On August 19, 2019, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited Gansu, and the first stop was the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang. During the discussion at the Dunhuang Academy, the general secretary pointed out that he hoped that everyone would make persistent efforts to build the Institute into a model for the protection of world cultural heritage and a highland for Dunhuang studies. This year is the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Dunhuang Academy. We followed the footsteps of the general secretary and found the answer in the Mogao Grottoes in the spring.
To the technology to protect
In 366 A.D., the monk Lexu, who traveled all over the world, came to Dunhuang on the yellow sand, and the construction of the Mogao Grottoes began. From the 4th to the 14th centuries AD, generations of caves and statues were opened, creating a world-famous treasure trove of art. There are 735 caves, 45,000 square meters of murals, and more than 2,000 colored sculptures, recording the changes of history, the evolution of art, and preserving the all-encompassing precious historical materials. Because these murals and painted sculptures are very fragile, conservation is an eternal theme for the Mogao Grottoes. "Using advanced science and technology to improve the level of protection and pass on this world cultural heritage from generation to generation", General Secretary Xi Jinping's earnest entrustment has pointed out the direction for the Dunhuang Academy to do a good job in the protection of cultural relics in the new era.
Located on the edge of the Gobi Desert, the Mogao Grottoes have been threatened by wind and sand for thousands of years. When the slightest wind blows, there is quicksand from Mingsha Mountain flying down from the top of the Mogao Grottoes, and once the wind and sand enter the cave, it will destroy the murals and colored sculptures. In order to control the sand damage, the conservation workers of the Mogao Grottoes have gone from manual sand removal and the construction of "adobe sand control walls" to grass grid sand fixation, biological sand control, and nylon nets to block sand...... Day after day, year after year, a comprehensive scientific system of desertification prevention and control has been gradually built for the Mogao Grottoes, which focuses on "solidification" and combines "blocking, transporting and guiding". Today, the annual sediment volume in the Mogao Grottoes has dropped from 3,000 cubic meters in the 80s of the 20th century to less than 100 cubic meters, greatly reducing the potential threat of windblown sand.
There is seasonal rainfall in the Mogao Grottoes in summer, and the rain dissolves the salt in the rock mass, which will eventually lead to diseases such as hollowing, nail raising, and phthalate. Mural restoration is a complex and highly scientific task. In the 90s of the 20th century, the research team and foreign experts worked together for 7 years and tried 81 formulas, and finally found a suitable mural hollow drum grouting material and developed a key technology for mural protection. Today, the Dunhuang Academy has a complete mural restoration research, design and construction team, forming a whole chain of mural protection mode, which makes the restoration work very effective, and also makes Dunhuang's mural protection technology successfully rank among the international "first echelon".
Human behavior can also affect cave safety. In the Dunhuang Grottoes Monitoring Center of the Dunhuang Academy, the reporter saw that the temperature, humidity, passenger flow and other data of each open cave were displayed on a large screen on a whole wall. It turns out that when tourists enter the cave to visit, the exhaled carbon dioxide and moisture will cause the temperature and humidity of the cave to rise in a short period of time. According to the test, when entering 25 tourists at one time, the temperature and humidity will increase by 2%~3%, which is within the allowable fluctuation range. Once the safe value is exceeded, the cave needs to be rested for a few days. Therefore, the use of Internet of Things, wireless sensors and other technologies to monitor caves in real time can not only warn potential risks in time, but also provide reliable data support for preventive protection.
Mogao Grottoes mural restoration site Dunhuang Academy/Courtesy of the Dunhuang Academy
What's even more gratifying is that the development of digital technology is helping to immortalize painted sculptures and murals. A group of young digital conservators are using high technology to "paint" the Mogao Grottoes into the digital world. In the cave, they repeatedly adjusted the camera, selected the best angle and technical parameters, and froze the original appearance of the mural; Outside the cave, image processors patiently correct images on a computer with "embroidery", and a complete mural is often made up of thousands of images. At present, the Dunhuang Academy has completed the digital collection of murals in 295 caves in Dunhuang Grottoes, the image stitching processing of 186 caves and the three-dimensional reconstruction of 45 painted sculptures, realizing the permanent preservation and sustainable use of related cultural relics.
Su Bomin, president of the Dunhuang Academy, said that more than 1,600 years have passed since the first cave was excavated in the Mogao Grottoes, and if there are no major natural disasters in the future, there will be no problem at all in the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang for another 1,600 years. Nowadays, the relevant protection concepts and technologies summarized and extracted from the practice of Dunhuang conservation are moving towards a broader stage. They have been applied in more than 230 national key cultural relics protection projects, and have begun to provide technical support and Chinese solutions for the protection of cultural heritage in Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar and other countries that jointly build the "Belt and Road", and contribute China's strength to the preservation of human civilization and cultural information in the world.
I want high ground to the foundation
In 1900, the accidental discovery of the Dunhuang Scripture Cave brought tens of thousands of ancient documents and works of art to the light of day, among which a large number of ancient documents mainly written on paper were named "Dunhuang Testament" by the academic circles. The cultural connotation of the Dunhuang testament is broad and profound, and the content involves all aspects of social life, which is an "encyclopedia" of social life in the Middle Ages in the mainland, and has extremely important academic value. One of the ancient star charts, known as the All-Heaven Star Chart, depicts 1,348 stars visible to the naked eye at the Tang Dynasty Royal Observatory. The stars are drawn in strict accordance with the rules of geometry, and the position error of each star in the diagram is quite small, between 1.5 and 4 degrees. Joseph Needham, a well-known British historian of Chinese science and technology, said: "There are very few things in Europe that can be compared with the Chinese astronomical cartographic tradition before the Renaissance, if not at all." "Over the past century, scholars from all over the world have studied Dunhuang documents and formed a worldwide manifestation of Dunhuang Studies. The study of Dunhuang studies on the mainland has developed from the initial situation of "Dunhuang is in China and research abroad" to today, and has been at the forefront of the world in academic research and has made brilliant achievements.
Zhao Xiaoxing, director of the Dunhuang Literature Research Institute of the Dunhuang Academy, told reporters that the Dunhuang testament is stored in dozens of collection institutions around the world, including China, Britain, France, Russia, and Japan. For most researchers, it is particularly important to restore scattered documents through digital technology because of their age, broken paper, and not allowed to be read multiple times. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the symposium at the Dunhuang Academy that it is necessary to promote the digital return of cultural relics such as the Dunhuang testament in the diaspora through high-tech means such as digitization and informatization, and realize the digital sharing of Dunhuang cultural and artistic resources on a global scale. After years of hard work, the "Dunhuang Testament Database" has been officially launched. Taking the "Guiyi Army Yafu Wine Broken Calendar" as an example, the document has been divided into three sections in the process of circulation, the first paragraph has been kept in the Dunhuang Academy, the second paragraph has been lost to Japan, in 1997 by the Japanese friend Aoyama Keishi donated to the Dunhuang Academy, the third paragraph is collected in the French National Library. The first two paragraphs were finally spliced together after half a century of separation, and the third paragraph has not returned to the embrace of the motherland. Now, with the use of digital technology, it is finally possible to display the digital photos of the third paragraph of the document in the same space as the first two paragraphs, so that we can re-see the original appearance of the "Guiyi Army Yafu Wine Broken Calendar".
At present, in addition to the Dunhuang testament database, two other major projects have also made important progress. After 13 years, the second volume of the "100-volume" "Complete Works of Dunhuang Grottoes" "Archaeological Report on Caves 256, 257 and 259 of Mogao Grottoes" has been officially published in January 2024. This "Century Project" aims to permanently preserve the scientific archives of the Dunhuang Grottoes, which can not only meet the academic needs of scholars and academic institutions at home and abroad, but also provide a basis for the restoration of the Grottoes. The full-color, high-definition illustrated and highly restored original appearance of the Gansu Tibetan Dunhuang Documents (volumes 1-12) has also recently appeared, and its publication will surely give birth to more new research results.
Fan Jinshi, honorary president of the Dunhuang Academy, said: "In the academic history of Dunhuang, there has always been a group of people engaged in the most basic research work. History has given them the academic mission of laying the foundation for research, just like building an underground project for a city. It is unseen and inconspicuous, but works above the surface of the city can only be guaranteed if the underground works are solid enough. "Thousands of tall buildings rise from the ground. When scholars rely on solid basic projects to carry out research, Dunhuang cultural treasures will be able to better go out of Dunhuang, to the whole country, to the world.
Inheritance to innovation
In 1987, the Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang were listed as a world cultural heritage, becoming one of the first world cultural heritage sites in mainland China. So far, there are no more than three sites that meet all six criteria for world cultural heritage at the same time, and Mogao Grottoes is one of them. Mr. Ji Xianlin, a well-known Dunhuang scholar, pointed out that there are only four cultural systems in the world with a long history, a vast area, a self-contained system, and far-reaching influence, including China, India, Greece, and Islam, and there is no fifth; And there is only one place where these four cultural systems converge, which is Dunhuang and Xinjiang in China, and there is no second. The splendor of Dunhuang culture is the fusion of the essence of the cultures of all ethnic groups in the world, and it is also a model of Chinese civilization that has been continuously integrated for thousands of years. Protecting, researching, developing, and carrying forward Dunhuang culture well is the aspiration of more than 1.4 billion Chinese. General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that the protection of the Mogao Grottoes and the inheritance of Dunhuang culture are the responsibilities of the Chinese nation for the progress of world civilization.
How to inherit and promote Dunhuang culture? Insisting on creative transformation and innovative development is the key. Over the years, the Dunhuang Academy has accumulated a large number of digital resources and has begun to use them extensively. In the exhibition hall of "Seeking Dunhuang - Digital Dunhuang Immersion Exhibition", wearing VR equipment and following the guidance of the energy body "Mo Ling", visitors can immersively "walk" into the cave, travel to the exquisite mural world more than 1,400 years ago, and fly over the clouds with more than 40 "gods" such as "Lei Gong" and play heavenly music together. Through the official mini program of the Dunhuang Academy, "Traveling in Dunhuang" and entering the "Digital Scripture Cave", the scene of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang thousands of years ago is slowly unfolding in front of you. With your fingers, you can play different roles, "travel" to the late Tang Dynasty, Northern Song Dynasty, late Qing Dynasty and other periods, interact with historical figures, feel different scenes such as cave construction and placement of scriptures, and immerse yourself in Dunhuang culture. Log in to "Digital Dunhuang", as long as you tap the mouse, you can enter the "Digital Dunhuang" resource library, browse ultra-high-definition resolution images at high speed, and launch a 720-degree panoramic roaming of 30 caves. Click "Digital Dunhuang Open Material Library" to download relevant resources, you can carry out secondary creation, and after the creative content has been approved, you can also upload the material library again to become a new digital resource.
The little docent is explaining to tourists Dunhuang Academy/Courtesy photo
Online, "Digital Dunhuang" has become an important window and brand for disseminating Dunhuang culture to the world. Offline, various art exhibitions and academic activities are entering various cities in China, as well as the United States, France, Italy, Turkey and other countries and regions, which have played an important role in telling the story of Dunhuang, spreading the voice of China, and showing cultural confidence. Song Shuxia, deputy director of the Cultural Promotion Department of the Dunhuang Academy, told reporters that since 2017, the Dunhuang Academy has begun to recruit "little docents" in the upper grades of primary school, and regularly organizes docents to visit and study in Mogao Grottoes, and has trained and selected more than 200 "little docents" so far. Seeing that more and more young people are growing up to be the inheritors, innovators and disseminators of Chinese culture in the new era, the reporter's mind comes to mind a passage that President Xi Jinping said in his speech at the UNESCO headquarters 10 years ago: "Every civilization continues the spiritual blood of a country and a nation, which needs to be passed on from generation to generation, and more importantly, it needs to keep pace with the times and be brave in innovation." In the process of realizing the Chinese dream, the Chinese people will, in accordance with the new progress of the times, promote the creative transformation and innovative development of Chinese civilization, activate its vitality, carry forward the cultural spirit that transcends time and space, transcends countries, is full of eternal charm and has contemporary value, makes the cultural relics collected in museums, the heritage displayed on the vast land, and the words written in ancient books come alive, so that Chinese civilization can work together with the rich and colorful civilizations created by the people of all countries in the world. To provide human beings with correct spiritual guidance and strong spiritual motivation. ”
(Author: Qin Dan, Niu Na, Sun Yanfang)
(Source: Current Affairs Report)