As early as 1879, Hungarian geologist LajosLoczy participated in the expedition of Count Cecchini and went to Dunhuang. 1902, at the International Conference on Orientalism held in Hamburg, Germany, Luo Keqi reported the exquisite murals and sculptures preserved in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes. It was from his friend Lokchi that Stein heard about the Mogao Grottoes, which further inspired Stein's desire to visit Dunhuang. Therefore, in 1904, in his second exploration plan for Central Asia submitted to the British government, he expanded the investigation area to Dunhuang, Gansu. 1In April, 906, Stan embarked on a journey and began his second expedition in Central Asia. 1February, 907, Stan started from Loulan site, followed the Silk Road in the south of Lop Nur, and passed through Yangguan. /kloc-in the early morning of March 2, Stein and his party arrived in Dunhuang. Previously, Stan hired a China tour guide, Jiang Xiaowan, as his translator and assistant in Kashgar. When Stein first arrived in Dunhuang, he didn't know about the discovery of the Buddhist scriptures in Mogao Grottoes. He originally planned to stop in Dunhuang to inspect the Mogao Grottoes, replenish some food and water, and then go to Lop Nur for archaeological excavation. However, a few days later, I heard a Urumqi businessman who settled in Dunhuang say that the cave of Tibetan scriptures had been discovered in Mogao Grottoes. Stein immediately changed his mind and set out for the Mogao Grottoes.
On March 16, Stan came to Mogao Grottoes. At this time, the Taoist king had installed a lock on the door of the Tibetan Sutra Cave and personally took charge of the key of the lock. When Stein arrived, it happened that the Taoist King had gone out for alms, but he still saw a beautiful notebook sent by a young monk, which made Stein ecstatic. He decided to stay in Dunhuang and wait for the return of Wang Daochang. During this period, Stein returned to Dunhuang County and hired a group of workers to inspect and excavate the beacon tower site of the Great Wall in the northwest of Dunhuang, and obtained a large number of Han Dynasty bamboo slips.
On may 2 1 day, stein returned to the Mogao grottoes. At this time, the Taoist king also returned from alms. Because a temple fair was being held in Mogao Grottoes a few days ago, there were many pilgrims coming and going. In order to prevent curious men and women from entering the Sutra Cave, Taoist King blocked the entrance of the Sutra Cave with bricks instead of wooden doors, which made Genstein very disappointed. So Stan said that he came to the Mogao Grottoes to shoot murals, and said nothing about the Tibetan Sutra Cave. It was through Master Jiang that he made the first contact with Wang Daochang. Master Jiang told Taoist Wang that Stan was willing to provide a donation to help him repair the cave, hoping to see some scrolls. Wang agreed, but when Master Jiang said that Stein actually wanted to buy some scrolls, Wang Daochang immediately became wary. On the one hand, the Vatican government has a ban on closing the Tibetan sutra cave. On the other hand, Taoist Wang is afraid of being discovered by others, which is not good for himself and his "merits". So the Taoist king refused Stan's request. Then, he asked Wang Daochang to show him around the ongoing construction project in the cave, and agreed. During the visit, although Stein looked down on the new statue of Taoist Wang, he discovered Taoist Wang's devotion to religion, so he took the opportunity to express his admiration for Taoist Wang, and Taoist Wang gradually fell in love with Stein. Then, Stein boasted to Taoist Wang that he was a loyal disciple of Xuanzang, and told the story of how he followed Xuanzang's footsteps, crossed mountains and deserts from India and came to Dunhuang after thousands of difficulties. This sentence really touched Wang Daochang's heart. That night, Taoist Wang quietly handed a bundle of scriptures to Master Jiang for Stein to study. Coincidentally, the inscriptions on these scrolls show that the Buddhist scriptures were brought back from India by Xuanzang and translated into Chinese from Sanskrit. This accidental coincidence brought new hope to Stan. The next day, Stan told the Taoist King that the reason why he could see the Buddhist scriptures translated by Xuanzang on this day was entirely arranged by the sage Xuanzang, and asked him to send these Buddhist scriptures from distant India back to their original places. The Taoist King is a superstitious man, and Stan's words make him feel that this coincidence is really the call of God. At night, the Taoist king demolished the brick wall that blocked the Tibetan Sutra Cave and opened the door to Stan.
After entering the cave, under the dim oil lamp, Stein saw "scrolls piled up layer by layer, dense and disorganized." The height of the coil stack is about 10 foot, and the later calculation result is about 500 cubic feet. The area of the Sutra Cave is about 9 square feet, and the remaining space can barely accommodate two people. Because the cave was small and dark, he couldn't study, so Taoist Wang asked him to move some bundles of paper to the hut in front of the cave. "。 In order to prevent others from finding out, the window was pasted with paper. From then on, every night, Taoist Wang went into the cave, took out bundles of notebooks and took them to the hut to study for Stein. Because there are more and more writing volumes, Stein gave up the original plan of letting Jiang Xiaowan catalogue each writing volume, but only chose writing volumes, silk paintings and paper paintings as much as possible from his own archaeological standards. Finally, Stein donated a sum of money as a reward to Taoist Wang, and agreed not to disclose the source of these paintings and calligraphy to anyone except the three of them before leaving China. For this transaction, in 192 1 year, Stan wrote in his archaeological report: "When I look back today and look at the priceless treasure I bought with four ingots of horseshoe silver, this transaction is simply incredible. In mid-June, Stein went to Anxi to "explore" with the cultural relics of the Tibetan Sutra Cave obtained from the Taoist King. Four months later, Stein returned to Dunhuang and wrote a short message to the Taoist king. Jiang Xiaowan secretly went to the Mogao Grottoes with a note and got 230 bundles of documents from the Taoist king. 16 months later, 24 boxes of scrolls and 5 boxes of carefully packaged silk paintings, embroidery and other works of art were safely stored in the British Museum in London.
After his second expedition in Central Asia, Stein wrote his personal notes on this expedition in1910/and published them in London in 19 12. 192 1 year, Stein's official archaeological report "Serindia" was published by Oxford University Press. The Chinese version of Archaeological Atlas of Western Regions was translated by the Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and published by Guangxi Normal University Press in 2000.
19 14, when Stein came to China for the third archaeological "expedition", he came to Dunhuang again and obtained five boxes to write this document through Wang Daoren and others. Although most of the documents have been transported away by Boccio Expedition, Otani Expedition and Beijing Municipal Government, most of Stein's income this time was taken out by Taoist King and transferred to a safe place, and a few were owned by local bureaucrats and scattered among the people. As a result, Stan has become the person who has obtained the most documents on Tibetan scriptures.