Feb., 1912. 



Jade. 



65 



objects which can be utilized. There was, e. g., Su Shao at the time 

 of the Ch'6n dynasty (557-587 a. d.) who had a thunder hammer 

 weighing nine catties. At the time of the Sung (960-1278 a. d.), there 

 lived Shen Kua 1 who found during a thunder-storm under a tree a 

 thunder wedge resembling an axe, but not 

 perforated. The actions of the spirits are 

 dark and cannot indeed be fully investi- 

 gated." 



It will be seen that Li Shih-chen does 

 not divulge his own opinion on the subject, 

 but is content with citing his predecessors. 

 We notice that the almost universal belief 

 in thunderbolts presumably suggested by 

 falls of meteors and shooting-stars prevails 

 also in China. 2 Fig. 9 is reproduced from 

 the Pen ts'ao and exhibits six sketches in 

 outline of implements mentioned in the 

 article, 3 — from left to right explained as 

 wedge, axe, gimlet, inkcake, pellet, and 

 washing-stone, the latter rather looking 

 like a club than an anvil. Regarding the 

 so-called inkcake, Li Shih-chen has the following additional remark: 

 "The Book on Lightning (Lei shu) says: 'Every lightning writes in 

 wood and stone which are then called wooden writing-tablets (mu cha) . 

 The writing is two or three-tenths of an inch deep of dark-yellow hue. 

 Others say that flowers of sulphur, indigo-blue and vermilion are com- 

 bined in the writing of the documents of lightning. Again, others 

 say that it is grease from the stones of Mount P'eng-lai to furnish this 



Fig. 9. 



Stone Implements 



(from Pin ts'ao kang mu). 



l The author of the Ming ki pi fan who lived from 1030 to 1093 (Giles, Biogra- 

 phical Dictionary, No. 1691). He expresses himself in this book as follows: "The 

 people of the present time have found numerous thunder hatchets and thunder 

 wedges, in all cases, after a thunderstorm. Of the thunder hatchets, many are made 

 of iron and copper; the wedges are of stone and resemble hatchets, but are not 

 perforated." 



2 R. Andree (Ethnographische Parallelen, Neue Folge, pp. 30-41) offers a series 

 of notes on the propagation of this idea. — The term thunderbolt is not limited to 

 stone implements, but is also applied to those of bronze. In 1902 I obtained two bronze 

 spear-heads and three bronze chisels excavated near the ancient city of Shao-hing 

 in Chekiang Province through Mr. Gilbert Walshe (see Journal China Branch R. 

 Asiatic Society, Vol. XXXIII, p. 92). In a letter, dated Shanghai, June 31, 1902, 

 Mr. Walshe then remarked: "The so-called thunderbolts are, I imagine, really 

 bronze chisels of a bronze age, — I will not say the bronze age, — and are said to be 

 found buried in the earth some three feet beneath the spot where a man has been 

 struck by 'thunder' (according to the Chinese ideas)." 



3 Reproduced also by F. de Mely, Les pierres de foudre chez les Chinois et les 

 Japonais {Revue archeologique, 1895, p. 5 of the reprint) and Les lapidaires chinois, 

 p. LV. 



