Introduction. 17 



period now at our disposal will show that, in the plurality of cases, 

 there is hardly a shadow of resemblance between the two. Wu Ta- 

 ch'£ng has taken the lead in this new field of research, and we are 

 indebted to him for the restoration of the truth in the place of roman- 

 ticism with regard to archaeological objects of primary importance. 

 The image of the Deity Earth has been mistaken for the part of a 

 chariot wheel-nave which never existed in this form, while the former 

 was construed in the shape of an eight-pointed star-figure, going back 

 to a misunderstanding read by the commentators into their texts. 



The most instructive examples of this kind are the ku pi and p'u 

 pi, i. e. jade disks with "grain" and "rush" pattern. 



The ancient Chinese texts are clad in a brief and laconic style, 

 never wasting a word on the description of objects then known to 

 everybody. They simply give the names of numerous vases, weapons, 

 insignia, etc., without further details, so that there is plenty of room 

 for the commentators to expand. These were scholars alien to the 

 world, of versatile intuition perhaps, but lacking in the knowledge 

 and observation of life and reality. It was not found unreasonable 

 to answer that the jade disks ku had a bunch of cereals, and those 

 called p'u a design of rushes engraved on them; the Sung artists ac- 

 cepted this comment, and quite characteristic of the pictorial tendency 

 of their time, reconstructed those disks by drawings with realistic 

 representations of the respective plants. For two thousand years, 

 the Chinese have groped absolutely in the dark as regards the true 

 nature of these disks. Now we know that such designs never existed 

 in the Chou period, that the disks ku were covered with concentric" 

 rows of raised dots, an ornament called "grain," and that the disks 

 p'u were decorated with a mat impression consisting of hexagons, the 

 pattern receiving its name from a rush-mat. This and many other 

 examples revealed on the pages to follow will furnish much food for 

 reflection. 



First, in regard to the methods of the archaeologist. A net distinc- 

 tion should always be made between the wording of the ancient texts 

 and the additional utterances of commentatorial wisdom. The com- 

 mentators, very often, may certainly be right and reasonable, but 

 should be held up as suspects under all circumstances and acquitted 

 only on close trial. Their thoughts are usually afterthoughts, re- 

 flections, adjustments, compromises, evasions. It all depends upon 

 the length of time by which the editor is separated from the time of 

 the original. The singular world of the Chou was shattered in the 

 period of the Han, and the Han scholars knew little in fact about 

 that bygone age. Chinese later illustrations to the classics can be 



