Letters from the Silk Road

I have just finished reading Life Along the Silk Road, by Susan Whitfield. In it, she mentioned the website of the International Dunhuang Project, so I checked it out after getting home. I resolutely put aside the Silk Road exhibition section for when I have more time, but couldn't resist digging around the education page a little. (I will pay for this tomorrow morning, when I have to get up at 5am.)

Whitfield mentions, in her book, the tens of thousands of manuscripts that were found near Dunhuang in China, in a cave that was sealed in the early eleventh century and not reopened until the beginning of the twentieth century. (Check out the exhibition link above. It's wonderful.) These manuscripts include model letters, and she quotes one in full. It is easy to understand why. It is the kind of letter you want to have filed away somewhere, just in case you might need it. I am delighted to see it is also posted in full in the education section of the IDP website:

A letter of apology for getting drunk

Yesterday, having drunk too much, I was so intoxicated as to pass all bounds; but none of the rude and course language I used was uttered in a conscious state. The next morning, after hearing others speak on the subject, I realized what had happened, whereupon I was overwhelmed with confusion and ready to sink into the earth with shame. It was due to a vessel of small capacity being filled for the nonce too full. I humbly trust that you in your wise benevolence will not condemn me for my transgression. Soon I will come to apologize in person, but meanwhile I beg to send this written communication for your kind inspection. Leaving much unsaid, I am yours respectfully.

Who wouldn't forgive a bad drunk who sent an apology like that?

Sadder is the story of the abandoned wife's letters. How unlucky can you get? She posted these letters in the 4th century, but

Poor Miwnay’s letters never even reached her husband or mother: they were finally found in a mislaid post bag outside Dunhuang in 1907.

I wonder how Miwney would have felt if she'd known that her letters wouldn't be read until 1600 years after she wrote them?





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