Research On Unearthed Printed Chinese Books Along Silk Road

Silk Road is not only a ancient trade route linking China with the West,but also is a culture route blending the Eastern and Western civilizations.A lots of woodblock printing Chinese books which are unearthed along the Silk Road from 20th Century are the best testimonies for the latter and are the strong evidences for the typography,one of chinese Four Great Inventions, which spreads to west.These Printed Chinese books are unearthed from Dunhuang, Turfan and and Khara-Khoto,which printing time across the dynasties,for exemple Tang, Five Dynasties, Song (Liao, Jin, Western Xia) and Yuan.Buddhist literature is the main body of the unearthed printed Chinese books.Many books on confucian classics, history, philosophy and literature are in the unearthed woodblock printing Chinese books.They have a wide range of research value.But compared with the Manuscripts,the study on printing Chinese books unearthed along the Silk Road relatively weak.Researcher should do in-depth and extensive study.The paper takes the unearthed woodblock printing Chinese books unearthed along the Silk Road as research subjects and studies from bibliography (especially editon studies) perspective. The paper is divided into twelve chapters.The first chapter analyzes the relationship between Silk Road and Books Road and makes a brief description of the overall situation of unearthed woodblock printing Chinese books unearthed along the Silk Road.The printed books unearthed from Dunhuang mainly were printed in late Tang, Five Dynasties and early Song. The printed books unearthed from Turfan were printed in Song,Liao,Jin,Yuan. The printed books unearthed from Khara-Khoto were printed in Song,Liao,Jin,West Xia,Yuan. They are complementary in the era and witness woodblock printing from the beginning to the development of the real treasure. The first chapter reviews of studies from 1909 to date on the unearthed woodblock printing Chinese books unearthed along the Silk Road and points out that studies of them should strengthen in the future.The second chapter analyzes the research value of woodblock printing Chinese books unearthed along the Silk Road.They greatly changed the whole face of the traditional editon studies perspective on bibliography.They do not only provide many valuable kinds of editions,but also have prompted a series of new topics.They do not help to study cultural history,but also are the important historical material for the printing history. The woodblock printing Chinese books unearthed along the Silk Road do not help to study spread of Buddhism,but also help deepen the understanding of the situation in all sectors of religions.They provide valuable material to the sudies on Chinese character, vocabulary and phonology.The third chapter is one of focus in this paper.Most past studies on woodblock printing Chinese books unearthed along the Silk Road mainly refer to manuscripts.Meanwhile, the unearthed printing books are different from handed down books.The fomer have many leaves. Disadvantage in past studies primarily related to research methods.The paper presents five large research steps.Under each of the steps, the paper puts forward feasible methods for specific issues.The fourth chapter introducts the printing history of Tang, Five Dynasties by centring around woodblock printing Chinese books unearthed along Silk Road.There are many research works on the printing history of this period.The paper puts forward the views for many of the problems existing in the printing history of classics.The paper analyzes the periodization of printing history of Tang Dynasty and geographical distribution of printing. Printing in Tang Dynasty centred around calendar.The Imperial Academy of Five Dynasties printed nine confucian classics. The paper points that AD 953 markes Chinese printing history completely entered the "Period of printed edition".The fifth chapter introducts the printing history of Northern Song,Liao, Jin, West Xia and points that lots of classics are printed in Northern Song Dynasty.This situation had a profound impact on Chinese culture.The sixth chapter focuses on the edition binding and points that many fomats in the woodblock printing Chinese books unearthed along Silk Road originate long long ago.For example, the fomat of Buddha printed on single leaf from Dunhuang cave originates in stone statues of Buddha of the Northern and Southern Dynasties.The seventh chapter to the tenth chapter study the books unearthed along Silk Road belong Confucian classics, history, philosophy and literature. These four chapters and the eleventh chapter are the focuses in the paper.The seventh chapter proposes that TID 1015 fragment in the Turfan manuscripts is a revised edition of Tang Yun printed in Liao Dynasty by analyzing its feature and content.Although its content show some similarities to Guang Yun, the former is not a master copy for the latter.They are two different branchs of the system of Tang Yun editons.The Eighth chapter focuses on the printed history books from Khara-Khoto.The paper makes specific comments for version identification by characters.The researers should find out small differences in the characters.The Ninth chapter points out Chu xue Ji from Khara-Khoto belongs to Fujian edion system in the South Song.Wen Jiu Qing Hua from Khara-Khoto is the Song edion and is wrote in the North Song(1119-1125),this book has many research value on literature.linguistics and history.The tenth chaper names the san guo zhi wen lei and Xue RenGui zheng liao shi lve framents and analyzing their edion features.points that they are Fujian bookstore edion in Yuan Dynasty.The eleventh chapter points that Buddhist literature is the main body of the unearthed printed Chinese books along Silk Road.Although Yu zhi Yuan Shi With Qian zi wen Number, it is a offprint with Butterfly binding copied from Jin Tripitaka with reel binding.This unearthed printed Chinese book has precious value in the editon studies.The twelfth chapter points that version identification is hard problem in the studies. Khara-Khoto Document have complex sources and include the editions from Song, Liao, Jin, Western Xia and Yuan dynasties.It is easy to misjudge the period of printing.The paper elects sixteen kinds of reliable books printed in Western Xia with Chinese language and analyzes their edion features.The paper re-examine the period of printing of three books from Khara-Khoto.