Dunhuang and Its Library Cave II: Silk
Road or Paper Road? Ca. 100-1000 CE
*Dunhuang at Time of Library Cave 17
Tang Dynasty (618-ca. 755)
An Lushan Rebellion, 755-63
Tibetan Empire, 768-848
Tang Vassal Military Governors (Hansen, p. 313, Table 6.1)
Zhang Family, 851-910
Library Cave 16 Constructed, 862
Chinese Almanac printed, 877
Cao Family, 914-1002
Chinese Almanac Deposited in Cave 16
Dunhuang’s Mogao Grottoes
*Library/Archive Cave 17
Chinese Writing Materials During Han Dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE)
What are the drawbacks to these materials?
Silk cloth, ca. 300 BCE (below center)
Wooden & Bamboo strips, ca. 300 BCE
Xuanquan Documents from Gansu (Hansen p. 15)
Chinese Papermaking
Proto-paper
Wrapping material, 2nd c. BCE
Writing material, 2nd c. CE
Production
Chopping and pounding of cellulose fibers mixed with water to form pulp
Bamboo
Mulberry bark
Stalks of harvested crops
Dipping
Drying
Spread of Paper
China
Papermaking, 3rd-4th c.
Central Asia, Middle East, 8th c.
Mt. Mugh at Panjikent in Sogdiana
Islamic Caliphates, 8th c.
Baghdad Suq al-warraqin (Stationers’ Market), late 8th c.
Oldest complete Arabic manuscript book on paper
Europe, 11th c.
Via Spain and Sicily
Ream (Spanish resma from Arabic rizmah (bale))
Printing Technology
Woodblock Printing
Buddhist invention, 7th c.
Scroll Books, 9th c.
Earliest Surviving Printed Scroll “Book”
Earliest Surviving Wood Block Set
81,350 blocks originally steamed with sea water or soaked in sea mud
70 cm (27.5 in) x 24 cm (9.5 in) x 2.8 cm (1.1 in) and 3.25 kg (7.2 lb)
1,514 titles
Western influence?
Moveable type, 1048 CE
Less common in China
Why were paper and printing technologies necessary precursors to the
Chinese invention of paper money?
Discussion of Whitfield 219-249: Silk Road or Paper Road?
1. How does the Chinese almanac printed on paper represent the transmission
of scientific ideas and technology over the Silk Roads?
Why is paper and printing technology difficult to transmit over the Silk Road?
What is Whitfield’s hypothesis about where the almanac was printed and how
it eventually was stored in the Library Cave 16?
2. In the final part of the chapter, we are able to follow Stein and the
documents from the library caves to London. What was the journey like?
Are you convinced by arguments that the documents were in safer hands in
the journey to London and in the hands of British Museum and Library staff than
the library cave at Dunhuang?