Dunhuang Manuscripts And Historical Records Monks Of Social Life

In most cases，paper, pen, ink and other necessary materials for writing aredeficient in Dunhuang during Tang and Song dynasties. Therefore, most of the booksthey have copied are useful to their life. From this point of view, historicalmanuscripts of Dunhuang books that handed down should also have their specific useand reasons of copying. After observing the copying manners and contents of thesehistorical manuscripts, as well as thoroughly taking into consideration the social andhistorical background at that time, we conclude that reasons of copying thesehistorical manuscripts are mainly related to the monk’s general reading, preaching,singing activities and the local temple schools’ educational activities. The specificchapters are as follows:Historical manuscript, monk’s reading and preaching activities. Based on thehistorical records, the first section demonstrates the tradition of reading historicalbooks of the eminent and famous monks in the history, aiming to state that readinghistorical books were one of the required readings of monks to improve theircultivation. The second section is mainly on the basis of historical allusions andstories from Sutras to prove that history books is one of the required readings ofpreaching monks.Historical manuscripts and monks singing activity. The first section of this chapteranalyzes the basic singing situation in Dunhuang during the late Han and FiveDynasties and early Song Dynasty, as well as the singing monks’(monks who sing inan easy-to-understand way to preach Sutras)dependency on the historical records. Thesecond section analyses the close association between the changed historical tales andthe traditional historical biography from content. The third section discusses thepossibility of Emperors since the World has Opened and Filial Biography directlybeing the master copy of singing.Historical manuscripts and education of Dunhuang. The first section of this chapterfirst discusses the broad education environment in Tang Dynasty and the specificeducation status in Dunhuan. Then from the perspective of imperial competitiveexamination, it demonstrates the significance of historiography education in Tang Dynasty, and points out the necessity of carrying out this education in Dunhuang. Atthe same time, by exploiting the copying manners and contents of the historicaltranscripts, this section proves the possibility of its being the textbook ofhistoriography. The second section puts emphasis on talking about the specialcharacteristics of historiography education in Dunhuang in terms of teaching content,versions (mainly the abridged ones) and teaching methods.