A Study of the Dunhuang Chinese Manuscripts of the Youposai jie jing ????? (S?tra on Up?saka Precepts)

My project intends to depict the textual evolution of the Youposai jie jing ????? (S?tra on Up?saka Precepts). This text was written as a household cultivation guidebook for Buddhist laymen, and was translated into Chinese by Dharmak?ema (Tanmochen ???in Chinese, 385–433 CE) in 426 CE during the Northern Liang Dynasty ??(397–439 CE). By studying the significant differences between Dunhuang manuscripts and woodblock printed and stone inscribed versions of this text, I will determine how the textual history was affected by the changes caused by variant characters, words and manuscript culture throughout medieval China. I will also examine the colophons in these manuscripts to picture how medieval Chinese lay Buddhists in Dunhuang used this text, which will help to reflect how Buddhist texts influenced lay Buddhists’ lives in China.

Faculty Supervisor:

James Benn

Student:

Partner:

Zhejiang University

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education

University:

McMaster University

Program: