A Philological Study On The Dunhuang Chinese Manuscripts Of Mahāvaipulya-Mahāsamghāta-Sutra

Mahāvaipulya-Mahāsamghāta-Sutra is a collection of Mahayana mahasamghata classics.It mainly interprets six paramitas and sunyata(emptiness)in Mahayana and has a strong feature of Esoteric Buddhism.This sutra was translated by Dharmaks ema in the Northern Liang Dynasty,Narendrayasas in the Northern Qi Dynasty,Narenyasas in the Sui Dynasty and other masters from generation to generation.It has been included in sutra of all past dynasties.The edition was 60 volumes and 17 chapters in Taishopitaka.Almost each chapter has a different translation handed down from ancient.Through a general investigation,among all published Dunhuang literature,there are a total of 205 pieces for Mahdvaipulya-Mahasamghata-Sutra,including 45 in National Library of China(NLC),10 in Bibliotheque nationale de France,59 in British Library,73 in Institute of Oriental Manuscripts,Russian Academy of Sciences,5 in Gansu(including 2 in Gansu Provincial Museum and 3 in Dunhuang Research Academy),2 in Tianjin Art Museum(TAM),3 in Kyou Shoku,2 in Nakamura Fuestsu,1 in Annexe of Mitsui Library(AML),1 in Cathay Bookshop,1 in National Taiwan Library(NTL),1 in Fu Si Nian Library(FSL),l in Qi Gong and 1 in Can Mo.Compared with photocopies handed down from ancient times,these manuscripts retain more of the original state and serve as precious literature for the study of Mahavaipulya Mahasamghata Sutra.Except 141 pieces in TAM(Volume Ⅳ),13 pieces in NTL(Volume Ⅻ),14925 pieces in NLC(Volume 26,corresponding to Volume 32 of Taishopitaka),76 pieces in TAM(Volume 27,corresponding to Volume 47 of Taishopitaka,25 pieces in AML(Volume 29,corresponding to Volume 48 of Taishopitaka)and 4 pieces in AML(Volume X)are complete,all of the remaining 200 pieces are fragments or remnants and distributed in different libraries,which brings inconvenience on research.Among the fragments,quite a few belonging to the same manuscript are ripped into several pieces.Chapter one is the descriptive catalogue of 104 identified manuscripts sorted in descending order of integrity.Each item in the catalogue not only gives graphical information about serial number,layout,content,character form,etc,but also points out some imprecise or even incorrect titles.Chapter two identifies 101 unidentified fragments mainly sorted in ascending order of serial number.First introduce the layout and character form of each fragment with picture,then give the predicate based on the content.Chapter three rejoins 38 fragments into 13 groups by analyzing both the content and the material manifestation of that content,and corroborates each conclusion with rejoined picture which can provide more clues for further research,e.g.dating.