Chen Yinque And Dunhuangnology

In 1930, Mr. Chen Yinque asserted in the preface written for Chen Yuan's the Dun Huang after Being Plundered that "Dunhuangnology rises as a new science of the world today". His assertion gave the newly-rise study its own name. He himself had also been deeply related to Dunhuangnology. Mr. Chen might not have devoted himself to this new study academically, but he made great contribution in salvaging and sorting out Dunhuangnological materials and establishing and developing Dunhuangnology which became one of the most important social studies in the Twentieth Century. With regard to his methods, he took advantage of comparative linguistics based on traditional textual research, so as to shed light on the important cultural issues hiding behind the words and languages, bringing Dunhuangnology into a still broader realm. In the eyes of his mind, Dunhuangnology represented in the whole sense the study of the cultural exchange between ancient China and the Western World, while the study of Dunhuangnology provided great momentum for promoting the academic exchange between China and foreign countries. After all, he developed such opinion of Dunhuangnology as a result of the cultural exchange between China and the Western countries. His profound knowledge of Chinese traditional culture, the repercussion he received from the ideological vicissitude of Modern China, the edification by Western scientific conception, all led to his opinion of culture with a mixed style of both the East and the West.