Chinanews, Lanzhou, Aug 15 – Recently, some media people reported the news that this year marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of Dunhuang studies. However, according to Fan Jinshi, director of the Dunhuang Research Institute, the reports are not correct.

He made the announcement in an exclusive interview given to China News Service.

The claim first appeared in May this year, when the international seminar marking the centenary of the Dunhuang Studies was held in London. The meeting also commemorated Marc Aurel Stein, a British adventurer who engaged in archeological investigation in Central Asia 100 years ago.

In fact, as early as in 1900, a Chinese Taoist priest surnamed Wang discovered the place now called the Scripture Storing Cave in Dunhuang. He soon reported his discovery to local officials. However, due to social chaos, the local government did not have enough money to protect the cave. In 1904, the central government of the Qing Dynasty ordered local government officials to keep all those Buddist scriptures “where they were. “

During that time, Fan told this reporter, the then Dunhuang county magistrate Wang Zonghan once submitted a report to the Gansu provincial education commissioner Ye Changzhi informing him of the Dunhuang scriptures. Ye responded to Wang by writing a postscript to the report.

“This might be regarded as the earliest research on Dunhuang,” Fan said.

In 1907, the British adventurer Marc Aurel Stein arrrived in Dunhuang. With only 200 taels of silver, he “bought”(or stole might be a better word in this case) 24 boxes of classics and five boxes of paintings. This, according to the organizer of the London international seminar, might serve as the beginning year of the research about Dunhuang.

“How can they take this incident as an event to mark the official commencement of research on Dunhuang?!” Fan contradicted.

“According to historical accounts kept in Dunhuang, Dunhuang had been managed by China since the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD). During Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, due to historical reasons, such management became weaker and since then, the renowned holy place of Buddhism gradually sank into oblivion until 1900, when the scripture depository cave was discovered by the Taoist priest Wang. Chinese people discovered Dunhuang first and it is Chinese people who launched research about Dunhuang first. It is incorrect to say that some foreigner discovered Dunhuang first,” Fan said clearly.