Feb., 1912. Jade. 83 



During the Han dynasty the custom obtained that the jade emblem 

 kuei, of a length of one foot four inches, was interred with the sovereign; 

 it was presented with a piece of red cloth three inches square and 

 hemmed on all sides with scarlet silk of red lining (De Groox, The 

 Religious System of China, Vol. II, p. 404). 



There was a round jade tablet {yuan kuei, Giles No. 13724) nine 

 inches long, fastened with a silk band, used, as the Chou li says, "to 

 regulate virtue" (Biox, Vol. II, p. 523), or in another passage, "to 

 call forth virtue and to perfect good sentiments" (Vol. I, p. 491). 

 The commentary explains that this tablet is entrusted to the delegates 

 of the emperor; when a feudal prince shows himself virtuous, this tablet 

 is conferred upon him by imperial order as a reward. The tablet is 

 round, another commentary remarks, having no points, which seems 

 to mean an "all-round" perfection. 



In opposition to the round tablet of perfect virtue, there was the 

 "pointed tablet" {yen kuei, Giles No. 13073) serving "to change 

 conduct, to destroy depravity" (Biox, Vol. I, p. 491). The projecting 

 point, remarks the commentary, is the emblem of wrongs and offences, 

 of the attack on and appeal to duty, of blame and punishment; when 

 the emperor orders a dignitary to abandon his bad behavior and to 

 reform, he sends this tablet to reprimand and to warn him. According 

 to another commentary, it is also a tablet of credence for the delegates 

 of the emperor and of the princes; when a prince despatches a prefect 

 to obtain instructions from the emperor, he enjoins on him to take this 

 tablet, and thus to indicate his mission. Couvreur (p. 433) has 

 figured this tablet with a spiral-shaped cloud-ornament in the upper 

 triangular part and two others placed side by side at the foot. In 

 the K'ien-lung edition of the Rituals, a continuous cloud-ornament 

 covers the body of the kuei, while the triangular point is blank. That 

 the ideas of the Chinese regarding this instrument are much confused, 

 is evident from the confounded descriptions given by the two com- 

 mentators translated by Biox (Vol. II, p. 524). 



A jade tablet called ku kuei, "tablet with grains," seven inches 

 long, is offered by the emperor to the woman whom he marries (Biox, 

 Vol. II, p. 525), i. e. it accompanied the bridal presents, and designs of 

 grains were engraved on it. This was not, however, a realistic plant- 

 greatness of size formed the mark, in others smallness of size formed the mark; in 

 others, the height formed the mark of distinction, in others lowness formed the mark; 

 in others ornament formed the mark, in others plainness formed the mark. This 

 lesson should be taken to heart by our school of evolutionists who construct the 

 development of all human thoughts by means of artificial and illogical evolutionary 

 and classificatory schemes and know everything with dogmatic peremptoriness 

 about thought evolutions, as if they had rendered themselves actual midwifery 

 services at the birth of every thought. 



