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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. yS 



On the 20th, we were invited to dinner by the magistrate of An-i 

 Hsien, Mr. Cheng, who is a student and collector of antiquities. He 

 introduced us to a small museum in his yaiiicn where he has gathered 

 together a large number of Buddhist stelse and ancient tablets (fig. 

 139) which were originally scattered all over the district of An-i. Only 

 a part of all he found has been moved to his yamcn; but his catalogue 

 includes those which still remain in the different villages. He draws 

 rather a sharp line of demarcation and leaves all the post-Sung sculp- 

 tures unrecorded. It is an unusual work that he is doing, and gives 

 one a ray of hope that some of the ancient monuments in inland China 

 may yet be preserved. After the dinner we were taken about the city. 



P"iG. 141. — -Site at Hsi-yin Ts'un where prehistoric potter}- was found. 



where we saw some more of the dragon pillars, mostly in Taoist tem- 

 ples. The ancient city itself, where some of these pillars are supposed 

 to have been found, is less than a mile from the southern gate of An-i. 

 The remains of the old wall are still visible, but, if the place was a 

 city at all, it was indeed a very small one, measuring about 400 by 250 

 yards. It may, however, be the site of an important ancient building. 

 We left Yiin-ch'eng on the 21st, and on the 22d we arrived at 

 Hsia Hsien — center of the traditions of the ancient Hsia Dynasty. 

 The temple of the Great Yii and the tombs of his descendants as well 

 as many of the famous ministers of that dynasty are said to be located 

 here, and all these I visited (fig. 140) ; but I must confess that I am 

 not at all able to determine whether, judged by their appearance, they 

 are the real tombs or not. They all look like the ordinary burial 

 mounds, except that they are larger. However, while on our way to 



