There is a mysterious place in Gansu, China, that is, the world's largest treasure trove of art-
Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes
。 The Mogao Caves are the largest Buddhist shrine in the world, and the dunhuang Mogao Grottoes have been protected by the state in the early years, although it has more than 700 caves, and the content presented in each cave is very different.
Despite thousands of years of experience, the murals on the walls are still vivid and colorful. People who have visited the park know that Mogao Grottoes not only require a real-name reservation system to enter the park, but even if you are lucky enough to wait until you enter the park, you can only see more than a dozen caves.
In order to protect the cave, you can not use any equipment with flashes when entering the visit, and most of the caves may be closed and protected after a few years.
Mogao Grottoes was first built in the Sixteen Kingdoms period, a monk passed through Dunhuang, saw the golden light here, as if ten thousand Buddhas flashed, began to carve on the rock wall, and then experienced the change of large and small dynasties, in the era when the monarch and emperor were keen on the cause of Buddhism, they would build the Mogao Grottoes on a large scale.
Especially during the Tang Dynasty, Dunhuang was an important place for eastern and western merchants to gather and trade, and the development of the Silk Road drove the Mogao Grottoes to a more prosperous one.
After arriving in the Northern Song Dynasty, the Mogao Grottoes slowly declined, and it was not until the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, after the Qing Dynasty regained Xinjiang, that the economy of Dunhuang slowly began to recover, and the reputation of the Mogao Grottoes gradually rose.
Modern people's study of history mainly relies on the traces left over from ancient times, China has long begun to advocate the protection of cultural relics, it is ridiculous that more than 50,000 cultural relics were found in the Mogao Grottoes during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, and these scrolls were written in various Buddhist scripts and languages from the Wei and Jin dynasties to the Northern Song Dynasty. However, the Qing government did not ask about these cultural relics, resulting in the plundering of more than half of China's own things by foreigners.
The discovery of these artifacts is one called
Wang Yuanzhuo
He was born in Shaanxi, his family was famine, and he wandered to Gansu. When I walked to the Mogao Caves, I found this treasure land for Buddhist believers. Although he was a Taoist monk, he saw that the Mogao Grottoes were in a mess at that time, no one managed, and a strong sense of responsibility arose in his heart, so he decided to stay and guard the Mogao Grottoes, which was guarded for decades.
The work of cleaning the cave was very hard, and Wang Daoshi was already living on a tight budget at that time, so he raised money everywhere, saved money and spent some money on cleaning and repairing the cave.
It may be that Wang Daochang's behavior touched the Buddha, and when he was cleaning the sixteenth cave, he found that there was a secret chamber in the cave, which contained more than 50,000 Buddhist books from all dynasties. The process of excavating the suicide note is actually very arduous, the cave has been left unattended for many years, there is sand everywhere, and only by removing all the debris can the door of the chamber be found.
Perhaps it was Wang Daoist's single-minded belief in doing good deeds for the Buddhist family that touched the heavens and brought these precious suicide notes back to light. This was a huge discovery, and after the document was unearthed, Wang Daoshi tried everything to report the news to the Qing government.
He took some scriptures and walked fifty miles to the county seat of Dunhuang and found the county commander to report the matter. Who knew that the county order was a lazy petty official with no knowledge, who did not pay any attention to this matter, and even regarded the documents as documents
wastepaper
。
Soon after, Wang Daoshi finally waited for the new county order in Dunhuang, and the new county order heard about the documents and current events, took the people and horses to check it, and also took some scriptures, but there was no news after leaving. Wang Daoshi still did not have a dead heart, took a few scrolls of scriptures, rode a donkey for more than eight hundred miles to Jiuquan, and found the Daotai lord at that time, but it was also a vain busy, and the adult did not know the goods at all.
Wang Dao waited day and night for a long time and did not wait for the Attention of the Qing Government, but waited for the British archaeologist Stein, who arrived in Dunhuang and became interested in Dunhuang. He exchanged some silver for 24 boxes of scrolls and paintings and other cultural relics. When Stein brought these artifacts back to Britain and showed them to the world, Chinese realized the value of these suicide notes.
The hateful thing is that the Qing government did not immediately protect the cultural relics, but some officials thought about how to use the suicide note to make a windfall. At that time, many people went to the Mogao Caves to steal the scrolls, resulting in serious loss of cultural relics, and the suicide note experienced a huge catastrophe after it was discovered.
When the Qing government learned of this, it sent people to transport the remaining scrolls back to Beijing, but in the process of transportation, every time they arrived at the station, they would be stolen, and there were corrupt officials for personal gain, and finally the suicide note reached the Beijing government and only a few thousand volumes remained. To this day, there are a large number of Dunhuang suicide notes in Britain, France, Japan and other places.
People have different opinions on the discovery of Wang Yuanhuan's suicide note, and some people blame Wang Yuanhuan for most of the responsibility for the Dunhuang suicide note, believing that Wang Yuanhuan is the biggest sinner who lost the Dunhuang suicide note.
Wang Daoshi himself was also very remorseful about the suicide note, because he found the cave where the scriptures were hidden and let these suicide notes come to light. I didn't expect that there would be looting scriptures later.
Wang Daoshi found that the scriptures were accidental, and it was his kindness to want to protect the scriptures, and if the Qing government had protected the suicide notes in time at that time, it might have reduced the loss of lost scriptures. In the turbulent Qing Dynasty society, who had time to study culture? In that era, it was too much just to see the economic value of the scriptures.
Even though the theft of the scriptures is a sad thing, it cannot be denied that the discovery of the suicide note has far-reaching significance for the study of modern Chinese history and culture.