46 Field Museum of Natural History — Anth., Vol. X. 



execution made in times of war (Schlegel, Uranographie chinoise, 

 p. 298). 



We shall see in the next chapter that the jade emblems of sovereign 

 power were made in the shape of hammers, knives and other imple- 

 ments, and that these were connected with an ancient form of solar 

 worship; this investigation will shed new light on the reasons for the 

 burial of jade implements in the grave. Being emblems, and originally, 

 in all probability, images of the solar deity, they shared in the quality 

 of sun-light to dispel darkness and demons, and were efficient weapons 

 in warding off from the dead all evil and demoniacal influences. l 



Owing to the kindness of Mr. S. Couling, a medical missionary in 

 the English Baptist Mission in Ts'ing-chou fu, Shantung Province, I 

 am enabled to lay here before the reader twelve stone implements 

 discovered by this gentleman in the vicinity of his station. They had 

 been loaned by him to the Royal Scottish Museum of Edinburgh, and 

 Mr. Walter Clark, Curator of the Museum, by request of Mr. Couling, 

 has shown me the courtesy of forwarding these specimens to me for 

 investigation. I avail myself of this opportunity to herewith express 

 my thanks also publicly to both Mr. Couling and Mr. Clark for their 

 generous liberality, to which a considerable advance in our scanty 

 knowledge of stone implements from China is due. Mr. Couling, who 

 deserves the honor of being credited with the discovery, wrote to me 

 on September 22, 1905, from Ts'ing-chou fu in regard to these finds: 

 "These specimens, with the exception of one (Plate XII, Fig. 5) the 

 origin of which is unknown, have been found in this immediate neigh- 

 borhood, say within a radius of ten miles from the city during the last 

 few years. Most of them have been obtained through my schoolboys. 

 On knowing of what I wanted some remembered to have seen such 

 things, some knew neighbors who had them; others went out searching 

 and found a few. The finds are made in ploughed fields or in river beds 2 

 or in the loess cliffs not far down. The Chinese pay no heed to them, 

 only sometimes troubling to keep one as being a somewhat curious stone. 

 I should say there must be plenty more, though it is nearly a year since 

 I obtained the last, but they are not easy to collect, as the people do 

 not recognize their value." 



Jade does not occur in any of these specimens, for the apparent rea- 

 son that this mineral is not found in situ in Shantung; they are all made 

 of easily procured common local stones of the character of talco-hem- 



1 The reader may be referred to Chapter VIII of De Groot, The Religious 

 System of China, Vol. VI (Leiden, 1910), where a full and able discussion of this 

 subject is given. 



2 This statement is in full accord with that given by Chinese authors (see below). 



