Manuscript Philology: A New Discipline Needs to be Established Urgently

Manuscript philology refers to ancient books or texts written on paper with a soft pen and a hard pen. Before the popular edition of the Song Dynasty, the inheritance of Chinese civilization had long relied on manuscript philology; after the Song Dynasty, the manuscript literatures still played a role to a certain extent. For more than a century, with the large number of discoveries and publications of the manuscript literatures represented by Dunhuang literatures, manuscript philology has been more and more concerned by people. In line with it, a new knowledge--manuscript philology—is in the process of gestating and inoculation.