Taoist Wang

Wang Yuanlu

Wang Daoshi (1849-1931) was born in Macheng, Hubei Province. His real name is Wang Yuanlu. He wrote Yuanlu as well as Yuanlu. Poor families, for food and clothing, escape everywhere. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, he entered the Suzhou patrol camp as a soldier. After leaving the army, he was ordained as a Taoist

Fazhen

Travel to Xinjiang.

From about the 23rd year of Guangxu (1897) to Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, in the northern part of the southern part of the grottoes, he cleaned up the sand and stones, offered incense, received alms, and performed sermons everywhere. With little savings, he built the Taiqing palace Taoist temple on the east side of cave 16 of Mogao Grottoes, which is now "Xiasi".

The Scripture is born

Yang, a poor Dunhuang scholar, was employed as a copywriter to copy Scriptures for sale in winter and spring. In summer and autumn, pilgrims flocked to the mountain. Yang was ordered to set up a case in today's cave 16 corridor to receive pilgrims, write Jiaozhang on his behalf, receive alms, and register them. In the early summer of the 26th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu (the 25th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu), Yang, sitting in the corridor of this cave, returned to the north wall to knock on the end of a pot of smoke. He felt that there was an empty echo and suspected that there was a secret room. In order to report the salary.

In the middle of the night of May 25th, 1927, Xiangyu and his wife broke the wall and found that the room was full of scrolls, printed copies, painted banners, bronze Buddhas and so on. It was the beginning of the outflow of the relics of the Sutra cave.

Lost years

In November of the following year, and in April and August of the thirtieth year, ye Changchi, the academic administrator of Gansu Province, received the Scriptures and portraits from Wang Zonghan, the county magistrate of Dunhuang. Ye suggested that the treasure should be transported to the province for safekeeping, and the freight should be five or six thousand taels of silver,

In March of 1930, the general secretary of Gansu ordered Wang Zonghan to seal it up on the spot. Wang ordered Taoist Wang to keep it properly and not to leave.

In the 32nd year, he built a three-story Pavilion in front of the great cave where the Sutra cave is located.

From March to May of the 33rd year, Stein went to Mogao Grottoes and bought 24 cases of ancient books in volumes and five cases of Buddhist paintings and embroideries with four pieces of horseshoe silver (weighing 200 Liang in total).

From March to may in 1934, Percy and heel bought 6000 volumes of manuscripts, printed copies, scriptures, documents and Buddhist paintings with 500 Liang silver, and took 376 pictures of the Mogao Grottoes.

In 1910, when the academic department of the Qing court learned that the relics of Dunhuang stone chamber were scattered, it ordered the Gansu vassal to transport the remaining scriptures to Beijing for safekeeping, and Taoist Wang kept some of them privately. Around the same year, tunnels were dug in dozens of caves to connect the caves, and a large number of murals were destroyed. Build the "Guhan bridge" to facilitate the pilgrims up and down the mountain. He also moved out the remains of the caves and built the "Qianxiang pagoda", which is recorded in the inscription "Qianxiang pagoda of Dunhuang Qianfo cave" written by Tingdong.

In October of the first year of the Republic of China (1912), Japan's Yoshikawa Koichiro and others went to Mogao Grottoes to buy more than 400 volumes of sutras with 350 taels of silver.

In 1914, Stein came to Mogao Grottoes again and bought more than 570 sutras with five hundred taels of silver. The plan to rebuild the ninth floor of the Great Buddha Hall in cave 96 has not been completed. After his death, he was buried on the East Bank of the daquanhe River in front of the Mogao Grottoes temple. On July 30 of the same year, Dunhuang had a long history of things. No one knew the bitterness and happiness.

Social evaluation

The loss of Dunhuang Cultural relics should not be attributed to any individual, which is a mockery of history to the whole of China.

We can't examine Wang Yuanlu by the standard of a perfect person. He was really ordinary at that time. Perhaps only by understanding him in the historical context at that time can we get an objective and fair evaluation. Zhao Yuming and Fang Zhifu, their disciples and grandchildren, set up a stele on their tomb on the 7th of this year. The stele is not written by people. It is made of wood and engraved in the shade. It is still embedded in the niche on the south side of the original tower.

Background

After the discovery of the Sutra cave, Taoist Wang did his best and did everything he should do.

First of all, he walked 50 miles to the county seat to find Dunhuang magistrate Yan Ze, and presented two volumes of scriptures from the scripture cave. Taoist Wang's purpose is very clear, which is to attract the attention of the official master. It's a pity that the magistrate surnamed Yan was ignorant, and he just regarded these two volumes of scriptures as two pieces of yellow waste paper.

In 1902, a new magistrate Wang Zonghan came to Dunhuang. Wangzhi county is a Jinshi, and has a lot of research on epigraphy. Taoist Wang reported the situation of the Sutra cave to Wangzhi county. Wangzhi County immediately took a group of people to the Mogao Grottoes and picked up some scriptures to take away. Leave a word for Taoist Wang to keep on the spot and watch the Sutra cave.

Wang Yuanlu was still unwilling to go to the magistrate twice. So he picked out two boxes of scriptures from the cave and drove the donkey to Suzhou (Jiuquan). He lived alone, risking wolves and robbers, and traveled more than 800 miles to reach his destination. He found Daotai Tingdong, which was then an Subing's road. After browsing for a while, he finally came to the conclusion that the characters on the Scriptures were not as good as his calligraphy, so that's it.

A few years later, when ye Changchi, a scholar in Gansu Province, learned about the Tibetan Scripture cave, he was very interested in it and obtained some antiquities through Wangzhi county. Unfortunately, he did not make up his mind to take effective measures to protect the Tibetan Scripture cave.

It was not until 1904 that the provincial government ordered Dunhuang scriptures to be preserved on the spot. This decision is the same as what Wang Zhixian said at the beginning, which is to pass away the responsibility. Unable to imagine, Wang Yuanlu bravely wrote a secret message to the old Buddha in the Qing palace. However, when the Qing Dynasty was in a precarious situation, the officials who lived in the Qing palace did not expect to be able to take care of such "trifles". Wang Yuanlu's expectation is like a cow entering the sea.

In 1907, when Stein arrived, he captured Taoist Wang through the exchange of religious spirit. Stein said: "the Taoist worships Xuanzang. The paintings on the new corridor opposite the grotto temple have obvious evidence. All the paintings are absurd legends I use my limited Chinese language to tell Taoist Wang about my worship of Xuanzang and how I followed his footsteps and crossed the mountains and deserts from India. He was obviously moved by me. "

At that time, Taoist Wang sold the Scriptures to Stein for three reasons: first, during the seven years, he repeatedly asked the government to pay attention to them, and he reported them level by level, but no one asked, which made him frustrated. Second, in order to fulfill his ambition, he cleaned the caves, built three floors and built wooden bridges. Thirdly, Tang Xuanzang communicated their thoughts, and Stein was moved by his spirit of pursuing career. Therefore, although he was extremely ambivalent and unwilling to take these cultural relics away by foreigners, he had no choice but to give way.

When Stein publicized the Dunhuang Cultural Relics all over the world, the imperial officials realized its important value. However, they did not consider how to protect it, but stole it for themselves. As a result, theft became popular and Dunhuang papers were seriously lost. This was the biggest disaster since Dunhuang papers were discovered. Later, even Zhang Daqian, who was obsessed with murals, joined the ranks of destruction.

In 1910, the Qing government decided to transport all the remaining Dunhuang manuscripts to Beijing for preservation. On the way of transportation, almost every place was stolen.

The loss of a large number of scriptures once made Wang Yuanlu feel very sad, because he found the scripture cave. For many years, during his custody, a large number of lost scriptures had never happened without any reason. The official's plunder and greed made him feel very indignant. Therefore, when Stein went to Mogao Grottoes for the second time in 1914, Wang Yuanlu said something thought-provoking to him, which is recorded in the archaeology of Stein's western regions: "when it comes to the damage caused by the government carrying his favorite Chinese papers, he regretted that he did not have the courage and courage at that time. He listened to master Jiang's words, accepted my large sum of money, and gave up the whole collection to me. After being harassed by the government, he was so scared that he took what he saw as a particularly valuable Chinese script and hid it in a safe place. " Who knows the hardships and happiness of Dunhuang.

The loss of Dunhuang Cultural relics should not be attributed to any individual, which is a mockery of the whole Qing Dynasty.

Character controversy

Yu Qiuyu thinks that Wang Yuanlu's destruction of Dunhuang's Mogao Grottoes cultural relics is devastating in his cultural journey, and he feels sad about it.

Stein said in his archaeological records of the western regions: "he devoted all his mind to the restoration of this decadent temple, trying to restore the glory of the hall in his mind He spent all the money he collected on repairing the temple, and he never spent a cent of it. "

According to relevant historical records (archaeological records of the western regions, etc.), when Westerners came to China to take cultural relics, they held the license issued by the local authorities, and they were protected by the officers and soldiers all the way. Wang Yuanlu himself had no ability to refuse them.

When Hu Shi mentioned Taoist Wang in his speech, he said that Taoist Wang didn't know the value of the scriptures at first. At first, he sold the Scriptures to nearby residents on the ground that they could cure diseases, and burned them into ashes and water for people to swallow. The statement here can be connected with the fact that Taoist Wang sold scriptures to Stein at a low price, which shows that Taoist Wang knew nothing about the value of cultural relics at the beginning.

Chinese PinYin : Wang Dao Shi