Because the Australian-born British archaeologist Sir Aurel Stein and the French sinologist Paul Pelliot took away large amounts of manuscripts early this century, today there are more than 9,000 chuan in the British Museum and some 5,000 chuan in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Others went to Japan, America and Russia.
本世紀初英國的奧籍考古學家斯坦因與法國漢學家伯希和就曾帶走大批抄本，如今估計有九千卷之多藏在大英博物館，法國巴黎國家圖書館也有五千卷；還有部分流入日、德、俄等國。