Category Archives: Dunhuang

Studies in Chinese manuscripts – A new book

Posted on 11/22/2013 by imre

My new edited volume came out recently with the title Studies in Chinese Manuscripts: From the Warring States Period to the 20th Century (Budapest: Institute of East Asian Studies, ELTE). It has twelve studies all related to Chinese manuscripts. The bulk … Continue reading →

Posted in 20th century, archaeology, Dunhuang, Mistakes, Orthography, Palaeography, published papers, Scribal habits | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Correction marks in the Dunhuang manuscripts

Posted on 08/22/2013 by imre

With their span of six hundred some years, the Dunhuang manuscripts are a valuable witness of the process of textual transmission in medieval China. Beside looking at this process from the perspective of texts and their many versions or editions, … Continue reading →

Posted in Chinese writing, Corrections, Dunhuang, Mistakes, Palaeography, published papers, Scribal habits | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Taboo characters in Buddhist manuscripts from Dunhuang

Posted on 06/18/2013 by imre

This is an article that came out in China so the font is a bit–but it is still readable. In the article, I examine how consistently imperial name taboos were observed in Buddhist texts from Dunhuang. Many scholars in the … Continue reading →

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

Abbot Wang from the Mogao Caves

Posted on 02/25/2013 by imre

Abbot Wang, also known as Wang daoshi or Wang Tao-shih, is one of the most infamous figures in the history of Chinese archaeology. He was the Taoist priest (i.e. daoshi) who stayed at the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang, taking care … Continue reading →

Posted in 20th century, archaeology, Aurel Stein, Dunhuang, exploration, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

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

Aurel Stein’s visit to Japan

Posted on 03/30/2012 by imre

Galambos, Imre. “Sir Aurel Stein’s visit to Japan His diary and notebook.” In Helen Wang, ed., Sir Aurel Stein: Colleagues and collections. British Museum Research Publication 184 (2012): 1-9. This paper is based on Aurel Stein’s diary and notebook he kept while travelling in … Continue reading →

Posted in archaeology, Aurel Stein, Dunhuang, History of scholarship, Japanese, published papers, Travel | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

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

Manuscripts and Travellers in your local bookstore

Posted on 12/22/2011 by imre

Sam van Schaik and Imre Galambos, Manuscripts and Travellers: The Sino-Tibetan Documents of a Tenth-Century Buddhist Pilgrim (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2012). Our book is finally out. It all started about 5 years ago when Sam asked me if I wanted to join … Continue reading →

Posted in archaeology, Aurel Stein, books, Dunhuang, Palaeography, published papers, Scribal habits, Tibetan, Travel | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in archaeology, Chinese writing, Dunhuang, epigraphy, Palaeography, published papers | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Chinese writing, Dating, Dunhuang, epigraphy, Orthography, Palaeography, published papers | Tagged , , | Leave a comment