Patching up Dunhuang Manuscripts of the Miaofa lianhua jing: Exploring the Buddhist Philological Significance of Textual Reconstruction

The Miaofa lianhua jing 妙法蓮華經 is one of the most important scriptures of early Mahāyāna Buddhism, renowned as the “King of Sūtras”. It was extremely widely transmitted around the Tang Dynasty. More than 7000 scrolls of the Miaofa lianhua jing are preserved among the Dunhuang documents. However, many of these numerous manuscripts were split into two parts, or even divided into multiple fragments and scraps, which severely damaged their integrity. Therefore, it is necessary to join them together. After joining, the textual content of the scrolls can be restored, which facilitates in-depth research on Buddhist documents. This paper elaborates on the great significance of textual restoration of Dunhuang fragments of the Miaofa lianhua jing for Buddhist philology from four aspects: identifying the ten-scroll edition omitted in successive printed editions of the Chinese Buddhist Canon; promoting the collation and research of small unidentified Buddhist manuscript fragments; determining the authenticity of scroll fragments of unknown origin; and examining details concerning the circulation and restoration of Dunhuang Buddhist texts.