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Among the many manuscripts that emerged from the library cave at Mogaoku ... are copies of a medieval vernacular rhapsody entitled "Rhapsody on the Ershi General Spring" (Ershi quan fu ...The poem relates a legend about the Han general Li Guangli (d. 89 BCE), who is said to have created a spring to provide drinking water for his troops traversing the desert near Dunhuang... This article introduces the manuscripts containing "Rhapsody on the Ershi General Spring," discusses the background and content of the rhapsody, and translates it.
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The document trove from the library cave at Mogaoku ... Dunhuang ... (Gansu), evokes wonder and despair. In their quantity and variety, the texts reflect the tremendous wealth of the late medieval intellectual world as it was, even in a desert oasis, far from the centers of culture. By that illumination, Mogaoku adumbrates what has been lost.
Mogaoku is most famous for its religious art and texts, especially Buddhist sutras, but the secular word is present among the manuscripts, too, representing some ten percent of the hoard, according to Imre Galambos. 1 Poems that were no longer extant-and perhaps never circulated beyond the local area-are numerous. Their topics include history and quasi-history. One such poem is "Rhapsody on the Ershi Spring" (Ershi quan fu... known from two copies (P.2488 and P.2712) and a fragment (P.2621) from the Mogaoku library cave.
"Rhapsody on the Ershi Spring" treats the famous Han dynasty (206/202 BCE-220 CE) general Li Guangli ...(d. 89 BCE), better known by his sobriquet, the "Ershi General" (Ershi jiangjun ... here shortened to just "Ershi" ... In this article I expand the title of the rhapsody into "Rhapsody on the Ershi General Spring." This poem relates a legend, according to which Li Guangli created a spring to provide water for his troops, who had run out while traversing the desert reaches of the northwest border region. The present article provides an introduction, transcription, and translation of "Rhapsody on the Ershi General Spring," including details about extant manuscript copies, the question of authorship, and the content of the poem.
DUNHUANG RHAPSODIES
"Rhapsody on the Ershi General Spring" is an example of "Dunhuang literature" (Dunhuang wenxue ... Most scholars use that label for...