Dunhuang: China’s traditional northwest frontier and overland conduit of exchange with the Old World. Jao Tsung-i: China’s last great traditional man of letters, polymath, and pioneer of comparative humanistic inquiry during Hong Kong’s global heyday. Jao and Dunhuang had a special relationship that this book makes accessible in English for the first time. Inside, Jao proposes an entirely new school of Chinese landscape painting, reconsiders Dunhuang’s oldest manuscripts as its newest research field, and explores topics ranging from comparative religion to medieval multimedia.
Jao Tsung-i (1917–2018) was privately schooled in traditional Chinese letters and arts, and held positions at numerous prestigious institutions around the world. His primary affiliations were in Hong Kong, where he held professorships at University of Hong Kong and Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Editor and translator of this volume,
David J. Lebovitz (PhD, University of Chicago, 2019) is Assistant Professor, Department of Chinese Culture, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology, Hong Kong Baptist University when he worked on this volume.
Series Introduction: Collected Works of Jao Tsung-i Translator’s Preface Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Abbreviations Conventions
Part 1: Jao and Dunhuang Studies
“Next Time Round, I Wish to Lead a Sutra Scribe’s Life”: Jao Tsung-i and Dunhuang Studies 他生願作寫經生:饒宗頤教授與敦煌學研究
Dunhuang Studies and Me 我和敦煌學
Part 2: Dunhuang as Inspiration and Source
Turfan—the Bodhisattva Whose Head Came Off 吐魯番—丟了頭顱的艹艹(菩薩)
Preface to The Xiang’er Laozi, Annotated, Collated and Substantiated Laozi Xiang’er zhu jiaozheng “Zixu” 老子想爾注校證·自序
On the Northwest School of Chinese Landscape Painting Xibeizong shanshuihua shuo 中國西北宗山水畫說
Part 3: Medieval Multimedia
On the Relationship between Bianwen 變文 and Illustration, from the Perspective of the Shanbian 睒變 (Śyāma Transformation) 從「睒變」論變文與圖繪之關係
Postface to the Two Dunhuang Manuscript Fragments of the Baize jingguai tu 白澤精怪圖 (White Marsh’s Diagrams of Spectral Prodigies; P.2682, S.6261) 跋敦煌本《白澤精怪圖》兩殘卷 (P.2682, S.6261)
Part 4: Dunhuang Poetry
Did Men of Song Belt Out “Tang Ci”? An Explanation of the Poem “I Only Fear the Spring Breeze Will Chop Me Apart” 「唐詞是宋人喊出來」的嗎? 說「只怕春風斬斷我」
Notes on the Yunyao ji 雲謠集 (Cloud Ballad Collection) Manuscripts P.2838 and S.1441
Another Look at the Dunhuang Manuscript of “Deng lou fu” 登樓賦 (Rhapsody on Climbing the Tower) 敦煌寫本登樓賦重研
Part 5: Reorienting Dunhuang Studies
Dunhuang Research Should Be Broader in Its Scope “Dunhuang yinggai kuoda yanjiu fanwei” 敦煌應擴大研究範圍 Works Cited Index
Scholars of Sinology, China Studies, Dunhuang studies.