The Chinese Manichaean Hymn-scroll was found in Dunhuang by M.A. Stein in the beginning of the 20th century. And it is now preserved in the British Museum, under the signature Or. 8210, S. 2659. Previous studies have proved the originals of the texts on the Hymn-scroll are in Middle Iranian languages, and share many similarities with the Middle Iranian texts unearthed in Turfan. Based on the Middle Iranian hymns from Turfan, the abecedarian scheme of the originals of the Chinese hymns can be reconstructed, providing a new perspective to see the Chinese texts. There are six remarkable hymns preserved in line 184–260 of the Chinese Hymn-scroll, each has 24 sentences (except that the second one has 22). The Middle Iranian originals of these hymns can be shown to be abecedarian hymns. And the first three hymns formed a hymn cycle, each one as a canto. W.B. Henning was the first to notice one of these hymns as a translation of Middle Persian abecedarian hymn. In the annotations to Tsui Chi’s translation of the Hymn-scroll he had a note on this hypothesis.
目次
1. Editions of the Middle Iranian Abecedarian hymns 437 2. The investigation on abecedarian words 439 3. Reconstruction of the abecedarian scheme 443 4. Conclusion 461 Appendix 461 Bibliography 462
