At the western end of the Hexi Corridor in northwest China stands the “Louvre of the East”, the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, famous for its exquisite murals and statues. In 366 AD, a monk named Lecong was walking westward with his tin staff to the Three Dangerous Mountains when he suddenly saw a brilliant golden light in the shape of a thousand Buddhas shining brightly. He then realized that this was the Buddha’s enlightenment, and that he should build a cave here to make statues and spread Buddhism. So, the monk built the first cave. Shortly thereafter, another Zen master named Faliang came from the East and built another cave next to Le Cong’s cave. Since then, Dunhuang has been built over the millennia, with more than 1,000 niches by the time of the Tang Dynasty.
Although in modern times, many of the caves’ murals, sculptures, and thousands of scriptures have been “bought” by a few Westerners at bargain prices, lamentably, the murals, sculptures, and scriptures left behind still speak to future generations of their former glory.
Surviving the Cultural Revolution
Due to its remote location and the tacit agreement of those working at Dunhuang at the time, the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang escaped the devastation of the Cultural Revolution. Fan Jinshi, who is now the honorary director of the Dunhuang Academy, has dedicated her life to Dunhuang since graduating from university. In an interview with reporters, she described her experience and the reasons why Mogao Caves escaped the catastrophe.
The first time Fan Jinshi went to work at the Dunhuang Research Institute, she was caught up in two “social education” sessions, known as “socialist education activities”. The first “social education” was also in Dunhuang, 1963, for a month. The second time, Fan Jinshi was sent to Shandan County, Zhangye City, in the middle of the Hexi Corridor. “From the fall of 1964 to the summer of 1965, it was ten months. As a university graduate, what kind of research could I do? I did some research, but now I look at it in reverse, I’m sure it’s not working.” Fan Jinshi always regretted that he had not done more in the field of archaeology because his time had been delayed.
“The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. The company has been able to save its heritage, but fortunately. The company’s main reason for this is the fact that it has been instructed by the central government to protect Dunhuang, and the other main reason is that the people at the Dunhuang Research Institute, although they have different factions, although there is also martial arts, but “the heart to protect the cultural relics of Dunhuang, is the same”.
The company’s main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers. This is very different from the Qufu Confucius Temple during the Cultural Revolution, where hundreds of Red Guards swarmed the temple, pulling out the stone monuments and statues, cutting off their heads and cutting open their bellies. In Fan Jinshi’s opinion, in that era, the Institute, whether it was the vocal, the silent, the inflicted, the endured, the ones who went to the wrong track, the ones who had a great wrong, all together guarded Dunhuang. This shows, at least, that there were people in those days who had a reverence for the heritage of their ancestors.
However, the first director of the Dunhuang Academy, Chang Shuhong, who guarded Dunhuang, was not so lucky.
Chang Shuhong, a committed guardian
In 1935, a young man studying painting named Chang Shuhong happened to see the six-volume Dunhuang catalogue in Paris and was so amazed at its beauty and saddened by its silence that he decided to return to China and has since become the most committed guardian of the Mogao Caves.
After his return to China, Chang Shuhong became a professor at the National College of Fine Arts in Beiping, but he was always concerned about the preservation of the Mogao Caves. With his appeal and the support of Yu Youren, a Kuomintang patriarch, the Dunhuang Art Institute was prepared and established in 1943, with Chang Shuhong as its director. That year, he rushed to Dunhuang.
The moment he arrived at Dunhuang, he was accompanied not only by the yellow sand and wolf winds, but also by financial constraints and the many difficulties of life. In his own words, “From the first day we arrived at Mogao Caves, we felt a sense of abandonment and ‘imprisonment’ weighing on our minds, and this pressure is increasing every day.” However, the charm of the Mogao Caves and his love of art and Dunhuang enabled him to overcome all the difficulties.
Unfortunately, due to political instability and financial constraints, the Ministry of Education of the National Government announced the dissolution of the Institute in 1945, and most people chose to leave the Mogao Caves as a result, but Chang Shuhong stayed, because Dunhuang was his life. At this point, his wife, unable to endure the loneliness and hardship of Dunhuang any longer, decided to leave home, leaving his two children behind for him. The first of these is the first of a series of blows that did not shake Chang Shuhong’s heart to guard Dunhuang, he still chose to persevere.
The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. The company’s main goal is to provide a comprehensive range of products and services to the public.
“Chang Shuhong, he’s dead.”
In 1966, after the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, the “Four Olds” trend also reached Dunhuang. The company was spared by the instructions of the Central Government, but the guardians of Dunhuang, such as Chang Shuhong, were not spared the persecution. The company was not only branded as a “counter-revolutionary”, a reactionary academic authority, a capitalist and a traitor, but was also expelled from the party and from public office and kept in supervised labor.
The name “Chang Shuhong, the traitor” was exhibited in Jiuquan, so it became even more well-known in the western part of the country. It can be said that during the Cultural Revolution, Chang Shuhong’s body and mind suffered great harm, and he was often beaten so badly that he could not stand up, and his lumbar vertebrae had been crushed and fractured.
From the article written by Xiao Mo in the first issue of “Reading” in 2008, we can get a glimpse of the situation of Chang Shuhong at that time.
In the autumn of 1968, Xiao Mo, who was once a subordinate of Chang Shuhong, “escorted” Chang Shuhong, who had a crushed fracture of the lumbar spine, to Lanzhou to see a doctor. In his heart, Xiao Mo admired Chang Shuhong, he went to Dunhuang after reading “Under the Qilian Mountains” written by Chang Shuhong, so he secretly took care of him as much as possible and helped him with a steel undershirt.
On the train to Lanzhou, a few strangers in the same sleeper car when they learned they were from Jiuquan, they began to ask about Chang Shuhong. Xiao Mo denied that he knew Chang Shuhong, and those few people asked Chang directly. After several denials, Chang Shuhong shouted in a loud, decisive and indignant voice: “Chang Shuhong, he’s dead!” At this moment, a drop of old tears, from the corner of his tightly closed eyes down his cheeks. To make him shout such decisive words, the Chinese Communist Party has done a lot of harm to people!
Hearing this shuddering cry, several strangers fell silent, but with grave faces, gazing longingly at the old man lying beside them, confusedly trying to connect their mind’s eye with the old man, Chang Shuhong. After a while, a man made a cup of tea, sent to Chang Shuhong, invited him to drink tea, and softly added: “No matter what, please take care of your old man, be sure to hold on.” Justice is in the hearts of the people.
Survival after the disaster
In 1977, Chang Shuhong was “rehabilitated,” and in 1982, having passed his dotage and having guarded Dunhuang for fifty years, he returned to Beijing. In his later years, he wrote his memoirs, “Ninety Years of Spring and Autumn – Fifty Years at Dunhuang”. The company’s experience was summed up in a single sentence: “I am a survivor, a survivor who left behind a body full of ‘souvenirs’.”
In June 1994, Chang Shuhong died at the age of 90 days.
Concluding Remarks
In 2015, Xiao Mo published “One Leaf, One Bodhi – My Fifteen Years at Dunhuang,” about what happened to Dunhuang during the Cultural Revolution. He writes, “I don’t know where to begin with my 52 years at Dunhuang. I also have to talk about these old gentlemen. Mr. Chang Shuhong, ‘Shu’ is the ‘book’ of books and ‘Hong’ is the ‘Hong’ of geese, 71 years ago he ……”. If there was no decade of wasted years, Mr. Chang Shuhong should have published more papers, copied more murals, and left more wealth for future generations. But life is not “if”, this account should be counted on the Chinese Communist Party.
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