The picture shows Fan Jinshi, honorary dean of Dunhuang Research Institute. (Data photo) Dunhuang Research Institute photo provided by
China News Network Lanzhou, July 15 (Reporter Feng Zhijun) "This life is determined, I am the guardian of Mogao Grottoes ." More than half a century later, after experiencing the world cultural heritage Mogao Grottoes from rescue protection, to preventive protection, and then to the incoming " Digital Dunhuang ", the "daughter of Dunhuang " who is in his 80s, he has the leisure to recall the Dunhuang love that "cannot be cut off and still be messy".
"The outside world thinks that I chose to stay in Dunhuang. To be honest, I actually wanted to leave Dunhuang several times. But why stayed, this is the fate of a person." Fan Jinshi, honorary director of the Dunhuang Research Institute, said that the reason why I did not leave in the end was that there were fateful arrangements, but more importantly, I was increasingly unable to leave Dunhuang emotionally.
Fan Jinshi is from Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. She was born in Beiping in 1938. She grew up in Shanghai. She was later admitted to the History Department of Peking University. In the summer of 1963, after graduating from university, she was assigned to the Dunhuang desert thousands of miles away. It was not until 19 years later that she reunited with her husband in Mogao Grottoes, and since then she has been a lifelong protection without distractions.
In the era of scarcity of materials, worries disappeared in the caves
"Dunhuang was a dream in my youth, and I thought of it very wonderfully." Fan Jinshi recalled that because of a text about Mogao Grottoes in the middle school textbook, I later paid more attention to information related to Dunhuang. Especially after studying in college, she paid special attention to any exhibition related to Dunhuang, including published pictures and postcards and . Therefore, I have long known that people like Chang Shuhong and Duan Wenjie have always longed for that place.
On the way to Dunhuang, Fan Jinshi thought of the two legendary figures Chang Shuhong and Duan Wenjie, who could both run to the northwest desert to guard Mogao Grottoes. Dunhuang Cultural Relics Research Institute (the predecessor of Dunhuang Research Institute) should be a very grand place full of artistic atmosphere, but I was completely stunned when I got off the train. This place was not what I imagined.
The Mogao Grottoes in the 1960s were incomparable to the Mogao Grottoes today. They lived in a mud house, slept in a mud kang, drank alkaline water, and ate mixed grains. The lighting was based on candles. They could not buy anything even if they had money. The most eaten dishes were potatoes, radish and cabbage. The elm seed picked from elm in spring. It is a "rare delicacy" after cooking.
Compared with the extreme lack of material life at that time, the loneliness of "being a stranger in a foreign land" made her most desperate. All Fan Jinshi could do was learn to forget the city where she grew up and studied, and slowly get used to the northwest life of "wind outside the window and sand inside the house".
"Looking outside the dark window, I secretly shed tears more than once. But the next day, as soon as I walked into the cave, it was worth it." Fan Jinshi said that as long as I entered the cave, it seemed like I was in a gorgeous temple, completely immersed in murals and artistic statues with floating clothes and light and shadows, all the worries disappeared, and my heart felt at ease.
50 years of concern for the protection of Mogao Grottoes, the digital Dunhuang allows cultural relics to "beauty forever"
Why does such a brilliant grotto art be produced in the desert that has been forgotten by the world? Why does Dunhuang seem to have been abandoned here for centuries? What was these Buddhist worlds created by murals and colored sculptures? What has happened here? How were those magnificent murals and colored sculptures created? Who painted those exquisite murals... Countless questions lingered in Fan Jinshi's heart every day.
htmlFor more than 150 years, Fan Jinshi has traveled to 735 caves, seen every mural and every colored sculpture. The first volume of "The Complete Works of Dunhuang Grottoes" written for 40 years is known as the first scientific and academic grotto archaeological report in China. The second volume of "The Complete Works of Dunhuang Grottoes", which lasted for more than ten years, is expected to be published this year, which is also what she cares about the most.With the protection of the race against time, Mogao Grottoes "turned danger into safety". Faced with a large number of crowded passenger flow, the increasing pressure on protection began to make Fan Jinshi worried. At the beginning of the 21st century, the Dunhuang Institute set a precedent in mainland China and cooperated with the Getty Institute for Conservation in the United States to conduct research on the carrying capacity of tourists from Mogao Grottoes. In 2014, a new mode of reservation for Mogao Grottoes with a maximum of 6,000 visitors per day was launched.
"The degradation of cultural relics is irreversible, even if it is protected well. Only by establishing digital archives for cultural relics can we achieve permanent circulation and sustainable use." Fan Jinshi said that when he took out the old photos of Mogao Grottoes a hundred years ago and compared them with the present, he found that there have been great changes, and it is still "changing", and it may "become fewer and worse" in many years.
The "inspiration" that made the "face of Mogao Grottoes" cultural relics "forever" began with Fan Jinshi's first contact with computers and learned that "things that have been digitalized by computers can be permanently preserved." Although the technical means and digital effects at that time were not satisfactory, the plan to use modern digital technology to display the historical and cultural background of Mogao Grottoes and exquisite cave art has been put on the agenda.
In April 2016, "Digital Dunhuang" was successfully launched, and high-definition digital content of 30 classic caves and 45,000 square meters of murals were released to the world. Visitors can see it with just a click of the mouse.
talents are the core of cultural protection work, and the autobiography leaves a history for the protection of Mogao Grottoes
"The guarantee of the sustainable development of cultural relics protection, research, promotion and management is talents, and talents are the core of all work." Fan Jinshi said that without the persistence and struggle of generations of Mogao Grottoes people, there would be no Mogao Grottoes today. Therefore, to ensure a stable talent team that is protected, studied, promoted and managed, it is necessary to have long-term talent team building planning and mechanism guarantees.
Fan Jinshi, 84 years old this year, has retired for many years and has won numerous awards at home and abroad in recent years, but the most well-known title is still "Dunhuang's Daughter". She still has a lot of time to "company" with the Dunhuang Desert every year. With the repeated persuasion of everyone around her, she published her only autobiography "My Heart Returns is Dunhuang" in oral form, hoping to preserve and continue history for Mogao Grottoes.
"Maybe, the time I devoted my life may not be able to exhaust the answer to Dunhuang." After the publication of this book, which has seen and heard in Dunhuang in the past sixty years, it not only attracted the attention of many cultural and museum fans and Dunhuang cultural enthusiasts, but also became popular and "out of the circle" and made it difficult to find a book. However, except for individual lectures invited to tell the "Dunhuang Story", Fan Jinshi rarely appears in public and rarely accepts media interviews.
"Acquainted with Weiming Lake, fell in love with each other Luojia Mountain , stayed with Mogao Grottoes." Fan Jinshi still cannot let go of the promise that her husband "Lao Peng" failed to fulfill. "I often feel that Lao Peng has not left. He is still by my side, guarding Mogao Grottoes with me. He is still supporting me and giving me strength!" (End)
Source: China News Network
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-