Transactions of the Japan Academy

Show abstractHide abstract

1. Xixia (1032-1227), which was founded at the east end of the so-called Silk Road in the northwest region of China as an important transportation hub, prospered as a Buddhist nation for about 200 years, leaving thousands of documents. It is well known that these documents, both Buddhist and secular, were unearthed in Old Town Khara-khoto by the expeditions led by Kozlov from Russia in 1908 and 1909, and then by the one led by Stein from Britain in 1914.
Following the establishment of Dunhuangology on the basis of documents unearthed in Dunhuang, many researchers have been striving to construct Xixia-Tangutology based on the documents unearthed in Khara-khoto. Although some remarkable achievements have been attained, we are admittedly still at the stage of hunting treasure. Intriguing documents, however, have been increasingly revealed, one of which is reported in this paper.
2. Photocopies of the two fragments (No. 6384) of the butterfly-style manuscripts among the Kozlov collection are in the author's possession. See the Figure 1. Judging from their contents, we know they are part of manuals on acupuncture. They are in complete agreement with part of the contents of the writing (TG 281, No. 2630) that the author previously assumed to be the Xixia translation of Tung ren shuxue zhen jiu to jing*. See the Figure 2. The author's following research revealed that No. 2630 is not a word-for-word translation of the Chinese text but certainly one of similar writings in terms of its contents. Although many mistaken letters are found, the two pieces at hand are written in the standard style so that they sufficiently help identify letters written in cursive on No. 2630.
3. The Tangut heavily relied on acupuncture. It is quite interesting to find descriptions of prohibiting the use of the eight varieties of wood, including pine and oak, for moxa, and of the importance and the method to clean the traces of moxibustion. More importantly, the way to select the date and time for moxibustion is specifically described with a view to administering moxibustion more effectively, and folk religion such as 12-choku** is recorded, where days of good and bad luck, days of rampant bleeding, and general guidance for daily life are given. These descriptions vividly show that the daily lives of the Tangut were controlled by detestation of certain things, and they lived in the sphere of Chinese culture as the Japanese of those days did.

View full abstract

Download PDF (2157K)

Register with J-STAGE for free!