向达【英】

Xiang Da

定义

湖南溆浦人，1937年赴德国访问柏林科学院及各地博物院，考察劫自中国西北地区的壁画，写卷；同年末赴巴黎，研究法国国立图书馆藏敦煌遗书。1938年，携数百万字手抄资料返国。1943年建议将莫高窟收归国有并设立管理、研究机构。

A native of Xupu, Hunan Province. In 1937 he went to Berlin to visit the Berlin Academy of Sciences, as well as museums in Germany, to investigate the wall paintings and manuscripts that had been taken from northwestern China. At the end of that year, he went to Paris to study the Dunhuang manuscript collections kept in the National Library of France. In 1938 he returned to China carrying materials that amounted to several million handwritten Chinese characters. In 1943 he made a proposal that the Mogao Grottoes should be nationalized, and that administration and research agencies for the caves should be established.