Figure 1
Door to the Library Cave (Cave 17) once hidden behind a hollow wall in Mogao Cave 16, Dunhuang. Photographed by Marc Aurel Stein, 1907, combining a negative of empty Cave 16 with an image of manuscripts. © British Library, Photo 392/59(1) & Photo 392/59(2).
Figure 2
Wang Yuanlu in front of the main hall of the Lower Temples. Mogao, Dunhuang. Photographed by Marc Aurel Stein, June 11, 1907. © British Library, Photo 392/26(327).
Figure 3
A group of what Aurel Stein termed “regular” bundles of manuscripts in the Library Cave. Photographed by Marc Aurel Stein, 1907. © British Library, Photo 392/27(589).
Figure 4
Manuscript fragment of Datong fangguang chanhui miezui zhuangyan chengfo jing (Sutra on solemn attainment of Buddhahood by means of repentance to extinguish sins in a great, thorough, and broad way), 8th century, Tang dynasty (618–907), Mogao, Dunhuang. Ink on mulberry-fibre paper, 27 × 49 cm (10 5/8 × 19 5/16 in.). Seattle Art Museum, Gift of Anna M. Bille, Fook-Tan, and Clara Ching, 2017.21. Photo: Scott Leen.
Figure 5
Manuscript fragment from Dunhuang mounted with a gift letter while in the collection of Yi-chuan Ching. Photo: Elizabeth Mann.
Figure 6
Letter from Jao Yü Ai to Prof. Anna Matilda Bille, 1932, Republic period (1912–49). Ink on paper. Seattle Art Museum, Gift of Anna M. Bille, Fook-Tan, and Clara Ching, accessory of 2017.21. Photo: Scott Leen.
Figure 7
Installation view of Journey to Dunhuang: Buddhist Art of the Silk Road Caves, Seattle Asian Art Museum, March 5–June 12, 2016. Photo: Mark Woods.
Figure 8
Parable of the Illusory City from the Lotus Sutra, 1958–63, copy after Mogao Cave 217, Dunhuang, High Tang dynasty (704–781), James C. Lo Workshop. Ink and color on paper, 96 × 127 cm (37 13/16 × 50 in.). Seattle Art Museum, Gift of Lucy L. Lo, 2017.22.1. Photo: Elizabeth Mann.
Figure 9
Manuscript fragment of Da zhidu lun (Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra), Tang dynasty (618–907), Mogao, Dunhuang. Ink on paper, 11.1 × 9.2 cm (4 3/8 × 3 5/8 in.). Seattle Art Museum, Gift of Lucy L. Lo, 2022.11.1. Photo: Scott Leen.
Figure 10
Chu Suiliang (596–658). Calligraphy for the “Preface to the holy teachings at Great Goose Pagoda” (Yanta Shengjiao xu) by Emperor Tang Taizong, Song dynasty (960–1279) rubbing. Album, ink rubbing on paper, 24.5 × 14 cm (9 10/16 × 5 8/16 in.). Tokyo National Museum, TB-1363. With permission from the Integrated Collections Database of the National Museums, Japan <https://colbase.nich.go.jp/collection_items/tnm/TB-1363?locale=zh>.
Figure 11
Detail of Figure 4.
Figure 12
Detail of Figure 4.
Figure 13
Manuscript of Buddhanāma-sūtra (Sutra on the names of Buddha), detail. Mogao, Dunhuang (Ch.79.XI.2). Handscroll, ink on paper, 25.1 × 548.64 cm (9.88 × 216 in.). © British Library, Or.8210/S.1847 Recto.
Figure 14
Fibre analysis of the paper support, viewed in water with fibres in partially crossed polarized light, 250×. Moderate birefringence and prominent transverse “V” and X” marks typical of bast fibres are visible. From Mayer report for Seattle Art Museum, Figure 7. Courtesy of Debora Dyer Mayer Conservation Studio.
Figure 15
Anna Matilda Bille (1879–1942). The Pleiades, Yearbook of Fullerton Union High School, 1914. Courtesy of the Local History Room, Fullerton Public Library.
Figure 16
Fook-tan Ching (1897–1956) by the faculty building on Tsinghua University campus, 1920s. Courtesy of Yi-chuan Ching.
Figure 17
A.M. Bille in Honolulu with Yi-chuan Ching as a child, early 1940s. Courtesy of Yi-chuan Ching.
Figure 18
Map of locations pertaining to Governor Rao Yingqi and Paul Splingaerd, 1900–1903 (Google Earth 10.38.0.0).
Figure 19
Family portrait of Paul Splingaerd and Catherine Li with their eleven children, ca. 1903. Photograph taken in Shanghai at the studio of Sze Yuen Ming & Co. Reproduced from von Richthofen (1907), vol. 2: 346.
Figure 20
Portrait of Paul Splingaerd (1842–1906), dated 1906. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of Anne Megowan Splingaerd.
Table 1
Expedition timeline of Colonel Gaspart-Eduard Fivé with Paul Splingaerd.
| YEAR | DATE | ITINERARY |
|---|---|---|
| 1900 | Feb 17 | Splingaerd travels from Beijing and arrives in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province, with Colonel Fivé and their party. |
| May 17 | Splingaerd and Fivé travel to Koko Nor in Qinghai but bad weather forces them to return to Lanzhou. | |
| May 29 | They depart from Xixiang for Suzhou and Anxi in northern Gansu. | |
| Jun 22 | Wang Yuanlu and worker Yang discover the Library Cave at Mogao. | |
| Jul 30 | Splingaerd and Fivé return to Xixiang following Suzhou and Anxi. They found only oil reserves, not quartz or gold as hoped. | |
| Aug 10 | Splingaerd and Fivé arrive back at Lanzhou. | |
| Sep 7 | On the eve of the Boxer Uprising, there were calls to “kill all Europeans.” Splingaerd and Fivé escape to Mongolia via Dajing in Gansu. | |
| Nov 12 | Fivé and party arrive in Mongolia at Urga (today’s Ulan Bator), then travel on the Trans-Siberian Railway for Europe, leaving Splingaerd behind in Urga. | |
| Dec 12 | Fivé and party arrive in Cologne, Germany. | |
| 1901 | May 10 | Splingaerd is summoned back from Urga to Gansu by the Belgian government. He arrives at Ningxia (today’s Yinchuan) in July. |