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NO.1867 - The rebirth of Dunhuang cultural relics
Author: 杔格
Draft: Chao Qian / Editor: Yakult
In 121 BC, Huo went ill and opened the Hexi Corridor from the Central Plains to the Western Regions. Ten years later, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established Dunhuang Commandery at the westernmost tip of the Hexi Corridor.
Open up the Hexi Corridor and the Western Regions
It has opened up a new world for Chinese civilization
The etymology of "Dunhuang" is varied, but the ancestors gave it a special meaning, and the famous scholar Ying Shao of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when commenting on the Book of Han, interpreted it as "Dun, Daye; Huang, Shengye", that is, the meaning of grand. However, Dunhuang is not only an ancient place name, but also an artistic treasure house that brings together the crystallization of the world's four major civilizations, telling a sad history of modern China, and also witnessing the self-improvement of Chinese scholars.
Time is full of Dunhuang, and time stops here
(Photo: Figureworm Creative)▼
A trip to Europe
The last year of the 19th century was an unforgettable year for Chinese.
In late June of that year, the haze of the Gengzi war had hung over northern China, and another thing was quietly happening in Dunhuang, far inland in the northwest.
What a familiar picture
(Treaty of Sinuki, photo: Wikipedia)▼
On the 22nd, when Wang Yuanzhen, a Taoist priest of the Mogao Caves Lower Temple, hired someone to clean up the sand in the Yongdao Road of the 16th Cave, he accidentally found that there was a small cave on its north wall, which contained a large number of written Buddhist scriptures, Buddhist paintings, magic tools and other cultural relics, which was the world-famous Tibetan scripture cave in later generations.
The discoverer of the Tibetan Scripture Cave - Taoist Wang Yuanzhen
（图：Anonymous / Wikipedia）▼
Since then, after Stein, Bo Xihe and other Western explorers smelled a hint of breath, they flocked to the cave, and the cultural relics of the Cave were gradually dispersed in Britain, France, Japan, Russia and other countries, and even many murals and sculptures in the Mogao Caves were also damaged and robbed to varying degrees.
Image of Cave 16 taken by Orel Stein in 1907
Manuscripts are piled up at the entrance to Cave 17
（图：Aurel Stein / Wikipedia）▼
Mr. Chen Yinke lamented: "Dunhuang people, the sad history of our country's scholarship. ”
The Tibetan Scripture Cave documents that have been lost in foreign countries are a treasure trove of Content in Dunhuang and even Chinese culture, covering a thousand years from the Western Jin Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty, and the rich historical materials involve many fields. If it is comprehensively studied, it can greatly enrich the details of Chinese historical materials and make the image of ancient China more vivid. However, due to the large number of Dunhuang literature scattered overseas, coupled with the long-term turmoil in China's political situation, the indiscriminate pursuit of Dunhuang's disciplinary research has fallen into the hands of foreign scholars.
When will the Dunhuang cultural relics that have been lost overseas be returned
(One of the earliest surviving prints of the Diamond Sutra of the Tang Dynasty unearthed in Dunhuang, in the British Library)
(Photo: Wikipedia)▼
However, Western scholars generally have limited research ability, and they pay more attention to the value of art and collection, and have less to do with historical, cultural and other values. In the case of the famous Bo Xihe, although he claimed to be a sinologist, he did not even finish the catalog.
Bo Xihe and the stolen Dunhuang literature are not as numerous as Stein
But most of them are fine products, and many of them are orphaned
It can be said that he was both a scholar and a robber engaged in cultural plunder
(Bo Xihe in the Dunhuang Mogao Caves)
Although the Dunhuang Grottoes are in China, a large part of the precious literature is abroad, and the research progress is due to the shortage of materials.
The silk painting of the Jizo Bodhisattva in the Tibetan Scripture Cave preserves the early image of the Jizo Bodhisattva
The painting was completed in 983 (the eighth year of the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song)
(Now in the Collection of The Jimei Museum)
The turning point came to the 1930s, when the Peking Library signed academic exchange agreements with many large libraries in the world, and the exchange of librarians often occurred. When the opportunity came, the curator Yuan Tongli sent Wang Chongmin and Xiang Da to Paris and London respectively to investigate and sort out the Dunhuang literature.
At this time, the development technology of world imagery has reached a new stage, and it has become possible to take photos of Dunhuang documents. At the time, though, it was a highly technical job, requiring the hiring of professional photographers and the use of professional equipment to obtain high-quality photographs.
At that time, there was no technology for digitizing literature
If you want domestic scholars to study these documents, you can only send them back after shooting
(Photo: wikipedia)▼
Strong technology meant high costs, according to preliminary estimates, the cost of shooting was 5,000 yuan, which was a huge amount of money for the Beiping Library at that time. To this end, Beitu consulted with Tsinghua University, co-funded, and with the support of Professors such as Chen Yinke, Tsinghua agreed to cooperate. Later, Beitu also applied to the board of directors who managed the indemnity of Zhongying Gengzi for filming funds.
Director Yuan originally planned to photograph all the Dunhuang scrolls stored in Paris as much as possible. But the number of rolls was too large, and under the circumstances at the time, it was obviously unrealistic to shoot them all.
"To the Five Heavens Zhu Guo Biography"
(Now in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, swipe left below)
Wang Chongmin, who was far away in Paris, could only choose to take pictures of "those who have extremely strong literary and historical relations in our country" and "those who have the value of photocopying"; for the engravings and engravings, "because the stone books are all Tang Tuo, the engravings are at the latest in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, they are all rare treasures", regardless of the words on the piece of paper, they are all taken; as for Bo Xihe's manuscript, he also takes a copy for future research and use.
With the funds in place, the scope of the filming was determined, and Wang Chongmin hired an unemployed Jewish photographer. The photographer works diligently to do this work, coming to the museum in the morning to take photographs, washing and drying at home in the afternoon, and making more than 100 photos a week. Wang Chongmin himself also picked out about half an hour every day to personally go to the scene to prevent mistakes.
At other times, Wang Chongmin was also racing against the clock, reading and writing a lot of volumes, reporting the research results to The country, and writing records and explanations, which were compiled into the "Records of Bo Xi and the Robbery". Hard work, coupled with the care of God, made Wang Chongmin's work provide valuable first-hand materials for the study of Dunhuang studies in China.
Xiang Da, who is across the English Channel from Wang Chongmin, his work in London can be described as difficult. At that time, the Dunhuang Chinese literature in the British Museum was not cataloged, and it did not provide the service of browsing by number, and could only be taken out and written by the administrator Zhai Linnay himself, and could only be read by outsiders.
Unlike the "generosity" of their French counterparts, the British may have been conservative, and the administrators were not friendly to Xiangda, and eventually Xiangda read only more than five hundred volumes of dunhuang suicide notes in London.
Faced with Xiang Da, who had managed to obtain a very small amount of permission to read Dunhuang's suicide notes, he used cards to record his title, size, number of lines and other work every time he read a volume. Like Wang Chongmin, Xiang Da also took photos of important documents encountered, and the photographer was from the photographic department of the British Museum and another photo studio.
Although compared to looting, the losses that can be recovered are very small
But contacts and records with lost artifacts overseas
Undoubtedly, it has also promoted the growth of Dunhuang scholars and Dunhuang studies in China
(Xiang Da, photo: wikipedia)▼
By 1939, Wang Chongmin and Xiang Da had taken more than 13,000 photos of Dunhuang's suicide note, but their fates were different.
The parts taken before the Lugou Bridge Incident were successively sent back to Beiping, and the Writing Group of the Beiping Library's Rare Books Department was responsible for safekeeping, and it safely survived the war and chaos period of more than ten years. A copy of Tsinghua University, which was transferred to the south during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, was unfortunately blown up by the Japanese army in Changsha. After the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance, the subsequent photos taken by the two could not be mailed back to China, so they were carried by Wang Chongmin. When the European War broke out in 1939, Wang Chongmin went to the United States and brought the photos to Washington. It was not until wang Chongmin returned to China in early 1947 that he brought the photos back to the Beiping Library and combined them with those sent back in his early years.
This is only a small microcosm of the difficult development process of Dunhuang Studies in China, with Wang Chongmin, Xiang Da and other scholars such as Yanlu Blue Wisps to enlighten the mountains and forests, laying the foundation for the study of Dunhuang Studies in China.
Dunhuang is in China, dunhuang learning is in the world
In fact, the concept of "Dunhuang Studies", as early as 1909, was established as an independent discipline, and initially it was only to study the written documents excavated from the Tibetan Scripture Cave. During this period, Chinese representative scholars included Luo Zhenyu, Wang Guowei and others, among whom Luo Zhenyu was revered as the "founder".
However, in the early days, Dunhuang Xue suffered from a shortage of materials and achieved few results, and was in the initial stage. With the visit of Wang Chongmin and others to Europe, Dunhuang Studies has obtained a large number of first-hand research materials, becoming a comprehensive discipline that mainly studies Dunhuang literature, Dunhuang grotto art, Dunhuang Science theory, and Dunhuang history.
During the period of war and chaos, the founding of New China provided good objective conditions for the study of Dunhuang Studies. In 1956, the state allocated huge sums of money for the restoration and protection of Dunhuang cultural relics. In 1960, through international exchanges, he obtained the Microfilm of Dunhuang Literature in London. Chinese Dunhuang Studies has been at the forefront of the world step by step in the research, copying, preservation and study of Dunhuang literature in the field of Dunhuang grotto art.
After all, Dunhuang is still in China
The lost cultural relics still need to be recovered to be remedied, and the home must be protected
Ancient Dunhuang, located at the westernmost point of the Hexi Corridor, was the first stop for Buddhist culture from ancient India to enter the Chinese cultural circle. In the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great marched to the East and brought the art of Greek statue-making to the East, and under its influence, the first Buddhist statues were born in Gandhara in North India.
It is a Hellenistic Buddhist iconographic art
After all, Gandhara is a crossroads of civilization, and the same is true of Dunhuang
Many statues and paintings in Dunhuang still have Hellenistic colors, such as the Buddha statue with a beard, wavy hair, and wearing a Greek robe, which clearly has the shadow of the sun god Apollo. A very small number of Dunhuang's late works were influenced by Islamic culture.
Of course, its most fundamental artistic theme– Buddhism – comes from South Asia itself
And behind these artistic achievements
It is the absorption and fusion of the foreign spirit that Chinese lasts for hundreds of years
Therefore, Mr. Ji Xianlin said: "There are only four cultural systems in the world with a long history, a vast territory, a self-contained system, and far-reaching influence: China, India, Greece, islam, and there is no fifth; and there is only one place where these four cultural systems converge, that is, China's Dunhuang and Xinjiang regions, and there is no second." The splendid culture of Dunhuang is the fusion of the essence of the culture of all ethnic groups in the world, and it is also a model of the continuous integration of Chinese civilization for thousands of years. ”
Swipe right to find Sogdia, Gandhara, Dunhuang
Ancient Dunhuang culture is the crystallization of the integration of major civilizations through the Silk Road, and due to the historical reasons that Dunhuang cultural relics are scattered around the world, the study of Dunhuang studies is inseparable from international cooperation.
It was during the Republic of China period that wang Chongmin and other scholars traveled to Europe to create a new situation in Chinese Dunhuang studies. Today, the shame of "Dunhuang in China, Dunhuang learning abroad" is gone, but it must not be too narrow, as Mr. Ji Xianlin said: "Dunhuang is in China, Dunhuang learning in the world."
The development of modern information technology has also brought better opportunities for international cooperation in Dunhuang Studies.
On March 19 this year, Dunhuang Research Institute and Tencent launched a three-year strategic cooperation, the most important of which is to announce that the two sides will explore the digital collection of cultural relics in overseas caves and international academic exchanges. Based on the connectivity of the Internet platform, Tencent will help the Dunhuang Research Institute to carry out cultural dialogue with museums along the Belt and Road, and the first stop of the dialogue is currently selected as one of the main collections of cultural relics in the Tibetan Scripture Cave - the Guimet Museum in Paris, France. The two sides will also work together to carry out online and offline exhibitions of cultural relics scattered in the Tibetan Cave to promote the joint research and sharing of Dunhuang culture on a global scale.
The rebirth of Dunhuang cultural relics
Under today's "Belt and Road" initiative, Dunhuang Studies and Dunhuang culture, which are the witnesses of the world's cultural exchanges and integration in the past, are still important in global exchanges today.
It is gratifying that today's advanced science and technology and the great importance attached by the whole country to culture and precious cultural relics, and the revival and development of Dunhuang studies and Dunhuang culture, do not need to reproduce the hardships of the blue wisps of Yanlu Road in those years.
Modern digital technology helps restore murals
In that year, Wang Chongmin and other scholars went to Chongyang and worked hard for several years to collect the video data of dunhuang literature and return to China.
Today, with the efforts of generations, an ordinary Chinese may be able to pick up a mobile phone and go through the documents of the Tibetan Scripture Cave that record the precious history of the nation.
According to the new three-year cooperation between Dunhuang Research Institute and Tencent, after promoting academic exchanges and digital collection of Tibetan scripture caves, the two sides will also open up the "Digital Tibetan Scripture Cave" function in the "Cloud Tour Dunhuang" Mini Program to display the cultural relics of the Tibetan Scripture Caves that have been scanned and collected to the public.
In other words, every WeChat user can visit the Tibetan Scripture Cave anytime and anywhere and watch valuable literature. This may be the most circle-breaking appearance of DunhuangXue since its inception.
For the existing treasure murals of the Mogao Grottoes, Dunhuang Research Institute will also introduce the AI disease identification technology and immersive remote consultation technology of Tencent Multimedia Laboratory, so that AI can see the murals, and better realize the remote consultation of experts on cultural relics, so that the important cultural relics of the murals can be retained for a longer time.
Not only Dunhuang Studies, the magnificent Dunhuang culture itself has also been rejuvenated in the past few years by embracing science and technology and embracing the new generation of culture, so that many Chinese people truly feel the charm of the cultural pearl of the Belt and Road Initiative.
In 2018, a "Yang Yuhuan Meet Feitian" skin in the game "Glory of kings" was launched, and the skin of the image of Dunhuang Feitian was restored with high precision, and it was popular with players as soon as it was launched, and more than 40 million players wore and used it. It is understood that this feitian skin is achieved after 6 months of repeated modification by the Tencent King team and the Dunhuang Research Institute.
In addition, the "Cloud Tour Dunhuang" mini program just mentioned above is a project launched by Dunhuang Research Institute and Tencent during the epidemic period, moving thousands of murals and hundreds of caves in Dunhuang online. On the first day of launch, the number of visits exceeded 2 million, and the total number of views has exceeded 37 million so far.
This time, Dunhuang and Tencent will also launch a more in-depth cooperation in new cultural creation, integrating the original ability of online literature of Reading Group, the creative ability of Tencent Pictures and animation, etc., to create more new cultural creations in Dunhuang, so that Dunhuang culture and modern trend culture can collide with each other and generate more imagination space. The Dunhuang theme skin of the new season of the "Glory of Kings" game will also surface.
The collision process between Dunhuang culture and the new generation of culture reflects the cultural mindset of tolerance, reference and absorption that Dunhuang has always upheld. We hope that with the help of science and technology and through the efforts of our generation, Dunhuang will go to the public and let the public understand Dunhuang.
Dunhuang is the Dunhuang of China and the Dunhuang of the world, and it will be passed on forever.
*This content is provided by the author and does not represent the position of the Earth Knowledge Bureau
Cover: Figureworm Creative