Volume 4 of The Lotus Sutra (Dunhuang manuscript)

This Lotus Sutra manuscript, discovered in the Dunhuang敦煌 Library Cave, contains the text of Volume Four. It comprises 14 joined sheets of yellow parchment, with single-lined frame in black ink. The first sheet has 24 lines, while the remaining sheets each have 26. Beginning with Chapter 9, “Prophecies Conferred on Learners and Adepts”, the text concludes with Chapter 11 “The Emergence of the Jeweled Stupa”. The absence of Chapter 8, “Prophecy of Enlightenment for Five Hundred Disciples” (also part of Volume Four), suggests it was likely removed owing to damage. The manuscript maintains a consistent format: 17 characters per line for prose sections and 20 characters across 4 verses per line for poetic passages.
The Library Cave yielded over 5,000 Lotus Sutra manuscripts, making it the most abundant Buddhist text found there. Most date from the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the High Tang period. This remarkable volume of artifacts lends credence to Tang monk Daoxuan道宣’s (596–667) assertion in his preface that “no sutra is more widely embraced than this one”.
These manuscripts likely originated from devotees commissioning professional sutra copyists for various spiritual purposes. Before printing became widespread, these skilled scribes specialized in reproducing Buddhist texts and were renowned for their swift brushwork.