What is Dunhuang suicide note? The academic circles define the ancient manuscripts and prints from the 4th to 1 1 century unearthed in Dunhuang as precious ancient documents in China.
Discovery time: May 26th, 26th year of Guangxu reign (1June 22nd, 900).
Location of discovery: Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang
Discoverer: A Taoist named Wang.
However, this time, the Taoist king found that no one cheered and no one praised him. Mr Yu Yu, a cultural celebrity, even called him "the sinner of Dunhuang Grottoes". Either be a hero or be a sinner. Why? I want to come for many reasons. In the final analysis, I just want to say: now is not the time to find out!
The great discovery of a little Taoist priest
People remember Wang only because he found Buddhist scriptures in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes. It was because of his accidental discovery that he suddenly became a celebrity.
History is fixed at1June 22nd, 900 (May 26th, 26th year of Guangxu). In Dunhuang, Gansu Province, a historical door was quietly opened by the Taoist Wang of Macheng, Hubei Province, and the precious manuscripts of the 5th-11century, which were sealed by the ancients for nearly a thousand years, were rediscovered, making the word "Wang" destined to be included in the history of world cultural discovery in the 20th century. Now the secret room is no longer a secret room, and gradually people call it the "Tibetan scripture cave", and the scriptures in the Tibetan scripture cave are called "Dunhuang suicide note". Dunhuang suicide note, together with Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Han bamboo slips and the Forbidden City in Ming and Qing Dynasties, is regarded as one of the four great academic discoveries in modern China, and also as an encyclopedia of ancient China culture.
The discoverer of the suicide note, Taoist king
Wang (1850- 193 1 year) is also known as "Taoist king". Hubei Macheng people. According to "Macheng County Records", in the summer of the sixth year of Xianfeng (1856), there was a drought in Macheng, and no crops were harvested. Forced to make a living, Wang fled his hometown and went to Jiuquan, where he joined the Suzhou Scout Camp as a soldier. After leaving the army, in order to solve the problem of eating, Wang came up with a wonderful way-becoming a monk and naming it "Fazhen". In the 23rd year of Guangxu (1897), he traveled westward to Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes. Although the Mogao Grottoes were depressed at that time, the incense of the temple continued from time to time because of the support of the people. For Wang, who has reached the age of no doubt, this quiet place is an excellent choice for him to spend the rest of his life.
The process of Wang's discovery of the Tibetan Sutra Cave is legendary. The Mogao grottoes dug on the east cliff of Mingsha Mountain, due to the long-term northwest wind, the quicksand has been spreading downwards from the top of the cave, and the tunnel at the entrance is full of sand, and the whole entrance is sealed. Wang Daochang hired several guys to help clean up the accumulated sand. On that day, the sand in the tunnel of 16 was gradually cleaned up. A man surnamed Yang found a hole in the north wall of the tunnel and suspected that there was a hidden stone room. So Taoist Wang and Yang broke through the wall in the middle of the night. A rare and amazing discovery in the archaeological history of China was discovered by a Taoist who didn't know what archaeology was.
Classics and documents from the Tang Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty are piled up in the cave. Faced with so many ancient books and scrolls, Taoist Wang is considering how to use them in exchange for some merit money. The first gift from Wang Daochang was the pavilion east, a Taoist platform and soldier. Unexpectedly, Tingdong, a rather conceited Manchu bureaucrat, just felt that these ancient calligraphy for writing classics was not as good as his own, but he did not show special interest. However, Taoist Wang was unwilling to give away the scriptures through various channels to get donations, so that many local officials and gentry in Gansu accepted Taoist Wang's scriptures as gifts.
1902 In March, Wang, a native of Hubei Province, became the Dunhuang county magistrate, and Wang county magistrate soon got the scriptures and silk paintings sent by Taoist Wang. The county magistrate, who was born in Jinshi and was familiar with history and culture, immediately judged that the scriptures were different, and wrote to Zheng Xueye in Lanzhou and Gansu in the winter of 1903. Through Wang, Ye not only got the rubbings left by the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, but also got Buddhist paintings, scriptures, stone tablets and Sanskrit manuscripts unearthed in the Tibetan Sutra Cave. It's just that Wang's news is extremely inaccurate, saying that there are only a few hundred volumes in the cave, and it seems to have been carved up. Therefore, Ye Chichang never set foot in Dunhuang, although he saw the value of the scriptures in the Tibetan scriptures at a glance. However, Tingdong, who was indifferent to Wang Daochang, really reported the news of the Tibetan Sutra Cave to Fantai in Gansu. Gansu Fantai only issued an order to Wang on the grounds that it was difficult to collect the freight from Dunhuang to Lanzhou: "It will be sealed on the spot and kept by Wang Daoren." So Wang personally carried out this order in the Mogao Grottoes. This is the first time that the government has come out to seal up the Tibetan Sutra Cave. Due to the poor sealing measures, Taoist Wang apparently agreed, but in fact he kept taking out scriptures from the cave and selling them quietly. Until the collection in the Tibetan sutra cave was transported abroad, causing a large outflow of Dunhuang suicide notes, the official still knew nothing about it.
Although China had seven years to properly protect the Tibetan scriptures before foreigners arrived in Dunhuang, it missed them again and again. What followed was the wanton hijacking of Dunhuang suicide note by famous western explorers. Especially in Einstein and pelliot.
Stein first came to Dunhuang in March 1907. I can't speak Chinese. When I first communicated with Wang, Wang only promised to accept Stan's generosity and wanted to have a look at the manuscript. His request to buy some wooden scrolls was politely refused. Through observation, Stein found that "Taoist King, although he knew little about Buddhism, worshipped the Tang Priest". Then, in the Taoist hall where the local painter painted the legend of Tang Priest, Stan and Wang talked about his worship of Xuanzang. He even said in an almost superstitious tone that it was the spirit of Tang Priest who entrusted these secret rooms to the king who knew nothing about Buddhist scriptures, in order to wait for himself, an admirer and faithful believer of Tang Priest from India, that is, "Tang Priest" to defraud the king's trust. Obviously, Wang was fooled by Stein. Although the two men had the same topic, Wang insisted that Stein should not enter the Tibetan scriptures cave, but personally moved out a bundle of scriptures to the auditorium for him to read. Finally, he accepted Stein's proposal and sold all the classics and silk paintings selected by Stein and Master Jiang at the price of 40 ingots of horseshoe silver (200 taels of silver), and added 60 bundles of Chinese scrolls and 5 bundles of Tibetan scrolls. When Stein left the Mogao Grottoes, only 24 boxes were filled with books and documents, and 5 boxes were filled with exquisite silk paintings, embroidered works of art and other cultural relics. After cleaning up, there are 7000 volumes, 6000 volumes and a large number of other cultural relics, which has created a precedent for Dunhuang suicide notes to be scattered abroad in large numbers. Because Stan doesn't know Chinese, there are many worthless things in the documents he took away. When Stan came to Dunhuang for the second time, he bought 570 volumes of Chinese from Wang for 500 taels of silver. These papers are specially collected by Wang, and they are all complete long volumes with high value.
Stein, a British Hungarian, had just left when paul pelliot, a Frenchman, came to Dunhuang again. Pelliot is not only an expert in sinology, but also a linguistic genius, who can speak at least 13 languages. He is still proficient in Chinese, and he can understand ancient and classical Chinese.
1February, 908, pelliot arrived in Dunhuang. Pelliot was here to negotiate with Taoist Wang, and Pelliot's fluent Chinese quickly won the favor of Taoist Wang. Moreover, Taoist Wang learned from the conversation that Boccio did not know that he had sold a large number of books to Stein, so he was very satisfied with the promises of these foreigners. Pelliot also used the method of money temptation, promised to give the Taoist king a sum of incense money. After about twenty days of negotiations, on March 3, pelliot was introduced into the Tibetan Sutra Cave, and he was allowed to choose from it.
This is the second time that foreigners have entered the Tibetan sutra cave after Stein. After three weeks of investigation, pelliot finally got more than 6,600 volumes and 38 large paintings at a price of 500 taels of silver (about 90 Jin). Although pelliot Bustin arrived in the Tibetan Sutra Cave one year later, Stan failed to go into the Tibetan Sutra Cave to select and see all the collections. Different from Pelliot, he not only personally went into the cave to search all the collections, but also was proficient in Chinese and had rich knowledge of historical documents in China and Central Asia. Although the number of suicide notes obtained is not as good as Stein's, almost all of them are excellent. Peliot later said in a speech: "Of the nearly 20,000 papers, I only regret missing one."
Pelliot arrived in Beijing on May 1909 after shipping the papers from Tianjin to Paris. I learned that the Qing school was "looking for all kinds of ancient books and preserving the quintessence of the country". I don't know if he is showing off or anything else, but pelliot has brought some precious Dunhuang books with him, such as Annotations of Shangshu, Illustration of Shazhou, Biography of Five Tianzhu Countries in Hui Dynasty, Dunhuang Monuments and Praises, and so on, which are displayed in the Six Kingdoms Hotel in Beijing. At that time, Assistant Minister Bao, University Governor Xue Liu, University Inspector Ke, Scholar of Hanlin Academy, Shi Jing University Inspector Jiang Han, Second Director of Compilation Bureau of Shi Jing University, Teacher Jiang Fu of Jingshi University, Guo Zicheng Xu Fang, famous scholars Luo Zhenyu and Dong Kang all visited. These officials and scholars in Beijing were "pleasantly surprised" when they saw the dead volumes of Lao Zi's Hu Jing and Shangshu written in Dunhuang, and only then did they know that Dunhuang in Gansu had made a great discovery.
On September 4th, scholars from Shi Jing hosted a banquet in honor of pelliot at the Six Kingdoms Hotel. Attendees included Assistant Minister Bao of the Department of Education, University Hall Supervisor Liu, Dong Kang and Wu. , mainly a group of scholars from Shi Jing University Hall. At the job fair, Yun made a formal request to copy Essence in his speech, and pelliot said, "I can do it myself". The concrete implementer is Luo Zhenyu. Roche also asked Duan Fang for help, urging pelliot to sell the four important books he brought and shipped back to China to write this photo. According to the agreement, Bertrand sent them to Luo Zhenyu and Liu for textual research. On the Mid-Autumn Festival in the same year, Luo Zhenyu visited Boxiwa in Suzhou Hutong for the first time, and immediately learned that there were still about 8,000 volumes in Dunhuang stone chambers, but most of them were Buddhist scriptures. Luo Zhenyu immediately reported to Zuo Cheng Qiao Maonan and the Ministry of Education, and Luo Dai drew up a telegram, ordering the governor of Shaanxi but so do dungans and the governor of Gansu, Mao Qingfan, to immediately seal up the Dunhuang Sutra Cave and transport all the remaining suicide notes back to Beijing. After Gansu received the telegram from the Ministry of Education, He Feast, acting governor of Gansu, just arrived. He ordered Chen Zefan, the county magistrate of Dunhuang, to count the scraps and transport them back to Beijing. At this time, nine years have passed since the discovery of the Sutra Cave.
19 10, the Dunhuang suicide note was shipped from Dunhuang. Chen Zefan sent Fu and Wu to escort the cart. Facts have proved that Fu and Wu did not do their best during the escort, and they were selected by local officials in Dunhuang who passed by and sold them without authorization. In order to hide people's eyes and ears, tear one roll apart and use it as two rolls. After that, it was handed over to the Ministry, *** 18 box, numbered 8679. However, this act of splitting scripture to fill the number of fragments was soon exposed. At that time, assistant minister Bao of the academic department found that there was something wrong with the delivery of examination papers by the academic department, so he wrote a complaint and Fu, who was in charge of escort, was detained. Since the Revolution of 1911, Qing officials had no choice but to release Fu back to Gansu, and the matter was dropped. Therefore, when we justly accuse foreign explorers, it is inevitable that our hearts will be more painful and embarrassed.
193 1 year, Wang died at the age of 80. According to the Taoist precepts, a Taoist should not build a pagoda after his death, but Wang's disciples built a magnificent earthen pagoda for him, and the pagoda monument recorded the process of his discovery of the Tibetan Sutra Cave.