Wang Yuanlu
Wang Yuanlu ( Chinese 王 圓 籙 / 王 圆 箓 , Pinyin Wáng Yuánlù ) (* approx. 1849; † 1931) was a Daoist monk who was abbot at the Mogao cave monastery near Dunhuang at the beginning of the 20th century .
In 1900 he accidentally discovered the famous "walled-in library" ( Cangjing dong 藏经洞 ) (in today's cave 17), which served as a repository for ancient scripts and contained over 50,000 documents and cultural artefacts from the 4th to the 10th centuries. Century - d. H. the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms to the Northern Song Dynasty - housed.
The library was walled up in the early 11th century when the Tanguts occupied Dunhuang. He sold many of his discoveries - including treasures such as one of the oldest known printed works: the Diamond Sutra from 868 - to foreign researchers. In particular, Aurel Stein and Paul Pelliot have rendered outstanding services to their transport. Today they are in English, French, Russian, Japanese and also Chinese collections.
The British researcher Aurel Stein succeeded in gaining access to him through his Chinese assistant Jiang Xiaowan 蔣孝琬 (alias " Jiang Shiye " 蒋 师爷 , died 1922, mostly misrepresented as "Jiang Siye") and the mutual admiration of the great Buddhist traveler Xuanzang .
The Japanese Tachibana Zuichō (3rd Otani expedition) and the Russian Sergej Oldenburg also acquired manuscripts from him.
literature
- Peter Hopkirk : The Silk Road. In search of lost treasure in Chinese Central Asia. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-499-18564-4 ( rororo - rororo-Sachbuch 8564).
Web links
- Chinese Exploration and Excavations in Chinese Central Asia (International Dunhuang Project) - English
- Tomb Pagoda for Taoist Priest Wang in Dunhuang of Gansu Province - English
- The Oldest Printed Text in the World - The Diamond Sutra - English
- The David Middleton Reed Collection of Chinese Studies - English
- Liu Jia-yan: The Mogao Grottoes - English
- Jiang Xiaowan - Chinese
- Dunhuang Manuscript Forgeries (14) - Chapter One - English
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wang, Yuanlu |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Chinese Daoist abbot |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1849 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1931 |