The dispersal of cultural relics from the Dunhuang scripture cave is one of the most representative examples of Chinese cultural relics being lost overseas in the early 20th century. Recently, the "Cultural Relics Return Act" passed by France has sparked public discussion, showing the dawn of China's return of lost cultural relics. However, recently, former Chinese Ambassador to France Kong Quan stated in a media interview that he must be wary of the claim of "unanimous approval" for France's cultural relic return bill: the French National Assembly has 577 seats, with only 170 votes in favor of the bill. An expert specializing in the study of Chinese cultural relics scattered overseas also stated in an interview with a reporter from The Paper that the cultural relics scattered in France, especially those from the Dunhuang Cave, were more difficult to legally define due to the existence of purchase transactions at that time, making them more difficult to return than the scattered cultural relics from the Yuanmingyuan. France is the second largest center for collecting Chinese cultural relics in Europe after the United Kingdom. According to existing statistics, the National Library of France has a collection of over 10000 Dunhuang cultural relics, including rare treasures such as silk manuscripts from the Northern Wei Dynasty, gold manuscripts from the Sui Dynasty, and silk embroidery manuscripts from the Tang Dynasty. The characteristic of Dunhuang cultural relics collected by France is "exquisite but not excessive", and its academic value is second to none in the global Dunhuang literature collection. The total number of Chinese cultural relics collected by French public institutions is about 2.6 million, of which more than 90% were illegally obtained during the modern colonial period. Dunhuang documents are a typical representative of this historical background. Boxihe and Dunhuang Cultural Relics: Although purchased, it is illegal. In 1908, French sinologist Paul Pelliot purchased about 7000 Dunhuang cultural relics from Mogao Taoist Wang Yuanqing for a mere 500 taels of silver. They arrived in Paris in November 1909 and some of them were collected in the National Library of France. In addition, more than 200 Tang Dynasty paintings, wood carvings, textiles, painted banners, sutras and other art pieces are now housed in the Jimei Museum in Paris. Compared with other countries' collections, the number of Dunhuang documents in France's collection is not the largest, but they are all high-quality documents that have been highly praised by researchers. Unlike the UK's collection, which mainly focuses on Dunhuang paintings, France's collection is known for its handwritten manuscripts and documents. Some researchers believe that although Boxi and the method of obtaining Dunhuang cultural relics were purchases, from a historical perspective, this acquisition behavior can be classified as illegal at least from the following aspects: firstly, the transaction object has no power of disposal, and the discoverer of the scripture cave, Wang Yuanhuang, is a Taoist and not the legal owner of Dunhuang cultural relics. According to the "Principle of Origin" in international law, cultural heritage belongs to its country of origin, and no individual has the right to dispose of it privately. Wang Yuanhuang's sale of cultural relics from the Tibetan scripture cave constitutes an act of unauthorized disposal; Secondly, the trading methods are deceptive. Boxi and others used the methods of "openly robbing and secretly robbing" and "coaxing and deceiving" to obtain cultural relics. The cultural and tourism department of Dunhuang city has clearly defined the behavior of Bo Xihe and others as "arbitrarily stealing cultural relics and illegally stealing items from Chinese cultural sites in Dunhuang without the permission of the Chinese government" in official documents; Thirdly, the transaction consideration is severely unfair. Boxihe exchanged 500 taels of silver for about 7000 cultural relics, including over 200 paintings. The true value of the cultural relics in the Tibetan scripture cave, even by the standards of the time, far exceeded this price. Boxi and I have a clear understanding of the fact that although they paid a little money for themselves, obtaining such a huge treasure must be a kind of harm to the Chinese people. From the perspective of Chinese law at that time, although the Qing government was corrupt and incompetent, it never issued laws authorizing foreign explorers to transport Chinese cultural relics out of the country at will. Most of the activities of these foreign inspection teams were carried out without official permission from the Chinese government, and their actions fundamentally violated China's sovereignty and laws at that time. The discovery of the Dunhuang scripture cave is one of the four major discoveries in modern Chinese academic history, but it was accidentally discovered by a Taoist who did not understand academia, which determined the tragic fate of the Dunhuang treasure. ”Rong Xinjiang, a professor of Peking University and a Dunhuang scholar, once wrote about it in his book. When Chen Yinque, a master of traditional Chinese culture, wrote a preface to The Remains of Dunhuang Robbery, he sighed: "Or, Dunhuang is the sad history of our country's learning." Is it possible for the return of Dunhuang documents? Former Chinese Ambassador to France Kong Quan believed in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that the French National Assembly's unanimous passage of the draft law on the return of cultural relics does not necessarily mean "smooth passage". International conventions usually have certain time limits on the recovery of cultural relics, which is extremely unfavorable for lost cultural relics from long ago. France is not only a major cultural relic country, but also an important global center for cultural relic trading. If the return mechanism is fully implemented, many public and private museums will suffer from it. Therefore, the draft law proposes a "double insurance": not only does it require the establishment of a joint scientific committee review list with the applicant country, but it also needs to be reviewed by the French National Committee for the Return of Cultural Property. A well-known Chinese expert in overseas cultural relics research told The Paper that due to the purchase and transaction of Dunhuang scripture cave cultural relics, it is more difficult to define their legal nature and enter the legal framework for recovery. In addition, differences in public opinion, cultural relics form, and collection subjects make it more difficult to return than the scattered cultural relics of Yuanmingyuan. The positive signal is that although early Western academia tended to use neutral terms such as "exploration," "discovery," and "acquisition" to describe Bo Xihe's trip to Dunhuang, in recent years, with the increasing awareness of global cultural relic return, more and more international scholars and institutions have begun to recognize the predatory nature of this behavior. In the Cultural Relics Return Act passed by the French government this time, "artworks and cultural relics obtained through illegal means such as colonial occupation, war plunder, and forced expropriation" between 1815 and 1972 are included in the scope of application. The methods of obtaining Dunhuang documents, namely fraudulent transactions, precisely meet the definition of "illegal means" in the bill. In addition, it is worth acknowledging that in recent years, the Dunhuang documents in the French collection have been opened to the academic community through high-definition digitization, catalog publishing, international cooperation projects, etc. This process is regarded as the "digital return" of Dunhuang cultural relics and documents. From the digital resources of French Dunhuang posthumous books published by the National Library of China to the publication of Dunhuang Documents in the National Library of France, this undoubtedly provides more convenience for Chinese researchers of Dunhuang Studies Studies, and many researchers can get a glimpse of the form and details of Dunhuang manuscripts. [Extended Reading] Appendix: Dunhuang Documents from the French Collection, known for their written and written works. It is reported that the National Library of France has more than 2700 Chinese documents and over 4000 Tibetan documents in its collection of Dunhuang manuscripts. In addition, there are precious documents in Sanskrit, Uyghur, Khotan, Sogdian, Hebrew and other languages, totaling over 7000 documents. Among them, the earliest extant rubbings, Tang Taizong's Hot Spring Inscription, Ouyang Xun's Relic Pagoda Inscription of the Old Monk Yong of Huadu Temple, and Shazhou Dudufu Tujing, have always been attached great importance to the study of Dunhuang Studies. In terms of collation system, these documents, with "P number" (Pelliot abbreviation), such as P.2001-P.6040, have become one of the standard reference systems for international Dunhuang Studies research. The collection of Dunhuang documents in the Dharma is rich in types, including religious documents such as Buddhist scriptures and their annotations, "Buddhist scriptures outside of Tibet", Nestorian and Manichaean documents. These materials not only reflect the spread of Buddhism, but also reveal the historical reality of multiple religions coexisting in the Dunhuang region; Secular documents, such as government documents, contracts, personal letters, and account books, provide first-hand evidence for studying grassroots society, economic structure, and legal practices during the Tang and Song dynasties; Classics and literary texts, including subsets of classics and history literature, lecture and singing literature, teaching and enlightenment texts, reflect the function of Dunhuang as a cultural dissemination node. Compared with other countries' collections, the Dunhuang documents in the French collection have a significant characteristic: although they are not the largest in quantity, they are all high-quality documents that have been highly praised by researchers. Unlike the English collection, which mainly focuses on Dunhuang paintings, the French collection is known for its handwritten copies and documents, which depends on the selection criteria set by Bo Xi and himself during the selection process. Selecting papers with non Chinese characters on the back, papers with inscriptions on scriptures, papers that are estimated not to have been included in the Buddhist collection, and non Buddhist scriptures and documents. The Dunhuang Collection of Documents, Illustrations, Calendars, Divination Documents, Legal Documents, etc. reflects the face of social and economic life. There are a wide variety of non Chinese document languages, including Sogdian, Khotan, Tibetan, Uyghur, Sanskrit, and Turra. Calligraphy works such as Tang Taizong's "Hot Spring Inscription", Liu Gongquan's rubbings of "Diamond Sutra", and Ouyang Xun's calligraphy rubbings, as well as exquisite paintings such as paper paintings, wooden plaque paintings, and silk paintings, also reflect high artistic value. Among the Dunhuang Buddhist paintings and cultural relics collected by the Jimei Museum, there are more than 200 Tang Dynasty paintings, banners, fabrics, wood carvings, etc., which were first collected in the Louvre Museum. In 1947, the Jimei Museum was reorganized as the Asian Art Department of the National Museum of France, and all cultural relics mainly composed of art were collected by the Jimei Museum. Rong Xinjiang recorded in his book that "three large exhibition rooms were built here to display the scrolls and banners discovered in Dunhuang and Xinjiang. Most of the exquisite paintings collected by Bo Xihe were publicly exhibited in the exhibition rooms, and people can still conveniently enjoy these art treasures when visiting the museum." The "Mandala of the Five Directions and Five Buddhas" collected at the Jimei Museum in Paris is a Buddhist painting brought back to France by Bo Xihe from Dunhuang. It depicts the mysterious Buddhist painting of mandalas (also translated as mandalas). The painting uses luxurious gold foil, reminiscent of Manichaean manuscripts and Turpan paintings. Meanwhile, the cool blue tone used in the painting reminds people of lapis lazuli, which was used in later paintings and may have been brought to Dunhuang by refugees from Khotan. The "Standing Banner of Bodhisattva in the Robe" is a relatively well preserved and exquisite Dunhuang silk painting collected by Boxihe. Boxihe named this painting "Standing Banner of Bodhisattva in the Robe" and it is currently housed in the Jimei Museum in Paris. As for the textiles collected by the Jimei Museum, museum researcher Laure Feug è re introduced in an article that in 1909, when Bo Xihe returned to Paris from Dunhuang, in addition to precious manuscripts and paintings, he also obtained a batch of precious textiles from China, such as sutras, scarves, tablecloths, and various silk paintings. The Buddha statues on silk paintings are often painted in silver, ink, or yellow (stone yellow), similar to those depicted in fabrics and cave murals. It was not until 2010 that this batch of textiles was finally fully cleared and cataloged. Although it is first-hand information, Boxi and are not very interested in these textile fragments because China had not yet started tomb excavations before the end of the 19th century. In his exploration notes, he wrote: "On March 7, 1908, I discovered two strange pieces of silk fabric, one was fabric and the other was embroidery. The blue embroidery ground was embroidered with white silk thread using a locking stitch technique to complete the sutra of the Pure Sutra of the Buddha's Sutra. The font was very peculiar." On March 13, 1908, he wrote: "Today I found a piece of woven fabric, and a few statues on it were still very intact." On March 20, he wrote: "A delicate tie. But that's all we know about textiles. His exploration notes extensively documented the discovery of the manuscript. (New Society)