"This is a Buddhist mural from the Mogao Grottoes, are you interested?"

Dunhuang murals include Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, West Thousand Buddha Caves, Anxi Yulin Grottoes have a total of 552 grottoes, there are more than 50,000 square meters of murals in the past dynasties, it is the grotto group with the most murals in China and even the world, and the content is very rich.

The first foreign explorer to come to Dunhuang to steal the documents of the cave was Stein, an archaeologist who did not know Chinese, and before he went to Dunhuang in 1907, he had already excavated many ancient sites in Hotan, Niya, Loulan and other places along the southern coast of the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang, and stole a large number of cultural relics and ancient manuscripts, and had quite a lot of conspiracy and tricks.

Stein heard from a Urumqi merchant that the Taoist priest of the Mogao Grottoes had stumbled upon a stone chamber containing a large number of ancient manuscripts a few years earlier, so he immediately set off to find the Taoist priest in the Mogao Grottoes. At this time, in order to raise funds for repairing the cave, Daoist Wang went elsewhere.

A young monk showed him a beautiful scroll of scriptures, and although Stein did not know Chinese, he already sensed from the appearance that such manuscripts must be very old. He knew that he would have to wait until Daoist Wang came back to see a large number of manuscripts, so he hurried back to Dunhuang County, hired a group of workers, and first excavated the Fengsui Ruins of the Great Wall in the northwest of Dunhuang, and obtained a large number of Han Dynasty slips.

Stein was interested in the cave that Wang Daoist was trying to build, which made Wang Daoist very excited, and he promised to take Stein and others to visit the whole cave of the cave, and after several negotiations, one night Wang Daoist finally took out a scroll of scriptures and lent it to Stein for research.

This volume of Chinese scriptures happens to be a Buddhist classic translated by Xuanzang. So Stein claimed to be a Buddhist believer from distant India and a follower of Master Xuanzang, and the reason why he saw the Buddhist scriptures that Xuanzang brought back and translated on this day was entirely because of Xuanzang's arrangement, the purpose of which was to let him send these scriptures that no longer existed in India back to their original places.

Stein's nonsense was more powerful than money for this pious and ignorant Taoist priest, and it soon worked, and at night the Taoist priest Wang demolished the brick wall that sealed the cave of the scriptures, and with the light of the oil lamp of the Taoist priest, Stein entered the cave full of manuscripts.

An unusual deal was struck, and Stein exchanged a few silver dollars and a guarantee of absolute secrecy for 24 boxes of notebooks and five suitcases of carefully wrapped silk paintings or embroidery and other works of art, which arrived in London in 1909 in their entirety after a long journey of one year and six months, and were placed in the British Museum.

After that, the United States, Japan, Russia, Germany, etc. went crazy to plunder Dunhuang cultural relics, according to incomplete statistics, a total of more than 60,000 pieces lost overseas!

There are 20,000 pieces in the British Museum, more than 16,000 in Japan, 10,000 in the United States, and many in other countries.

"This time, I only need the beast-faced Kuilong Fangzun, and a thousand Dunhuang cultural relics!"

David nodded and said, "To be honest, we suffered a loss in this transaction, but in order to win your friendship, we agreed!" ”

Wu Tianyuan nodded, friendship can't be talked about, but there will be treasures that will definitely be exchanged with you in the future, there are many national treasures here, and it is a difficult project.

The two sides quickly completed the transaction, and Wu Tianyuan returned to the museum satisfied, and asked Lao Ren to decorate the Dunhuang exhibition hall. There are many authentic Tang Dynasty works in the murals, and the next step can absorb energy, which is why he chose a large number of murals.

Now the most expensive in the market are the cultural relics after the Song Dynasty, such as Song and Yuan Dynasty calligraphy and paintings, Ming and Qing dynasty porcelain, etc. But what really has research value is what was before the Tang Dynasty.

For example, inscriptions, thangkas, and Dunhuang murals. They represent the craft, culture, religion, history and other comprehensive factors of the time, and have great historical value.

Wu Tianyuan looked at the largest exhibition hall for a while, and always felt that the display was not shocking enough, and suddenly said: "Lao Ren, the next step is to arrange the Buddha statue in and make the environment look like Mogao Grottoes." Then arrange the mural so that it feels more emotional. ”

The two of them discussed for a while, this exhibition hall cannot be displayed according to ordinary logic, because most of the murals are mutilated, scattered and have no beauty. Once you can restore the environment at that time, it will definitely be shocking.

This is the second Buddhism-themed exhibition hall of the Tianyuan Museum, such as the Buddha statues from the Ming and Qing dynasties, as well as the relics town hall. Now with the addition of the Dunhuang exhibition hall, the whole atmosphere is solemn and solemn again.

"It's no wonder that those top museums have a very majestic temperament, and the whole connotation is greatly improved as soon as the cultural relics with a real sense of vicissitudes are arranged!"

Hu Jianmin said with deep feelings: "If there is only Ming and Qing dynasty porcelain, calligraphy and painting, no matter how precious it is, it is only an exhibition hall." Now the Dunhuang murals are on it, that is history and culture! ”

Wang Jiansen and Liu Dongqiang are even more devout, and they take a day every week to bathe and change clothes, and come to the museum to worship Buddha. There are not only relics here, but also Song and Yuan Buddha statues and Dunhuang murals, the best place to cultivate merit.

Lao Ren saw the broken murals and joked: "At the beginning of 1941, Zhang Daqian and his wife and children arrived at the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang for investigation, and stayed for a total of two years and seven months. However, there are still many defenses circulating for his behavior. For example, someone who has published an article as a "witness" said that he has worked in the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang for more than ten years, and has seen with his own eyes that Mr. Zhang Daqian not only did not destroy the Dunhuang murals, but on the contrary, made an undeniable contribution to the restoration and sorting of Dunhuang mural art. ”

Xie Zhiliu also argued that if you were in Dunhuang at the time, you would have agreed to kill it! Since the outer layer has peeled off and is unrecognizable, and there must be murals inside, why not remove the outer layer to expose the essence inside? ”

Wu Tianyuan nodded, he had also heard some rumors that Cave 130 of Mogao Grottoes is one of the most representative grottoes in Dunhuang, and the 26-meter-high Buddha statue in the cave is the second largest Buddha in Dunhuang. At that time, Zhang Daqian's damaged mural was located in the entrance road. He first stripped off the first layer of the Western Xia murals, and then the second layer of the late Tang Dynasty murals, and now people can only see the bottom of the Tang Dynasty murals, and the Tang Dynasty murals have been painted beyond recognition because of the predecessors when they were covered in order to increase the adhesion of the soil.

Zhang Daqian's destruction of the murals has attracted the attention and accusations of the academic community since he led his team to the Mogao Grottoes in 1941, and many letters of complaint were handed to Fu Sinian and Li Ji very early. However, Fu and Li did not take action without obtaining direct evidence, because Zhang Daqian had a deep relationship between the two circles of politics and science, and even more because he and Yu Youren were close friends.

I know that in 1946, for other purposes, the Nationalist Government began to investigate Zhang Daqian, searched his residence, and even issued sky-high fines!

In 1947, in order to avoid the accusations of public opinion, Zhang Daqian could only settle in Hong Kong, and later went to Brazil, the United States and other places, and did not return to China until his death.

"There are different opinions about this kind of thing, and the government's final trial of Zhang Daqian was also innocent, so it will not be over. Daqian's contribution to Dunhuang still outweighs the disadvantages, without his several exhibitions, the Dunhuang relics will be valued by the world at least 20 years later, will be protected, there is no doubt about this! ”

As Wu Tianyuan can understand Zhang Daqian's approach, there will be trade-offs in doing big things, and in order to complete big goals, many small goals must be given up in the process. For him, returning to the national treasure is only the first step, and the next step is to build a national cultural brand is the ultimate goal! The others are the means and channels to realize the plan, and those who achieve great things are not informal. (To be continued.) )