Some Ancient Chinese Jades

THROUGH the generosity of Mr. Eldridge Johnson the Museum has recently purchased twelve rare Chinese jades of early period. Ten of these are ritual or ceremonial objects. Several are of forms so ancient that their original meaning and use is now but imperfectly understood.

The two pieces illustrated on Plate V are perhaps those of most general interest. The large disk is a pi, symbol and image of the Deity Heaven; the tall cylindrical object is a ts’ung, symbol of the Deity Earth. Whatever may have been the primitive origin of these symbols they had come by Chou times (ll22-255 B.C.) to represent geometric conceptions of these two principal deities. The author of the Chou Ritual explains that the pi was “round like Heaven” and that the ts’ung was, like Earth, “round inside and square outside.” The Emperor used jades of these types in the Imperial sacrifices to Heaven and Earth. But they were also used for burial purposes in the case of members of the Imperial family, where the Ritual calls for a jade pi under the back and a jade ts’ung upon the chest. The pi in this collection was doubtless a burial piece. It is a beautiful yellow ochre color except where the surface is pitted and eaten as if by acid. The cream colored ts’ung, nearly twelve inches tall, is of the ta ts’ung type, symbol of the Empress, who was the human representative of Earth.

The earliest and probably the most important piece in the collection is a small ceremonial double-edged dagger of extraordinary thinness and delicacy [Plate IV]. This is of a type traceable to the blade of a weapon called ko and may be as early as the 12th century B.C. The jade is a dull, dark green nephrite, but much of the surface is light buff due to the impress of the linen in which the object was evidently wrapped. Traces of red paint still remain.

Besides these pieces there is a splendid heavy axe-head of dark green jade containing iron ore. This is very early and, though no doubt a symbol of rank, shows signs of actual use. Another axe-head of translucent rich green jade is considerably later in date. There are also two interesting knives, probably of the Han dynasty (205 B.C.-221 A.D.); a yen-Kuei, or thin flat tablet about nine inches high, of bluish jade and of amazing thinness; and a ring of light yellow-green jade of that puzzling form called a süan-ki, supposed to have served as an astronomical instrument because of the three equally spaced projections on its periphery. Finally there are two unusually beautiful girdle ornaments made of onion-green translucent jade. One is a ring, yüan, the other a section of an arc, heng. Both hear an all-over design of small raised dots, each engraved with simple scrolls. They are of excellent workmanship.