i26 Field Museum of Natural History — Anth., Vol. X. 



this object being attributed to the Chou period; likewise Fig. 43 which 

 is said to be of a pale-blue jade with red and carnation spots. The 

 jade in Fig. 44 is lustrous white and slightly red; the piece is hexagonal 

 in shape and decorated with a pattern called the iris design (yii Ian wen). 

 Similar designs may still be seen in the ornamental arrangement of 



lattice-work in Chinese 

 windows. The speci- 

 men in Fig. 45 is de- 

 scribed in the meagre 

 text joined to it as 

 hexagonal, though from 

 the drawing it rather 

 gives the impression of 

 being octagonal; it is 

 undecorated and of 

 lustrous-white red- 

 spotted jade. The 

 object in Fig. 46, appar- 

 ently, does not belong 

 at all to this class, as 

 it is rounded, and not 

 square, outside, but it 

 is here listed also as a 

 wheel-nave described 

 as of green red-spotted 

 jade with an upper and 

 lower band filled with 

 "the pattern of sleep- 

 ing silkworm cocoons" 

 (wo tsan chih wen) } So 

 far the Ku yii Vu p x u. 

 The Li ki (ed. 



COUVREUR, Vol. II, 



p. 82) says of the big carriage (ta lu) only that it was the prerogative of 

 the Son of Heaven. There were five kinds of carriages in use at the 

 imperial court, the first of which was called jade carriage {yii lu) from 

 being adorned with jade (Couvreur, Shu king, p. 353; Biot, Vol. II, 

 p. 482). The text of the Chou li does not make any statement in 

 regard to the character of these jade ornaments, and the opinion of the 

 commentary that "the extreme ends of the principal parts of the chariot 

 were provided with jade" is by no means clear (Biot, Ibid., p. 122); 



'See Chinese Pottery of the Han Dynasty, p. 5. 





JO, 



oP* 



Fig. 42. 

 Alleged Jade Wheel-Nave (from Ku yii t'u p'u). 



