Feb., 1912. 



Jade. 



97 



original size (in Wu's reproduction), above made into the shape of a 

 half -circle, the two horns a bit broken." The author opens the ex- 

 planatory text by saying that the color of jade is uniformly black, 

 *'. e. not mixed with any other color, which is not identical with what is 

 usually designated as sat- 

 urated with mercury. 

 Wu develops a peculiar 

 view in regard to the 

 origin of the crescent- 

 shaped upper edge which 

 he sets in relation to the 

 ancient form of a writ- 

 ten symbol for a lance- 

 head (reproduced to the 

 left of Fig. 29), and re- 

 marks, that, while all 

 other kuei derive their 

 form from a hammer- 

 head, this is the only one 

 to derive it from a lance- 

 head. This assumption, 

 however, is not forcible 

 and finds no echo in any 

 ancient document ; while, 

 as the other kuei, this 

 one also goes back to 

 the same original form 

 of a weapon, the pecu- 

 liar features of its 

 shape can be suffi- 

 ciently explained as a 

 geometrical construc- 

 tion based on the 

 curious symbolism 

 connected with it. 



In the jade tablet of Fig. 30 (of green jade with black stripes) Wu 

 believes to recognize the "tablet with grain-pattern," mentioned above 

 after the Chou li, which the emperor bestowed on his bride elect. The 

 tipper face of this tablet (Fig. 30 a) is decorated with five vertical rows 

 of raised knobs, — five being the number of the earth, — arranged in 

 the numbers 9, 10, 11, 10, 9, yielding the sum of 49, by which also a 

 symbolism was presumably expressed. The lower face of the tablet 







! *=^ "Ml 



Fig. 31. 

 Jade Tablet kuei on a Han Bas-Relief (from Kin-shih so). 



