Introduction. 15 



devoting a chapter or two to art-works of jade and cyclopaedias giving 

 extracts and quotations on the subject. The Ko ku yao lun by Ts'ao 

 Chao, published in 1387, and the Po wu yao Ian by Ku Ying-t'ai, 

 published between 162 1 and 1627, are especially noteworthy. The 

 great cyclopaedia T'u shu tsi ch'eng of 1726, a copy of which is in the 

 John Crerar Library (C 750), contains eight chapters on jade in its 

 section on National Economy, Ch. 325-332. There is also a great 

 amount of useful information in the Yen kien lei han (Original Palace 

 edition of 1710 in 140 Vols, in the Newberry Library, N 36), Ko chih 

 king yiian published in 1735 by Ch'en Yuan-lung (1652-1736), Pen 

 ts'ao kang mu by Li Shih-chen (completed in 1578), and certainly 

 in the P'ei wen yiin fu (Ch. 100 a). To enumerate all Chinese sources 

 is unnecessary, since the sinological reader knows where to turn, while 

 no advantage would accrue from such a task to the general reader. 



As our collection relates to the cultural conditions of antiquity, 

 we are certainly obliged to consult the ancient texts in which its ideas 

 arc reflected. The classical Book of Songs (Shi king) and the Book 

 of History (Shu king) are prominent among these. 



The principal sources bearing on the ancient religious cult and 

 containing ample material on the ceremonial usage of jade are the 

 three great Rituals, the Chou It, the Li ki, and the / li. 1 Of the former, 

 we possess the excellent translation by Edouard Biot 2 which is a 

 monument of stupendous and sagacious erudition and remains the 

 only work of Chinese literature heretofore translated into any foreign 

 language with a complete rendering of all commentaries. In a great 

 number of passages, I was prevented from following any of the ac- 

 cepted translations, especially in those cases where archaeological 

 objects and questions are involved. If it is true that Chinese archae- 

 ology must be based on the knowledge of Chinese texts with the same 

 method as classical archaeology, it is no less true that the interpretation 

 of the ancient texts will have a great deal to learn from the facts of 

 archaeological research and its living objects of stone, clay or metal 

 which are harder than any paper-transmitted evidence. In the light 

 of revived antiquity, we shall learn better to understand and appreciate 

 the ancient Rituals in particular. If I am obliged, most reluctantly, 

 to deviate from such authorities as Biot, Legge and Couvreur, I beg 

 my critics not to interpret this necessity as arrogance or a mania for 



1 1 availed myself of the Palace Edition published 1748 by order of the Emperor 

 K*ien-lung in 182 Vols. (John Crerar Library, Nos. 213-215). As to the illustrations, 

 I did not always quote them from this edition, which but few readers may have 

 at their disposal, but rather from current European books easily accessible to every 

 one. 



2 See Bibliography at end. 



