94 Field Museum of Natural History — Anth., Vol. X. 



Viewed in this light, the specimen in Fig. 23 becomes more 

 intelligible ; here too the hammer form has sunk into a purely decorative 

 trait, as is obvious from the rectangular shape of the object which is 

 unfit for any pounding. The perforation bears further testimony to its 

 ornamental utilization. While the primeval form in Fig. 20 shows in 

 its outlines the design of a hammer or axe, the pieces in Figs. 21-24 

 exhibit the rectangular shapes of knives identical with the jade 

 knives described above on pp. 38, 39. These original knife-forms have 

 then been modified in Figs. 23 and 24 under the influence of the 

 imperial hammer-symbol which lent to them the peculiar feature of 

 a chamfered edge or edges. The development then terminated in 

 pieces like Figs. 21 and 22 where this trait has disappeared. Their 

 apparent relation to the imperial hammer is conclusive evidence also 

 of this series having formed symbols reserved to the emperor. This 

 group represented by Figs. 21-24 ma Y therefore be defined as knife- 

 shaped imperial emblems of jade developed by a process of adapta- 

 tion and conventionalization from the hammer-shaped symbol of 

 sovereign power. 



Figures 25-27 represent three specimens of the so-called "round tab- 

 lets" (yiian kuei) which, as we saw from the report of the Chou li (p. 83) 

 symbolize virtue by their rounded shape and are bestowed by the em- 

 peror upon virtuous vassal princes. The piece in Fig. 25 is of dark-green 

 jade, and twelve inches (modern) long corresponding to nine inches of 

 the Chou time which is the required measure for this tablet. Wu says 

 he acquired it at the bazar of the city of Ts'i-ning in Shantung, and has 

 no doubt of its being an ancient yiian kuei. The word yiian is explained 

 after Tuan as a mound consisting of two superposed hills (kHu) and 

 identical with the notion of a hillock; this hillock is seen in the rounded 

 top. Wu quotes, besides the commentaries mentioned by us, a passage 

 from Tai Teh, the author of a Ritual known under the name Ta Tat li 

 ("Ritual of the senior Tai") as saying "that the points in all tablets 

 called kuei are one inch and a half long; if this point is made level by 

 angular measurement to form just a true right angle, the yiian kuei rises 

 with its lofty height." This quotation shows how fond the Chinese 

 mind of the Chou period was of geometrical constructions and geometric 

 symbolism, as the round line could be symbolic of the perfection of 

 qualities. The virtue-emblem in Fig. 26 is of similar shape, of dark- 

 green jade with earth spots, reduced to tV by Wu, and therefore appears 

 somewhat larger than the other; that in Fig. 27 is of red jade, a piece 

 being broken off below, but otherwise a large yuan of twelve inches. 



In Fig. 28, Wu has illustrated, without further explanation, a type 



