Jiang Xiaowan was the interpreter who accompanied Aurel Stein on his expedition to Dunhuang in 1907 and enabled Stein to secure the purchase of ancient manuscripts, including the Diamond Sutra, the world's oldest dated printed text.

Name

Jiang Xiaowan was his given name. His courtesy name according to Aurel Stein was Chiang Yin-Ma;http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/VIII-5-B2-8/V-2/page/0787.html.ja "Ruins of Desert Cathay", Marc Aurel Stein, Vol. 2 however the Chinese characters of this name was not recorded.

Jiang was more often referred to as Chiang Ssu-Yeh (Wade–Giles) or Jiang Siye (Pinyin), which was likely the mistranscription of . Ssu-yeh was a title at the time indicating the person had learned traditional Chinese law.

References

See also

Turning the Pages - the Diamond Sutra at the British Library (broadband or dial-up )