Chapter 25 Section 4 Dunhuang Book Collection Goes Westward and Songlou Book Collection Goes Eastward

With the decline of national power and the corruption of the government in the late Qing Dynasty, imperialism not only intensified its political and economic aggression against China, but also continued to steal and plunder in terms of culture.The Dunhuang collection of books going west and the Songlou collection going east are examples. Mogao Grottoes in Mingsha Mountain, Dunhuang, Gansu, commonly known as Thousand Buddha Caves.There are many books written from the Jin Dynasty to the early Song Dynasty in the grottoes.The cave collection was exposed in the 26th year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (1900 A.D.), and the precious collection of books and posthumous paintings were discovered by Taoist Wang Yuanlu [lu Lu].The cave contains more than 20,000 scrolls of classics of Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Manichaeism, and Zoroastrianism, as well as historical records, documents, contracts, and book records.Hungarian Stein, a British Sinologist, learned of this news, so he came to Dunhuang in the 33rd year of Guangxu (AD 1907) and tried to steal 570 kinds of its fine works to the UK.Afterwards, French sinologist Paul Pelliot (1878-1945 AD), American sinologist Langdon Warner (1881-1955 AD), and Russian sinologist Odenburg (1863-1934 AD) came here one after another. Dunhuang theft of books and cultural relics.Among them, Pelliot bought 5,000 pieces and passed by Beijing. Chinese scholars Luo Zhenyu, Wang Renjun, Jiang Fu, etc. went to watch them. Shashishiyishu" and "Mingshashishi Ancient Books Congrem" were published.The Japanese Tachibana Ruichao also heard about it and stole 400 scrolls, and Koichiro Yoshikawa also got more than a hundred scrolls.The news of foreigners stealing precious Chinese books and cultural relics spread like wildfire, and public opinion across the country was in an uproar.Under pressure from the people, in the first year of Xuantong (AD 1909), the Qing Government Department ordered the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu to send people to decipher all the remnants of Dunhuang books and cultural relics (about 8,000 scrolls) and submit them to Beijing for collection in the Beijing Normal University Library. In 1922, presided over by Chen Yuan and participated by Yu Zezhen, the "Dunhuang Tribulation Remains Record" was compiled.Most of the books stolen by foreigners are now in the British Museum and the Paris Library.

The Song Building is one of the four major libraries in the late Qing Dynasty. Its total collection of books is more than that of Tianyi Pavilion, with about 150,000 volumes (Tianyi Pavilion only records more than 50,000 volumes).The number of rare books is twice that of Tianyi Pavilion, which is higher than the famous Tianyi Pavilion in terms of quantity and quality.Japanese sinologist Han Shimada was addicted to ancient Chinese books. In the 31st and 2nd years of Guangxu (AD 1905-1906), he went to my country several times and went to the building to read books. He was very coveted.At this time, Lu Shufan, the son of Lu Xinyuan, the owner of Songlou, was in financial difficulties.Shimada tried his best to encourage Lu Shufan to sell the Songlou collection to Japan.At first, Lu Shufan asked for 500,000 taels of silver. After bargaining by Shimada, he finally sold it to Yanosuke Iwasaki for 100,000 taels of silver in April 1907. Soon, all the books of Songlou were uploaded to the East, and became the owner of the Jiajingtang Library in Tokyo, Japan. collection of books.Wang Yitong, a scholar in the late Qing Dynasty, wrote in twelve poems about the Songlou Incident:

now have,