This research of Dunhuang documents focuses on manuscripts dating from the 4 th to the 14 th centuries. There are obvious differences between the complicated transcript conditions and block-printed documents in terms of organization and research, this being both the characteristic and the difficulty of working with these manuscripts. By investigating the original conditions, transcriptions, and users of these texts, this paper attempts to uncover the textual function they originally served, with the further hope of establishing a new research field for the study and interpretation of Dunhuang poetry manuscripts.
