262 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



treasures and a safeguard of her his- 

 tory. China should have a simUar ac- 

 tive society to protect, care for, and 

 repair her buildings, monuments, and 

 antiquities. She needs an Arcliajologi- 

 cal Survey, financed by the government 

 and administered by trained men, to 

 locate and appraise her scientific treas- 

 ures and to undertake the establishment 

 of national and provincial museums 

 where her priceless objects of art and 

 antiquity can find a permanent resting 



place and be open to exhibition and 

 study. 



In this period of transition China's 

 peril is great. She must awake to save 

 the memorials of her ancient civiliza- 

 tion or they will be stolen from her by 

 ruthless vandals, bartered to enrich the 

 coffers of soulless traders, and the rec- 

 ords of her glorious past will lie in 

 cruuiljling walls and heaps of dust.^ 



^ See A merican Museum Journal, Vol. XVI, pp. 

 109-112, and Vol. XVII, pp. 525 and 530 for 

 further illustrations of Chinese" monuments photo- 

 graphed by Mr. Andrews. 



Gate at the old city of Tali-fu in Yunnan. — Marco Polo passed through this gate about the year 

 1284. The famous traveler visited China during the reign of Kublai Kahn, and it is mainly to his 

 book of recollections that Cathay, as the Chinese empire was known to mediseval Europe, owed the 

 growing familiarity of its name in Europe during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The Polos 

 were pioneers of a very considerable intercourse between China and Europe, which endured for about 

 half a century, or until the end of the Mongol dynasty. Trees are growing from the upper parts of 

 this historical monument and it soon will be a crumbling ruin 



