“She association circulars from Dunhuang.” In Antje Richter, ed., History of Chinese Epistolary Culture. (Handbuch der Orientalistik.) Leiden: Brill, 2015: 853–877.
This is an article published in Antje Richter’s volume on the history of Chinese epistolary culture, which is a great book for anyone interested in letters. My own contribution to the volume deals with the association circulars (shesi zhuantie 社司轉帖) commonly found among the Dunhuang manuscripts. These are circulars typically sent out by the management of lay associations about upcoming meetings — they predominantly date from the 9-10th centuries. Although there have been several studies of these circulars by Chinese, Japanese and Russian scholars, little attention has been paid to the physical characteristics of these manuscripts, which is one of the aspects I address.
Shesi zhuantie – Association circular (Copyright @ British Library Or.8210/S.329V)