26 Introduction. 



The Jesuit missionaries of the eighteenth century seem to have 

 been under the impression that jade was produced in the provinces 

 of Shensi and Shansi (see Amiot in Memoires concernant les Chinois, 

 Vol. VI, p. 258). Father Du Halde (A Description of the Empire of 

 China, Vol. I, p. 16, London, 1738) sums up as follows: "The Lapis 

 Armenus [his designation of jade] is not very dear in Yiin-nan, 1 where 

 it is found in several places, differing in nothing from what is imported 

 into Europe. 'Tis produced also in the Province of Sze-ch'uan, and 

 in the district of Ta-t'ung fu, belonging to Shansi, which furnishes 

 perhaps the most beautiful Yii-she (jade) in all China; 'tis a kind of 

 white Jasper, the white resembling that of A gat; 'tis transparent, and 

 sometimes spotted when it is polished." 



The city of Si-ngan fu is still the distributing centre for the un- 

 wrought pieces of jade arriving from Turkistan, and seems to have been 

 so also in former times. Particularly fine bowlders are sometimes 

 kept and guarded as treasures. The bowlder of whitish jade reproduced 

 in Fig. 2 on Plate I was preserved as a precious relic in the Buddhist 

 temple Hing-lung se of Si-ngan fu, where I acquired it for the Field 

 Museum. I was informed there that it had come from Khotan, Turk- 

 istan, a long time ago. It measures 19.5 cm in length, 10.5 cm in 

 width and 14. 1 cm in height, and has a weight of eleven pounds. 



The other water-rolled bowlder of natural polish in Fig. 1 of the 

 same Plate was found in a dried-up river bed in the northern part of the 

 province of Shensi and represents, also in the opinion of the Chinese, 

 a kind of jade used during the Han period. The correctness of this 

 statement is borne out by worked jade pieces of the Han period in our 

 collection, exhibiting the same material. It is a bluish-green jade 

 clouded with white and leaf-green speckles and sprinkled with large 

 brown and black patches. The lower side is almost entirely occupied 

 by an ivory-white, brown and russet coloring intersected by black 

 strips and veins, almost producing the effect of an agate. This piece 

 weighs somewhat over seven pounds, is 22.5 cm long, 15 cm wide and 

 5 cm thick. Such bowlders of so-called Han jade have occasionally 

 turned up in the eighteenth century and were then worked into vases 

 or bells or other objects. We shall come back to this point in Chapter 

 VIII. 



The color of jade was found to be permanent and unchangeable. 

 The Li ki {Yii tsao III, 32) describing the qualities of a brave soldier 



1 According to Chinese statements, jade is found in Ch'eng-kiang fu of Yiin-nan 

 Province (G. Dev£ria, Histoire des Relations de la Chine avec l'Annam, p. 91, 

 Paris, 1880). 



