Fell in the Middle East - Stein's life of exploration and archaeological career

Author: None
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-12-01
Features: He was the son of a Jew but was baptized into Christianity; he began his travels at the age of 10 and mastered German, English, Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, and Persian; at the age of 21, he obtained a doctorate degree; he was Hungarian, and in order to obtain British citizenship and the King's reward, he endured hardships and suffered humiliation; he crossed the Pamir Plateau, climbed the Karakoram Ice Peak, ventured deep into the heart of Asia, traversed the Taklamakan Desert, and roamed the Silk Road, always oscillating between life and death, honor and disgrace; he left countless scars on the chest of Xinjiang, yet Xinjiang became renowned in the West because of him; he stole the treasures from the hidden chambers of the Dunhuang Grottoes, and as a result, Dunhuang gained worldwide fame; some say that without him, there would be no 20th-century Dunhuang studies; he was a thief, but also a hero. No one can say clearly whether we should praise him or curse him.
This book adopts the Marxist approach of "dividing into two" to sort through historical records and grasp the essence, placing Stein in the specific historical context before and after the World War, telling his struggles and confusions, and narrating his achievements and crimes. In the author's portrayal, Stein is into a flesh-and-blood historical figure, a real life, and an active soul. He was both an outstanding explorer and an excellent scholar, as well as a greedy tomb raider and a frenzied colonialist. He infiltrated Xinjiang and Gansu in China, stealing cultural relics with the expansion power of British colonialists. The precious cultural heritage left to us by our ancestors was indeed crazily plundered by Stein and others; but in that era when the Chinese nation bled, the court was corrupt, and national strength was declining, our Summer Palace was completely burned down by foreign powers in one fire, the Empress Dowager Cixi fled the capital in panic and was unable to resist, let alone places like Xinjiang and Dunhuang in the western frontier—was there anyone with the strength to stand against them?
While the author provides a detailed introduction to Stein's four journeys to Central Asia, his plundering deeds, and his academic achievements, he also deeply analyzes and reflects on the underlying reasons hidden behind the historical dust; thus, his evaluation of this complex historical figure is both objective and fair, free from bias, and full of dialectical thinking, rich in enlightenment.