readx;

"What does it smell like?

When he took out the bricks just now, it was dusty, and Dr. Ren didn't bother to see if there was anything inside, but now that he had opened the hole, he suddenly shrugged his nose and smelled a strange smell. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

"It's the smell of paper and ink......

Zhuang Rui also smelled the smell, but unlike Dr. Ren, who didn't know anything, he already knew that what was hidden inside was a scripture, so it was easier to guess.

However, Zhuang Rui was also very shocked at this moment, because whether it was the archaeological excavation he had personally experienced, or the excavation site records seen from the data, basically all the tombs or underground palaces were unearthed with unpleasant smells and even toxic gases, which has become the consensus of archaeologists.

But when the green bricks were pulled out, there was only a faint smell of book paper and ink on the tip of Zhuang Rui's nose, and there was no such rotten and unpleasant smell in the green brick soil, which made Zhuang Rui have a little more expectation for the paper books inside.

"That's right, it's the scent of paper and ink, this ...... This ......"

When Dr. Ren heard Zhuang Rui say this, he also felt the origin of this taste, and his face was a little suspicious, the discovery of paper cultural relics in the northwest region is of great significance.

You know, in the northwest region, especially near Dunhuang, perennial drought and little rain, the most conducive to the preservation of cultural relics, over the years unearthed some of the intact celebrity calligraphy and paintings, most of them are in these areas.

It is a pity that due to geographical restrictions, there are many fewer literati and coquettish people here than in Jiangnan and other areas, and there are relatively few cultural relics such as calligraphy and painting.

If the calligraphy and painting relics in the Jiangnan Tomb are buried here, it is estimated that those precious calligraphy and paintings that only have records and no physical objects can be preserved.

"It's an ancient book, let's be careful, open the hole a little bigger, Xiao Jia, you spread a mat on the ground and put on your gloves......"

Dr. Ren was stunned for a moment, then immediately reacted, picked up the flashlight and shone it inside, with an excited look on his face.

This Buddha statue is seven or eight meters high, even the base is three or four square meters in size, it is simply a small room inside, under the illumination of the strong flashlight, a stack of books wrapped in oiled paper, neatly placed, appeared in front of Dr. Ren and Zhuang Rui.

Now the hole is big enough for a person to get into, but it's still too small to break if you take something out of it.

Zhuang Rui and Dr. Ren were busy for nearly half an hour, digging a hole more than one meter high behind the Buddha statue, which was made of green bricks, but it didn't take much effort.

"Zhuang Rui, I'll go in, you go outside, Xiao Jia, you come over too, you must be careful when you take the book, don't pinch it with your fingers, hold it with your hand......"

Just by visual inspection, Dr. Ren also saw that the age of these rare books was at least hundreds of years old, although there was little rain and drought in the Dunhuang area, and it would not be damp and rotten, but drying would make the paper fragile, so he repeatedly told several graduate students not to use their fingers to take the book.

Under the illumination of Zhuang Rui's flashlight, Dr. Ren leaned down and got into the belly of the Buddha statue, and after Dr. Ren entered, Zhuang Rui put the lamp at the entrance of the cave, and suddenly the inside of the Buddha statue was bright.

After Dr. Ren entered, he did not open the oil paper first, but reached out and wiped it on the oil paper, raised his hand to look at the light, and said, "The time when these objects were placed in is estimated to be later than the time when the Buddha statue was built......

On the surface of the oiled paper, there is a thin layer of dust, some friends may not understand, why there is dust in such a sealed place?

The principle is actually very simple, there are dust particles in the air, they are originally floating in the air, if it is a ventilated place, the dust will not stay in one place for too long, and naturally it will not accumulate.

If in an enclosed space, the air does not flow, and the dust slowly collects and accumulates to form visible dust, which no longer floats in the air and covers the surface of the object.

Dr. Ren put on white gloves, reached out and tested the weight of the book wrapped in oil paper, and shook his head helplessly, he couldn't hold this thing, he could only take out the oil paper a little bit.

Taking a deep breath, Dr. Ren opened a oiled paper package on the top layer, and a round scroll about thirty centimeters long appeared in front of Dr. Ren's eyes.

The shafts of the scrolls are all made of wood, and the color of the scrolls is also a little dark, and the color of the scrolls is also different shades, and the head and tail are a little yellowish and black, which is caused by age.

"Brother Ren, hurry up and open one to see, what era of ancient books is it?"

Zhuang Rui also saw it really outside the Buddha statue, in fact, he didn't sleep well all night last night, and he had been guessing the origin of these ancient scrolls, and now when it was time to reveal the mystery, Zhuang Rui's mood was also very excited.

"Okay, yes......"

After Dr. Ren opened his mouth and replied "yes", he immediately closed his mouth and hummed, because the humidity of the air breathed out of his mouth would have an effect on the scrolls in front of him.

"This ...... How...... How is that possible?"

Dr. Ren picked up a scroll, carefully spread it out four or five centimeters, and looked at it in the light, his mouth opened wide at the moment, completely forgetting the original intention of protecting the scroll.

"Brother Ren, what's wrong?"

When Zhuang Rui saw Dr. Ren's appearance, he felt a little strange in his heart, his senior brother can be regarded as well-informed, how could he be shocked by an ancient book?

"Hoo ......"

After Dr. Ren heard Zhuang Rui's words, he immediately reacted, quickly closed his mouth tightly, closed the scroll, and then cautiously walked sideways to the entrance of the cave, panting loudly.

"Zhuang Rui, take a look, this ...... How is this possible?"

When he handed the scroll to Zhuang Rui, the surprise on Dr. Ren's face had not faded, and it was obvious that the content of the scroll had caused him a great impact.

"Tai Chi Zuo Xiangong Please Ask the Sutra, Brother Ren, this is a Taoist scripture, what's wrong?"

After Zhuang Rui opened the scroll, a line of vertical words appeared in front of him, although Zhuang Rui did not have any research on Buddhism and Taoism, but when he saw the name of this scripture, he also knew that this should be a Taoist scripture.

Dr. Ren waved his hand and said angrily: "Who said it's not a Taoist scripture, look at this font ......"

"Fonts?"

Zhuang Rui was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then looked at the scroll opened in his hand, his eyes gradually lit up, "This...... This is a hand-copied scroll?!"

The so-called scripture writing, that is, the name of copying and writing Buddhist scriptures, began in the first and second centuries BC, that is, the era of early Buddhism in India.

Later, after the prevalence of Taoism, the title of writing scriptures was also used by it, as long as it was a manual handwritten transcription of the scriptures, they were given this title, and when the printing technology was not yet developed, writing scriptures really had the significance and merit of spreading and circulating.

Like the mythical story Journey to the West, the Tang monk learned the scriptures, in fact, in the real events, most of the scriptures brought back by Tang Xuanzang from the Western Regions are manuscripts, and as for the writing of the scriptures to be known to the world, it was after the discovery of the Dunhuang Scripture Cave a hundred years ago.

The ancient books of the scriptures unearthed in the Dunhuang Tibetan scripture cave are almost all handwritten and copied by hand, because there are very few handwritten scriptures left before the Ming and Qing dynasties, so the scripture scrolls are almost synonymous with the documents unearthed in Dunhuang.

Zhuang Rui's reaction was not slow, and after turning the origin of the scripture writing in his mind, he immediately asked, "Brother Ren, is this ...... Could this be the Dunhuang Book Collection?"

"I ...... I don't know, this volume of "Taiji Zuo Xiangong Ask the Sutra" is copied in regular script, you see, each line is seventeen characters, the upper and lower and between the lines are separated by light ink silk columns, it should be the style of the Sui Dynasty......"

Dr. Ren took the scriptures in Zhuang Rui's hand, looked at them again, and dated the scroll, and then said: "The scriptures written before the Ming and Qing dynasties are almost all from Dunhuang, and I think that ...... ** is part of the Dunhuang literature......"

Although he made an inference, Dr. Ren couldn't understand why such a volume of scriptures appeared here after the Dunhuang documents came out for a hundred years, and the known ancient scrolls and scriptures were also lost in various countries in the world.

And according to the current situation, it is estimated that not only in his own hands, but also the tightly wrapped objects in this Buddha statue wrapped in oiled paper are probably all such scripture scrolls.

"Why do you want to think so much? Didn't Brother Mengzi say that more than a hundred years ago, a Taoist priest from Dunhuang came here, maybe it was the Taoist priest Wang who hid......

Zhuang Rui didn't know that such a sentence he said casually was really something that had happened in history, and these scriptures were indeed hidden by Daoist Wang back then.

At the beginning of the last century, Wang Taoist and the presiding officer of this ancient temple befriended, after the discovery of the Dunhuang Tibetan Scripture Cave, a batch of about 30,000 scriptures were transported here, but I did not expect that a few years later, the presiding officer invited Wang Taoist to come here before sitting.

At that time, the presiding officer wanted to return these scriptures to Wang Daoshi, but at that time, Wang Daoist asked for help everywhere in order to protect the Dunhuang heritage but failed, and there were still more than 50,000 scriptures in Dunhuang and did not know how to dispose of them, of course, he did not have the heart to deal with these scriptures.

In addition, the desertification around the temple was already serious at that time, and transportation was also a big problem, so after thinking about it again and again, it was decided to hide these scriptures in the temple.

After nearly a hundred years, the people who knew these secrets have long since passed away, if it weren't for Zhuang Rui and others who came here by mistake, I'm afraid that these precious Dunhuang documents will not know how many years will be buried?