Feb., 191 2. Jade. 55 



local population was carried on to any extent. It is therefore, in the 

 present state of our knowledge, not justifiable to speak of a stone 

 age of China, and still less, as we shall see from a consideration of 

 native records, of a stone age of the Chinese. 



(5) The stone implements thus far found need not be credited with 

 any exaggerated age, nor is the term "prehistoric" applicable to them. 

 This term is not absolute, but denotes a certain space of time in a rela- 

 tive sense requiring a particular definition for each culture area, and 

 varying according to the extent in time of historical monuments and 

 records. The burial of jade implements was much practised during 

 the historical period of the Chou dynasty (b. c. 1122-249) an( i con_ 

 tinued down to the epoch of the two Han dynasties (b. c. 206-221 a. d.). 

 While the jade implements in our collection come down from the Chou 

 period, though in regard to some it may be fairly admitted that they 

 are comparatively older, this does not certainly mean that jade or 

 stone implements sprang up at just that time. Their forms and 

 conventional make-up undeniably show that they are traceable to 

 older forms of a more realistic and less artistic character. This pri- 

 meval age of stone implements, however, can only be reconstructed 

 artificially on the basis of internal evidence furnished by objects of a 

 more recent epoch, or in other words, it remains an hypothesis, an 

 assumption evolved from logical conclusions of our mind, pure and 

 simple. It is not a fact, by any means, but an idea. The substantial, 

 tangible facts have not yet come to the fore. 



Turning now to what the Chinese themselves have to say regarding 

 the subject of stone implements, we meet with some allusions to them 

 in the traditions relative to the culture-heroes of the legendary epoch. 

 Shen-nung is credited with having made weapons of stone, and Huang- 

 ti some of jade. This is simply a construction conceived of in later 

 times, without any historical value. In the Tribute of Yii (Yii kung) 

 embodied in the Shu king, one of the oldest documents of Chinese 

 literature, the composition of which may be roughly dated at about 

 b. c. 800, we read twice of stone arrow-heads offered as tribute to the 

 Emperor Yii (alleged about b. c. 2200). The tribes residing in the 

 territory of the present province of Hupeh brought among other objects, 

 metals of three qualities, mill-stones, whetstones, and stones from which 

 to make arrow-heads ; and the tribute of the inhabitants of the province 

 of Liang (in Shensi) consisted in jade for resonant stones, iron, silver, 

 steel, stones from which to make arrow-heads, and ordinary resonant 

 stones. 1 It appears from this account that these two groups of tribes 



Compare Shu king ed. Legge, p. 121 ; ed. Couvreur, pp. 73, 77. Cha- 

 vannes, Se-ma Ts'ien, Vol. I, pp. 123, 129. G. Schlegel, Uranographie chinoise, 

 P- 758. 



