Abstract
Tangut studies is a broad discipline, generally consisting of three branches: Tangut language and literature, Tangut archaeology, and Tangut history. There are three new trends in Tangut studies in the new century: the publication of more Tangut written sources and artifacts, the gradual standardization of the interpretation of Tangut texts, and the continuous expansion of the subfields of Tangut historical research. Some issues could potentially hinder the further development of Tangut studies, such as cultivating new scholars in Tangut studies, avoiding the problem of “fragmentation” in research, supplementing the Khara-Khoto material, and the cooperation between Tangut studies and Tibetan studies. Finally, some future work plans are mentioned that cover various aspects, including language and literature, Tangut documents, and historical research.
The uniqueness of Tangut studies
At the turn of the 20th century, revolutionary archaeological discoveries initiated several new fields of study that captured global attention, including oracle bone script studies, Dunhuang studies, bamboo and wooden slips studies, and Tangut studies. The first three fields garnered widespread recognition in the academic community, which adopted them as prestigious disciplines. Although Tangut studies has access to a wealth of manuscripts that rival the Dunhuang Grottoes collection in both quantity and quality, the field has developmentally lagged behind these other fields due to the difficulty of deciphering the Tangut script. Consequently, neighboring disciplines have often overlooked Tangut studies, and its significance and potential for research has remained underappreciated.
Since the last century, there have been numerous discoveries of Tangut manuscripts. From 1908 to 1909, the Russian explorer Petr Kuzmich Kozlov (1863–1935) excavated a treasure trove of Tangut manuscripts and printed texts in Khara-Khoto (Ch. Heshuicheng), located in Ejin Banner, Inner Mongolia. These documents are now deposited at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg and account for over 80% of the world's Tangut documents. Following in the footsteps of the Russian expedition, Sir Marc Aurel Stein (1862–1943) also visited Khara-Khoto in 1914 and acquired a significant collection of Tangut manuscripts and artifacts. In 1917, a collection of Buddhist sutras in two large boxes was unearthed in Lingwu County (Ningxia). Some of the texts were scattered into private collections, but another body of texts was acquired by the Beiping Library (today’s National Library of China) in 1929. After Khara-Khoto, this was the second largest discovery of Tangut materials. From 1941 to 1943, artist Zhang Daqian (Chang Dai-chien, 1899–1993) found a number of Tangut texts during excavations in the northern part of the Mogao Grottoes at Dunhuang. Another important discovery was a copy of the third juan of the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa sūtra found at the Haimudong 亥母洞 site near the city of Wuwei (Gansu) in 1972. Since then, a significant number of stele fragments have been discovered at the Tangut Imperial Tombs in Yinchuan, Ningxia. These fragments contain inscriptions in Tangut and Chinese, some of which are largely complete. From 1983 to 1984, during a systematic cleaning and excavation of Khara-Khoto by the Inner Mongolia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, archaeologists discovered a new pile of Tangut material. In 1990, a gang of thieves seeking valuable artifacts blew up a Baisigou Square stūpa in the Helan mountains, partly destroying it. Cleaning up the site in 1991, the archaeological team found multiple Tangut printed texts. In recent years, during the systematic survey of the northern area of the Mogao Grottoes, the Dunhuang Academy discovered another collection of Tangut texts. Since the 1950s, a large number of Tangut steles have come to light in Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia, and other provinces, totaling several thousand pieces. In summary, there are five main collections of Tangut texts and works of art in the world, with Russia holding the largest collection, followed by China and the UK. Japan and France hold smaller collections of Tangut material. The National Museum in New Delhi and the Harvard University Art Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts, hold even smaller, fragmentary collections. Tangut studies has emerged as an international field of research out of necessity because foreign initiatives spearheading exploration have dispersed material across international networks.
Tangut studies is a broad discipline, generally consisting of three branches: Tangut language and literature, Tangut archaeology, and Tangut history. The development of Tangut studies by necessity is based on the study of manuscripts, especially the translation and interpretation of Tangut texts. With the fall of the Tangut state, Tangut script gradually became a “dead language.” By the mid-Ming dynasty, it had become known as the “heavenly script,” rendering it increasingly incomprehensible. Greatly valued by the rulers of the Tangut state after its promulgation, some primers promoted Tangut script within the state through the creation of several monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. The dictionaries include “Homophones,” “Precious Rhymes of the Sea of Characters,” “Synonyms,” “Dissected Rhymes of the Five Sounds,” “Mixed Signs of the Three Parts of the Universe,” “collection of abstracts,” “Newly Collected Grains of Gold Placed in the Palm,” and the bilingual glossary entitled “Tangut-Chinese Timely Pearl in the Palm.” This collection of unearthed dictionaries made the scholarly community's dream of deciphering the Tangut script a reality. These dictionaries can be rightfully called the “golden key” to unlocking the secrets of the Tangut language. Since the early 20th century, a large number of Tangut documents have been excavated, and the concerted research efforts of Chinese and foreign scholars have led to significant advancements in deciphering the Tangut script. As a result, Tangut texts can now be largely understood and analyzed, shedding new light on the culture and history of the Tangut civilization. This revival of interest in Tangut culture has opened up a rich and diverse cultural treasury, providing valuable insights into the literature, religion, and social practices of this once-forgotten civilization. It is believed that Tangut studies will achieve even more fruitful results with the translation and utilization of new materials.
The study of Tangut requires various academic approaches, with the ability to interpret Tangut texts being the most fundamental. To achieve this, scholars must have a solid foundation in phonology and phonetics. Moreover, since most surviving Tangut written sources are Buddhist texts translated from Chinese and Tibetan, scholars must possess a broad understanding of Buddhism and the ability to read Tibetan and Sanskrit to fully comprehend the grammatical features of Tangut. As an international discipline, staying up to date with the latest research on Tangut studies requires accessing foreign language resources in addition to English, such as Russian, Japanese, and French. In the field of Tangut studies, a scholar should add a fifth key to the four keys of historical research—“chronology, geography, official positions, and catalogs.” This additional key is “language and writing,” including knowledge of Chinese phonology, non-Chinese ethnicity languages, and foreign languages. Moreover, to conduct comprehensive research, it is essential that a scholar is able to integrate the transmitted Chinese historical records that document the history of the Tangut state with the excavated Tangut texts. The traditional written Chinese sources related to the Tanguts, also known as “old materials,” are mostly limited to the political and military affairs of the Tangut state due to the constraints of traditional historiography. On the other hand, the excavated Tangut texts, also known as “new materials,” provide insights into the social, cultural, and religious aspects of the Tangut state (Hu, 2007). Chinese historian Chen Yinke once brilliantly explained the relationship between new and old materials:
The old materials must be well understood before the new materials can be utilized, because the new materials were sporadically discovered and fragmented. Familiarity with the old materials is necessary to properly place the new material in a suitable position, just as one must comprehend the general outline of a damaged ancient painting in order to restore its original perspective and place each mountain and tree properly. (Jiang, 1997: 96–97)
This passage can be easily applied to the field of Tangut studies to address the relationship between Tangut material in the traditional historical corpus and excavated Tangut texts. The discovery of a large number of Tangut written sources in the last century has not diminished the value of Chinese historical writings on the Tanguts, but instead has highlighted the irreplaceability of Chinese historical materials. Old types of sources, such as the unearthed Tangut texts, and new types of sources, especially the writings from the Song and Yuan dynasties, are indispensable. These two bodies of sources complement and corroborate each other. Taken together, they constitute the basic historical materials for Tangut studies. High-quality research ideally requires not only the use of Chinese phonological knowledge, but also the application of knowledge of other ethnicities’ languages, such as Tangut and Tibetan. Researchers should also be able to read and translate foreign language scholarship in English and Russian and pay attention to combining Chinese and Tangut documents. The goal of research should be to explore the development of Tangut society using rich empirical evidence, rather than being limited to textual criticism and verifying historical facts.
Hopefully, more knowledgeable individuals will join the ranks of Tangut studies to promote communication and exchange with neighboring disciplines. Such interdisciplinary exchange contours the academic status of Tangut studies, placing the discipline in a position of similar importance to that of oracle bone studies, Dunhuang studies, and bamboo and wooden slip studies in the academic community.
New directions in Tangut studies in the 21st century
Since the beginning of the new century, Tangut studies has enjoyed unprecedented opportunities for development. This growth can be attributed to shared efforts of the international Tangut studies community focused on deciphering Tangut texts and the publication of numerous facsimile reproductions of Tangut material from collections around the world. The widespread use of digital images and the development of computer technology have also aided the expansion of Tangut studies. In particular, Tangut studies in China has flourished, with research achievements breaking historical records and reaching new heights in recent years. Overall, there are three new trends in Tangut studies in the new century: the publication of more Tangut written sources and artifacts, the gradual standardization of the interpretation of Tangut texts, and the continuous expansion of the subfields of Tangut historical research. The world's five largest collections of Tangut texts and artifacts have been published. At the beginning of the 21st century, China undertook the massive compilation and publication of Tangut material deposited in China. Since Kozlov's excavation of a large amount of Tangut material from Khara-Khoto, many Tangut texts have been discovered in Ningxia, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, and Shaanxi. The Tangut written sources, dispersed throughout the country, comprise more than 10,000 pages of handwritten manuscripts, woodblock prints, and books printed with wooden and clay movable type. Some scholars consider these to be the earliest surviving books produced with wooden movable type. The texts are in Tangut, Chinese, and Tibetan. Although the majority of the Tangut books and manuscripts are Buddhist in nature, there are also many secular works of significant academic and cultural value. The Tangut Academy at Ningxia University led a joint effort with over 20 institutions, including the National Library of China, the Tangut Culture Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Gansu Province Center for the Compilation and Translation of Ancient Books, and the Inner Mongolia Museum, to collect and compile Tangut documents from across China. After six years of collaboration, they completed the Chinese Collection of Tangut Manuscripts in 20 large volumes, making this treasure trove of written sources for Tangut studies accessible to experts and scholars (Ningxia et al., 2005–2007). The Chinese Collection of Tangut Manuscripts is a significant endeavor in the compilation and publication of Tangut written sources, complementing the Russian Collection of Khara-Khoto Manuscripts. Apart from publishing facsimile reproductions of Tangut texts, a comprehensive investigation into Tangut cultural sites and artifacts was also conducted. In 2011, the compilation of the book series Tangut Cultural Relics was initiated by the Tangut Culture Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the National Bureau of Cultural Relics, the Tangut Academy at Ningxia University, and the Gansu Province Ancient Books Classification and Translation Center in collaboration with the Inner Mongolia Museum, the Gansu Provincial Museum, the Ningxia Museum, the Dunhuang Academy, and dozens of research, teaching, and cultural institutions in over 20 provinces and autonomous regions in China. The complete book series is divided into five sections, namely the “Ningxia Edition,” “Gansu Edition,” “Inner Mongolia Edition,” “Grottoes Edition,” and “Comprehensive Edition” (encompassing Tangut artifacts scattered across more than 10 provinces and autonomous regions throughout China). The “Inner Mongolia Edition” and the “Gansu Edition” were first published in 2015 and respectively feature over 120 and over 60 Tangut cultural heritage sites. The contents include stone artifacts, porcelain, stone inscriptions, metal objects, sculptures, and paintings. Published in 2017, the “Ningxia Edition” is divided into multiple volumes, including volumes on sites, metal objects, ceramics, stone inscriptions and stone artifacts, wood and lacquer objects, statues and paintings, and manuscripts. These volumes feature 428 sites and 1608 cultural relics of the Tangut state. The Russian Collection of Khara-Khoto Manuscripts continues to be published in the new century. According to the original plan, volumes 1–6 would be Chinese texts, volumes 7–11 would be secular Tangut manuscripts, and from volume 12 on there are three additional volumes of secular texts—12–14—and to start publishing Buddhist texts in volume 15. In addition, volume 14 contains introductions to and annotations of all the secular Tangut documents published from volumes 7–14. Finally, a chronology was compiled for the dated documents mentioned above. Buddhist texts from Khara-Khoto began to be published in 2012 (starting from the 15th volume), with plans to publish more than 30 volumes. The British Collection of Khara-Khoto Manuscripts was published in five volumes by the Northern Minzu University (formerly the Second Northwest University for Nationalities), the British Library, and the Shanghai Chinese Classics Publishing House. The first four volumes were published in 2005. In addition to completing all the remaining catalogue numbers from the previous volumes, volume 5, published in 2010, includes a summary of the entire collection. The Northern Minzu University also collaborated with the Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House to publish one volume of the French Collection of Dunhuang Tangut Manuscripts (Xibei, 2007). The two-volume Japanese Collection of Tangut Manuscripts, edited by Wu Yulin and Arakawa Shintarō, was published in 2011 (Wu and Huangchuan, 2011). The successive publications of Tangut material and cultural relics from the five major collections in Russia, China, Britain, France, and Japan have greatly facilitated researchers’ access to the wealth of Tangut written sources and archaeological material across the globe. This has established a solid foundation for the growth of Tangut studies research in China in the new century. The methods for transcribing Tangut texts in modern scholarship have become more standardized in recent years. Previously, Tangut studies scholars often transcribed Tangut characters with Chinese ones. This character-for-character Chinese transcription was a reading method adopted out of necessity a century ago. The academic community now generally follows the “four lines plus one commentary” method. In an effort to make the translation more transparent, Tangut studies scholars now present Tangut texts with several layers of transcription. This standardized approach has improved the clarity and accuracy of the interpretation of Tangut texts. This specific method can be outlined as follows: the first line contains the original Tangut characters; the second line is the reconstructed pronunciation of the Tangut characters (from Li Fanwen’s dictionary); the third line contains the Chinese transcriptions of Tangut words in the sentence (the basic unit of the translation is a word rather than a character); and the last line is a smooth Chinese translation. The fourth line is followed by a commentary, which focuses on Tangut words, transliterated words, and grammatical words that do not have a direct correspondence in Chinese, mainly explaining the reasons behind the translation. Many mysteries hidden in Tangut were discovered using the “four lines plus one commentary” method, which was probably informed by the experience accumulated from the translation forums (yichang 译场) in ancient China (Mylnikova and Peng, 2015). Buddhist texts translation workshops in China functioned for nearly 900 years from the end of the Han dynasty to the early Northern Song dynasty and played an important role in the translation of Buddhist sutras. The 10th-century text Comprehensive Chronicle of the Buddhas and the Patriarchs provides a description of nine roles in charge of translation within a translation team of monk-scholars and their helpers during the Song dynasty (Takakusu et al., 1925). The “four lines plus one commentary” method is a simplification of the division of labor in the Buddhist translation forums. The relationship between the “four lines” method and the structure of the Buddhist translation team is illustrated in Table 1. In the present state of research, Tangut texts require an accompanying notation apparatus so that the reader can engage with the entire interpretive process that informs a translation. More transparency is necessary to show problematic issues, which may turn out to be significant not just for the specific passage but also for our comprehension of Tangut grammar and its syntactic system. Chinese scholars have mainly focused on studying Tangut versions of secular Chinese texts. These translations include Confucian classics both with and without commentaries, texts on military strategy, popular encyclopedias, popular histories, primers, and other types of educational texts. Having a large corpus of parallel texts clarifies different complex phenomena in Tangut and is useful for promoting further standardization of decipherment.
1
Nie Hongyin's books A Study of Tangut Texts and A Study of Tangut Texts, Second Edition, are the culmination of his many years of research on Tangut phonology, Tangut translations of the Han-Chinese secular literature from the Central Plain (including Confucian, military, Taoist, and medical texts), Tangut original literary and scholarly works, Tangut translations of Buddhist texts, and research on institutions represented in Tangut documents. He has translated and analyzed the most significant documents in each of these areas, providing a Tangut text typed on a computer. His research is an exemplarily approach for exploring and interpreting Tangut documents (Nie, 2012). Yet, the current rules for interpreting Tangut manuscripts still need further improvement. For example, there are many verbs with directional prefixes in Tangut, which have no corresponding words in Chinese. When translating, abstract symbols such as “Δ” are used to represent the so-called “empty glyphs” (xuzi 虚字), making it difficult to distinguish the grammatical functions of these Tangut characters. As research progresses and becomes more refined, these symbols will inevitably be improved. In recent years, the practice of “grammatical annotation” has become widespread in the field of ethnolinguistic studies. “Grammatical annotation” uses the Leipzig Glossing Rules to explain the lexical and syntactic phenomena of various languages with a basic grammatical structure. This includes categories such as “gender, number, case, tense, aspect, and mood,” as well as usage of universal labels and grammatical category labels. The processed language data is thus easier to classify, store, and analyze.
2
Scholars can continue to draw on the “four lines plus one commentary” method to improve the quality of the interpretation of these texts in the future. Expansion of the areas of research. Many Tangut manuscripts have been published and deciphered, comprising a considerable body of texts, which is significant not only for scholars working on Tangut history and language but also for researchers in other fields. The historiographical interpretation of Tangut documents has emerged as a new growth area in Tangut studies. This is particularly evident in the study of Tangut legal and social documents, and Tangut Buddhist texts.
Four lines and the Buddhist translation.
The main Tangut legal texts include the Tangut Empire’s law code Revised Laws of Heavenly Prosperity (or Tiansheng Laws), the New Laws of the Hog Year, and the Laws and Regulations (Fa Ze 法则). In the late 1980s, the Russian Tangutologist ЕI Kychanov was the first to translate the Tiansheng Laws from Tangut. 3 In 1994, Chinese scholars Shi Jinbo, Nie Hongyin, and Bai Bin published a Chinese translation of the Tiansheng Laws (Shi et al., 2000). This translation garnered significant attention from the academic community. In recent years, a plethora of new monographs and articles have been published on the legislation and society of the Tangut Empire, drawing on information found in the Tiansheng Law Code (Di, 2019; Du, 2005; Pan, 2016; You, 2019; Yu, 2018; Zhang, 2019). This includes Tangut studies scholar Du Jianlu's comprehensive and systematic analysis of the Tangut legal system titled Study on the Tiansheng Laws and the Tangut Legal System. Scholars since have built on Du’s work on the Tiansheng Law Code, using it to focus on specific categories of the code. Moreover, there are dozens of specialized articles that have “Tiansheng Laws” in the title, covering various aspects of Tangut society. Some articles explore the economy of Tangut society, including handicrafts, commerce, and animal husbandry (Du, 2000; Jiang, 2005; Zhang, 2000). Other articles focus on taxation, revenue, and expenditure of the official treasury/warehouse (Dong and Dong, 2011; Jiang, 2009). Some articles focus on the social stratum, including the imperial family, women, and the population dependent on/attached to monasteries (Chen, 2010; Cui and Wen, 2013; Han, 1997; Li, 2010). Some of the articles are related to policies of the Tangut state, including administrative divisions, the palace guard system, officials’ salaries, and archive management (Shang, 2001; Xu, 2011; Yang, 2007; Zhang, 2012). Other essays examine the religion, as well as the relationships between different nationalities (Cui, 2005; Jiang, 2009; Sun, 2011). The New Laws of the Hog Year and the Laws and Regulations are revised extensions of the Laws of Heavenly Prosperity made during the late period in response to internal and external problems, aimed at resolving social conflicts. 4 These studies have helped us understand the evolution of Tangut legislation in different stages, and deepened our knowledge of the social conditions in late Da Xia. However, some of the translations have faced criticism due to imprecise translation or the obscure semantics of the Tangut language, making it difficult for scholars who lack knowledge of the language to understand them. Nevertheless, these works have contributed new insights to the scholarly community and advanced the study of Tangut society. These legal documents are obviously crucial to our understanding of Tangut history, but they are at best a compilation of prescriptive written legislation, rather than law in practice. To understand both the top-down and bottom-up experiences of law enforcement, and any flexibilities or modifications in practice, we cannot exclusively speculate on the legal texts. In this context, social documents appear to be the most important sources to answer such questions. Therefore, a comparative analysis of the legal and social documents will reconstruct a more holistic and accurate picture of Tangut society.
The Tangut social documents were primarily discovered during the process of sorting and repairing the already excavated Tangut documents. The collection of social documents numbers over 1500 items. Social documents were found in the Russian Institute for Oriental Manuscripts’ collection of Tangut texts. These social documents are now included in the publication Russian Collection of Khara-Khoto Manuscripts. In addition, dozens of new fragmentary texts were found in the National Library of China's collection of Tangut documents, comprising more than 170 pages. Among the available collections of Tangut texts, diverse social texts are regularly discovered among Buddhist texts, surpassing the number of social texts that were discovered in Dunhuang. Most of them were produced at the bottom part of society—they concern the daily lives of the ordinary people, basic duties of local officials, and their political, economic, military, and cultural activities. As suggested by their names, the documents come directly from society, and therefore provide the most vivid perspective on Tangut history. The significance of the Tangut social documents is not limited to the study of Tangut history alone. There is a general lack of primary sources on social realities in the Song, Liao, and Jin dynasties. Therefore, Tangut social documents will contribute to scholarship on the social histories of the several imperial regimes contemporary to the Tangut Empire. Du Jianlu and Shi Jinbo were the first to conduct large-scale research on Tangut social documents. In 2010, they jointly published Study of Tangut Social Documents (Du and Shi, 2010). In 2017, Shi Jinbo published a monograph Study of Tangut Economic Documents, which was included in the prestigious National Achievements Library of Philosophy and Social Sciences (Shi, 2017). The two books fill many gaps in the study of Tangut society by addressing historical issues, such as household registration, records of land taxation, loans, tax-collecting agents, government-regulated cross-border markets, and military documents (accounts of the basic military unit chao 抄). An examination of the Tangut household registers in cursive script from Khara-Khoto reveals the features of the Tangut household registration and demographic statistics in the area: basic units of Tangut population liu 溜 and jia 甲, the types of households and their names, gender ratios, ethnic composition, marital status, families’ possessions of land and livestock, the existence and extent of intermarriage between the Han and non-Han population, polygamy, and consanguine marriage. Texts on household registration shed light on policies related to drafts, taxation, and collective punishment. Social documents show that the Tanguts had a well-developed census procedure that required timely reports and editions every three years (Du and Shi, 2010: 70–86; Shi, 2017: 53–82). In addition, Tong Jianrong conducted a comprehensive study of the Tangut state literati names that appeared in social and economic documents (Tong, 2016).
In recent years, research on Tangut Buddhism has shown unprecedented vitality. Significant progress has been made in the study of Tangut Buddhist manuscripts and printed editions, the history of Buddhism in the Tangut state, Tangut relations with neighboring Buddhist enclaves, Tangut cave temple art, and excavated Buddhist art objects (Yang and Zhang, 2010). Sinitic Buddhism in the Tangut Empire was chronologically the first version of Buddhist teaching available to the Dangxiang tribes after their resettlement into the Ordos area. Chan, Huayan, Tiantai, and Pure Land teaching were all performed in the Tangut State (Suoluoning, 2010, 2011, 2012). The cult of Maitreya and beliefs in Avalokitesvara and Kṣitigarbha were very popular among Tanguts and reflected the absorption of Confucian filial piety and Taoist content (Nie, 2010; Sun, 2013; Yang, 2017). Tibetan Buddhism in the Tangut Empire gained strong patronage among the ruling elite. Tangut rulers showed strong interest in Tibetan Buddhism. They organized the translation of a number of Tibetan Buddhist scriptures and held various Tibetan Buddhist rituals and ceremonies in their religious activities (Li, 2020). These practices encouraged the establishment of the institution of the “imperial preceptor” and “state preceptor.” Further, Tibetan Buddhist monks worked with a monitoring commission called the Charity Commission in charge of overseeing Buddhist practices in the country.
The coexistence of Sinitic and Tibetan Buddhism in the Tangut state inevitably led to the occurrence of fusion and integration, which was most prominent in the Chan and Tibetan Mahāmudrā (Great Seal) teachings. For example, close analysis of the Mahāmudrā texts in Chinese from the Dacheng yaodao miji 大乘要道密集 (The Secret Collection of Works on Essential Path of Mahāyāna) and Tangut texts unearthed in Khara-Khoto do not directly quote Chan Buddhist literature, but contain a large amount of Chan Buddhist vocabulary, implying familiarity with these Chan Buddhist texts. The Tanguts set a precedent for ethnic groups outside Tibet to accept Tibetan Buddhism. In particular, the Tanguts translated Tibetan Buddhist texts into both Tangut and Chinese to facilitate the process of spreading Tibetan Buddhism in Da Xia. This led to an emergence of a batch of Tibetan Buddhist texts in Chinese translation, such as the abovementioned Dacheng yaodao miji, a Tantric text Zhong you shen yaomen 中有身要门 (“The Essential Instruction of the Body in Intermediate State”), Jingang Haimu Jilun Gongyang Cidilu 金刚亥母集轮供养次第录 (“Accounts of Provisions for the Vajravārāhī), and Bazhong cuzhong fanduo 八种粗重犯堕 (“Eight Afflictions of Violation”), which made it easier for Han-Chinese believers to accept and practice. This enterprise played a driving role in the Tangut state promoting the development of Tibetan Buddhism in the Yuan dynasty, before advancing to the Central Plain (Shi, 2002).
Several issues that restrict the further development of Tangut studies
Since the beginning of the new century, Chinese scholars have made remarkable achievements in the study of Tangut documents, especially in the translation and interpretation of Tangut manuscripts. However, there are some issues that could potentially hinder the further development of Tangut studies, which we must recognize and proactively address to ensure the sustainable development of Tangut studies as a discipline.
Cultivating new scholars in Tangut studies
Tangut studies remains an international field requiring a good knowledge of the main languages used in secondary scholarship. In addition to Chinese, one should also be able to read academic literature written in Russian, Japanese, English and, to a lesser extent, French and German. Knowledge of Tibetan and Sanskrit is a plus. In addition to having so many languages in one’s linguistic repertoire, one should ideally have a thorough training in linguistics and history. However, due to the limitations of educational programs in China focused either solely on history or linguistics, recent graduates’ knowledge and skills still need improvement, and they often cannot fully meet the requirements of Tangut studies. The difficulty and duration of time required for honing skills in Tangut studies have severely restricted the discipline's development. Despite the large number of surviving materials, surprisingly few researchers are able to actually read the primary sources. Therefore, vigorously recruiting researchers who are proficient in both linguistics and history is crucial for the further development of Tangut studies.
Avoiding the problem of “fragmentation” in research
The fragmented nature of Tangut texts makes the subjects of research even more specific and detailed. A single fragment of a sutra, a contract, a prescription, a personality, an official title, or a name of a place can all become research objects. However, if not handled properly, it is easy to fall into the trap of “fragmentation.” For a historian, although philological research is important, it is only the basis of research, not its aim. The ultimate goal of historical research is to discover the internal connections or regularities of objective phenomena and to move the field forward to encourage new scholarship. Treating linguistic textual research as the purpose of historical research can lead to the troubling situation of losing sight of the big picture. To avoid “fragmentation” in research, it is important to combine macro and micro perspectives and to integrate the exploration of major historical issues and trends with linguistic textual research, thereby demonstrating the usefulness and value of history (Wei, 2020).
The issue of supplementing the Khara-Khoto material
The Tangut collection at the Oriental Manuscripts Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences is the largest in the world, with about 9000 Tangut texts and countless fragments. Although the publication Russian Collection of Khara-Khoto Manuscripts has facsimile images of the exemplars of the collection, it does not contain the whole collection. Particularly for Buddhist scriptures, there are often different versions of the same text (printed by woodblock or movable type technology or a handwritten version, bound in a butterfly, pothi, concertina, or scroll form). Not all of them were published. In addition, during one of the author’s stay in Russia, it was discovered that there are still many fragmented social documents in the Buddhist sutra book covers that have not been sorted out. There are hundreds of such book covers, some of which have cracked and only the bottom layer remains, and others in which the cover contains at least a two-sided page. Some intact book covers can reveal more than 10 pages. These social documents are mostly written in Tangut cursive script, although some have regular script, and a few have Chinese characters. They can largely supplement the lacunas of historical records and have huge historical value. The latest news from the UK is that the British Library has discovered a new pile of uncatalogued Tangut texts, a considerable quantity, totaling two large boxes found in collection storage. Mélodie Doumy, Curator of Chinese Collections at the British Library, in charge of the Stein Collection, said that the restoration and digitalization work is planned to be completed in four years and requires a budget of £200,000 (about 2 million yuan). The British Library lacks the funds for this, and to date no Chinese research institution has had the opportunity to formally discuss the restoration and publication of the Khara-Khoto fragmented texts with the British Library. The rich material from Khara-Khoto reflects the close connection between the Tangut culture and Chinese culture from multiple perspectives. The composition of the Khara-Khoto corpus also attests to the extensive use of printing in this region and, thus, to the contribution of the Tanguts to the spread and development of the technology in East Asia. With the increasing financial strength of China, hopefully relevant authorities will soon put the issue of publishing the additional documents from Khara-Khoto in Britain and Russia on the agenda.
The cooperation between Tangut studies and Tibetan studies
The Dangxiang tribes, ancestors of the Tanguts, originally inhabited the vast grasslands and mountains between the eastern part of Qinghai province and the northwest part of Sichuan province, adjacent to Tibet. The regions maintained a close relationship. Tangut belongs to the Qiangic group of the Sino-Tibetan family. Although it is a dead language, many words are still preserved in Tibetan, which plays an important reference role in interpreting Tangut documents (Peng, 2016). For example, when the Tanguts translated the Tibetan text “Prajñā-pāramitā-ratna-guṇa-sañcaya-gāthā” into Tangut and Chinese, they used the Tangut word “西夏字” as the translation for “ma gtogs,” which in Chinese was translated as “但以……” (Duan, 2014). This indicates that this word is not a conjunction of contrast, but a conjunction of comparison. The Tanguts began to translate Buddhist scriptures into Tangut during the reign of Emperor Yuanhao (r. 1032–1048), and the Buddhist translation project continued throughout the existence of the state. In addition to translating Tripiṭaka from Chinese, a large number of Buddhist texts were also translated into Tangut from Tibetan. During religious ceremonies in the late Tangut period, Buddhist texts were chanted in Tibetan, Tangut, and Chinese, with Tibetan texts given priority. Many excavated Tangut Buddhist texts are translations from Tibetan Buddhism, including more than 20 different Mahāmudrā texts. The Tangut-language Mahāmudrā texts, which are translations from Tibetan, are of the same origin as the Dacheng yaodao miji 大乘要道密集 (The Secret Collection of Works on the Essential Path of Mahāyāna), a collection of Chinese translated texts of Tibetan tantric teaching compiled during the Yuan-Ming period (Chen, 2003; Shen, 2010; Sun, 2017). Half of the texts in this book were translated during the Tangut period. Some of the Tibetan original texts used by the Tanguts for translation have been lost over time. However, through the surviving Tangut translation, scholars can not only learn about the spread of Tibetan Buddhism in the Tangut state and among the Yuan, but also partially restore the teachings of various local Buddhist schools in Tibet, thereby mitigating the shortage of historical records of Tibetan Buddhism. At the same time, there are many important records about the Tanguts in Tibetan materials, mainly related to the origins of the Dangxiang people, the transmission and succession of Tibetan Buddhism in the Tangut state, and the downfall of the Tangut state. Despite the close relationship between Tangut and Tibetan studies, it is regrettable that there is an extreme shortage of experts proficient in Tibetan among Tangut scholars, and Tibetan studies lacks people familiar with Tangut. Strengthening the connection between Tangut and Tibetan studies can bridge the gap, promote mutual benefits, and foster further development in researchers’ respective fields (Shi, 2006).
Future work plans and expected goals
Here are some of the authors’ observations on how to address the challenges and further secure the development of Tangut studies. Creating a “Comprehensive Dictionary of Tangut Cursive Script” is essential to overcome the difficulties of interpreting Tangut cursive script manuscripts. Currently, there are very few scholars in the world who can decipher Tangut cursive script. However, a significant number of Tangut social documents and colophons to Buddhist sutras are written in cursive script and have great academic value. Such a dictionary will enable scholars to sort, translate, and study Tangut cursive script manuscripts, thereby advancing current research in the field. Cataloguing Tangut manuscripts and printed texts. The “Catalogue of Tangut Documents” stands out as a remarkable achievement that comprehensively lists, rigorously examines, and logically classifies Tangut documents (Hui and Duan, 2015). This work laid a solid foundation for subsequent cataloguing work. However, the book prioritizes distinguishing Tangut material into three language categories, Tangut, Chinese, and Tibetan, and then further divides each category into several subcategories. This classification method results in documents of the same category being divided by language, which is not conducive to writing in a systematic order. In addition, the book lacks critical analysis of the texts. Cataloguing Tangut texts is an ongoing process of exploration. Compilation of a comprehensive, logically classified, fully featured, and easy-to-search catalogue will enable better utilization of Tangut material, thereby realizing its full academic value. This task requires the commitment of generations of Tangut scholars who are willing to make lifelong scholarly commitments. Index of Tangut and Dangxiang terms, titles, and proper names. Tangut manuscripts are fraught with names of countries, ethnicities, imperial titles, eras, bureaucratic offices, persons, and terms of kinship. Accurate translations of these proper nouns are critical to accurate interpretations of the texts. This can be done through the study of the origins and sounds of Tangut names and by comparing pronunciations in the northwestern dialect of Old and Middle Chinese with the languages of ethnicities, such as Tangut and Tibetan. Early European and American sinologists’ research methods to study Chinese history through proper noun analysis can be very useful here. Continuing the research on the Tangut translations of secular Chinese texts. As already mentioned above, the surviving material includes the rich collection of secular Chinese texts in Tangut translation, especially the Confucian classics such as The Analects of Confucius, The Mencius, The Commentary of Mencius, The Classic of Filial Piety, and The Commentary of the Classic of Filial Piety, books on the art of war such as Art of War of Sunzi with Three Commentaries, Art of War of Sunzi, The Six Secret Teachings, The Three Strategies of Huang Shigong, and The General’s Garden, Taoist works such as Altar Record of Confucius's Conciliation, medical books such as Canon of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, historical books such as The Twelve States, The Forest of Categories, and The Essentials of Government in the Zhenguan Period, educational texts and primers such as Excerpts from the Classics and Histories and Newly Collected Essays on Parental Love and Filial Piety, and a text, Writings on Virtue and Manner, compiled by the Tanguts based on Chinese classics, which altogether comprise 21 works in seven categories. These works cover the essence of Chinese classical literature and most of them are rare editions. Chinese texts began to be translated into Tangut immediately after the invention of the Tangut script and, as far as we can tell, this process lasted as long as the script was in use. Indeed, judging from the sources available to us today, Chinese culture and Chinese texts were a major source for Tangut literacy. This research informs how Chinese texts were used and understood beyond China’s borders, in a setting that is linguistically and socially different from where they had been composed and initially circulated. Essentially, this is a study of Chinese texts that have been translated into a different language and used in a non-Chinese environment. The study of Tangut translations of secular Chinese texts includes linguistics, philology, literary criticism, and history. The significance of this research goes beyond the scope of Tangut studies and contributes to neighboring disciplines, such as Dunhuang studies. Comparative historical studies. By conducting comparative historical studies among the histories of the Song, Liao, and Jin dynasties, we can overcome the limitations caused by the shortage of historical records and break through the dynastic periodization of history. After the establishment of the Tangut state, while adhering to their own national traditions, the Tanguts fully utilized the advanced systems of laws and regulations of the Central Plain dynasty. According to the History of Song (宋史), juan 486, “On the State of Xia” (夏国传): “Their [the Tanguts] system of appointing officials was largely similar to that of the Song. The court ceremonies are a mixture of Tang and Song [rituals], while the musical instruments and tunes are of Tang [style].” The Tangut states Da Xia, Khitan Liao, and Jurchen Jin were the states established by ethnicities during the same period. They share many similar characteristics and developmental trends. By conducting comparative studies across different regimes, we can learn from each other and better understand and apply relevant historical materials. For example, the Chinese word fushan负赡, which in Tangut is translated as “西夏字” (meaning “assistant soldier”), is an important military term in the Tangut military system, referring to an assistant to a regular soldier. This system of appointing assistants for the main army was not unique to Tanguts but was also common in other neighboring states, such as Tibet, Khitan Liao, and Jurzhen Jin. In particular, the Jin army’s assistants were called “Alixi” (阿里喜 in Chinese), which in the Song were referred to as tiejun 贴军 (the words tie 贴 and 赡 shan are very close in meanings in Chinese, both referring to “supply” or “provide”). By conducting comparative research and engaging in interdisciplinary collaborations, scholars can enhance their understanding of relevant historical materials. Collection of translations of Russian scholarship in Tangut studies. Tangut studies is an international field of study, and its development relies on the collaborative efforts of Tangut studies research institutions around the world. A number of Tangut studies scholars who have made significant contributions to the development of the field trained at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (the Russian Academy of Sciences), such as EI Kychanov (1932–2013), KB Keping (1937–2002), NA Nevsky (1892–1937), and AA Dragunov (1900–1955), who made significant contributions to the development of the field. Introducing works of Russian scholars to the Chinese academic community not only expands the scholarly horizons of domestic researchers in the field, but also enriches the content of international exchanges and cooperation between China and Russia. The research on Tangut books and manuscripts from Khara-Khoto is clearly in its early stages. Although many of the texts have been transcribed and translated into Russian or Chinese, in most cases, this is the extent of their study. While this initial research stage is crucial in making the material available to non-Tangut readers, it is somewhat surprising that these translations receive little attention among scholars who could benefit from them.
The aforementioned plan covers various aspects, including language and literature, Tangut documents, and historical research. This comprehensive and multi-faceted exploration will not only promote cutting-edge research and the development of the field, but can also stimulate research in the adjacent disciplines, such as the study of traditional Chinese classics and the history of ethnic groups and regimes in China. As a result, the disciplinary construction of Tangut studies can be elevated to a new level.
Of course, there is much more work to be done in the field of Tangut studies, and the authors only provide a brief overview based on their knowledge and research. New avenues of exploration can leverage networks of international collaboration and exchange, interdisciplinary research, and the power of artificial intelligence to assist in data management.
Footnotes
Acknowledgment
The first draft of this article in Chinese was published in Zhongguoshi Dongtai Yanjiu中国史动态研究, No. 5, 2012.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (grant number 20VJXT009).
