138 Field Museum or Natural History — Anth., Vol. X. 



scale-weight, and if ever employed by the emperor, it seems to be a 

 secondary development by transfer from the female sphere, and there 

 is no instance of his ever having made actual use of it in person. 1 If 

 offered as a token of respect by feudal princes, it was only presented by 



them to a princely consort. 

 This emblem, therefore, 

 has always referred to 

 female power. 



But its use is not 

 exhausted therewith. It 

 also entered into relations 

 with the grave and the 

 dead. We read in the 

 Chou li that the superin- 

 tendent of the jade tablets 

 at the imperial court was 

 charged with six objects 

 of jade to be placed on 

 the corpse in the coffin 

 (Biot, Vol. I, p. 490). 

 One of these was the ob- 

 ject ts'ung which, as the 

 commentary explains, was 

 placed on the abdomen of 

 the corpse. The circular 

 ring-shaped piece of jade 

 pi was placed under the 

 back and was to symbolize 

 Heaven, while the jade 

 ts'ung, also in this case, 

 symbolized Earth. The remaining four jade pieces were emblematic 

 of the Four Quarters. The dead person was, accordingly, confided to 

 and protected by the great powers of the universe. The same powers 

 and influences which had controlled all his thoughts and actions during 

 life-time, to which he looked up with a feeling of awe and reverence, 

 held sway over him also in the grave. It must be emphasized that the 

 images of Heaven and Earth and the Four Quarters, if arranged in 

 the coffin, were not intended as personal amulets to protect or preserve 

 the body, as for this end a good number of other objects were avail- 

 able, but that the idea was implied that man took with him his gods 

 into the life hereafter, that he meant to live the other life in the same 



Pig. 60. 



Tube, tsu ts'ung.of White Jade with Manicol- 



ored Spots. 



m 



J But also the emperor partakes of the nature of Earth (see below). 



