ARCHEOLOGICAL ]<:XPJa3ITI()X TO CHINA 



Bv C. W. BISHOP, 



Associate Curat or. freer Gallery of .Irt 



In a ])revi()iis ])ul)licati()n/ it has l)een made clear that the funcla- 

 niental puri)ose of the Freer Gallery of Art in despatching- a Field 

 Expedition to China was not merely that of making collections, or 

 even of conducting researches on its own sole responsihility. The 

 aim, on the contrary, was to effect a definite and ecjuitahle arrange- 

 ment with the Chinese authorities and scientific hodies themselves 

 for the prosecution of archeological investigation on a closely coo]iera- 

 tive Ijasis. Their considered hut cordial response to our overtures has 

 amply demonstrated the wisdom of this ])olicy ancl of its C(Mitinuance. 



Accompanied by my Chinese hel])er. Mr. K. Z. Tung, to whom is 

 due much of the credit for our sul)se(|uent success, I arrived in 

 Shanghai on March 17, 1923, and remained in the field, with the 

 exception of one brief interval, until April 30, uj2~. During this 

 ]3eriod of slightly over four years, close and very harmonious relations 

 were established with the llist(M-ical Museimi of Peking, to which, 

 as previously stated." I was before long appointed Honorary Adviser 

 at the initiative of the Chinese Government, and also with the newly 

 founded Research Institute of Tsing Hua University, better known 

 to the American public as the " Boxer Indemnity College." Conjointly 

 with representatives of one or other of these l)odies, ten of the Eighteen 

 Provinces of China, including all those of the greatest historical im- 

 portance, were visited and studied, and actual excavations were con- 

 ducted in three. 



As part of this work has already been described in ])revious reports." 

 it will not be further discussed here. To take up the account from 

 the spring of 1925. that season was spent in northern Shansi. where, 

 besides further study of the famous Buddhist sculptured caves of 

 Yiin Kang. a detailed exploration was made of a rather large area 

 centering about the important city of Ta-t'ung. Many sites of great 



^Explorations and Field-Work of the Smithsonian Institution in 1924, Smith- 

 sonian Misc. Coll., Vol. 77, No. 2, p. 75. 

 ' Loe. eit. 



" Lac. eit. and /7)/'(/. for 1926. 



109 



