Recently, my book "Dunhuang treasures in the dust for thousands of years" was published by Gansu Education Publishing House. This is a "small book" aimed at popularizing the general situation, content and value of "Dunhuang suicide notes" to readers. However, although the volume is small, it is also the result of many years of research. From the perspective of popularizing traditional culture, there seems to be a reason to say. So I was invited to write an article and write some of my own experience. Dunhuang suicide note is not a real "suicide note" The "Dunhuang treasure" in the title refers to Dunhuang relics. This suicide note does not refer to the letters left by the deceased before his death, but the Scriptures and documents left by the ancient ancestors of Dunhuang. On June 22, 1900 (May 26 of the lunar calendar), Taoist Wang Yuanlu accidentally found a compound Cave (now numbered cave 17) on the north wall of the corridor in cave 16 of Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang. The cave was overlapped and filled with scriptures and documents from the Sixteen Kingdoms to the Northern Song Dynasty. This batch of ancient documents with a total number of more than 70000 were called "Dunhuang relics" by later generations. Because the Mogao Grottoes were excavated on the cliffs of Mingsha mountain, the caves that preserve Dunhuang remains are also called Dunhuang Grottoes or grottoes. Because the main body of Dunhuang remains is handwritten Buddhist scriptures, early people called Dunhuang remains as "scripture writing in the stone chamber" and the cave where Dunhuang remains were preserved as "Sutra cave". In addition, Dunhuang suicide notes are also known as "Dunhuang Documents", "Dunhuang Manuscripts", "Dunhuang Documents", "Dunhuang volumes" and so on. "Thousands of years of dust" is a literary expression, and the nature, closure time and reasons of Dunhuang Scripture cave are indeed unsolved mysteries in the academic community, which inevitably leads to various imagination. Since no relevant records of the parties or future generations have been found, various statements about the nature, closure time and reasons of the Dunhuang Sutra cave are conjectures or hypotheses so far. At present, it is known that the Dunhuang remains unearthed in the Dunhuang Scripture cave were written in 1002 (the fifth year of Xianping in the Song Dynasty), so people speculate that the closing time of the Dunhuang Scripture cave should be the early 11th century. From the beginning of the 11th century to 1900, Dunhuang remains were buried in the Sutra cave for more than 900 years, nearly 1000 years. In 1900, China was at the end of the Qing Dynasty. The Western powers openly sent eight allied forces to invade China. The national crisis of national subjugation and genocide of the Chinese nation is becoming more and more serious. The supreme ruler of the Qing Dynasty who was busy running for his life could not know the news of the discovery of the Sutra cave in the northwest border. In addition, most local officials in Gansu and Dunhuang were ignorant at that time, so this treasure did not get due protection. It was looted by the "exploration" teams of Britain, France, Japan, Russia and other countries, resulting in Dunhuang suicide notes scattered all over the world. At present, more than 70000 Dunhuang remains are collected in more than 80 museums, libraries, cultural institutions and some private hands in 9 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Among them, the National Library of China (16578), the British National Library (17000), the French National Library (7000) and the Institute of Oriental Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (17700) are the four major collectors. The dispersion of Dunhuang remains is a great loss of China's modern academic culture and a sad history of China's modern academia, which is still hard to let go! "Writing scriptures in stone chambers" includes documents of all ethnic groups Most of the texts of Dunhuang remains are handwritten texts, and there are also a small number of block printed texts and rubbings. In ancient times, before the invention and popularity of printing, documents and classics existed in the form of writing for a long time. In the Warring States period, Qin and Han Dynasties, it was mainly written on bamboo slips and wooden slips. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were books written on paper. In the Jin Dynasty, paper books completely replaced bamboo and wood slips and silk books. After the Song Dynasty, printing became popular, and printed text gradually became the main carrier of books and knowledge dissemination, replacing the status of handwritten text. Therefore, as far as the methods and carriers of text communication are concerned, roughly from the Jin Dynasty to the Song Dynasty is the era of handwritten paper text as the main body, and after the Song Dynasty is the era of printed text as the main body. Dunhuang suicide notes are in the era when paper handwritten documents and classics are popular, so most of them are handwritten texts. After the Song Dynasty, the main carrier of books and knowledge dissemination was printed matter, but the popular woodblock printing in the Song Dynasty had been invented at least in the Tang Dynasty. Unfortunately, most of the early block prints have not been preserved. Fortunately, there are dozens of Block Prints preserved in Dunhuang remains, which has become part of the earliest existing prints in the world. Among them, the most famous "Vajra Sutra in the ninth year of Xiantong of Tang Dynasty (868 AD)" is the earliest existing engraving printed matter marked with age in the world. It is now collected in the British National Library. Rubbings appeared earlier, but the early rubbings could not be preserved. Several rubbings of Tang steles preserved in Dunhuang remains have become the earliest handed down rubbings in the world. These include the rubbings of Tang Taizong's hot spring inscription, Li Yong's Huadu Temple Yong Zen master TA Ming and Liu Gongquan's Vajra Sutra. The binding forms of Dunhuang remains are diverse, including almost all kinds of binding forms of ancient books, but most of them are scroll binding. Scroll packaging, also known as scroll packaging, is a kind of binding form that has been popular for a long time and widely spread in a wide range of areas after the emergence of paper books and documents. The method is to first stick the paper into a long roll as needed, and then stick it to one end of the paper with a round wooden stick, spread it flat when reading, and then roll it into a reel after reading, which is the book or document loaded on the reel. In addition to the scroll installation, there is also Vatican clip installation. The Vatican clip came from India. Because the Scripture is Sanskrit and there are two splints up and down, it is called "Sanskrit clamping". The "Vatican clip" in Dunhuang remains is an imitation or changed Vatican clip. The first change is that the Scriptures are no longer written on scallops, but on paper; The second change is that the Scriptures are mostly written in Chinese. In addition, Dunhuang suicide notes also preserved the binding styles of "classics folding", "wind spinning", "Butterfly", "backpack" and "thread". The Dunhuang remains are mainly written in Chinese, but many Hu language documents used by ancient Hu people are also preserved. In this kind of literature, Tubo is the most. Tubo language, also known as ancient Tibetan, is the language used by Tubo people in the Tang and Five Dynasties. Since the Tubo people once governed Dunhuang from ad 786 to ad 848, during which they implemented the Tubo system and Tubo language in Dunhuang, a large number of Tubo documents, about 8000 pieces, have also been preserved in the Dunhuang Sutra cave. These documents are of great value to the study of the history of Tubo, the history of Dunhuang and the ethnic changes in the northwest at that time. The second Hu language document in Dunhuang remains is Uighur. Uighur language is a language used by ancient Uighurs, also known as Huihe language. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the Uighurs played an important role in the history of Dunhuang. Since the late Tang Dynasty, Ganzhou, Suzhou in the East and Xizhou in the west of Dunhuang all had Uighur political power, and Uighur residents also lived in Dunhuang. For the above reasons, more than 50 Uighur books have also been preserved in the Dunhuang Sutra cave. The contents of these documents include letters, accounts and Buddhist documents, which are of great value to the study of Uighur history and culture. In addition, a small amount of Khotan, Sute and Sanskrit are preserved in Dunhuang suicide notes, which are of great value to the study of ancient ethnic relations and Sino foreign exchanges. The earliest known Dunhuang suicide note is the book of Vimalakirti written by Wang Xianggao of the Later Liang Dynasty. In 393 ad (the fifth year of the Later Liang Linjia), this document is now collected in the Shanghai Museum. The latest is the inscription of Cao zongshou, king of Dunhuang in 1002 (the fifth year of Xianping of Song Dynasty), which is collected in the Institute of Oriental Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. From 393 A.D. to 1002 A.D., the time span reached more than 600 years. Most Dunhuang suicide notes were written or copied in the late Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties and the early Song Dynasty. Suicide note research, rewriting middle ancient history In terms of content, Dunhuang remains can be said to be all inclusive, but because they are collected in Buddhist temples, the largest collection is Buddhist classics, accounting for about 90%. Many Dunhuang Buddhist documents are handed down Buddhist scriptures included in the Tibetan scriptures of previous dynasties, such as the great Prajna paramita Sutra, the Vajra Prajna paramita Sutra, the Lotus Sutra of the wonderful Dharma, the most victorious king of Jin Guangming Sutra, the Sutra said by Vimalakirti, the Mahayana Infinite Life Sutra, etc. Although there are handed down versions of the above scriptures, they still have important collation value and cultural relics value because the Dunhuang remains were copied earlier. Many Buddhist classics not found in the Tibetan scriptures handed down from generation to generation are also preserved in the Dunhuang remains. These "Yijing" and Buddhist classics that have not been collected have higher literature value and research value. Among them, the most important thing is to preserve a number of ancient classics, such as more than 130 kinds and more than 530 annotations to Vajra Sutra, fahua Sutra and Vimalakirti Sutra. These sutras are the understanding of Buddhism by Chinese Buddhists, so they can truly and concretely reflect the characteristics of ancient Chinese Buddhism. Besides Buddhist documents, there are also Taoist classics, Nestorian (Christian) classics and Manichaeism classics. The most striking thing in Taoist literature is the rediscovery of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching Xiang Er Zhu. Although it is a remnant, it preserves the Scriptures and notes from Chapter 3 to chapter 37 of the book, which provides new data for the study of Taoist history and reveals another way of Taoist classics. "Zun Jing", "three Wei Meng Du Zan of the great Qin Jingjiao", "Xuanyuan Ben Jing of the great Qin Jingjiao" and other Jingjiao documents, as well as Manichaeism documents such as "maniguang Buddhist Dharma and instrument outline", "lower Zan" and "proving the past cause and effect Sutra", provide important materials for the study of the spread of ancient Jingjiao and Manichaeism. Although the total amount of documents other than religious documents is small, accounting for only about 10%, they are rich in content, involving ancient history, geography, society, nationality, language, literature, art, music, dance, astronomy, calendar, mathematics, medicine, sports, ancient books and many other aspects. Many of them are first-hand materials not found in official history. Historically, Dunhuang's remains contain official documents, such as books, imperial edict, and accuser, legal documents, laws, orders, cases, and other legal documents, registered residence, and other books, such as sales, loans, employment and tenancy. These materials are of great value for understanding the political and economic situation of ancient China. For example, "in the second year of Tang Jingyun (AD 711), Shazhou governor Neng Changren imperial edict" is the original of the "imperial edict on matters" in the Tang Dynasty. There are 8 lines of text, and the instrument is sealed with the "seal of Zhongshu province". The great "imperial edict" in the middle is particularly eye-catching. This instrument has become a symbolic symbol of Dunhuang instruments. Based on this and referring to other documents, we can roughly understand the complex process from drafting to issuing the "imperial edict on matters". Another example is the "Tang Kaiyuan water Ministry style", which specifies in detail the management system of canals and bridges in the Tang Dynasty and the relevant responsibilities of officials at all levels. It not only provides valuable information for understanding the water conservancy management system in the Tang Dynasty, but also corrects the errors recorded in the six classics of the Tang Dynasty, the new Tang Dynasty and the old Tang Dynasty. At the same time, it also makes us have a specific understanding of the content and form of Tang style, and provides a text model for collecting other Tang style provisions from Tang Dynasty documents. The social history materials preserved in Dunhuang suicide notes mainly include "family tree", "calligraphy instrument", "community city document" and "temple document". "Genealogy" is the data that records the big surnames of ancient aristocratic families; Shuyi is the program and model for ancient people to write letters,