List of Tangut books
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This list of Tangut books comprises a list of manuscript and
xylograph Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...
texts that are written in the extinct
Tangut language Tangut (Tangut: ; ) is an extinct language in the Sino-Tibetan language family. Tangut was one of the official languages of the Western Xia dynasty, founded by the Tangut people in northwestern China. The Western Xia was annihilated by the Mo ...
and
Tangut script The Tangut script ( Tangut: ; ) was a logographic writing system, used for writing the extinct Tangut language of the Western Xia dynasty. According to the latest count, 5863 Tangut characters are known, excluding variants. The Tangut character ...
. These texts were mostly produced within the
Western Xia dynasty The Western Xia or the Xi Xia (), officially the Great Xia (), also known as the Tangut Empire, and known as ''Mi-nyak''Stein (1972), pp. 70–71. to the Tanguts and Tibetans, was a Tangut-led Buddhist imperial dynasty of China tha ...
(1038–1227) during the 12th and 13th centuries, and include Buddhist sutras and explanatory texts, dictionaries and other philological texts, as well as translations of Chinese books and some original Tangut texts. Some Tangut texts, particularly Buddhist sutras, continued to be produced during the
Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...
(1271–1368), after the fall of the Western Xia dynasty, but the Tangut language became extinct sometime during the
Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
(1368–1644), and Tangut literature was only rediscovered in the early 20th century. Most of the books listed here were discovered hidden in a
stupa A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation. In Buddhism, circumamb ...
outside the city walls of the abandoned Western Xia fortress city of
Khara-Khoto Khara-Khoto (; mn, Khar Khot; "black city") is an abandoned city in the Ejin Banner of Alxa League in western Inner Mongolia, China, near the Juyan Lake Basin. Built in 1032, the city thrived under the rule of the Western Xia dynasty. It has b ...
in
Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
by
Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov (russian: Пётр Кузьми́ч Козло́в; 3 October 1863 in Dukhovshchina – 26 September 1935 in Peterhof) was a Russian and Soviet traveller and explorer who continued the studies of Nikolai Przhevalsky in M ...
during his expedition of 1907–1909. A lesser number of texts (mostly fragments) were recovered from Khara-Khoto by
Aurel Stein Sir Marc Aurel Stein, ( hu, Stein Márk Aurél; 26 November 1862 – 26 October 1943) was a Hungarian-born British archaeologist, primarily known for his explorations and archaeological discoveries in Central Asia. He was also a professor at ...
during his expedition of 1913–1916. A large number of complete and fragmentary Tangut texts have also been discovered at various sites in
Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
,
Ningxia Ningxia (,; , ; alternately romanized as Ninghsia), officially the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (NHAR), is an autonomous region in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. Formerly a province, Ningxia was incorporated into Gansu in ...
and
Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...
in China during the 20th and 21st centuries.


Buddhist texts

A very large number of Buddhist texts have been preserved.
Yevgeny Kychanov Evgenij Ivanovich Kychanov (russian: Евгений Иванович Кычанов; also transcribed as ''Yevgeny Ivanovich Kychanov'', 22 June 1932 – 24 May 2013) was a Soviet and Russian orientalist, an expert on the Tangut people and their m ...
's 1999 catalogue of Buddhist texts from Khara-Khoto held at the
Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences The Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (IOM) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Институт восточных рукописей Российской академии наук), formerly the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institu ...
in
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
lists 768 entries which cover 370 separate titles.


Dictionaries and philological works


Original Tangut texts


Translations of Chinese texts


See also

*
Tangutology Tangutology or Tangut studies is the study of the culture, history, art and language of the ancient Tangut people, especially as seen through the study of contemporaneous documents written by the Tangut people themselves. As the Tangut language was ...
*
Cloud Platform at Juyongguan The Cloud Platform at Juyongguan () is a mid-14th-century architectural feature situated in the Guangou Valley at the Juyongguan Pass of the Great Wall of China, in the Changping District of Beijing Municipality, about northwest of central Bei ...
— 14th-century arch inscribed with Buddhist texts inscribed in Tangut and other languages *
Stele of Sulaiman The Stele of Sulaiman is a Yuan Dynasty stele that was erected in 1348 to commemorate the benefactors and donors to a Buddhist temple at the Mogao Caves southeast of Dunhuang in Gansu, China. The principal benefactor is named as Sulaiman (), Prince ...
— a 1348 stele at the
Mogao Caves The Mogao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, form a system of 500 temples southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu p ...
with the Buddhist mantra ''
Om mani padme hum ' ( sa, ॐ मणि पद्मे हूँ, ) is the six-syllabled Sanskrit mantra particularly associated with the four-armed Shadakshari form of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. It first appeared in the Mahayana ''Kāraṇ ...
'' inscribed in Tangut and other languages * Tangut dharani pillars — two
dharani pillar A dharani pillar (), sutra pillar, or jingchuang () is a type of stone pillar engraved with ''Dharani, dhāraṇī''-Sutra, sūtras or simple ''dhāraṇī'' incantations that is found in China. Dharani pillars were usually erected outside Buddhis ...
s inscribed with text of a dhāraṇī-sutra in Tangut script, dated 1502


Footnotes


References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:List of Tangut books Tangut books Tangut books Tangut script Tangut books