Dated Chinese Manuscripts in the Stein Collection

Abstract

The dated documents belonging to this last half-century of the Stein Collection are more numerous than ever, but also for the most part scrappy and fragmentary. There are very few Buddhist canonical texts, but a considerable variety of miscellaneous prayers, eulogies, certificates, letters, contracts, calendars, inventories, and so forth. The general impression one obtains is of a period of gradually increasing poverty and political unrest, in which the civilization introduced by the Chinese is seriously threatened, and Buddhism, though still maintaining its position as the dominant religion, has greatly degenerated since the palmy days of the early T'ang dynasty.