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How prosperous was Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang in ancient times? The amazing secret behind the Mogao

Dunhuang, known as Guazhou in ancient times, is located at the intersection of Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang provinces (regions), surrounded by deserts on all sides, with a history of more than 2000 years. According to the research of Institute of cold and drought of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dunhuang is the driest place in China, with an annual average precipitation of about 39.9mm, evaporation of 2486 mm, and an annual average rainfall of only 10 mm, so it is called China's drought pole. Do you know how great Mogao Grottoes are, which can shock the world and make countless people willing to contribute to them? How prosperous was Dunhuang in ancient times?

When we talk about Dunhuang now, it's very common. It's just a common city.

However, you did not know that Dunhuang was the throat of the Silk Road, an important transportation route from ancient China to the western regions, Central Asia and Europe.

In the Han Dynasty, Dunhuang was the west gate, leading to Chang'an and Luoyang in the East, and extending eastward to the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese islands.

To the west, you can go to Central Asia after crossing the Pamir Plateau through the South and north of Xinjiang.

Further south, you can get to India. If you go further west, you can reach Iran, which was called Persia in ancient times. If you go further, you will reach the two river basins.

Further on, Syria, even the Mediterranean, ancient Greece and ancient Egypt.

From Dunhuang, north across the Gobi desert, along the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains to the west, into the grassland silk road.

At that time, Dunhuang was bustling with commerce and trade.

How prosperous was Dunhuang in ancient times?

Wang Huimin, a famous Dunhuang scholar, once said: 'ancient Dunhuang is like modern Shenzhen'.

It was through Dunhuang that the world-famous silk road came into being and Dunhuang, a transportation hub and a military town, came into being.

In such a historical background, Mogao Grottoes appeared, which is also a historical opportunity.

Mogao Grottoes, also known as Qianfo cave, is one of the three largest grotto art treasures in China, and also the largest and most complete preserved Buddhist art treasures in the world. It is located 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang city and cut on the cliff at the eastern foot of Mingsha.

Turning to the eastern foot of Mingsha mountain, it can be seen from a distance that there are about 1600 meters long cliffs in the north and south, and nine floors are full of caves.

Mr. Guo Moruo's three golden characters of "Mogao Grottoes" are inlaid in the plaque on the blue background. Under the blue sky, they are solemn and quiet.

The Mogao Grottoes were first chiseled in the second year of the pre Qin Jianyuan period, i.e. 366 A.D., and later renovated by successive dynasties.

Today, there are 492 caves, 2415 painted statues and 45000 square meters of murals.

The grottoes are divided into two parts, the south part is the main part of the Mogao Grottoes. It is the place where monks engage in religious activities. There are 487 Grottoes with murals or statues.

There are 248 caves in the north area, only 5 of which have murals or statues. Other caves are places for monks to practice, live and bury after death. They have living facilities such as Adobe Kang, stove Kang, flue, niche, table lamp, etc.

Mogao Grottoes is a large-scale grotto temple which integrates painting, sculpture and architectural art, with murals as the main part and statues as the auxiliary.

Mogao Grottoes is a large-scale grotto temple which integrates painting, sculpture and architectural art, with murals as the main part and statues as the auxiliary.

There are mainly Zen grottoes, central tower pillar grottoes, hall grottoes, central Buddha altar grottoes, four walls and three niches grottoes, statue grottoes, Nirvana grottoes, etc.

The size of each cave is quite different. The largest cave 16 is 268 square meters, and the smallest cave 37 is not full of height.

In the second year of the Qin Dynasty (366 A.D.) before the founding of the Yuan Dynasty, master Lechi held a hammer to open the mountain at the eastern foot of Mingsha mountain, known as the 'founder of Mogao Grottoes'.

Since then, the cave statues of Mogao Grottoes have flourished. In 10 dynasties, such as Beiliang, Beiwei, Xiwei, beizhou, Sui, Tang, Wudai, song, Xixia, yuan, etc., over a period of 1000 years, people have built various caves in the eastern foot of Mingsha.

In the Yuan Dynasty, Mongolia dominated the Buddhism Tantrism, and the caves in this period all had the Tantrism color.

Since then, due to the silence of the Silk Road, Dunhuang has lost its important position, and the excavation of grottoes tends to stop, basically preserving the original appearance.

Through the clouds of history, back to the beginning of the last century.

On May 26th, the 26th year of Guangxu's reign in the Qing Dynasty (June 22nd, 1900), Wang Yuanlu, a Taoist from Macheng, Hubei Province, accidentally found a small hidden cave when he was cleaning up the sand accumulation in the 16th cave of Mogao Grottoes.

The small cave is densely packed with sutras, documents, embroidery and magic tools, from the ground to the roof.

This is the later world-famous Dunhuang Sutra cave, now numbered as Mogao cave No. 17.

There are more than 60000 cultural relics from the 4th century to the 14th century in cave 17. This is a major discovery in Chinese Archaeology at the beginning of the 20th century, which shocked the world. Since then, the famous Dunhuang studies have been developed.

There are more than 50000 documents unearthed from the Sutra cave, 90% of which are Buddhist classics, Taoism, Manichaeism, Jingjiao and other religious classics, as well as a large number of secular documents such as official documents, four books, social and economic documents and literary works.

In addition to a large number of scriptures written in Chinese, there are also Tibetan, Xixia, Khotan, Sanskrit, Uighur, Sogdian, Turkic, Kucha, Brahmani, Hebrew and other ancient scripts.

In addition to the literature, there are also a number of bronze Buddhas, artifacts, flags, buildings, silk paper paintings, frescoes, etc.

However, Taoist Wang knew nothing about the value of these five to eleven century relics.

These cultural relics are remembered by archaeologists and explorers from the West.

They obtained a large number of precious books and murals by means of deception and plunder, which seriously damaged the integrity of Mogao Grottoes and Dunhuang art.

So a series of robbers came here and opened the cave, which had been hidden for thousands of years, until they almost stole everything inside.

In October 1905, Russian obrucchev, after excavating the Heicheng site in Inner Mongolia, rushed to Mogao Grottoes. With 50 stearin candles as bait, he got two bundles of Sutra cave manuscripts. Among them, there are not only Chinese Manuscripts of several dynasties, but also Mongolian, Tibetan, Sanskrit, Turkic, Uighur and Brahmani manuscripts. This is the beginning of the loss of Tibetan Scripture documents to foreigners.

In 1907, the Englishman Stein, with his ingenious name, coaxed Wang Yuanlu with one hundred and eighty-two silver coins to obtain twenty-four boxes of scriptures, printed books and ancient books, five boxes of Buddhist paintings and embroideries.

In 1908, French Bosch and obtained 6000 volumes of writing, printing, writing and silk painting with 500 Liang silver, and took hundreds of photos of Mogao Grottoes systematically for the first time. As he is familiar with Chinese, he has obtained the most valuable books, silk and Paper paintings, which are currently preserved in the National Library of France and the gemei Museum.

In 1914, Stein came to the Mogao Grottoes for the second time. He used five hundred Liang silver to get about six hundred scriptures from Wang Yuanlu. Stein obtained more than ten thousand pieces of Scripture cave cultural relics twice.

In 1914, the Russian delegation of odenburg stayed in the Mogao Grottoes for more than five months, mapping the plan and profile of most of the grottoes, copying hundreds of paintings, taking about 3000 photos, stripping away some murals, taking away multiple colored sculptures, taking away more than 10000 pieces of cultural relics cleared and excavated in the South and north areas of the Mogao Grottoes, plus purchasing a large number of cultural relics and various paintings, scriptures and documents in Dunhuang More than one, full of several carts.

In 1924, when the documents of the Sutra cave had been completely divided from the wall to the Mogao Grottoes in the United States, more than 20 murals were peeled with chemical glue, and 72 pieces of silver were used to obtain a colorful sculpture of the Tang Dynasty. In 1925, Warner once again organized an investigation team to Dunhuang. Because of the opposition of Dunhuang people and official stop, the plot of large-scale theft and stripping of murals was broken.

The most painful scene a hundred years ago is still heartbreaking. A huge treasure house of Chinese civilization has been so poisoned, which makes people cry.

Nowadays, Dunhuang Cultural relics protection institutions have also taken many protective measures, such as forbidding taking photos, restricting the flow of people, monitoring the temperature and humidity inside the grottoes, building museums outside the grottoes, and using original imitations and digital technology to meet the needs of tourists.

More than 1600 years later, the sun of Mogao Grottoes is still brilliant, Mingsha mountain is still towering, the river is still flowing quietly, and the nine story building is still shining under the sun.

The glory of Mogao Grottoes has left us endless thoughts.