means to cope with Sinitic Buddhist texts, most states also adopted a range of auxiliary texts, including primers and dictionaries. While modern scholarship has directed substantial attention at the participation of Japan, Korea, and Vietnam in the world of Sinitic texts, it has placed much less emphasis on the western and north-western regions of what is now China. This article attempts to redress the imbalance and demonstrate not only that, at one point, Inner Asian states actively participated in the Sinographic world, but also that they did this through a similar process of adaptation to that documented elsewhere. Primers played a special role in this, in that they had a more immediate connection with the core competency of reading and writing.
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References
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19 For an inventory of manuscripts and colophons, see Li Zhengyu 李正宇, ‘Dunhuang xuelang tiji jizhu’ 敦煌學郎題記輯注, Dunhuangxue jikan 敦煌學輯刊 1 (1987), pp. 26–40; Itō, Tonkō monjo ni miru gakkō kyōiku, pp. 44–68.
20 For an overview of texts most commonly copied by students in Dunhuang, see Drège, J.-P., ‘La lecture et l’écriture en Chine et la xylographie’, Études chinoises 10.1–2 (1991), pp. 85–86Google Scholar. For the Laments of Lady Qin manuscripts, see C. M. B. Nugent, Manifest in Words, Written on Paper: Producing and Circulating Poetry in Tang Dynasty China (Cambridge, MA, 2010). Both Hans van Ess and Valerie Lavoix note the similarities between the Rhapsody of the Swallow and the Han-Dynasty Rhapsody of the Divine Crow 神烏傅(賦) excavated in 1993 in Yinwan 尹灣, Jiangsu Province; see H. van Ess, ‘An interpretation of the Shenwu fu of Tomb No. 6, Yinwan’, Monumenta Serica 51 (2003), p. 611; and V. Lavoix, ‘Un poème des Han – L’“Exposition du corbeau prodigieux” de Yinwan’, in La fabrique du lisible, (eds.) Drège and Moretti, p. 182.
21 Mair, ‘Lay students’, pp. 5–96, catalogues nearly 600 such manuscripts.
22 On a Turfan copy of the Lunyu Zheng shi zhu 論語鄭氏注 (The Zheng Commentary to the Analects of Confucius), copied by a 12-year-old student, see Galambos, Dunhuang Manuscript Culture, pp. 86–87.
23 See Ikeda Toshio 池田利夫, Mōgyū kochū shūsei 蒙求古注集成 (Tokyo, 1988–1990), which is a four-volume facsimile collection of early annotated copies of the Mengqiu preserved in Japan.
24 Guest, ‘Primers, Commentaries, and Kanbun Literacy’, pp. 39–44.
25 On reading and glossing texts in Literary Sinitic in Japan and Korea, see Whitman, J., ‘The ubiquity of the gloss’, Scripta 3 (2011), pp. 95–121Google Scholar; Kornicki, Languages, pp. 157–186; Fraleigh, M., ‘Rearranging the figures on the tapestry: what Japanese direct translation of European texts can tell us about kanbun kundoku’, Japan Forum 31 (2019), pp. 4–32Google Scholar; and Bunkyō, Kin, Literary Sinitic and East Asia: A Cultural Sphere of Vernacular Reading (Leiden and Boston, 2021)Google Scholar. For examples from Gaochang 高昌, see Zhoushu 周書 50, p. 915; from among the Khitans, see Yijian zhi 夷堅志, bing 丙 18, p. 514.
26 Suishu 隋書 32, p. 935.
27 Vovin, A., ‘Once again on the Tabγač language’, Mongolian Studies XXIX (2007), pp. 191–206Google Scholar; see also L. Ligeti, ‘Tabghatch, un dialecte de la langue Sien-pi’, in Mongolian Studies, (ed.) L. Ligeti (Budapest, 1970), pp. 265–308; and E. G. Pulleyblank, ‘The Chinese and their neighbors in prehistoric and early historic times’, in The Origins of Chinese Civilization, (ed.) D. N. Keightley (Berkeley, 1983), p. 453.
28 Houfuhou is sometimes interpreted as ‘Lord of Hou-fu’, yet it is clear that hou 侯 in this place is not a title, but part of the Xianbei surname. The Zhoushu (Book of Zhou) (29, p. 514) records, for example, that, in 535, the general Hou Zhi 侯植 (fl. 530–555) was awarded the surname Houfuhou; see also A. E. Dien, ‘The bestowal of surnames under the Western Wei-Northern Chou: a case of counter acculturation’, T'oung Pao (Second Series) 63.2/3 (1977), pp. 173–174; Yao Weiyuan 姚薇元, Beichao huxing kao 北朝胡姓考 (Beijing, 1962), pp. 82–83 argues that the surname Houfuhou is merely a different transliteration of the tribal name Hufohou 護佛侯.
29 Suishu 32, p. 945; see also G. Schreiber, Japanese Morphography: Deconstructing Hentai Kanbun (Leiden and Boston, 2022), pp. 387–388.
30 Cf. Shimunek, A., Languages of Ancient Southern Mongolia and North China: A Historical-Comparative Study of the Serbi or Xianbei Branch of the Serbi-Mongolic Language Family, with an Analysis of Northeastern Frontier Chinese and Old Tibetan Phonology (Wiesbaden, 2017), pp. 121–122Google Scholar.
31 The choice to translate specifically the Xiaojing may have been linked to the significance of the theme of filial piety during the Northern Wei and the pre-Tang period in general. There are numerous examples of illustrations of the stories of filial children in Northern Wei art; see, for example, Bradford, R. E., The Guyuan Sarcophagus: Motifs from All Asia (Saarbrücken, 2011)Google Scholar; P. E. Karetzky and A. C. Soper, ‘A Northern Wei painted coffin’, Artibus Asiae 51½ (1991), pp. 5–28.
32 Weishu 魏書 4A, p. 70.
33 Bei Qishu 北齊書 20, p. 267; see also Liu, C., Selected Papers from the Hall of Harmonious Wind (Leiden, 1976), p. 14Google Scholar, esp. n. 36. For a translation of this passage, see F. Thierry, ‘La monétarisation de la société türke (VIe -IXe siècle), Influence chinoise, influence sogdienne’, in Les Sogdiens en Chine, (eds.) E. Vaissière and E. Trombert (Paris, 2005), p. 403.
34 X. Tremblay, ‘The spread of Buddhism in Serindia: Buddhism among Iranians, Tocharians, and Turks before the 13th century’, in The Spread of Buddhism, (eds.) A. Heirman and S. P. Bumbacher (Leiden and Boston, 2007), p. 108; J. Wilkens, ‘Buddhism in the West Uyghur Kingdom and beyond’, in Transfer of Buddhism Across Central Asian Networks, (ed.) C. Meinert (Leiden and Boston, 2016), p. 193; and Thierry, ‘La monétarisation’, p. 403.
35 For a brief overview of Buddhist texts in Sogdian, see Yoshida, Y., ‘A handlist of Buddhist Sogdian texts’, Memoirs of the Faculty of Letters, Kyoto University 54 (2015), pp. 167–180Google Scholar. The only dated Sogdian translation of a Buddhist text discovered at Dunhuang is from 728 and there is no indication that the others were ‘significantly younger or older’ than that (ibid., p. 168). The latest ones, with Uyghur elements in the colophons, may come from the tenth century.
36 The surviving Uyghur manuscripts are in fact written in a variety of different scripts, depending on the tradition from which the texts were adopted. Thus, Manichaean texts were typically written using the Manichaean script, Christian ones in the Syriac, and Buddhist ones in the Brāhmī or Chinese scripts. See Y. Kasai, ‘Multiscripturality in Old Uyghur: relationship between scripts and religions’, in The Silk Roads: Critical Concepts in Asian Studies, (ed.) B. Meisterernst (London, 2016), pp. 193–201.
37 Jiu Tangshu 舊唐書 196, p. 5232.
38 M. T. Kapstein, ‘The Tibetan Yulanpen jing’, in Contributions to the Cultural History of Early Tibet, (eds.) M. T. Kapstein and B. Dotson (Leiden and Boston, 2007), pp. 212–213.
39 W. South Coblin calls it a paraphrase; see Coblin, W. S., ‘A study of the old Tibetan Shangshu paraphrase, Part I’, Journal of the American Oriental Society 111.2 (1991), pp. 303–322Google Scholar.
40 Y. Imaeda, ‘L'identification de l'original chinois du Pelliot tibétain 1291—traduction tibétaine du Zhangguoce’, Acta Orientalia Hung 34.1–3 (1980), pp. 53–68. For the identification of the text as a translation of the Chunqiu houyu, see Ma Mingda 馬明達, ‘P.T.1291 hao Dunhuang Zangwen wenshu yijie dingwu’ P.T.1291號敦煌藏文文書譯解訂誤. Dunhuangxue jikan 敦煌學輯刊 2 (1984), pp. 14–24.
41 T. Takeuchi, ‘A passage from the Shi Chi in the Old Tibetan Chronicle’, in Soundings in Tibetan Civilization, (eds.) B. N. Aziz and M. T. Kapstein (New Delhi, 1985), pp. 135–146.
42 O. Weingarten, ‘The unorthodox master: the serious and the playful in depictions of Confucius’, in A Concise Companion to Confucius, (ed.) P. R. Goldin (Hoboken and Chichester, 2017), pp. 63–65; for the Tibetan text, see M. T. Kapstein, ‘Confucius and the Marvelous Lad’, in Sources of Tibetan Tradition, (eds.) K. R. Schaeffer, M. T. Kapstein, and G. Tuttle (New York, 2013), pp. 96–100; for the Chinese manuscripts, see Zheng Acai 鄭阿財, ‘Dunhuang xieben Kongzi Xiang Tuo wenshu chutan’ 敦煌寫本《孔子項托相問書》初探 in Dunhuang wenxian yu wenxue 敦煌文獻與文學, (ed.) Zheng Acai (Taibei, 1993), pp. 395–436. This story seems to have enjoyed considerable popularity in later centuries, as closely related versions survived in Turfan and, from a later period, in Southern China and Vietnam. For the Vietnamese manuscripts, see Zhu Fengyu 朱鳳玉, ‘Cong Yuenan hanwen xiaoshuo kan zhengqi wenxue zai hanzi wenhuaquan de fazhan’ 從越南漢文小說看爭奇文學在漢字文化圈的發展, Chengda zhongwen xuebao 成大中文學報 38 (2012), pp. 73–74. For a close comparison of extant copies of the text, including those in Tibetan, see Wang Xiaodun 王小盾 and He Qiannian 何仟年, ‘Yuenan ben Kongzi Xiang Tuo wenda shu jianlun’ 越南本《孔子項橐問答書》譾論 in Xin shiji Dunhuangxue lunji 新世紀敦煌學論集, (eds.) Xiang Chu 項楚 and Zheng Acai (Chengdu, 2003), pp. 239–257.
43 Zheng, Dunhuang wenxian yu wenxue, pp. 407–408.
44 Giles, L., ‘Dated Chinese manuscripts in the Stein collection’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London 10.2 (1940), pp. 341–342Google Scholar. The Xiao'er lun had apparently also been translated into Jurchen, which served as the basis for a Manchu version later on; see Min Yŏng-gyu 閔泳珪, ‘Manjucha Soaron kwa Tonhwang ŭi Hang T'ak pyŏnmun’ 滿州字小兒論과敦煌의項託變文, in Yi Sang-paek paksa hoe'gap kinyŏn nonch'ong 李相佰博士回甲紀念論叢, (ed.) Sangbaek Yi Sang-baek paksa hoegap kinyŏm nonch'ong p'yŏnjip wiwŏnhoe 想白李相伯博士回甲紀念論叢編輯委員會 (Seoul, 1964), pp. 321–332. A Japanese version of the story also made it into the Konjaku monogatari shū 今昔物語集 (Collection of New and Old Stories)—an anthology of 1,040 tales probably written down in the early twelfth century. For a comparison of the Dunhuang version of the story with that in the Konjaku monogatari shū, see Itō Mieko 伊藤美重子, ‘Tonkō monjo to Nihon no kakawari: Tonkō shahon Kōshi Kō Taku sōmonsho to Konjaku monogatari shū’ 敦煌文書と日本のかかわり―敦煌写本「孔子項託相問書」と『今昔物語集』, Daigakuin kyōiku kaikaku shien puroguramu (Nihon bunka kenkyū no kokusaiteki jōhō dentatsu sukiru no ikusei) katsudō hōkokusho 大学院教育改革支援プログラム「日本文化研究の国際的情報伝達スキルの育成」活動報告書, v. 20 (2008), pp. 358–362.
45 M. Soymié, ‘L'entrevue de Confucius et de Hiang T'o’, Journal Asiatique CCXLII (1954), pp. 311–391.
46 See, for example, Zhang Hongxun 張鴻勳, ‘Dunhuang ben Kongzi Xiang Tuo xiangwen shu’ 敦煌本《孔子項託相問書》研究, Dunhuang yanjiu 敦煌研究 2 (1985), pp. 99–110.
47 R. A. Stein, ‘Tibetica Antique VI: Maximes confucianistes dans deux manuscrits de Touen-houang’, Bulletin de l’École Française d'Extrême-Orient 79.1 (1992), pp. 9–17; for an English version, see R. A. Stein, ‘Confucian maxims in two Dunhuang manuscripts’, in Rolf Stein's Tibetica Antiqua, (eds.) R. A. Stein and A. P. McKeown (Leiden and Boston, 2002), pp. 273–283.
48 Nie Hongyin 聶鴻音, ‘Dunhuang P.988 hao Zangwen xiejuan kaobu’ 敦煌 P. 988 號藏文寫卷考補, Minzu yanjiu 民族研究 3 (2005), pp. 78–84.
49 Saerji 薩爾吉 and Saren Gaowa 薩仁高娃, ‘Dunhuang Zangwen rujia geyan duwu yanjiu: Yi Zhongcun Buzhe jiucangben Gu Taigong jiao wei zhongxin’ 敦煌藏文儒家格言讀物研究——以中村不折舊藏本《古太公教》為中心, Zhongguo Zangxue 中國藏學 1 (2017), pp. 39–59.
50 Ibid., p. 58.
51 Takata, T., ‘Multilingualism in Tun-huang’, Acta Asiatica, Bulletin of the Institute of Eastern Culture 78 (2000), pp. 58–59Google Scholar. The so-called ‘Long scroll’ (IOL Tib J 1772, originally Ch. 9.II.17) in London contains a series of Sinitic Buddhist texts transcribed using the Tibetan alphabet. For the restoration of Chinese characters based on Tibetan transcription, see Takata Tokio 高田時雄 ‘Chibetto moji shosha Chōkan no kenkyū (honbun hen)’ チベット文字書寫『長卷』の研究（本文編）, Tōhō gakuhō 東方學報 (Kyoto) 65 (1993), pp. 313–380, 14pl.; cf. W. Simon, ‘A note on Chinese texts in Tibetan transcription’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 21.1/3 (1958), pp. 334–343.
52 Originally catalogued as Pelliot chinois 3419, this manuscript is now Pelliot tibétain 1046.
53 Haneda Tōru 羽田亨, ‘Kan-Ban taion Senjimon no dankan’ 漢蕃對音千字文の斷簡, Tōyō gakuhō 東洋學報 13.3 (1923), pp. 84–104; reprinted in Haneda hakushi shigaku ronbunshū, gekan: gengo, shūkyō-hen 羽田博士史学論文集下巻 言語・宗教篇 (Kyoto, 1958), pp. 396–419. See also B. Csongor, ‘Some Chinese texts in Tibetan script from Tun-huang’, Acta Orientalia Hung. 10.2 (1960), pp. 99–100.
54 Takata Tokio, ‘Zasshō to kukuhyō: Tonkō ni okeru Chibetto moji shiyō no ichimen’ 雜抄と九九表― 敦煌に於けるチベット文字使用の一面, Insha ronsō 均社論叢 14 (1983), pp. 1–4. For a Chinese version of this article, see Gaotian Shixiong 高田時雄, ‘Zachao yu jiujiubiao’《雜抄》與九九表, in Dunhuang, minzu, yuyan 敦煌⋅民族⋅語言, (ed.) Gaotian Shixiong (Beijing, 2005), pp. 79–85.
55 The Tibetan transcription of the Zachao was first published in Simon, ‘Note on Chinese texts in Tibetan transcription’, p. 342, but it was Takata Tokio who later managed to identify the text.
56 The tenth century was the period of close contacts between the rulers of Khotan and Dunhuang, who also became related through marriage.
57 Tokio, ‘Zasshō to kukuhyō’. The reasoning behind this view is that learning the Tibetan alphabet would have been much easier and quicker than acquiring the skills to read and write Chinese, and so Chinese students in this heavily Tibetanised region would have probably learned to read the Tibetan alphabet before they achieved full literacy in Chinese.
58 I owe this insight to Jonathan A. Silk.
59 Wilkens, ‘Buddhism in the West Uyghur Kingdom and beyond’, p. 207. For an overview of Buddhist literature in Old Uyghur, see J. Elverskog, Uygur Buddhist Literature (Turnhout, 1997). An early classic on the topic is B. Laufer, Berthold, ‘Zur buddhistischen Litteratur der Uiguren’, T'oung Pao (Second Series) 8.3 (1907), pp. 391–409.
60 Zhoushu 50, 915.
61 P. Zieme, ‘Chinese classical works in Uighur tradition’, in Journal of the Turfan Studies: Essays on the Third International Conference on Turfan Studies; The Origins and Migrations of Eurasian Nomadic Peoples, (ed.) Academia Turfanica (Shanghai, 2010), pp. 459–471.
62 Umemura, H. and Zieme, P., ‘A further fragment of the Old Uighur Qianziwen’, Written Monuments of the Orient 2 (2015), p. 4Google Scholar.
63 Shōgaito, M. and Yakup, A., ‘Four Uyghur fragments of Qian-zi-wen Thousand Character Essay’, Turkic Languages 5 (2004), 3–28Google Scholar, 313–317, p. 4.
64 This method was not limited to the Qianziwen, as it is also documented in Buddhist literature. For example, in the Old Uyghur translation of the Chinese version of the Abhidharmakośa-kārikā (Apidamo jushe lun bensong 阿毗達磨俱舍論本頌, T.1560), the Uyghur segments of text are normally preceded by two or more Chinese characters, marking their location in the Sinitic text; see Kudara, K., ‘A fragment of an Uigur version of the Abhidharmakośakārikā’, Journal Asiatique CCLXIX/1–2 (1981), p. 328Google Scholar. A comparable practice can also be seen in monolingual Chinese commentaries to Buddhist texts, in which the commentaries sometimes reference the main text by citing only the first and last characters of the relevant passage; see C. Moretti, ‘L'organisation du texte et du commentaire dans le Traité de la grande vertu de sagesse’, in La fabrique du lisible, (eds.) Drège and Moretti, pp. 252–253.
65 Shōgaito Masahiro 庄垣内正弘, ‘Roshia shozō uigurugo danpen no kenkyū 2: Agonkyō, Senjimon, Abidatsumaku sharon jitsugisho (Chūgoku shozō)’ ロシア所蔵ウイグル語断片の研究2 : 『阿含経』『千字文』『阿毘達磨倶舎論実義疏』(中国所蔵), Kyōto daigaku gengogaku kenkyū 京都大学言語学研究 19 (2000), pp. 164–188.
66 On the Uyghur inherited pronunciation of Chinese, see M. Shōgaito, ‘How were Chinese characters read in Uighur?’, in Turfan Revisited: The First Century of Research into the Arts and Cultures of the Silk Road, (eds.) D. Durkin-Meisterernst et al. (Berlin, 2004), pp. 321–324; and Shōgaito, M., Fujishiro, S., Ohsaki, N., Sugahara, M., and Yakup, A., The Berlin Chinese Text U 5335 Written in Uighur Script: A Reconstruction of the Inherited Uighur Pronunciation of Chinese (Turnhout, 2015)Google Scholar.
67 Kornicki, Languages, p. 178.
68 On this, see Shōgaito Masahiro, ‘Roshia shozō uigurugo danpen no kenkyū 4: Senjimon (zokuhen), Dajō hōon girinjō’ ロシア所蔵ウイグル語断片の研究4 : 『千字文』(続編)『大乗法苑義林章』(続編), Kyōto daigaku gengogaku kenkyū 23 (2004), pp. 191–209; Shōgaito, ‘How were Chinese characters read in Uighur?’, pp. 321–324; and Shōgaito et al., Berlin Chinese Text U 5335, esp. pp. 157–168.
69 Shōgaito, ‘Roshia shozō uigurugo danpen no kenkyū 2’; Shōgaito, ‘Roshia shozō uigurugo danpen no kenkyū 4’.
70 Abdurishid Yakup, ‘An example of Old Uyghur's use of Chinese: interpretation of a colophon to the Qianziwen in the Berlin Turfan collection’, Acta Orientalia Hung. 76.4 (2023), pp. 529–542. The point about the apotropaic nature of the Qianziwen was initially raised by Nishiwaki Tsuneki 西脇常記, who mentioned a similar case in Chinese; see Nishiwaki Tsuneki 西脇常記, Doitsu shōrai no Torufan Kango monjo ドイツ將來のトルファン漢語文書 (Kyoto, 2002), pp. 81–82.
71 Yakup, ‘Example of Old Uyghur's use of Chinese’, pp. 536–537, also cites colophon-like scribbles on wooden objects that have a similar context and may be referencing the apotropaic function of the Qianziwen. The scribbles on wooden objects are described in S.-C. Raschmann, ‘Uygur scribbles on a wooden object’, in The Ruins of Kocho: Traces of Wooden Architecture on the Ancient Silk Road, (eds.) L. Russell-Smith and I. Konczak-Nagel (Berlin, 2016), pp. 42–48.
72 Zheng Acai and Zhu Fengyu, Dunhuang mengshu yanjiu 敦煌蒙書研究 (Lanzhou, 2002), p. 51, counts 37 manuscripts, but additional fragments have been identified since then. See also Nugent, Textual Practices, pp. 26–81.
73 Zieme, P., ‘An Old Uyghur translation of the 開蒙要訓 Kaimeng yaoxun’, Written Monuments of the Orient 7.1 (2021), pp. 71–99Google Scholar.
74 Kitsudō, K. and Galambos, I., ‘The story of Shunzi in Old Uyghur’, Acta Orientalia Hung. 73.3 (2020), pp. 451–466Google Scholar.
75 Songshi 宋史 485, p. 13995. Manuscript fragments of the Erya survived at both Dunhuang and Turfan; see Chō Narei [Zhang Nali], ‘Torufan bon Jiga chū ni tsuite’ 吐魯番本『爾雅注』について, in Tonkō, Torufan chutsudo kanbun monjo no shin kenkyū 敦煌・吐魯番出土漢文文書の新研究, (ed.) Dohi Yoshikazu 土肥義和 (Tokyo, 2009), pp. 365–389.
76 On Tangut translations of the Chinese classics, including the Xiaojing, see Kolokolov, V. S. and Kychanov, E. I., Kitajskaja Klassika v Tangutskom Perevode (Lun’ juj, Men dzy, Sjao tzyn) (Moscow, 1966)Google Scholar.
77 Grinstead, E. D., Analysis of the Tangut Script (Lund, 1972), pp. 277–376Google Scholar; Hu Ruofei 胡若飛, ‘E cang Xixiawen caoshu Xiaojing zhuan zhengwen yikao’ 俄藏西夏文草書《孝經傳》正文譯考, Ningxia daxue xuebao (Renwen shehui kexue ban) 寧夏大學學報(人文社會科學版) 28 (2006), pp. 14–17; and Nie Hongyin, ‘Lü zhu Xiaojing kao’ 呂注《孝經》考, Zhonghua wenshi luncong 中華文史論叢 2 (2007), pp. 285–306.
78 Nie Hongyin and Shi Jinbo 史金波, ‘Xixiawen Sancai zazi kao’ 西夏文《三才雜字》考, Zhongyang minzu daxue xuebao 中央民族大學學報 6 (1995), pp. 81–88. A full translation into Russian is available in A. P. Terent'ev-Katanskij and M. V. Sofronov, Smeshannye Znaki Trekh Chastej Mirozdanija (Moscow, 2002).
79 A related Chinese primer from Khara-khoto (initially erroneously catalogued as being from Dunhuang) is Дх-2822, which also seems to be a local composition. For its relationship with the Tangut text, see Wang Shizhen 王使臻, ‘Ecang wenxian Дх.2822 zishu de laiyuan ji xiangguan wenti’ 俄藏文獻 Дх.2822’字書’的來源及相關問題, Xixiaxue 西夏學 5 (2010), pp. 116–125.
80 For a more detailed description of this text, see I. Galambos, Translating Chinese Tradition and Teaching Tangut Culture: Manuscripts and Printed Books from Khara-Khoto (Berlin, 2015), pp. 156–161.
81 Reflecting upon its deficiencies, Nie Hongyin calls it the most unsophisticated text among Tangut texts of this type; see Nie Hongyin, ‘Xixiaben Jingshi zachao chutan’ 西夏本《經史雜抄》初探, Ningxia shehui kexue 寧夏社會科學 5 (2002), pp. 85–86.
82 Huang Yanjun 黃延軍, ‘Xixiawen Jingshi zachao kaoyuan’ 西夏文《經史雜抄》考源, Minzu yanjiu 民族研究 2 (2009), pp. 97–103.
83 Ibid., pp. 98–99.
84 On the different possibilities concerning the relationship between the Chinese and Tangut texts, see Galambos, Translating Chinese Tradition, pp. 160–161.
85 For an edition with Russian translation, see Solonin, K. J., Dvenadtsat’ Tsarstv (St. Petersburg, 1995)Google Scholar.
86 Songshi 203, 5097. For the identification of the text, see Sun Yingxin 孫穎新, ‘Shi'erguo de Xixiawen yiben’《十二國》的西夏文譯本, Minzu yuwen 民族语文 6 (2003), pp. 13–21.
87 Kwanten, L., The Timely Pearl: A 12th Century Tangut-Chinese Glossary (Bloomington, 1982)Google Scholar.
88 For a fascinating new discovery of a Khitan translation of a Chinese historical work and the current state of its decipherment, see V. P. Zaytsev, ‘Identifikatsija kidan'skogo istoricheskogo sochinenija v sostave rukopisnoj knigokodeksa Nova N 176 iz kollektsii IVR RAN i soputstvujushchie problemy’, Acta Linguistica Petropolitana XI.3 (2015), pp. 167–208.
89 At most, bits and pieces of text, some of which may come from didactic primers, can be identified as quotes and allusions in extant inscriptions; see Ōtake Masami 大竹昌巳, ‘Kittan shōji bunken shoin no Kanbun kotenseki’ 契丹小字文献所引の漢文古典籍, Kotonoha 152 (2015), pp. 1–19; and Ōtake Masami ‘Kittan shōji bunken shoin no Kanjin tenko’ 契丹小字文献所引の漢人典故, Kotonoha 160 (2016), 1–18.
90 Jinshi 金史 8, p. 184. H. Franke and D. Twitchett, ‘Introduction’, in The Cambridge History of China, (eds.) H. Franke and D. Twitchett (Cambridge, 1994), vol. 6, pp. 33–36, offers a general overview of the translation efforts by the Khitans, Jurchens, and Tanguts.
91 On written translations into other languages in East Asia, and the similar techniques employed in such projects, see Kornicki, Languages, pp. 187–213.
92 A Mongolian translation written in the ‘Phags-pa script is mentioned in the Yuanshi 元史 (22, p. 486) as having been presented to the throne in 1307.
The pre-classical Mongolian version of the Xiaojing inspired a rich body of scholarship, most of which is listed in de Rachewiltz, I., ‘The missing first page of the preclassical Mongolian version of the Hsiao-ching: a tentative reconstruction’, East Asian History 27 (2004), p. 51, n. 1Google Scholar; see also de Rachewiltz, I., ‘The preclassical Mongolian version of the Hsiao-ching’, Zentralasiatische Studien 16 (1982), pp. 7–109Google Scholar.