Specialists at the National Library have finished restoring more than 120 volumes of documents surviving from the Western Xia Dynasty (1038 - 1227). It is the first time that such a large quantity of Xia Dynasty printed materials have been restored, and the craftsmen who spent the past year working on them made some surprising new discoveries in the process.

While examining the fiber used to make the paper, the restorers found that it was bamboo. This is the earliest known use of bamboo to make paper for printing.

The other finding was something of a fluke. Recycled paper used to repair broken bindings during the Western Xia Dynasty contained grain trading accounts. It had recorded on it sales dates, buyers' names, types of grain and prices. From this bit of patchwork, researchers discovered that glutinous millet was worth 150-200 qian (a unit of ancient currency), an important historical clue to daily life during the period.

The documents were discovered during an archeological dig in 1917 in what is now Lingwu County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and were sent for storage to the Jingshi Library, the predecessor of National Library. It is the largest extant collection of documents from the Western Xia Dynasty: others have been lost to time or were taken out of the country to be scattered around the world.

Zhang Ping, the leader of the rare books restoration team at the National Library, said the job began in early 2003 and was completed by nine of the team's members. Because the written characters used during the Western Xia Dynasty have largely been lost, the National Library also invited specialists on the period's history and culture to consult.

The 120 volumes contain priceless documents from the Yuan Dynasty (1279 - 1368) as well as the Western Xia.

The Buddhavatamsaka-mahavaipulya sutra provides an excellent example of ancient printing skills. The Xixia Yijing Tu (Paintings of Sutra Translations in the Western Xia Dynasty) of the Xianzai Xianjie Qianfuo Mingjing (Present Age Bhabrakalpa Sutra of the Thousand Buddhas) is the only known collection of sutra translation paintings from the period in China.

Zhang Ping said, "These Western Xia Dynasty documents should be considered first-class cultural relics."

(China.org.cn by Chen Lin, April 14, 2004)