Dunhuang Scrolls

On my first visit to the site the Taoist priest was away, engaged apparently with his two acolytes

 on a begging tour in the oasis. Nor would it, perhaps, have been wise to attempt starting operations then at once. But fortunately the young ` Ho-shang ' of Tangutan extraction already referred to, then the only dweller at the site, proved to be possessed of useful local knowledge, and it did not take Chiang Ssû-yeh long to extract from him some interesting details. The place of discovery of the manuscript hoard was a large shrine (Ch. I in plan, Plate 42) near the northern end of the main group of caves. Its gaily painted outer structures bore evidence of extensive recent restoration, the result of pious labours started and maintained by Wang, the Tao-shih, or Taoist priest, who had established himself here some seven years before. The entrance to the cave-temple had been formerly blocked by fallen rock débris and drift-sand, as was still partially the case at several of the caves situated at the foot of the cliff further south. While restorations were slowly being carried on in the temple cella and the place now occupied by its antechapel, the labourers engaged had noticed a crack in the frescoed wall of the passage connecting the two. An opening was thus discovered that led to a recess or small chamber excavated from the rock behind the stuccoed north wall of the passage (Plate 43 ; Fig. 200).

Manuscript rolls, written in Chinese characters but in a non-Chinese language, were said to have filled the recess completely. Their total quantity was supposed to be so great as to make up several cart-loads. News of the discovery having reached distant Lan-chou, specimens of the manuscripts were asked for from provincial headquarters. Ultimately orders were supposed to have come from the Viceroy of Kan-su to restore the whole of the find to its original place of deposit. So now this strange hoard of undeciphered manuscripts was declared to be kept by the Tao-shih behind the carefully locked door with which the hidden recess had been provided since its first discovery.

In the absence of the priest it was impossible to pursue these preliminary inquiries further. But I lost no time in visiting the alleged place of discovery. Fortunately, the young Ho-shang's spiritual guide, a Tibetan monk then also away on a begging tour, had borrowed one of the manuscripts in order to give additional lustre to a little private chapel of his own that he had improvised at his temporary abode in the tumble-down pilgrims' rest-house. The young monk was persuaded by Chiang Ssû-yeh to bring us this specimen. It was a beautifully preserved roll of paper about io inches high, and, when we unfolded it in front of the original hiding-place, proved to be about 15 yards long. The paper, yellowish in tint, looked remarkably strong and fresh. But • in a climate so dry and in a carefully sheltered hiding-place it was impossible to judge age from mere outward appearance, and with its fine texture and carefully smoothed surface it looked to me decidedly old.

Chiang Ssû-yeh had the same impression of the writing, which was very clear and showed excellent penmanship. It was, indeed, Chinese, and so beyond doubt was the language. But my learned secretary frankly acknowledged that on cursory reading he could not make out any connected sense in the text. This, however, soon found its explanation when, in frequently repeated formulas read out by Chiang, I recogized such words as Fu-saand fo-to-mi, the familiar Chinese transcripts of Sanskrit Bodhisattva and j5âramita. I knew how utterly strange the phraseology of Chinese Buddhism is to the average literatus,and there could be no possible doubt about the text being Buddhist even before Chiang Ssû-yeh, on the roll having been completely unfolded, had discovered that it was described in the colophon as a eking fig, or Sutra. Thus the rapid inspection of this single specimen suggested that the reported great manuscript deposit might prove to be largely of Buddhist character. At the same time the fact that the text was written on a roll, and not in the`concertina' or book form which has prevailed in China ever since block printing became common about the beginning of the Sung period (n. D. 960),1 seemed to raise a strong presumption as to the early date of the deposit. All further speculation had to be put off until I should secure access to the whole of the hidden library. It was enough encouragement at the time to find its existence confirmed.