‘Bookish’ Borrowings and Novelty in a Chinese-Christian Manuscript from Dunhuang

Abstract

The trade routes of late antique and early medieval Eurasia conducted far more than goods. Exchanges occurred between a number of prominent book cultures with origins or, at least, ties to the Indian, Iranian and Chinese worlds. A Christian scroll (Pelliot chinois 3847) discovered in the famed Library Cave near Dunhuang is the product of such interactions in both its materiality and its written content. This Chinese manuscript of East Syriac Christians bears three texts, at least some of which were composed during the late eighth century of the Tang period (618–907). This article focuses on three terms used in the postscript of P.3847. Although a relatively well-known Dunhuang manuscript, the ‘bookish’ terminology of the postscript deserves consideration in its own right; this includes the only known occurrence of the Chinese term bei pijia 貝皮夾. From this study, insight is gained into both the semantic depth of these Chinese terms and the Christian appropriation of them.