Victor Mair's catalogue describing five-hundred and ninety-nine Dunhuang manuscripts and highlighting the importance of these early Chinese narrative texts in relation to oral performance. Taken from Chinoperl Papers, No. 10 (1981), pp. 5–96.

Abbreviations used in this inventory: PK (Peking ms #, see appendix two), S (Stein ms #), P (Pelliot ms #), F (Flug ms #), D (Dun’-khuanskogo Fonda ms #), T (Tun-huang pien-wen chi), r˚ (recto), v˚ (verso). [note: R° is determined by which side of the ms was originally used for writing, v° by the side subsequently used. In the inventory, that side appears first which is more pertinent to the present subject of research.] ms[s] (manuscript[s]).
Symbols: → “emend to”; {x} “x is Mair's reconstruction/the translation of Mair's reconstruction”; ? “I am not certain”; = “is a variant orthography for”; [ ] “understood” or “needs to be inserted”; // “end of line”.
Caution: Many of the translations in this inventory are highly tentative and are intended merely to serve as the basis for further discussion and research by specialists.

This catalogue is divided into the following sections:
(i) Paris (1–235)
(ii) London (236–437)
(iii) St Petersburg (437–551) N.B.: Except where noted, the Tun-huang mss in Leningrad consist of fragments that have not been fully identified with regard to subject matter, form, and genre.
(iv) China (552–597) N.B.: Items 594–597 are dispersed mss in China. Information taken from pp. 314–356 of Tun-huang i-shu tsung-mu so-yin. Since none of these mss is available for examination, I have been unable to verify any of the information given here.
(v) Taiwan (598 only)
(vi) Addendum (599 only)

NOTE ON THE ONLINE EDITION: Many of the hand-drawn variant characters included in Mair's catalogue could not be represented here. They are thus represented by the placeholder [#nnn]. Please refer to original catalogue for these characters, scans of which will soon be made available on IDP.