Excerpt from The Monk's Treasure Yes, yes, sir, replied Walter somewhat guiltily, for he had, in fact, been thinking of cer tain good-bys that must be said. Give me close attention, now, my boy, for you are going to be thrown entirely on your own re sponsibility, after you leave this othee. The sec ond thing counting off number two, is to look out for adulteration. Argols are the easiest things in the world to adulterate and if you don't watch those Latins and and Levantines, as a cat watches a mouse, they will slip in something or other - clay, gypsum, sand, that will render your purchase almost useless. You understand thoroughly the chemical tests? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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Stunning works in precious metals, glass, and stone -- many recently excavated and virtually unknown outside China -- shed new light on a pivotal epoch in Chinese history. From the 4th through 7th century, monks and merchants freely traveled along the fabled Silk Road, linking China with the west, propagating Buddhism, and purveying exotic goods and artifacts that fundamentally transformed Chinese culture and society. This sumptuous volume, the first to explore the magnificent treasures and sites of China's northwest section of the Silk Road, accompanies an exhibition at the Asia Society in New York. The text by an international team of scholars illuminates the importance of the region in this period of fertile cross-cultural exchanges between Eastern and Western Asia.