Page 28 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

Bodhisattva as guide of
souls. Ink and colors on
7
silk; height 80.5 (31 /s);
Tang dynasty; from
Dunhuang, Gansu pro-
vince. Stein painting 47,
ch. LVII.OOZ. Courtesy of
the British Museum (left).

Kneeling attendant
bodhisattva. Molded clay
stucco over wooden arma-
ture, gesso-covered surface
with polychomy and gild-
ing; height 122 (48); Tang
dynasty; from Dunhuang,
Gansu province (Fogg
China expedition, 1923-
1924). Courtesy of the
Arthur M. Sackler Museum,
Harvard University Art
Museums (right).

Mongolia, and Tibet. During an expedition that lasted from 1899 to 1902, he discovered the
19
Loulan site at Xinjiang, an abundant source of historical data. Most of Hedin s surveys were
well documented by maps, photographs, drawings, and site descriptions. His last and most im-
portant joint venture with Chinese scholars, the Northwestern Scientific Investigation Group,
20
or Sino-Swedish Expedition, was led by Xu Bingxu (1888 -19/6) and lasted from 1927 to 1935.
The cooperative nature of this expedition resulted from protests by Chinese academics, espe-
21
cially members of the faculty at Peking (Beijing) and Ts'inghua (Qinghua) Universities, who
were unwilling simply to act as observers in archaeological excavations. Hedin agreed that all
artifacts discovered would remain in China. With ten Chinese and seventeen European scholars
at its start, Hedin's expedition remains the largest joint Chinese-Western archaeological project
ever undertaken. 22
The Geological Survey of China, an agency of the Republic's Ministry of Agriculture and
23
Commerce, and its founding director Ding Wenjiang (Chinese, 1887-1936) played vital roles
in the early years of archaeological investigations in China. A British-trained geologist who
sought to promote Western science in China, Ding was appointed by the government to the
Survey in 1916 to locate mineral deposits. Ding recruited several distinguished Western scien-
tists to assist in the effort. The most influential and well-known were Amadeus William Grabau

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