Textual Variation in the Manuscript Medium: Writing and Re-Reading in Dunhuang Manuscripts of the Miaofa lianhua jing xuanzan, Juan 1

The Dunhuang corpus preserves multiple manuscript witnesses of juan 1 of the Miaofa lianhua jing xuanzan, providing concrete evidence for textual variation in the transmission of Buddhist commentaries. This study collates the Dunhuang manuscripts with the Zhaocheng Jin Canon, the Taishō Tripiṭaka, and the Xuzangjing and examines seventeen variants that affect meaning. Eight arose from misreading cursive graphic forms or the position of dots and strokes; nine arose through omission, interpolation, interference, substitution, or the abbreviation of phonological glosses. The distribution of these variants shows that the Dunhuang witnesses agree at many points but also each preserve distinctive readings; that the Zhaocheng Jin Canon shares several clusters of errors with the Dunhuang witnesses; and that the Taishō text contains more distinctive readings. The form of the surviving juan 1 witnesses resulted from repeated copying, reading, and correction: variants are both objects of textual criticism and records of how manuscripts were read and used.