Liu Ge and Wang Xiaoyun

Flavours of Religion in Uighur Contracts

(62nd Meeting, 2019)

Turpan was one of the cities on the ancient silk road. It is an oasis in the boundless gobi desert, where is rich in grapes, melons and wine, besides which, there are many inns, streets, markets and workshops. Therefore, it was a great rest place and trading market for the ancient caravans and travelers, and was also a platform for religion gathering and racial integration.

The buddhist temples on the cliffs, the manichean murals in the caves, and the religious classics and documents written in various languages unearthed, as well as the ruins and tombs of the ancient city are all the traces of the history mentioned above.

The Uighur contract I studied is mainly from the Mongolian and Yuan times, and I mainly study the social and economic aspects, which seem to have little to do with religion. However, people’s names, places and proper nouns in the documents could reflect the fact that many of the inhabitants came from different regions and races with different religious beliefs. It can be fully reflected in the text the existence and interrelationship of various religions, and this paper will further reveal these phenomena.

回鹘文契约中的宗教色彩
陕西师范大学刘戈王小云

吐鲁番是古代丝绸之路上的一个城市。它是茫茫戈壁和浩瀚沙漠中王小云的一块绿洲。这里盛产葡萄、瓜果和美酒,客栈、街市、作坊一应具有,是古代商队和旅人休憩的地方和交易的市场,是各种宗教荟萃、种族融合的平台。

当代依然耸立在山崖峭壁上的佛寺、洞窟里的摩尼教壁画、出土的用各种文字书写的宗教经典和文献,以及古城遗址、墓葬等等是上述历史的痕迹。

我所研究的回鹘文契约主要是蒙元时代的,内容多是社会经济方面的,似乎与宗教没有关系。但是,文书中的各种人名、地名、专有名词反映出这里的居民之中,他们许多源自不同的地区和人种,他们原本有着不同的宗教信仰。各种宗教的存在与相互关系浸透在文书的字里行间,本文将揭示这些现象。