Dunhuang Is Willing Arts Comprehensive Examination

Dunhuang praying texts are a kind of practical article which are very popular in Dunhuang from Tang Dynasty to the early Song Dynasty. They successfully win the favor of the governor and common people in Dunhuang, just because they can embody human's best wishes beyond true-life. They are formed in the conjunct effect of Chinese traditional culture and Buddhism culture and show us the social backgrounds in Dunhuang. Their languages are so particular that they contain archaism and slang. They are very useful for researches on politics, history, religion, folklore, etc, yet after being collected and transcribed for the first step. The Collection of Praying Texts from Dunhuang Manuscripts, which is compiled by Huang Zheng and Wu Wei who go at the this fundamental task , includes praying texts from 271 Dunhuang manuscripts. However there are still many problems needed consideration in this book. In addition, we can find that Dunhuang praying texts have their own format after reading them. And some praying texts contain several puzzling terms. There are also a lot of literary quotations and indigestible words which will have influence upon comprehension in reading praying texts. This article tries to solve a bit of doubtful questions mentioned above, and it is composed of four parts below: the first part is the emendation of The Collection of Praying Texts from Dunhuang Manuscripts; the second part is the explanation of some particular words in praying texts; the third part is the research on paragraphs and terms of praying texts; and the fourth part is the explanation of literary quotations. These researches are expected meaningful to the collection, comprehension and cognition of Dunhuang praying texts.