A Research On The Different Characters Of The Dunhuang Handwriting Copy Chun Qiu Jing Zhuan Ji Jie

Completed between 5-11 A.D., the Dunhuang handwriting copy and its inscription on wood were discovered in the rock cave No.288 of Mingsha mountains which located in Dunhuang with thousands of representations of Buddhists in the early period of last century. As the treasures of the ancient Chinese cultures, its discovery, along with the discovery of inscription on bones or tortoise shells in Yinxu , was regarded as the most important discovery during the long modern Chinese history. Regrettably, most of them were plundered by the great imperialist powers: Britain, France, Russia and Japan, and the most valuable documents, wiih the exception of Buddhism, are still in the museums of Britain and France. Not until the late of last century, with the publication of the Dunhuang documents, the research on Dunhuang' documents grew with vigor. While, due to various reasons, few researchers paid much attention to the ancient records of China, which are preserved in the Dunhuang documents. The handwriting copy Chun Qiu Jing Zhuan Ji Jie ( 《春秋经传集解》)was one of them.. As far, the research and correction on Chun Qiu Jing Zhuan Ji Jie (《春秋经传集解》) were incomplete ,without detailed study on linguistics or documents.Confucianism is the main stream of traditional Chinese culture, and Chun Qiu Zuo Zhuan (《春秋左传》) is one of its Five Classics. Most of the early existing copies Chun Qiu Jing Zhuan Ji Jie (《春秋经传集解》) were carved on wood by Song people while the Dunhuang handwriting copy Chun Qiu Jing Zhuan Ji Jie (《春 秋经传集解》) was written during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. The latter, without the misinterpretations of Tang people and Song people, resembles the original to a great extent. Therefore, the Dunhuang handwriting copy Chun Qiu Jing Zhuan JiJie(《春秋经传集解》), in theory, had a higher academic value on the study of classics, histories as well as ancient recodes.This paper, based on both the study of ancient records and linguistics, mainly focuses on the multi-disciplinary study. Its basic principle is to give a thorough and comprehensive research on the variants which, existing in the handwriting copy, are different from those in the modern edition. (Here the variants refer to all the characters, phrases in the handwriting copy which are in different forms with thosein Shi San JingZhu Shu (《十三经注疏》) and Si Bu Cong Kan (《四部叢刊》) .) Six parts are included in the paper:1. The research on the Dunhuang handwriting copy Chun Qiu Jing Zhuan Ji Jie(《春秋经传集解》) , its nature, its name, and its agesWith the complete and thorough research on the Dunhuang documents, 33 handwriting copies Chun Qiu Jing Zhuan Ji Jie (《春秋经传集解》) are identified first time in China. Among them, 19 were written in Six Dynasty because of their absences of taboo words used in the Tang Dynasty, 2 in Tang Dynasty without the uses of "min, shi' which were taboo words in the Tang Dynasty. There are 9 copies which are difficult to be identified due to much damages and the absences of taboo words and 3 still in doubts. The copies, written in the Six Dynasty, were on Classics with great length and rich contents.Compared with copy Si Bu Cong Kan (《四部叢刊》), there are 5575 variants in the handwriting copy. Some 1730 are the results of changes in numbers and words, some 980 about the add and deletion of "yě (也) ", some 3800 having the same pronunciations but different characters. On the consideration of the length, the paper gives an exhausted research on the variants, except "yě (也) ", according to their importance.2. The research on the ancient Chinese characters of the variants in thehandwriting copyGenerally speaking, the ancient Chinese characters refer to the characters of the six Oriental countries which were different from those during the War Period or the Qin Dynasty. In this paper they refer, specifically, to the characters in the preface of Shuo Wen Jie Zi (《说文解字·敘》) . After the verbatim study of the 18 ancient Chinese characters, the following conclusions are reached.(l)The ancient Ch...