British Sinologist Frances Wood: Repairing Chinese Antiquities at the British Library

East Meets West - Sinologists

During the 1970s, Frances Wood, a British expert in sinology, pursued her Chinese studies at Cambridge University. During this period, she was dispatched to Beijing for an in-depth exploration of Chinese history. Upon her return to the UK, she assumed the role of Director of the Chinese Department at the British Library for over three decades. During her tenure, she played a pivotal role in the restoration of a prominent library artifact - the Tang seal of the Diamond Sutra. Furthermore, she authored over ten monographs, sharing insights into Chinese culture and history with British readers.

In a recent interview with East Meets West, Frances discussed her involvement in the restoration and preservation of Chinese Dunhuang artifacts in the UK, as well as her deep appreciation for Chinese culture. She expressed the great honor she felt in being entrusted to "care for" the Dunhuang artifacts housed at the British Library. This responsibility also offered her the opportunity for an enriching exchange and dialogue with the perpetually captivating realm of Chinese culture.

Frances Wood, former Director of the British Library's China Department and a member of the steering committee of the International Dunhuang Project, studied Chinese at Cambridge University in 1971, went to Peking University in 1975 to study Chinese history, and returned to the UK in 1977.

The British Library, which has a history of more than 250 years, has a collection from China that spans millennia, from its collection of more than 450 Chinese oracle bones, to the Diamond Sutra, which is regarded as the world's earliest and most complete existing printed text, to the 16 Chinese online literary works, including The Flunky and The Great Country, which were included in 2022. How do you make sense of this? What makes you so fascinated by Chinese archaeology, Chinese history, and culture?

When I began to understand the history and culture of China, I was deeply attracted by it. Chinese culture has continued for thousands of years. It is impossible to understand ancient China, modern China, or future China without reading Chinese history and understanding China in terms of continuity. I was impressed by the beauty of Chinese art in various fields. Jade, for example, because of its inherent characteristics of both hardness and warmth, has been elevated to a high spiritual status over thousands of years, as China has used jade as a metaphor for human beings, and has continued to sublimate the virtues of the gentleman, while precious metals such as gold and silver have played a much lesser role in consumption and display than in Europe.

In fact, these manuscripts at Dunhuang date back to 400 AD to 1000 AD and include Buddhist texts, Taoist texts, Confucian texts, etc., so one can get a complete picture of Chinese culture during that period. These precious artefacts, including the Tang-printed Diamond Sutra, are part of the world's earliest paper archive. Many foreigners do not understand the history and value of this Diamond Sutra. The process of discovery, transfer, restoration, and bringing this book back to the light of day is detailed in the book Tracing the Ancient Dunhuang Book of the Diamond Sutra, which I co-authored with my colleague, Mark, and which has been distributed in the United Kingdom, France, China, Latin America, and so on. We introduced this beautiful publication and Chinese culture from the East to the world, and the feedback from readers has been very favourable.

Hand-carved version of the first page of the Diamond Sutra attracts visitors in Lanzhou, Gansu province. Credit: Yalong Li.

In my canonical studies, I have often cited the example of the laws of the Qin Dynasty, and the starting point is different in Europe and China. In China, height has been used as a criterion since the Qin Dynasty to the present day, e.g. children under 1 metre tall can travel free on public transport, whereas in Europe the criterion is age, and it is fascinating to see this comparative study of East and West based on the ancient Chinese canonical texts. Chinese laws were written as early as the 1st century B.C., while European laws were written more than 1,000 years later.

You have travelled to China many times and published books such as Did Marco Polo Visit China? 2000 Years of the Silk Road, Chinese Literature and many other books about China, what do you see in the books and your personal experience of China?

The greatest achievement of the new China is the eradication of absolute poverty. The improvement I have seen in the living standards of the population is phenomenal, and that must be commended.

For example, the construction of new museums in China, beginning with the Shanghai Museum in 1952, has been spectacular. Recently, I visited the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha, a fine building with a marvellous collection on display.

Various exhibits attract visitors to the second exhibition of the "Why China" series - "Proof of China: Songze-Liangzhu Civilisation Archaeological Special Exhibition" launched by the Shanghai Museum. Credit: Hengwei Zhang.

Most of the books I read are about history, either in English or Chinese. I prefer to read non-fiction books, such as literature and history, biographies and autobiographies. Recently, I got a book published by Zhejiang Ancient Books Publishing House, A Hundred Years of Sacrifice for the Loss of National Treasures, by Chang Qing, a PhD in Chinese art history from the University of Kansas, USA, and Huang Shan, a PhD student at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, UK, which introduces the dispersal of Chinese cultural relics from the end of 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. Numerous foreign explorers, antiquities dealers, and others took untold numbers of artefacts from all over China, including murals from the Bezeklik Grottoes, Han Dynasty documents, Dunhuang documents, and more. I'm looking forward to studying this book, it will certainly be very rewarding.

A large number of visitors to the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha, Hunan Museum. Credit: Visual China.

The canonical books carry on traditional Chinese culture, and are the symbol and witness of the long and thriving history of Chinese civilisation. You worked at the British Library for more than 30 years, guarding Chinese books, especially the precious 14,000 Dunhuang scrolls. You once said, "Gently shaking these pages is like hearing the sound of history." What have you learnt through your study of the Dunhuang scrolls?

Looking after the Dunhuang scrolls at the British Library is a great honour, and the work is endlessly fascinating. I am not an expert on Dunhuang, but I have learnt a great deal from the scholars who have come to study the manuscripts, especially those from China.

The "Four Major Discoveries of Chinese Ancient Documents at the Beginning of the 20th Century" is on display at the National Museum of Canonical Books in Beijing. Scripture transcripts in the "Dunhuang Legacy" exhibition attract visitors to take a closer look. Credit: Yu Hou.

My job is to make these original manuscripts more widely available through digitisation projects, so that images of the Dunhuang civilisation can be perpetuated and more widely known on the web, and to preserve the precious originals for future generations. We have been working in libraries since the late 1970s, and due to the sheer number of original manuscripts, we have had to raise funds outside of the library to conserve them. With the help of four Chinese conservators, we made it possible to catalogue some 7,000 fragments of Dunhuang artefacts. At the same time, we carried out a near-perfect restoration of the Diamond Sutra.

It is difficult to understand the magic of Dunhuang; these paper archives, once hidden deep in the caves, are not only in Chinese, they encompass the languages and scripts of Central Asia, revealing the history of human interaction. These texts travelled from China to Europe via the Silk Road, conveying a wealth of information about trade, ideas, concepts, languages and peoples along the Silk Road, a very important part of world history.

Visitors dressed in flying costumes are photographed during a trip to Dunhuang's Mingsha Mountain Crescent Spring scenic spot, 21 July 2023, in Jiuquan, Gansu province. Nowadays, people's understanding of Dunhuang culture has been expanded and extended, and Dunhuang culture has become more vivid. Credit: Yalong Li.

Dunhuang artefacts are a treasure of Chinese culture and their presence in London reflects a sad period in modern history (late 19th to early 20th century) that would be impossible and unacceptable today. So we did our best to facilitate visits and research by Chinese scholars. These Chinese scholars have done marvellous work.

You have stated that the Chinese know much more about English literature than the British know about Chinese literature. How do you think the Western world's knowledge and perception of China has changed today?

American athletes stroll happily in the Athletes' Village of the 31st World University Summer Games in Chengdu, 27 July 2023. The Chengdu Universiade has become an important window for overseas youths to learn about China. Credit: Chao Chen.

I still think that most people in the UK, as well as in Europe and the US, don't know much about China and its culture. I am happy to write about China, which has a very inclusive history, and I always find my readers and listeners fascinated by it. Perhaps we need more visionary politicians to lead the way to a more open attitude to the different cultures and civilisations on this planet.