The Western Xia Buddhist sutra "Auspicious All over the Mouth and the Continuation" on paper The first batch of cultural relics are prohibited from going abroad (border) to exhibit cultural relics
Cultural relics date: Western Xia
Excavation information: Excavated in 1991 in Helan County, Ningxia Baisigou Square Pagoda
Collection location: Ningxia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology
The nine volumes of the unearthed scriptures, the Butterfly Suit, are Tibetan Buddhist tantric texts translated from Tibetan. The finisher has a cover and a title page, the upper left side of the cover is pasted with a long bookmark engraved, the outer ring of the title is bordered; the cover paper is slightly thicker, earthy yellow, and there is another paper on the inside of the cover, and some of the paper is a buddhist scripture waste page, and the words face inward when the back is back. The full-page version of the frame is 30.7 cm in length, 38.0 cm in width, with a sub-bar in the four realms, a spacing of 23.5 cm above and below, an unbounded grid, and a half-face of 15.2 cm. The center is 1.2 cm wide and has no trunk or fish tail. The first half is the abbreviation of the book title, and the second half is the page number, and the page number has three forms: Chinese, Western Xia, and Hanxia Hewen.
It consists of four parts: one is the "Ben Continuation" itself, which is stored in volumes 3, 4, and 5, counting 3 volumes; the second is the "Essential Text", which is fully known as "The Essential Text of the Auspicious Passage to the Mouth and the Present Continuation", counting 1 volume; the third is the "Broad Text", which is fully known as the "Second Half of the Generalized Text of the Auspicious Passage to the Mouth and the Continuation", counting 1 volume; the fourth is the "Uncomplicated Supplement", which is fully called the "× of the Interpretation of the Essence of the Auspicious Passage to the Mouth and the Continuation of the Present Continuation", and the first and fifth volumes of the surviving texts, the second and third of the fragments, counting 4 volumes. A total of 9 volumes, a total of more than 220 pages, plus scattered fragments of pages that have not yet been registered, about 100,000 words.
The text of the nine volumes of the "Continuation", the minimum of 17 pages, the maximum of 37 pages, all in Western Xia script. The Ben Continuum is one of the surviving Western Xia Buddhists at home and abroad. According to the investigation, there is no bibliography of the "Ben Continuum", and it is possible that the Original Tibetan language has long been lost, and this sutra has now become the only copy of the "Ben Continuum". The "Ben Continuation" is the only nationally recognized version of the Western Xia Period, and also the wooden movable type edition of the Liao, Song and Jin dynasties. It is the earliest surviving wooden movable type edition print, which advances the invention and use of wooden movable type from the Yuan Dynasty to the Song Dynasty. This document has important research value for archaeology, Western Xia studies, Buddhism, Tibetan studies, book history, philology, cultural history, etc.
The world's earliest surviving wooden movable type print
More than ten kilometers from the Baisi Ditch of Helan Mountain in Jinshan Township, Helan County, Yinchuan City, Ningxia, there is a square thirteen-story solid brick pagoda with dense eaves, which is the Baisigou Square Pagoda built in the Western Xia Period. When the pagoda was built is unknown because no relevant documentary records have been found, and the tower is also named after the name of the ditch and the shape of the tower.
In 1984, the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region carried out a census of cultural relics, which was mistaken for a Ming Dynasty building. In November 1990, the square tower was destroyed. At the beginning of December of the same year, the relevant cultural relics departments in Ningxia immediately organized personnel to conduct a joint investigation at the scene after obtaining the situation, and determined that archaeological excavations would be carried out in the spring of 1991. In June 1991, the Ningxia Archaeological Research Institute organized Niu Dasheng and Sun Changsheng to conduct scientific excavations of the destroyed square pagoda, unearthed paper relics with inscriptions in Western Xia and Chinese, and the age of the Western Xia Jianfang Pagoda written in ink on the hexagonal wooden pillar excavated in the center of the tower, only to know that this square pagoda has a rare ancient Building of Western Xia with accurate dating.
After excavation and collation, in addition to excavating green bricks, wood and other building materials, the pagoda also unearthed many valuable Western Xia cultural relics: nine Western Xia Buddhist scriptures; eight Western Xia texts; inscribed and written Chinese Buddhist scriptures; four Chinese documents; Western Xia wooden plates; wooden pagoda pillars; wrapping towels, relics, lotus bags and other silk fabrics.
The Western Xia Buddhist scriptures unearthed in the Fang Pagoda were sorted out and spelled together to produce nine volumes, about 100,000 words. Seven of them are complete, two are fragments, and some of the fragments and fragments need to be further sorted out. The translated titles and pages of the nine Buddhist sutras are as follows: "Auspicious All-to-Mouth and Ben Sequel Volume III" (pages 34-35); "Auspicious All-to-Mouth and Ben Sequel Volume 4" (page 37); "Auspicious All-to-Mouth and Ben Continuation Volume 5" (page 35). In the above three books, the first page of the main text has the inscription of the name of the person who "precedes", "Tibetan translation" and "fan translation". "Fan translation", that is, The Western Xia translation. It can be seen from this that this sutra is based on the Tibetan text. The Essential Texts of the Auspicious All-to-Mouth and The Present Continuation (p. 17); the Second Half of the Broad Sense of the Auspicious All-to-the-Mouth and the Continuation (p. 26); the Auspicious All-to-the-Mouth and the Present Continuation of the Interpretation of the Essence of the First (p. 21); the Auspicious All-to-the-Mouth and the Continuation of the Interpretation of the Life and the Continuation of the Fifth (p. 24).
The above four books, the first page of the main page has the inscription of the name of the person who "collected", "transmitted" and "translated", which is also translated into Tibetan. The above seven books are complete at the beginning and end. Among them, the first five editions have different degrees of damage at the heart, especially the first two. "Auspicious All over the Mouth and the Present Continuation of the Liberation of Life and Happiness Second", sorted out from the fragmented scripture pages, a total of twenty pages. One to seven of these pages are fragments, and pages eight to twenty are largely intact. The Third Edition of the Auspicious Passage to the Mouth and the Continuation of the Interpretation of the Life and Joy of the Scriptures, sorted out from the fragmentary scripture pages, still exists pages four to seven, nine to fifteen, of which the seventh, tenth to fifteenth pages are full pages, and the rest are remnant pages.
The Western Xia Buddhist sutra "Auspicious All over the Mouth and the Continuation", inscribed, white linen paper fine printing, butterfly suit. The finisher has a cover, a title page, the upper left side of the cover is pasted with a long bookmark engraved in Western Xia characters, the outer ring of the title of the book is bordered, the cover paper is slightly thicker, earthy yellow, the inside of the cover is another back paper, some paper is the waste page of the Buddhist scriptures, and the words face inward when the back is back. The full-page version of the inner page of the Buddhist scriptures is 30.7 cm in length and 38.0 cm in width, surrounded by double columns, with a spacing of 23.5 cm above and below, unbounded grids, and 15.2 cm on the left and right sides of the half. The center of the edition is 1.2 cm wide, no elephant trunk, no fishtail, the first half of the book title is abbreviation, the lower half is written page number, and the page number has three forms: Chinese, Western Xia, and Han xia. Ten lines per half of the face, twenty-two characters per line, each word size of about 1 cm. The font throughout is complex, zhouzheng, and beautiful.
"Auspicious All over the mouth and this continuation" has obvious characteristics of movable type prints, such as a large gap at the intersection of the plate frame and column lines, the center line of the plate is not connected with the upper and lower column lines; the ink color is uneven, the ink back of the print is different in shade; the same side of the same word stroke, the form is not the same; the column line and the center line of the line are missing and provincial; the name abbreviation and page number are confused, and some are misplaced and missing; the numbers are inverted, and so on. These features are not possible on engraved prints. The font strokes of "Auspicious All Over the Mouth and the Continuation" are smooth, the edges are neat, there are few broken pens and missing pens, and the printing is well-printed, which has the characteristics of the wooden movable type version, which is obviously different from the clay movable type version. In addition, some lines of different lengths are between the lines, which are the traces of interlaced strips unique to wood movable type printing. This shows that the technique of "typing and making lines, cutting into bamboo pieces" in Wang Zhen's "Movable Type Printing Calligraphy" of the Yuan Dynasty has appeared as early as the Western Xia Period.
Traditional views hold that wooden movable characters were first created or invented by Wang Zhen in the Yuan Dynasty. After several years of painstaking research, Mr. Niu Dasheng, a famous archaeologist in Ningxia, first recognized that "Auspicious All over the Mouth and the Continuation" is a printed version of the Movable Type Edition of Xixiamu and wrote an article on it, which has aroused widespread concern at home and abroad. On November 6, 1996, the Ministry of Culture organized an expert appraisal committee to appraise the results, with Yu Weichao as the chairman and Pan Jixing and Zheng Rusi as the vice chairmen, and the committee was composed of 12 well-known experts in different fields such as archaeology, Western Xia history, Buddhism, printing, editions, paper, and literature, including Xu Pingfang, Shi Shuqing, Ji Shuying, and Shi Jinbo. After careful investigation, appraisal and discussion, the experts fully affirmed the research results and unanimously adopted the appraisal opinion.
The Appraisal Committee identified that the Xixia Buddhist scripture "Auspicious All over the Mouth and The Continuation" excavated in Ningxia in 1991 and hidden in the Ningxia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology is the earliest wooden movable type edition printed in the world so far, which advances the invention and use of wooden movable type by a dynasty, and is of great value to the study of Chinese printing history and ancient movable type printing technology.
The Auspicious All Over the Mouth and the Continuation is not a sufficient text, there is no preface, and it is impossible to directly study its printing time and printing location from the text. The Baisigou Square Pagoda, where it is located, was built in the second year of Emperor Huizong Da'an of Western Xia (1076), more than 900 years ago, and is the only original pagoda in Western Xia with a clear date preserved to this day. At the same time, two cultural relics unearthed at the same time were the Western Xia Era Number: one is the Western Xia Wen Gui shaped wooden Jane, the wooden plate is two sides of the ink book Xi Xia Wen, the first two words are the Western Xia text "Zhenguan"; the other is the Xixia Renkao Emperor Qianyou Eleventh Year (1180) "Western Xia Ren Xiao Han Wen Wish Text". Among these cultural relics, no relics of the Yuan Dynasty and the yuan dynasty have been found, and according to the coexistence relationship of the relics, the "Auspicious All-over-the-Mouth and The Continuation" should be a Buddhist scripture of the late Western Xia Dynasty.
"Auspicious All over the Mouth and this Continuation" is printed on hemp paper and has obvious local characteristics. After the founding of the Western Xia Dynasty, while continuously importing Paper from the Central Plains, it gradually mastered the papermaking technology, and there were paperwork institutes in government agencies to manage papermaking, and there were professional papermakers. The existing Western Xia books are mostly printed on hemp paper, which is obviously different from the leather paper popular in the Song and Yuan dynasties. From the paper point of view, the documents unearthed from the square pagoda, including the "Auspicious All over the Mouth and the Continuation", are all Western Xia prints.
The Auspicious All-Over Mouth and The Present Continuation is a butterfly binding, and the binding form of this Buddhist sutra is different from the Song and Yuan ben. There are two forms of binding of ancient Chinese Buddhist scriptures, namely sutra folding and rolling. According to the available data, the Western Xia Buddhist scriptures of the Western Xia Period were basically folded, and since the 1970s, several kinds of butterfly suits have been found; while the Western Xia Buddhist scriptures of the Yuan Dynasty are all folded and folded, and there are no butterfly suits. Judging from the binding form of Buddhist scriptures, the butterfly-bound "Auspicious All over the Mouth and the Continuation" is different from the Song and Yuan texts, and it is the Western Xia print.
In addition, the first page of the main text of the "Auspicious All over the Mouth and the Continuation" has the title and personal name inscription of the person who "Collected The Classics", "Qiang Translations", and "Fan Translations". "Qiang translation" refers to the translation into Tibetan, "Fan" is the Western Xia people's self-designation, "Fan translation" is translated into Western Xia. It can be seen that this sutra was translated from Tibetan into Western Xia. This form of sutra inscription is a common form of Writing or Printing books in Tibetan translations of Western Xia Buddhist scriptures in the Western Xia period, such as the Russian-Tibetan Xixia Buddhist scripture "To the Other Shore Gate To Make Victory and Stay in Shunfa" and other sutras have similar inscriptions.
"Auspicious All over the Mouth and this Continuation" is a wooden movable type edition print, and Mr. Niu Dasheng has conducted research and demonstration from various aspects:
1. The four corners of the frame and bar lines are not connected, leaving gaps of different sizes; the ink color is uneven, the ink depth of the back of the paper is different; the font size is different, and the penmanship style is different. These phenomena are visible on every page of scripture.
2. Some of the last pages are not lined up or the columns are arranged after the middle text of the warp page; the abbreviation of the warp name and the page number are confused, and the phenomenon of misalignment and omission is serious.
3. There are individual inverted characters, such as the word "four" in page 5 of the main text of "Auspicious All over the mouth and the original continuation", and the word "seven" in the seventh page of the interpretation of the "auspicious all-over to the mouth and the original continuation". These phenomena are common in movable type editions and are characteristic of movable type prints, which are rarely or not seen at all in engraved prints.
The movable type of "Auspicious All over the Mouth and the Continuation" is based on wooden movable type, which is marked by interlaced lines between the lines. "Mengxi Pen Talk" contains bi sheng mud movable type typesetting process, no interlacing process. The wooden movable type typesetting process recorded in Wang Zhen's "Making Movable Type Printing Calligraphy" has the process of "typesetting and cutting into bamboo pieces". The intermittent imprints of the words "Auspicious All Over the Mouth and the Present Continuation" are formed by improper handling of interlaced clips. This shows that "Auspicious All over the Mouth and the Continuation" is a wooden movable type, not a clay movable type. In addition, the strokes of "Auspicious All Over the Mouth and the Continuation" are smooth, the edges are neat, and there are few broken pens and missing pens, which are different from the earlier clay movable characters.
"Auspicious All over the mouth and the continuation" is the world's earliest wooden movable type print found so far, which advances the time of the invention and use of wooden movable type in China by a dynasty, that is, from the traditional Yuan to the Western Xia. Most of the Song and Yuan movable scripts recorded in the literature no longer exist, and it is known that the early wooden movable scripts are only the Western Xia script "Dafang Guangfo Huayan Sutra" printed in the Yuan Dynasty. This discovery also proves that the Western Xia Dynasty was an important intermediary area for the spread of movable type printing to Europe in China. China's movable type printing technology began in the Northern Song Dynasty, and Western movable type printing began in the 15th century, which was developed under the influence of Chinese movable type printing. There are several westward routes of Chinese printing, the main one of which was along the ancient Silk Road, which was introduced to Central Asia and then into Europe. In recent years, Uighur wooden movable type has been found in Dunhuang, Gansu Province, and wooden movable type prints of Han, Basiba and Guhetian have been found in Kucha and Hotan in Xinjiang, and relevant experts believe that they are all relics of the Yuan Dynasty. The Western Xia Dynasty occupied the entire Hexi Corridor at that time, and the discovery of the Movable Type version of the Western Xia Dynasty in the Auspicious All-Over-the-Mouth and The Ben Continuation proves that movable type printing was introduced to the Hexi region during the Song Dynasty, making up for the lack of links from the Central Plains to Central Asia. Wood movable type printing in Western Xia was an intermediate link in the western transmission of Movable Type Printing in China.
Excerpt from this article Yu Xi's Extremely Precious Xixia Buddhist Sutra that Rewrites the History of Human Printing, Auspicious All Over the Mouth and the Continuation
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Niu Dasheng: The discovery of the Western Xia Buddhist sutra "Auspicious All over the Mouth and the Continuation"
The Xixia Buddhist scripture "Auspicious All over the Mouth and The Ben Continuation" (hereinafter referred to as the "Ben Continuation"), is one of the Western Xia texts found in 1991 in the ruins of the Bai Temple in Ningxia's Helan Mountain, butterfly suit, about 100,000 words, is a Translation of the Tibetan Buddhist Tantric Classics. The main text of the 9 volumes of the Continuation, the minimum of 17 pages, the maximum of 37 pages, all in Western Xia script. The Ben Continuum is one of the surviving Western Xia Buddhist scriptures at home and abroad. According to the investigation, there is no bibliography of the "Ben Continuum", and it is possible that the original Tibetan language has long been lost, and this sutra has now become the only copy of the "Ben Continuum". The "Ben Continuation" is the only nationally recognized version of the Western Xia Period, and also the wooden movable type edition of the Liao, Song and Jin dynasties. It is the earliest surviving wooden movable type edition print, which advances the invention and use of wooden movable type from the Yuan Dynasty to the Song Dynasty. This document has important research value for archaeology, Western Xia studies, Buddhism, Tibetan studies, book history, philology, cultural history, etc.
Twenty-seven crosses in the middle seam
The second column on the right is inverted
The left side is missing
The whole picture of "This Continuation"
The most broken volume in the Continuation
The old cow is really old and has become a veritable "old cow". Although it was a small flat head, it looked that the white hair was not so "eye-catching", but on closer inspection, there was no longer a single black hair on it. But his face was red and he couldn't see the wrinkles. Ask the age, only one year, it is 80!
What is the age of 80? It is the age of nurturing the elderly, the age of teasing the grandchildren, and the age of needing others to take care of their diet and living! And these all seem to have nothing to do with the old cow. On the contrary, his desk still has many books and materials, and there are still freshly written words in the computer, and it will not be long before new research results are released. The old cow is really an old cow that works silently!
Looking at the work history of the old cow for decades, it can really be summarized by "no need to whip yourself". He was like this when he was young; he was like this when he was nearing retirement; he was still like this after retirement! His academic research has long been freed from the shackles of fame and fortune, and it has also washed away the color of utilitarianism.
Archaeologists won the "Bi Sheng Prize": the only one in the country
1996 was an important year for Niu Dasheng, although he had retired for several years, but it was at this time that his research results were authoritatively confirmed. Subsequently, he won the highest award in China's printing industry, "Bi Sheng Award", and ushered in a brilliant moment in his life. How could an archaeologist in a remote province be associated with such a prize that was admired by all my colleagues in the printing industry?
Speaking of Lao Niu's research at that time, I am afraid that even he himself did not expect such a big reaction.
In 1993, Niu Dasheng retired. At that time, the old cow often turned yellow and crisp in front of the book in front of him. The more he looked at them, the more excited he became, and the more he looked at them, the more he felt that they were unusual! After several months of unremitting research, he made a surprising discovery: these Western Xia Buddhist scriptures printed in the Western Xia period are not only rare and unique copies, but also have more important value: because it is not an engraved print, but a wooden movable type print!
In 1993, the "First Academic Symposium on the History of Printing in China" was held in Beijing. Niu Dasheng introduced his research results in his speech at the conference, which aroused strong concern. Academia has called on authorities to confirm it.
On November 6, 1996, the Ministry of Culture organized experts in Beijing to evaluate this achievement. Members of the appraisal committees Yu Weichao, Shi Shuqing, Xu Pingfang, Shi Jinbo, Pan Jixing, Zheng Rushi, Zhang Shudong, Luo Shubao, Wei Zhigang, Ji Shuying, etc. are respectively authoritative in archaeology, Western Xia, ancient paper, printing, and versionology. The participating experts listened to the research report of researcher Niu Dasheng, examined and studied the relevant materials, unanimously affirmed Niu Dasheng's research results and agreed with Niu Dasheng's research conclusions: The Western Xia Buddhist sutra "Auspicious All over the Mouth and the Continuation" is "a wooden movable type print of the late Western Xia Dynasty", which is the earliest wooden movable type printed copy found in the world so far. In this way, the invention and use of wooden movable type predates authoritative treatises and people's traditional understanding by a dynasty. Niu Dasheng's research results have thus become "one of the most important discoveries in the history of printing in this century". This means that the relevant chapters of the history of human printing will be rewritten as a result.
In 1997, Niu Dasheng won the "Bi Sheng Award", the highest award in the printing industry issued by the Press and Publications Administration, for this achievement. In 1999, his research won the second prize of "Outstanding Achievements in Culture, Art and Science" issued by the Ministry of Culture. All sectors of society praised Niu Dasheng as "the person who rewrote the history of printing".
Niu Dasheng's research results are exciting. For a period of time, a small number of scholars from neighboring countries have constantly challenged the "four great inventions" of our country: they say that they invented the printing press, which we have always been proud of. Niu Dasheng's research results strongly counter this challenge.
A case that shocked China and other countries led to major archaeological discoveries
Many people will ask: How can fate be so favorable to Niu Dasheng? How did such valuable information get into the hands of Niu Dasheng?
This is due to an archaeological discovery.
In fact, he also took the initiative to ask for help in the year near retirement, and then picked up the archaeological shovel.
Different from the previous general archaeological excavations, Niu Dasheng's expedition was actually led by a case that shocked China and foreign countries.
On November 28, 1990, herders herding sheep on Helan Mountain discovered that the little-known Baisigou Square Pagoda located in the hinterland of Helan Mountain had been blown up by lawbreakers! On the morning of December 11, Ningxia archaeologists decided to visit the site, and I was invited to go with me (the only reporter who went to the site at that time). We saw the ruins of the bombed tower and found a pillar in the heart of the tower in the midst of a mess of bricks. The Xixia and Chinese inscriptions on it have attracted the attention of professionals, and also provided many important information to modern people, who judged that the square pagoda that was always considered to be the Ming Dynasty in the past was actually a rare Western Xia ancient pagoda! Its archaeological value has always been underestimated!
I published an exclusive report in Guangming Daily, which aroused widespread concern from the central leading comrades and at home and abroad.
Although Niu Dasheng did not visit the scene, he repeatedly expressed his anger and regret in interviews with me. He was nearly old, but he had no intention of messing around, and he had a great interest in cleaning up the ruins of the ancient tower. He believes that figuring out the architectural structure of the tower is of great significance to the study of Western Xia architecture and even ancient architecture in China. At the same time, he also had a glimmer of hope in the darkness: he hoped to find Western Xia relics in the ruins, even if it was a scale and a half claw.
In the autumn of 1991, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the archaeological team led by Niu Dasheng entered the hinterland of Helan Mountain and spent a month with the ruins of the ancient pagoda. This is an extremely arduous archaeology: there is no road, no electricity, no information, and water, grain, vegetables and other daily necessities have to be transported into the mountain by donkeys from outside the mountain. It was in this short month that they turned over the ruins of the entire ancient pagoda, stacked all the waste bricks neatly, and not only figured out the architectural structure of the square tower, but also accidentally discovered a number of precious Western Xia cultural relics and Chinese and Western Xia literature.
"Archaeology is the science of discovery!" Niu Dasheng "discovered" and discovered something that no one else had found!
Discover the western Xia Buddhist scriptures in an isolated copy
It is said that Niu Dasheng, who "returned with a full load", as long as he handed in the archaeological data, he would be finished. If that had been done, it would not have been Niu Dasheng.
After the end of the field archaeology, Niu Dasheng continued to fight, sorting out and studying the excavated cultural relics. Whether it is for Niu Dasheng or other professionals, it is very difficult to find out these cultural relics, because most of the excavated cultural relics are Western Xia literature, and only a few Western Xia experts can understand the Western Xia, and there are only a few at home and abroad. Niu Dasheng is not yet among them.
The Xixia script, a unique script created by imitating Chinese characters, has been used for four or five hundred years in history. It was created before the founding of the Western Xia Dynasty, but it did not immediately die out due to the demise of the Western Xia regime, but continued to be used for a long time in some areas. At first glance, the Western Xia script is quite similar to the Chinese characters; on closer inspection, none of the characters are the same as the Chinese characters. The creation of the Western Xia wen has certain principles, laws, and is also full of wisdom. Although it is not used for a long time and a wide range of applications like Chinese characters, the special culture it carries in a specific period is not available to other scripts. Therefore, when Premier Zhou Enlai heard in 1972 that only "a few old people" knew xixia in China, he immediately instructed the relevant departments: Someone must study this kind of writing, and it must not be lost.
Delve into the artifacts unearthed from the ruins of the ancient tower, like conquering a fortified fortress. In front of Niu Dasheng, there are many "roadblocks," and the biggest "roadblocks" are the lack of knowledge reserves. But this is not difficult to defeat Niu Dasheng. He bought hundreds of related books to learn from scratch and used various opportunities to learn from experts.
Archaeological research must not only be willing to suffer poverty and endure loneliness, but also have a pair of eyes. Niu Dasheng had a unique vision in sorting out and studying these cultural relics, and he gradually abandoned other cultural relics and finally focused on the 9 intact Western Xia manuscripts: What is this book? What is the title of the book? Is it a secular document or a Buddhist scripture? Is it a solitary copy in the Western Xia literature? Although both the beginning and the end of the volume are defective and untitled, Niu Dasheng finally used the knowledge he had just learned and consulted a large number of literature to find out its "ins and outs": these Western Xia manuscripts, titled "Auspicious All over the Mouth and the Continuation", are Tibetan Buddhist tantric classics translated from Tibetan, and are the only ones in western Xia literature at home and abroad.
Orphaned! Its value is self-evident, not to mention the western Xia wen of the Western Xia period! On September 22, 1991, Guangming Daily published a report on the front page titled "An Orphan Copy of the Xixia Buddhist Scriptures Found in the Ruins of the Ningxia Fang Pagoda", and subsequently reprinted the full text of Xinhua Digest.
Is it an engraving? Is it movable type? Extraordinary argument
Examining the provenance of the Xixia Buddhist scriptures and determining that they are orphaned is not a small research result, but Niu Dasheng's research has not stopped there. He gave himself another problem: to study its characteristics in binding and layout, and then determine whether it was an engraved or movable type print. If it's a movable type print, it's unusual! However, to understand this problem, it involves Buddhist studies, Tibetan studies, version studies, philology, printing history and other disciplines, and it is necessary to have a lot of relevant knowledge. Even figuring out a problem is not an easy task!
In order to make up for the lack of knowledge, Niu Dasheng, who was a young man, learned from scratch, he was willing to be a primary school student, not only to learn from books, but also to ask experts for advice, only he visited more than 30 experts, all of which laid a solid foundation for his in-depth research.
When the Auspicious All-Over-the-Mouth and The Present Continuum was unearthed, it was only identified as a print of the Western Xia Dynasty. As for whether it is engraved printing, or movable type printing, clay movable type, or wood movable type, metal movable type has not yet had time to study in depth, but this is an extremely important issue.
Printing, known as the "mother of civilization", is an ancient invention that every descendant of Yanhuang is proud of. From seals, inscriptions, fabric printing and dyeing to engraving printing, movable type printing, has undergone a long historical process. The printing technology of engraving began in the late Sui and early Tang dynasties, and the more advanced clay movable type printing technique has always been believed to have been invented by Bi Sheng in the Northern Song Dynasty, because Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Pen Talk" has a clear record of this. Since then, Wood Movable Type and Metal Movable Type have been born in China. This is a sign of the progress of the times. Under the influence of Chinese movable type technology, Western countries did not master movable type technology until 1450, which is four centuries later than China!
Niu Dasheng found in his research that there are many differences between the engraving prints of the same era and the engraving prints of the same era: the four corners of the plate frame column line are not connected, the left and right column lines are short, the upper and lower column lines are insufficient or super long; the style of the text and the inscription text is the same but the size is not the same, and the pen edge is not the same; the ink color is uneven, some black and white are mottled, and some are half-deep and half shallow; the inverted characters appear many times, with the characteristics of movable type printing; the line of the book is missing; the abbreviation of the book name is confused, and the row is wrong; the page number is irregular, and the misalignment and omission are serious. Chinese and Western Xia are mixed; some pages retain the imprint of interlaced bamboo pieces. All these features illustrate a problem: it is not only a movable type print, but also a wooden movable type print!
This study found no small feat! Niu Dasheng himself was also excited about this. Because although China invented movable type printing in the Northern Song Dynasty, but the Song Dynasty prints preserved so far are only engraved, and there is no movable type, the earliest Chinese movable type prints preserved now are Ming Dynasty, and according to authoritative treatises and traditional sayings, people have always believed that wooden movable characters were invented by the Yuan Dynasty scientist Wang Zhen. An important basis for this is that Wang Zhen introduced in detail the printing technology of wooden movable type in the twenty-second volume of the "Agricultural Book" "Making Movable Type Printing Calligraphy". Therefore, some people said: "The work of inventing the first set of practical wooden movable characters must be attributed to Wang Zhen", "The official printing of books with wooden movable characters, the earliest had to be regarded as Wang Zhen of the Yuan Dynasty", "The wooden movable type version was the first creation of the scientist Wang Zhen of the Yuan Dynasty". The discovery and research of "Auspicious Everywhere to the Mouth and the Continuation" has posed a powerful challenge to these long-formed conclusions. If the point holds, then the use of Chinese wooden movable type technology will be more than 100 years earlier!
In order to clarify these problems, Niu Dasheng did not know how many days and nights he had endured. In the end, he proved with his unique discovery that these Western Xia Buddhist scriptures are not only movable type prints, but also wooden movable type prints! Subsequently, experts also agreed that these Western Xia Buddhist scriptures "are the earliest wooden movable type prints found in the world so far."
Niu Dasheng's research results have also been valued by the relevant state departments. In 2002, because of its preciousness and uniqueness, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage designated it as one of the first 64 cultural relics to be "forbidden to exhibit abroad". Also in this year, it was listed by the State Archives Bureau as one of the first 48 documents in the "List of Chinese Archival Documentary Heritage". What excites Niu Dasheng the most is that this research result has been written into the middle school textbook. Printing is obviously an invention of ancient China, but some scholars in South Korea say that printing technology was invented by them, and the relevant departments in South Korea have also written it into primary and secondary school textbooks to carry out so-called patriotic education. Now, it is finally possible to clear the source: the second volume of the junior high school "History of China" published by the People's Education Publishing House wrote after introducing the clay movable type printing invented by Bi Sheng: "Archaeologists have found wooden movable type prints from the Western Xia Period, which is the earliest known movable type print. In the teacher's teaching book published by the People's Education Publishing House, there are more introductions: "In 1991, the Xixia Wenmu movable type print of "Auspicious All over the Mouth and the Continuation" unearthed in Ningxia is the earliest surviving wooden movable type print in China. ”
He has published articles correcting his mistakes
Niu Dasheng's achievements in the study of Western Xia literature are impressive, but it would be a mistake to think that his contributions were limited to this. In fact, Niu Dasheng's contributions to scholarship, especially to Xixia Studies, are many, and they are worth writing a few times.
Niu graduated from Northwestern University's Department of History. During the period of study, just in time for the "anti-rightist" movement, some of the students were regarded as typical of taking the "white professional road" because they loved to study, and they were wrongly criticized, and some were even branded as "rightists." Although Niu Dasheng was not criticized, his normal study was still affected a lot, but he still insisted on learning. In the third year of college, the department opened a specialization of ethnic history and archaeology for everyone to choose. The so-called "archaeological specialization" is the later archaeology profession. Niu Dasheng, with an interest in archaeology, chose to study archaeology. At that time, the school lacked professional teachers, so experts and scholars were hired from Beijing and other places to teach, and Niu Dasheng had the honor of listening to the lectures of many famous experts and scholars in China, and his eyes were wide open.
In 1958, Niu Dasheng graduated from university, just in time for the establishment of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. He unconditionally obeyed the arrangement and came to Ningxia with 7 classmates. Because he studied archaeology in the university, he was assigned to the Ningxia Museum, which is still under construction.
At that time, museums were still bound by the "class struggle as the guideline", and archaeology professionals could not calm down and engage in professionalism. Xixiaxue was still a completely unfamiliar word at that time, especially to the shame of some professionals, the Western Xia Tombs were in the western suburbs of Yinchuan, and many people, including archaeologists, were completely unaware.
The excavation of the Western Xia Tombs in 1972 made people from all walks of life in Ningxia have a sense of "Western Xia", and Niu Dasheng's contact with the "Western Xia" also began by participating in the excavation of the Western Xia Tombs.
There are very few business personnel engaged in archaeological work in Ningxia, and it is difficult to have a clear division of labor. In general, you can do whatever you want. Niu Dasheng excavated the Tombs of the Tang Dynasty in Qingtongxia and also went to the Guyuan Mount Meru Grottoes to conduct investigations, and once became very interested in the grottoes. In the early 1980s, the Ningxia Museum and the Central Academy of Fine Arts collaborated on a survey of the Mount Meru Grottoes, and he was an active advocate and participant. He presided over the mapping and numbering of the grotto area. In 1988, the "Meru Mountain Grottoes" published by the Cultural Relics Publishing House embodied his painstaking efforts.
Niu Dasheng is wise. This wisdom is manifested in his accurate judgment of his own abilities and the object of his research. He soon found that he was not suitable for the study of grottoes, because the study of grottoes requires understanding of art, especially a high degree of artistic accomplishment, and he does not have the knowledge reserve in this area. He gradually turned his energy to the study of Western Xia Studies.
He clarified the history of the Chengtian Temple and the Chengtian Temple Pagoda, located in the center of Yinchuan and still a landmark building in the ancient capital of The Western Xia, Xingqing Province, and his research results have been generally accepted by the academic community. He investigated and examined the two pagodas of Baisikou located at the mouth of baisigou in the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain, and proved with sufficient arguments that they were originally built in Western Xia, and although they experienced the test of the 8-magnitude earthquake in the third year of Qianlong (1739), they still stood, which was extremely precious. His research has also enriched the content of China's ancient architectural history, and provided a scientific basis for the twin towers to be finally identified as a national key cultural relics protection unit. The study of Western Xia coins also made Niu Dasheng quite fruitful. He led people to excavate and clean up 3 Western Xia coin cellars in the deep mountains and narrow valleys of the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain, checked and selected tens of thousands of coins like Xiaoshan one by one, and classified and counted according to dynasties, currencies, currency values, and book styles, completed a lot of trivial, complicated, and arduous work, he made an accurate analysis and judgment of the burial of coins in that year, and his "Western Xia Coin Dialectics" was considered by scholars to be an authoritative work for the study of Western Xia coins, and made important contributions to the study of Song-Xia relations and economic conditions in the Western Xia period. Since his study of coins has not been interrupted, he finally published the "Collection of Western Xia Numismatic Treatises" in a selected collection.
As a Western Xia scholar in Ningxia, Niu Dasheng was not only very concerned about the development and prosperity of Western Xia Studies, but also vigorously promoted. As early as 1991, he wrote "Xixia Studies Research and the Status of Ningxia in the Study of Western Xia Studies", in addition to discussing the status of Western Xia Studies and reviewing the development process of Western Xia Studies, he also put forward the suggestion that "Ningxia should become the center of Western Xia Studies", hoping to establish the Western Xia Research Center or the Western Xia Research Institute at an early date. In recent years, archaeological reports on the Western Xia, Russian-Tibetan, Anglo-Tibetan, French-Tibetan, and western Xia documents collected in various parts of the country have been collected and published one after another, and a group of young Western Xia scholars have grown rapidly, some have become masters and doctors, and some people can directly translate the Western Xia literature, and even translate the Western Xia Buddhist scriptures of Tibetan Buddhism.
In the past 30 years, Niu Dasheng has published nearly 140 papers and materials, of which 3/4 are related to Western Xia. He has dabbled in the study of Western Xia ruins, Western Xia mausoleums, Western Xia official seals, Western Xia grottoes, Western Xia cellars, Western Xia inscriptions, and Western Xia documents, and has unique insights, as evidenced by the monograph "Western Xia Ruins". Niu Dasheng also participated in the compilation of the Western Xia section of the Dictionary of Chinese Coins, Chinese National Architecture, and The General History of Chinese Printing.
The old cow is old, but his spirit is not old.
Niu Dasheng's study of the Xixia Buddhist sutra "Auspicious All over the Mouth and the Present Continuation" has long been conclusive after authoritative appraisal, but there are still scholars who disagree. Supposedly, he could ignore it, but he wrote AQ articles in a meticulous manner and seriously engaged in academic controversy.
What is valuable is that Niu Dasheng has always been strict with himself, never exaggerating wrongdoing, and he has published articles to correct his mistakes. He warned later scholars that in a society that is eager for quick success and quick profit and materialistic desires, it is even more necessary to endure loneliness and sit on a cold bench in order to truly make achievements in academics.