The Dunhuang manuscripts are dispersed
Aurel Stein removes thousands of manuscripts and paintings from Cave 17 in 1907, including the Diamond Sutra and, from a watchtower to the west, the Sogdian Ancient Letters. Paul Pelliot follows in 1908, and Japanese and Russian expeditions after him. The collection is now split between London, Paris, Beijing, St Petersburg and Tokyo, and its reassembly is digital rather than physical.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Mogao Caves · site · China
- Sogdian merchant networks · people · not located
Evidence
Verified — Every field is supported by a cited authoritative source. This is the standing of the weakest source, not an average.
The Sogdian Ancient Letters
Five substantially surviving letters of Sogdian merchants, undelivered, showing how the eastern routes actually operated: resident family colonies in a chain of cities from Sogdiana to the Hexi Corridor, goods moved between them in relays, business conducted by correspondence and credit rather than by single long journeys. Letter 2 reports the sack of Luoyang, which anchors the conventional dating to around 313 CE. The letters are written on paper, establishing that the material had reached the far western Chinese frontier by that date.
British Library, London · ~313 CE · Verified
Or.8212/92-98 (the collection is commonly cited as Or.8212); recovered by Aurel Stein in 1907 from a ruined watchtower on the Han frontier wall west of Dunhuang
Diamond Sutra, from Mogao Cave 17
A woodblock-printed scroll dated by its own colophon to 868 CE, the earliest dated complete printed book known. Its presence at Dunhuang shows printing in working use on the corridor four centuries before it appeared in Europe.
British Library, London · 868 CE · Verified
Or.8210/P.2; recovered by Aurel Stein in 1907
International Dunhuang Programme
Catalogues and digitally reunites the material removed from Mogao Cave 17 and other eastern Silk Road sites between 1900 and the 1920s, now held in London, Paris, Beijing, St Petersburg and Tokyo. The dispersal is physical and permanent; the reassembly is digital.
British Library and partner institutions in China, France, Russia, Japan and Germany · Verified
Ongoing digitisation and cataloguing consortium
Recorded on Mogao Caves
- Mogao Cave 17 is sealed
- Wang Yuanlu opens Mogao Cave 17
- The Dunhuang manuscripts are dispersed
- Mogao Caves inscribed on the World Heritage List
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.