6th International Symposium Oriental Studies

The 6 th International Symposium on Oriental Ancient Documents Studies 104 Yi Wangdi An Overview of Collecting, Editing, Translating, and Publishing the Dai Ancient Books The ancient books of the Dai ethnic in China are voluminous and complex documents. They cover the Dai social historical development of politics, military, economy, science, technology, literature, art, ethic, religion, ethnic, and other fields. These are usually some of form a blockprint copy, script, transcripts, and there are two pieces written on palm leaves and cotton paper. This article gives a primarily systematic summary of the Dai ethnic collecting, editing, translating and publishing the ancient books on cotton paper. It will also include information on Dai’s folk cotton paper manufacture and some measures and methods to be adopted by the relevant domestic departments in progress of collecting, editing, translating, publishing, restoring and preserving the Dai ancient books on cotton paper. Key words: Dai ethnic, cotton paper, cotton paper edition.