Feb., 1912. 



Jade. 



i39 



manner as this one, surrounded by the same gods and worshipping 

 them as before. 



This fact will account also for the comparatively large number of 

 these specimens which have survived, and which have all been dug up 

 from graves. If my informants at Si-ngan fu asserted that they have 

 been found on the breast of the corpse, this is not a fundamental error 



Fig. 61. 

 Tube, Isu ts'ung, of Yellow Jade with White Veins. 



as the decayed condition of the skeletons and disturbance of the graves 

 by earth-slips and other natural causes render it difficult to clearly 

 recognize the original position of the objects. 



The Chou li mentions in two passages (Biot, Vol. I, p. 487, and 

 Vol. II, p. 528) another object of jade serving in the sacrifices offered 

 to Earth and for the joined sacrifice offered to the Four Venerable 

 ones, i.e. the spirits of the Mountains and Rivers. This object is called 

 Hang kuei yu ti, i.e. two jade tablets kuei having a central foundation; 

 the latter is a perforated disk from which an appendage resembling in 

 shape the tablet kuei emerges at the upper and at the lower end, the 

 whole being cut out of one piece of jade. As the Chinese illustrators 

 have preserved a fairly correct drawing of this plain object, I am in 

 a position to identify with it two specimens in our collection which I 

 was fortunate enough to acquire. 



