回鹘文摩尼教寺院文书初释

NOTES ON AN UIGHUR GOVERNMENT CHARTER ISSUED TO A MANICHAEAN MONASTERY

一伟大的革命导师列宁曾指出:"所有一切压迫阶级,为了维持自己的统治,都需要有两种社会职能:一种是刽子手的职能,另一种是牧师的职能。"(《第二国际的破产》,《列宁选集》第二卷第638页)象历史上所有民族的统治阶级一样,回鹘上层统治阶级为了维持其反动统治,曾先后利用摩尼教和佛教来麻痹劳动人民的阶级意识。

The manuscript-scroll under discussion was acquired by the late Professor Huang Wenpi during one of his archaeological reconnaissance trips in Sinkiang. Its photographie reproductions were published in 1954 as Plates 89—94 of his report entitled T'u Lu Fom K'ao Ku Chi (Archaeological Reconnaissances in Turfan). The first part of the scroll was missing when discovered and the extant portion with its present length of 270 cm and height of 29.5 cm contains only 125 lines of writing. It forms part of the original text of a royal decree issued to a Manichaean monastery by the Uighur government of the Kao-ch'ang region, which lists, among others, the lands owned by and the various privileges granted to the monastery. It throws much new light on the ruthless exploitation of local peasants by the Manichaean monasteries of the time and is, therefore, of much value to the study of the propagation of Manichaeanism in the region and the economic conditions of the Manichaean monasteries after the uighurs started their westward migration in A. D. 840. Judging by its script style and the characteristics of sentence construction, the manuscript probably dates from about nine to eleventh centuries.