Category Archives: Chinese writing

Taboo characters in Buddhist manuscripts from Dunhuang

Posted on 06/18/2013 by imre

This is a paper that came out in China. The font is a bit odd but readable. The paper examines how consistently the imperial name taboos were observed in Buddhist texts from Dunhuang. Many scholars in the past have observed … Continue reading →

Posted in Character variants, Chinese writing, Dating, Dunhuang, Orthography, Palaeography, published papers, Scribal habits | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Odd variants in a Buddhist manuscript

Posted on 08/20/2012 by imre

There is a Dunhuang copy of the Da fangbian Fo baoenjing 大方便佛報恩經 (The sutra of requiting kindness) at the National Library of China (shelfmark BD01534) which has a number of interesting character variants. One of them is the character 爾 … Continue reading →

Posted in Character variants, Chinese writing, Dating, Dunhuang, Orthography, Palaeography, Scribal habits | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Grid lines in medieval Chinese scrolls: Functionality or design?

Posted on 02/09/2012 by imre

Medieval manuscript scrolls are often ruled with grid lines to guide the hand of the calligrapher. These lines are a basic feature of most standard Buddhist and Taoist scrolls, which typically have 17 characters per line and 27-28 (or 31) … Continue reading →

Posted in archaeology, Chinese writing, Dunhuang, epigraphy, Palaeography, Scribal habits | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

The earliest Chinese manuscript corrections

Posted on 08/08/2011 by imre

The Houma covenant texts (Houma mengshu 侯馬盟書) are a large group of jade and stone tablets from the early 5th century BC. Accordingly, they are 2,500 years old and were written approximately during the last years of the life of Confucius. … Continue reading →

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Graphic variability in a Ming printed book

Posted on 07/19/2011 by imre

Lately, I have been working with Ming editions of Zhuge Kongming Xinshu 諸葛孔明心書, a military text attributed to Zhuge Liang but which is most likely an early Song forgery. The earliest edition I was able to inspect was a moveably type … Continue reading →

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Reversed inscriptions: Chinese writing going from left to right

Posted on 06/21/2011 by imre

I have come across an inscription which is read in reversed order, that is, from left to right. This is a famous inscription called Mogaoku ji (Record of the Mogao Caves) on the wall of the antechamber of Cave 156 … Continue reading →

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Manuscript copies of stone inscriptions

Posted on 06/21/2011 by imre

Putting some of my older publications online: Manuscript copies of stone inscriptions in the Dunhuang corpus: Issues of dating and provenance (Imre Galambos) Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques LXIII, 4, 2009: 809-826. Abstract Modern observers tend to simplify the complex process of … Continue reading →

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Scribal Notation in Medieval Chinese Manuscripts

Posted on 06/21/2011 by imre

Putting some of my older publications online: Scribal Notation in Medieval Chinese Manuscripts: The hewen (Ligature) and the chongwen (Duplication) Marks (by Imre Galambos) Manuscript Cultures (2010), No. 2. Early Chinese manuscripts and inscriptions often make use of two devices … Continue reading →

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Chinese seals in Ireland

Posted on 06/21/2011 by imre

Putting online some of my older publications: The story of the Chinese seals found in Ireland (Imre Galambos) Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3, 18, 4 (2008), pp. 465-479. In 1850, a paper was read before the Royal … Continue reading →

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Manuscript of medieval character dictionary digitized

Posted on 02/04/2011 by imre

Manuscript Or.8210/S.388 from the Stein collection at the British Library is finally digitized and available at the IDP website. This is a manuscript that has been written/copied sometime between the late 6th and first half of 7th centuries, and records … Continue reading →

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