王道士
王道士（1849—1931），湖北麻城人，名圆箓，又作园禄。他是敦煌藏经洞的发现者，也是藏经洞文物流散的关键人物。王道士早年因家乡连年旱灾，四处逃荒。清光绪初，入肃州巡防营为兵勇，后离军，受戒成为道士，道号法真。
约光绪二十三年（1897）王道士来到敦煌莫高窟。他在莫高窟南区北段，清理积沙，供奉香火，收受布施，也外出募化，并以“莫高窟住持自居。1900年6月，王道士率人凿开莫高窟第16窟甬道北壁的一处裂隙，发现一个堆满古代文献文物的小窟“藏经洞”（今莫高窟第17窟）。
1904年，甘肃布政使司命敦煌知县汪宗翰对藏经洞文物就地封存，汪氏责令王道士对这批文物妥善保管、不许外流。1906年，王道士维修藏经洞所在的窟前建筑三层楼完工，并立功德碑记其事。从1907年开始，先后有斯坦因、伯希和、橘瑞超、吉川小一郎、奥登堡等外国探险者，从王道士手中骗购走了4万多件文献文物，占藏经洞文物的五分之三。
莫高窟三层楼对面的地面建筑，即王道士所建道观“三清宫”，也称“下寺”，现为敦煌研究院藏经洞陈列馆。1931年，王道士死后葬于莫高窟窟前大泉河东岸，其徒赵玉明等就其墓起塔，即“道士塔”，塔上嵌有其墓志铭。
Wang Yuanlu
Wang Yuanlu (1849-1931), or Wang Tao-shih, originally from Macheng in today's Hubei Province, was named Yuanlu (圆箓), also written "园禄" with the same pronunciation. He discovered the Library Cave in Dunhuang and became a key figure in the dispersal of the texts found there. In his early years, Wang faced repeated droughts in his hometown, leading him to wander about. In the early days of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), he joined the garrison in Suzhou as a soldier but eventually left the military to become a Taoist priest, taking the name Fazhen.
Wang arrived at the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang in 1897. He began clearing the accumulated sand in the northern section of the southern area of the caves, burning incense, receiving donations, and fundraising while adopting the title Abbot of the Mogao Caves. In June 1900, Wang and his team excavated a crack in the northern wall of the corridor in Cave 16, resulting in the discovery of a small cave filled with ancient texts and artifacts, now known as the Library Cave (Mogao Cave 17 today).
In 1904, the governor of Gansu ordered Wang Zonghan, magistrate of Dunhuang, to seal the artifacts from the Library Cave. Wang Zonghan instructed Wang Yuanlu to ensure the proper preservation of these items and prohibited their dispersal. By 1906, Wang completed the construction of a three-story building in front of the Library Cave, and he erected a stele to commemorate this achievement. Starting in 1907, foreign explorers, including Marc Aurel Stein, Paul Pelliot, Zuichō Tachibana (1890-1968), a Japanese explorer and Buddhist monk associated with the ōtani Expedition, a series of early 20th-century archaeological missions to Central Asia, and Koichiro Yoshikawa (1885-1978), a Japanese scholar and explorer, and Sergei Fedorovich Oldenburg (1863-1934), a Russian Orientalist and archaeologist, fraudulently purchased from Wang Yuanlu over 40,000 items of documents and artifacts, which accounted for three-fifths of the treasures enshrined in the Library Cave.
Opposite the three-story building at the Mogao Caves is the Taoist temple Three-Purity Palace, also known as Lower Temple, which was built by Wang Yuanlu. Today, this temple serves as an exhibition hall for the Library Cave under the Dunhuang Academy. After his death in 1931, Wang was buried on the eastern bank of the Daquan River in front of the Mogao Caves. His disciple Zhao Yuming and others constructed a stupa over his grave, known as the "Taoist Stupa", which features inscriptions commemorating his life.
