Textual Research Of Amitabha Sutra In Dunhuang Manuscripts

Amitabha Sutra,as classic of Mahayana, which has been translated into three Chinese versions: Amita Sutra translated by Kumarajiva in Yao Qin Dynasty,Sukhavativyuha Sutra translated by Gunabhadra in Liu Song Dynasty,and Sutra on praise of the pure land and protection translated by Xuan Zang in Tang Dynasty.There are only the first and last version in existence.There are 295 pieces of Amitabha Sutra and 5 pieces of Sutra on praise of the pure land and protection.This article is divided into five parts.Introduction,which describes spreading situations and research status of Amitab-ha Sutra.Chapterl:description, which combs 295 pieces of Amitabha Sutra and 5 pieces of Sutra on praise of the pure land and protection, including the institution, the inscrip-tion, the competing,the beginning and ending and denomination to the Taisho Tripi-taka.Chapter2:cohering,piecing 73pieces into 33 groups by using Photoshop. So that the original isolated reunited, and lay the foundation for the relevant written volumes objective and accurate naming and dating.Chapte3:denomination,which points out undefined names and false names,then gives them new reliable names.Chapter4:variant characters between Dunhuang manuscripts and printed edi-tions.There are 4 high research value texts.Combined unearthed documents and his-torical documents helping people understand Amitabha Sutra in Dunhuang Manu-scripts.