The Mogao Grottoes is one of the largest art treasures in the world.
In the 26th year of Guangxu (A.D. 1900), the Taoist King discovered the Tibetan Sutra Cave, which contained more than 40,000 scriptures, documents and cultural relics. Since then, the Mogao Grottoes have become more noticeable.
1907 and 19 14 years, Stan in Britain took away more than 10,000 suicide notes and cultural relics twice.
1908, the Frenchman Pelliot selected the best documents from the Tibetan Sutra Cave and took away about 5,000 pieces.
19 10 Most of the looted scriptures in the Tibetan Scripture Cave were transported to Beijing and handed over to Shi Jing Library for collection.
19 1 1 year, Japanese Zuichuan Lihua and Yoshikawa Koichiro took about 600 scrolls from the Taoist king.
19 14 Russian oldenburg took another batch of scriptures from Dunhuang, surveyed the grottoes, and stole the murals of Cave 263.
1924, Warner of America uncovered and stole 26 murals of Mogao Grottoes with a special chemical glue. 、
They all took away many splendid cultures in China with a small amount of silver dollars.
note:
Daoshiwang
After the discovery of the Tibetan Sutra Cave, Taoist Wang did his best and did everything that should be done. First, I walked 50 miles on foot and rushed to the county seat to find Yan Ze, the magistrate of Dunhuang County, and presented two volumes of scriptures taken out of the Tibetan Sutra Cave. The purpose of the Taoist king is clear, that is, to attract the attention of this official. It's a pity that the magistrate named Yan is ignorant and only treats these two volumes of scriptures as two yellow waste papers.
1902, the new magistrate Zonghan Wang came to Dunhuang. Wang Zhi Xian is a grave digger, who has a good knowledge of epigraphy. Taoist Wang reported the situation of the Tibetan Sutra Cave to Wang Zhifu. Wang Zhi Xian immediately took a group of people to visit the Mogao Grottoes, and conveniently picked up several volumes of scriptures to take away. Leave a message for Wang Daochang to stay at the scene to see the Tibetan Sutra Cave.
Looking for Wang magistrate of a county twice failed, but he was still unwilling. So he picked out two boxes of scriptures from the cave of Tibetan scriptures and drove the donkey to Suzhou (Jiuquan). He camped out in the wind, single-handedly, and at the risk of gorging, he trudged more than 800 miles to reach his destination and found the pavilions at that time. The proprietor of the court browsed it and finally came to the conclusion that the words on the scroll were not as good as his calligraphy, so be it.
A few years later, Ye, an epigrapher studying politics in Gansu, learned about the Tibetan Sutra Cave and became interested in it. He asked for some antiques through Wang Zhi County. It's a pity that he didn't make up his mind to take effective protective measures for the Sutra Cave. It was not until 1904 that the provincial government ordered the Dunhuang checkpoint to be preserved in situ. This decision, in the original words of Rainbow Zhixian, is to shirk responsibility. Without thinking about it, Wang dared to write a secret letter to Lafayette in the Qing Dynasty. However, when the Qing Dynasty was in turmoil, it was impossible for officials living in the Qing Palace to care about such "small things". Wang's hope is like a mud cow entering the sea, and there is no news.
1907, Stein arrived and captured the Taoist king through spiritual contacts. Stein said: "Taoist worships Xuanzang, and the paintings on the newly-built veranda opposite the cave temple have obvious evidence. These paintings are ridiculous legends ... I told Wang Daochang in my limited Chinese about my worship of Xuanzang and how I followed his footsteps across mountains and deserts from India. He was obviously moved by me. "
At that time, Taoist Wang sold through Sri Lanka for three reasons: First, in the past seven years, he repeatedly asked the authorities for help and reported it step by step, but no one asked, which made him disheartened. Second, in order to realize his ambition, he cleaned the cave, built three floors and set up a wooden bridge. Thirdly, Tang Xuanzang communicated their thoughts, and Stein's spirit of pursuing career moved him. Therefore, although his thoughts are extremely contradictory and he is extremely unwilling for foreigners to take these cultural relics away, he has to give in under helpless circumstances.
When Stein publicized Dunhuang cultural relics to the whole world, the officials of the dynasty realized its important value, but they did not consider how to protect it, but tried to steal it for themselves. As a result, theft became common for a time, and Dunhuang documents were seriously lost, which was the biggest disaster since Dunhuang documents were discovered. Later, even Zhang Daqian, who was obsessed with murals, joined the ranks of destruction. 19 10 The Qing government decided to transport all the existing Dunhuang documents to Beijing for preservation. Almost everywhere was stolen during the transportation.
The loss of a large number of Tibetan scriptures once made Wang feel very sad because he found the Tibetan scriptures cave. Over the years, during his custody, there has never been a large number of things lost for no reason. The official was so plundered and greedy that he felt great indignation. Therefore, when Stan went to the Mogao Grottoes for the second time in 19 14, Wang made a thought-provoking remark. Stein's Archaeology of the Western Regions describes it this way: "When talking about the damage caused by the government's handling of his favorite China paper, he expressed regret that he didn't have the courage and courage at that time. He listened to Mr. Jiang and charged me a large sum of money to collect the whole book. After being harassed by the government, he was very scared and hid his Chinese notebook, which he thought was particularly precious, in another safe place. "
Who knows the joys and sorrows of Dunhuang?
The loss of Dunhuang cultural relics should not be attributed to any individual, which is a mockery of China by history.
We can't look at the king by a perfect standard. He was really ordinary at that time. Perhaps only by putting him in the historical context at that time can we get an objective and fair evaluation.
The Tibetan Sutra Cave was crowded with tourists, and the voices of different nationalities echoed in the dark cave. I glanced affectionately at the king and the people who came in a hurry.
Before I went to Dunhuang, I had a wish to see what Yu Qiu called "Taoist Temple". I asked the tour guide: Where is Wang buried? He said it was in front of the ticket office in Mogao Grottoes. All the way down from the cave, I saw a pale yellow tower standing in front of the exhibition hall of Mogao Grottoes. During my stay for a few minutes, I didn't see anyone else notice it. I carefully read the words on the tower. It turned out that this was used by Wang's disciples and grandchildren to commemorate Wang, and his achievements were recorded in the epitaph. They built the largest and tallest tower in the Mogao Grottoes and returned a Taoist priest and all his merits and demerits to the world.
I have said a lot about Wang, but I think the most important thing is that I should pay tribute to him and to the biggest and most fascinating culture in my heart.