THE BRONZES OF HSIN-CHENG HSIEN2?2 
By C. W. BrsHop 
[With 9 plates] 
One of the most significant archeological finds of recent years— 
perhaps the most significant, for the amount of new light. which it 
throws on a highly important but hitherto little known ancient civi- 
lization—is that made at Hsin-chéng Hsien, in Honan, last summer 
(1923). A correspondent of mine in the United States, whose opin- 
ion I value most highly, writes: “It seems to me that you hardly do 
justice to the finds in comparing them with those discovered in the 
tomb of ‘Tutankhamen, where little, if anything, was found that was 
new to Egyptologists.” At Hsin-chéng Hsien very much that was 
new was disclosed, and vastly more would have been found, past all 
doubting, had the excavation been carried out in a scientific manner. 
I was sitting in an art dealer’s shop in Chéng Chow one afternoon 
last September, when word was brought to me that a remarkable 
collection of ancient bronzes had lately been dug up at a town not 
far off and was then at the headquarters of Gen. Chin Shih-chang, 
near by. I at once went over with my associates, Mr. K. Z. Tung and 
_ Mr. A. G. Wenley, and although the general himself was absent, we 
were given cordial permission to inspect the find. 
It was late in the day, the light was fading fast, and my time 
was short. Yet, brief as my inspection was, it brought a quick reali- 
zation that here was something of the utmost importance from the 
archeological point of view. So the very next morning, together with 
my two associates I took a train for Hsin-chéng Hsien, 27 miles south 
of Chéng Chow, to inspect the site before the digging, which I was 
told was still going on, should have obliterated everything. 
The town of Hsin-chéng Hsien lies 3 miles or so to the westward 
of the station—about an hour’s walk. Soon after starting out we 
struck into loess deposits, much eroded and terraced for cultivation. 
About 1 mile west of the railway, after crossing a small stream flow- 
ing south, we passed through a gap in an enormous earthwork over- 
1 Reprinted by permission from The Chinese Social and Political Science Review, Vol. 
VIIt; ‘No. II; April, '1924. 
457 
