van gulik

CHINESE PANTING and Chinese ceramics are two subjects about which a great deal has been written in Western languages. There is, however, a marked difference in the state of our knowledge about the two; it cannot bo denied that our studies of the former are lagging far behind. This disparity appeared already at the beginning of this century. When in 1905 the Sinologues H. A. Giles and F. Hirth published the first two serious monographs on Chinese pictorial art they could do little more than reconnoitre the field.