A Study On The Manuscript Of Tale Of The Capture Of Chi Pu In Dunhuang

There are eleven volumes of the manuscript of Tale of the Capture of Chi Pu hidden in the Dunhuang Shishi collection,all of which contain the folk stories of Chi Bu cursing the king of Han Dynasty Liu Bang who escaped by virtue of wisdom and courage after being hunted down.The full text of Tale of the Capture of Chi Pu is more than 4000 words,with novel themes,complex plot,strong contradictions and conflicts between the characters,and attractive charm,so it is widely spread in Dunhuang.The main research object of this paper is these manuscripts of Tale of the Capture of Chi Pu,and this paper will recheck and reorganize the transcripts and contents of the eleven manuscripts,and conduct more research.This paper is divided into two parts.The first part of the paper is a specific examination of the eleven manuscripts of Tale of the Capture of Chi Pu,and the focus of the study is the manuscript that contains the text of Tale of the Capture of Chi Pu and other contents,analyses the condition of its transcription and the process of its use,return to its original use.And we can study content and application scenarios of manuscripts of Tale of the Capture of Chi Pu.The second part is a study of Tale of the Capture of Chi Pu,to explore its genre categorisation and storytelling heritage.The main part of the paper is divided into four chapters.The first chapter has two areas.The first is a comprehensive and systematic account of the condition and the date of copying of the eleven Dunhuang manuscripts of Tale of the Capture of Chi Pu;The second provides a specific investigation of the scribe,the condition of the copy and the process of use of manuscript,to identify the subject of the study.The second chapter begins with a study of the text copied from the manuscripts and an analysis of its nature.It is certified that the exact authorship of manuscript is not known.But,based on its nature,its main application was as a base for lyricists’ lectures,for ramadan performances,and as a textbook for students to copy,and it was widely used in Dunhuang society in the late Tang Dynasty.Chapters 3 and 4 focus on the text of Tale of the Capture of Chi Pu.The third chapter explores the stylistic classification of Tale of the Capture of Chi Pu.The genre of Tale of the Capture of Chi Pu is the subject of debate.In the past,scholars have successively produced four different classifications of the literary genre of Tale of the Capture of Chi Pu: variant,lyric,rap,and poetry.This paper combines the conclusions proposed by previous authors with the situation of the manuscript to discuss the stylistic classification,and to analyse the stylistic features of the variant text of Tale of the Capture of Chi Pu,and adds to the stylistic understanding of Tale of the Capture of Chi Pu from the point of view of the different titles in the same volume and the miscellaneous copies.The fourth chapter explores the transmission of Tale of the Capture of Chi Pu.Firstly,to collate the evolution of the text:it sprang from historical literature,became established as a genre of sung storytelling,and continued to influence the formation of historical drama novels in the Ming and Qing dynasties;Secondly,the text of Tale of the Capture of Chi Pu presents three types of historical story characters:Chi Pu,Liu bang and Zhou.Finally,to analyse the structure of the ’heroic storytelling model’ presented in the text.It consists of four parts:beginning,development,climax,and ending,Tale of the Capture of Chi Pu can be summarized as four major plots: "making enemies-suffering-struggle-getting out of difficulties".