The Survival of Old Book Forms on the Periphery: Chinese Book Forms in Dunhuang and Beyond

Until the manuscript discoveries in the early part of the twentieth century, the history of the Chinese book had been envisaged according to traditional accounts in transmitted sources. The newly excavated materials provide first-hand evidence for the pre-modern period and force us to reconsider some long-held assumptions. This paper examines the physical form of manuscripts, arguing that while some book forms used in the medieval period have disappeared without a trace from China proper, they continued to be used on the peripheries up to modern times. This paper discusses this phenomenon with regard to two book forms, i.e. the codex and the multi-layered roll, both of which are attested among the Dunhuang manuscripts but seem to have disappeared since then from central China.