Wang Yuanlu
Encyclopedia
Dunhuang
Dunhuang is a city in northwestern Gansu province, Western China. It was a major stop on the ancient Silk Road. It was also known at times as Shāzhōu , or 'City of Sands', a name still used today...
at the beginning of the 20th century, the discoverer of the Dunhuang manuscripts
Dunhuang manuscripts
The Dunhuang manuscripts is a cache of important religious and secular documents discovered in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China during the early 20th century. Dating from the 5th to early 11th centuries, the manuscripts include works ranging from history and mathematics to folk songs and dance...
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He discovered ancient Buddhist scriptures in a temple there. He first offered the manuscripts to local officials, in an attempt to gain funding for their conservation. He would later sell numerous manuscripts to archeologist Aurel Stein, who took a largely random selection of the works. Later Paul Pelliot
Paul Pelliot
Paul Pelliot was a French sinologist and explorer of Central Asia. Initially intending to enter the foreign service, Pelliot took up the study of Chinese and became a pupil of Sylvain Lévi and Édouard Chavannes....
would come to purchase the most valuable among them.