This is Chris Bricker, and I’m thrilled to introduce you to Bill Porter – or Red Pine – one of the world’s finest translators of Chinese Poetry and religious texts. For those of you who already know him, and those of you who will get to know him, he prefers to just being your neighbor Bill Porter. Each week, Bill will bring you a series of enticing installments that we’re calling A Journey Along the Silk Road. So sit back and enjoy the journey, every Tuesday at approximately 5:20 and Friday at approximately 12:15. And lose yourself in the mystery of the Silk Road!
(Airdate: July 15, 2025) We’re at the Mogao Caves, visiting Caves 16 and 17, where the ancient world’s single most important collection of books was found by a Chinese monk in 1901 and then sold by him a number of years later for the equivalent of two hundred English pounds. Among the collection was the earliest known printed book, as well as that exculpatory form letter for drunks to use the morning after. Our guide completed her account of how China’s greatest literary treasure was stolen by a couple of foreigners, and then we moved on to begin our tour of Mogao’s other treasures—its wall paintings. They Constitute China’s greatest art gallery, as well as its richest source of information about cultural exchange on the Silk Road….
(Airdate: July 8, 2025) We’re at the Mogao Caves, at Cave 17. Taoist Monk Wang Yuanlu found a library of ancient Buddhist manuscripts concealed behind a wall in 1901 Wang needed money to repair the shrines that filled the caves, and exploiters were only too happy to help him out. The Dunhuang Manuscripts, as they’ve become known, constitute the ancient world’s most important Collection of books, including the world’s earliest known form letter for drunks and for the hosts who had to endure them….
(Airdate: July 1, 2025) We’re in Gansu Province at the Mogao Caves, east of Dunhuang. Among the first caves on our list is Cave 17, located behind the north wall of Cave 16’s hallway— the well-known Library Cave. Tragically, after the discovery of this rich trove of literature and manuscripts at the turn off the century, from 1900 to 1915 one foreign expeditioner after the other clandestinely purchased nearly 40,000 documents, scriptures, and other cultural relics found there….
(Airdate: June 24, 2025) We’re 25.kilometers southeast of Dunhuang, just outside the Mogao Caves and their repository of Buddhist art. It all began in the second century BC when the Chinese chased the Huns out if the Gansu Corridor and made Dunhuang the western most outpost of their empire. Dunhuang was where the two main branches off the Silk road met, one from the central Asian kingdoms of the northwest, and the other from the northern Indian kingdoms to the southwest. The city grew rich from the trade that passed through it’s gates….
(Airdate: June 17, 2025) We’re in the town of Dunhuang, and we’ve just checked in to the Flying Asparagus Hotel, the watering hole of budget travelers. Since the hotel is right across the street from the bus station, it’s the place where travelers stop first. The bus station also has the only cheap transportation to the Mogao Caves east of town. The Caves are one of the greatest repositories of Buddhist art….
(Airdate: June 10, 2025) We’re rolling down the asphalt on our way from Jiayuguan to Dunhuang. We finally left the snow-capped ridges of the Qilian mountains behind and traded them in for the eroded red and gray of the Gansu Badlands. Despite the nine-hour ride, we were feeling good for the first time in days. Our fevers were gone! Finn honored our change in fortune by penning a bus ride…
(Airdate: June 3, 2025) We’re in Gansu Province, and we’ve just left the town of Jiayuguan and past the fort on the Jiayuguan Path. The fort is where merchants stopped in ancient times to pay tolls, and travelers stopped to have their papers checked. Then they headed into the desert. Many wrote poems on the walls of the fort before heading into the unknown. Visitors still write poems, although the subject matter isn’t quite so ominous and heartrending as it once was….
(Airdate: May 27, 2025) We’ve been staying at the Jiayuguan Guest House, one of the most expensive places we’ve stayed at so far. We figured the Chinese Ministry of Tourism inspector in charge must have been bribed to award them two stars! We’ve been visiting all the surrounding convenient sites, but the one site we decided to forego was the July 1st Glacier, located over 100 kilometers away in the Qilian Mountains….
(Airdate: May 20, 2025) We’re in Gansu Province, visiting the town of Jiayuguan and the Great Wall Museum. The “Great Wall” part isn’t all that great, but our disappointment was somewhat mollified by a wing that included the mummified remains of several women. The exhibit also included dozens of painted bricks that once decorated the walls of the tombs where the corpses were found….
(Airdate: May 13, 2025) After the first emperor united China’s warring states in 221BC, he ordered construction of the wall in order to protect its empire from the periodic invasions from the nomadic tribes to the north. He assigned this monumental task to one of his generals, Meng Tien.
