8 Introduction. 



presented to libraries, museums, and it is said, "to the crowned heads 

 and other great rulers of the world." It would be desirable that the 

 main bulk of the work might be republished in a convenient edition 

 for wider circulation. 



As the collection of Chinese jades in the Field Museum was made 

 by me from another point of view than is the Bishop collection in 

 New York, so the contents of this study is plainly distinct from the 

 monumental work of Mr. Bishop. The subjects treated there have 

 not been repeated here. The methods of working jade and the trade 

 in jade from Turkistan and Burma to China are not discussed, as Dr. 

 Bushell has thoroughly canvassed this ground. He has also worked 

 up a map showing the jade-producing districts of Turkistan. New 

 as the subject matter of this publication is, aside from the concluding 

 chapter, which was necessary in order to trace the development of 

 jade works down to the present time, so also is the presentation of the 

 subject itself which is based on archaeological methods. I have en- 

 deavored to furnish a piece of research- work in which jade is to yield 

 the material to delineate cultural and chiefly religious developments 

 in ancient China. I do not mean to deal with jade for its own sake, 

 but as a means to a certain end; it merely forms the background, the 

 leading motive, for the exposition of some fundamental ideas of Chinese 

 religious concept which find their most characteristic expression and 

 illustration in objects of jade. To trace their relation to thought was 

 therefore my chief aim, and hence the result has rather become a 

 contribution to the psychology of the Chinese. 



A consideration of the Chinese sources utilized will give also occa- 

 sion to speak on the methods pursued by me and some of the general 

 results of the work. 



Antiquities of jade have been treated by the Chinese in the following 

 special works : 



i. K'ao ku t'u, "Investigations of Antiquities with Illustrations," 

 by Lu Ta-lin, in ten chapters, first published during the Sung dynasty 

 in 1092, and re-edited by Huang Sh&ng in 1753 as an appendix to 

 Wang Fu's Po ku t'u. In Chapter 8, a small collection of jades in the 

 possession of Li Po-shih from Lu-kiang is figured, but without in- 

 vestigation. 



2. Ku yii t'u, "Ancient Jades Illustrated," by Chu T£h-jun, in 

 two chapters, published 1341, and republished in 1753 with the edition 

 of the Po ku t'u mentioned. The explanations appended to the illus- 

 trations are meagre; several of them have been reproduced in this paper. 



3. Ku yii t'u p'u, "Illustrated Description of Ancient Jades" in 100 

 chapters, being the collection of jade belonging to the first emperor 



