Page 12 - 15 Day China Sample

The ‘Dunhuang Books’ date back to 359 to 1196, spanning the dynastic 837 years of the 16 States. The documents are written in the language of the ethnic Hans as well as in Turfan, Uygur, Turkish, Yu Zhen, Syrian, Xixia, Lu, Sanskrit, Lite and Mongolian. They cover the Four Confucian classics, the literature of Buddhism, Taoism, Jingism and Moniism as well as local records, accounting books, musical scores, choreographic records, astronomy, calendars, arithmetic, medical literature, stories, poetry, biographies and travelogues. The historical records cover economy, politics, religion, philosophy, literature, history, geography, music, dance, natural science, applied techniques, national relations, trade, national customs, education, linguistics and textual criticism of ancient records. The monk did not know the value of these documents. He did not like the colorful murals and the sculptures and so whitewashed the walls and broke some of the colored sculptures of Buddha. As he was badly in need of money, he picked up some of the things he deemed valuable and sent them to the country seat for sale. Ye Zhechang, the Director of the Gansu Provincial Educational Department was an expert of inscriptions on ancient bronze and stone tablets. He suggested that the Governor have them transported to the provincial capital for safe keeping but the governor deemed this too expensive. So ‘Dunhuang Books’ became the private property of the monk who exchanged them little by little for pocket money.