Ten thousand miles of Dunhuang Road, three spring snow is not clear. --Wang Wei of the Southern Song Dynasty
Speaking of the Mogao Grottoes, it is really everyone who knows. In 1987, it was also listed as a world cultural heritage and was also one of the first key cultural relics protection units in China.
There is a river outside the gate of the Mogao Grottoes, after crossing the river, you can see a clearing, there are several monks' yuanshan pagoda built on the open space, and if you look closely, one of the towers has Wang Yuan's name written on it! Who is Wang Yuanzhen?
Yu Qiuyu once wrote an article called "Taoist Pagoda", in which Wang Yuanzhen was defined as a sinner. However, some people say that Wang Yuan is a hero who has protected national treasures throughout the ages, which statement is correct?
Taoist priests who guard Buddhist holy sites
Wang Yuan was born in Macheng, and when he was young, his family was very poor, and in order to survive, he wandered around. Later, he joined the Suzhou Patrol Battalion, and his life was slightly more stable after becoming a soldier. Later, because he believed in Taoist culture, he left the army to become a Taoist priest, so posterity used to call him Wang Daoshi.
Wang Daoist and many Taoist masters in the past and the present, usually like to travel around the world, may be Wang Daoist fate should have this, Buddhists have always paid attention to a "edge" word, did not expect that "fate" fell to a Taoist body.
In 1897, Wang Daoshi came to Dunhuang, when the Mogao Grottoes were very decayed and not as valued as they are today.
Although it is shabby, there are incense offerings, maybe Wang Daoist is related to this place, he temporarily gave up yunyou, stayed here, he cleaned up the sand and stone in the south of the cave, so as to make incense offerings, adding some brilliance to the Mogao Grottoes, but it is also quite absurd to say, a Buddhist holy place, under the control of the Taoist has developed soundly and colorfully.
A mural that changed a lifetime
At first, the life of Wang Daoist was simple and boring, every day everywhere, and then used the money to repair the Mogao Grottoes, although the process was slow, it was also expected, and the days passed day by day.
Until one day in 1900, he accidentally found a mural that seemed to be empty, opened it, and was stunned, he found that it contained a large number of books, tens of thousands of volumes, most of which were scriptures, although the king and Taoist could not read, but he could also see that these scriptures were worth a lot.
He knew that these scriptures could not be put in his own hands, and he could not keep them, so he took advantage of the fact that no one else found them, and walked 40 miles with two volumes of scriptures to the county seat overnight.
At that time, the county order of Dunhuang County was Yan Ze, presumably the official position of this county lord was bought, looking at the yellowed scriptures, directly calling out "deceived", angrily tearing the scriptures apart and throwing them on the ground, Wang Daoshi returned sadly.
Fortunately, in 1902, a New Zhi County came, and after Wang Daoshi heard about it, he immediately came to the county seat with the scriptures. After reading the scriptures, he immediately led people to the Mogao Grottoes, but he only wandered around and threw a sentence at Wang Daoshi, "Good life takes care of this place." ”
In desperation, Wang Daoshi risked more than 800 miles to find a bigger official, and at that time, the Tingdong of Ansu Bingbei Dao, this adult was more interesting, looked at the scriptures, and said, "The writing is not as good as me." Wang Daoshi returned disappointed again.
Wang Daoshi knew that the secret of the Mogao Caves could not be hidden for long, but he could not think of a better way, relying on the fate to walk 800 miles only to get a sentence "not as good as me", is it necessary to walk 1600 miles next time? Wang Daoshi suddenly thought that he could write a letter to Empress Dowager Cixi, hoping that she would accept the matter, but the letter sent was sunk into the sea without any reply.
Helpless "national sinners"
From the first time he found the county order of Dunhuang County, to the later letter to Empress Dowager Cixi, seven years passed, and in these seven years, Wang Daoshi tried all the methods, but no one paid any attention to it.
Sure enough, the secret in the Mogao Caves could not be hidden for long, and in 1907, someone came to the door, and it turned out to be an Englishman, and it was Stein.
When Stein saw these scriptures, his eyes were full of light, and he immediately told Wang Daoshi that he was willing to pay for these scriptures, and although Wang Daoshi had no culture, he also knew that these "foreigners" did not have good intentions, and immediately refused.
Seeing that money could not be bought, Stein changed his routine, claiming to be a fan of Xuanzang, and wanted these scriptures because of love, and Wang Daoshi was relieved. Moreover, Stein was still willing to fund a part of the money of the Taoist priest to repair and maintain the Mogao Caves. Stein took more than ten thousand pieces.
After Stein, the Frenchman Bo Xihe also came, he and Stein were more difficult, he knew Chinese, and he was a sinologist, under the soft and hard bubble of Bo Xihe, wang Daoist asked him to pick out a small number of scriptures, in order to select the scriptures, Bo Xihe stayed in the cave for three weeks.
What is even more interesting is that when Stein and Bo xihe returned home with cultural relics, the customs did not have the slightest obstruction and suspicion.
After a long time, the Qing government returned to God and finally sent people to the Mogao Grottoes to transport these cultural relics back to the capital. However, when tens of thousands of scriptures were taken from the Tibetan Scripture Cave, there were more than 8,000 pieces left when they arrived at the Beijing Normal Library, where did the other scriptures go? Naturally, officials at all levels have "gained benefits."
In this way, the secrets of the Mogao Grottoes were exposed to the sun, and for a time, various literati and scholars at home and abroad flocked to the Mogao Grottoes and "robbed the scriptures", and later zhang Daqian's arrival added a lot of fame to the Mogao Grottoes, but also damaged a large number of murals. It seems that the Mogao Caves are still a little better when "no one cares".
Later, people ignored all the processes in the middle, and Wang Daoshi changed from "the first person to guard the Mogao Grottoes" to the "national sinner" in Yu Qiuyu's text. In Yu Qiuyu's text, many narratives do not match history, and have the meaning of reversing black and white, directly shaping Wang Daoshi from a national sinner, Yu Qiuyu, owes him an apology.
brief summary:
Is Wang Daoshi the guardian of cultural relics or a sinner of the nation?
From some points of view, Wang Daoshi is still wrong. He was wrong in exchanging the scriptures in the cave for a lot of money, not to mention what the money was used for, he did. Especially after learning that the sale to Stein was fooled, he still sold artifacts five times.
However, judging from the whole incident, Wang Daoshi's approach is understandable and meritorious.
As we said in the previous article, after discovering this cave with earth-shattering secrets, the first thing Wang Daoshi did was to go to the county seat and report to the county order, and reported this matter to the two county orders twice, but they did not get a good response, and later for the sake of cultural relics, in that turbulent era, walking alone for 800 miles, what a great courage,
Arguably, he did everything he could to protect these verses.
But what? Who would have thought that after the Mogao Grottoes were valued by the government, the protection of the Mogao Grottoes was not as good as that of Wang Daoshi alone, which was really a great irony, especially when foreigners took away the scriptures, the customs also gave a green light, and Wang Daoshi and those foreigners sent these precious scriptures to the eyes of the Qing government again and again, and the Qing government was stunned that they could not see, can all this be blamed on Wang Daoshi's body?
Regarding this matter, the official website of Mogao Grottoes has long been conclusive, and the final conclusion is that the merits of Wang Daoshi are greater than those of the past. Yu Qiuyu was full of literary brilliance, but in this matter, what he did was not authentic. Thinking that he is a Taoist monk, a Taoist monk, who guards the holy places of Buddhism, even if he is at fault, who will really blame him.