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Field Museum of Natural History 



Department of Anthropology 



Chicago, 1922 

 Leaflet Number 1 



The Chinese Gateway 



(At South End of Stanley Field Hall) 



Large gateways of high architectural order occupy 

 a prominent place in the streets of Chinese cities, in the 

 courtyards of temples, or on avenues leading to a tomb 

 or mausoleum. As a type of architecture, they are 

 based on the so-called Torana of India, plans of which 

 were introduced into China and Japan as a sequel of 

 Buddhism. In the Buddhist art of ancient India, orna- 

 mental stone rails were built as enclosures around the 

 topes (mounds or structures containing sacred relics), 

 four gateways of highly decorative style being placed 

 in these rails. The Chinese, however, did not slavishly 

 i . imitate these monuments, but merely took them as 

 l> models and lavished on them the wealth of their own 

 j decorative motives. 



While the Romans erected triumphal archways in 

 -. commemoration of military successes, while the people 

 ± of India built them, in honor of their greatest man, 

 Buddha, the minds of a philosophical nation like the 

 Chinese drifted in a different direction. The exaltation 

 of military victories had no room in their thoughts; they 

 raised sanctuaries to glorify their philosophers and 

 statesmen, their sages and scholars, who shaped and 

 advanced the mental and ethical culture of the nation. 

 The character of Chinese art is impersonal, nor does it 

 glorify the individual. China has no statues or portraits 



rof emperors and generals. 

 Honorary gateways were erected in memory of 

 q deserving servants of the state and virtuous women. 

 Widows, who did not remarry after their husband's 



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