A number of manuscripts of the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties were discovered in Dunhang and Turpan. Most were Buddhist scriptures while a few were Taoist scriptures, Confucian Classics and Letters. The commemoration inscriptions, attached at the Taoist and Buddhist scriptures with the era and rich historical information, boasted great academic value and reflected that most manuscripts, copied in the south, flowed into Dunhuang and Turpan through the traffic route between the Northwest and the Southeast. These information revealed that religious cultural exchanges and communications between the Northwest and the Southeast regions in the Eastern Jin, Sixteen Kingdoms, and Southern and Northern Dynasties.
