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



On the other face (b) three dragons of hydra type with heads of 

 geometric cast, the eyes being indicated by spirals, are displayed in the 

 midst of sea-waves, the water covering their waists. As these jade 

 disks originally represent the image of Heaven, there can be no doubt 

 that it was by the idea of the dragon's association with Heaven that 

 the application of dragons to these disks was suggested. 



In the introductory notes to this chapter, we mentioned the two 

 types of jade rings yuan and huan. In grouping them here with the 

 disks, we follow the usage of Chinese archaeologists. There is little 

 known about the rings yuan. Wu Ta-ch'eng gives two definitions. 

 The one derived from the Erh ya shih wen quoting the Ts'ang hie pien 

 (a work of the Han period, see Bretschneider, Botanicon Sinicum, 

 Part I, p. 200) says that yiian is the name of a jade girdle-ornament. 

 The other taken from the commentary to the Shuo wen by Tuan ex- 

 plains that in enlisting a man's service a jade tablet kuei is used, in 

 summoning a man, the jade ring yiian. Wu remarks that numerous 

 pi of ancient nephrite have survived to the present time, but only a 

 few rings yiian. There are two in his collection, and four in our own. 



In their make-up, these four jade rings yiian represented on Plate 

 XXV (Figs, 1-4) show identical features and only differ in the colors 

 of the jade; they are all unornamented. That in Fig. 1 (10.2 cm in 

 diameter and 3-5 mm thick) is of a grayish-green transparent jade 

 with blue tinges, and brownish specks along the edge. The circle is 

 irregular. 



The ring in Fig. 2 (11 cm in diameter and 4 mm thick) is of a 

 white-mottled soap-green jade with black streaks and spots scattered 

 here and there. 



The ring illustrated in Fig. 3 (9 cm in diameter and 4 mm thick) 

 is of a color similar to that in Fig. 1, but lighter in shade, interspersed 

 also with russet and white specks. 



In the ring shown in Fig. 4 (7.6 cm in diameter) the whole surface 

 is decomposed, the polish, except a small apple-green portion, has dis- 

 appeared; and one side is completely weathered out, and shrunk to 

 7 mm compared with the original thickness of 11 mm. 



The jade rings huan belong typologically to the same class, but 

 ideologically to another group. They were worn as ornaments suspend- 

 ed from the girdle, and for this reason we shall deal with their symbolism 

 in the chapter on Girdle-Ornaments. We here review merely the ma- 

 terial in our collection. 



The large ring in Plate XXVI measures 15.3 cm in diameter, and 

 6 mm in thickness, the perforation being 5.8 cm in diameter. It is 

 of a sea-green transparent jade sprinkled with white clouds in the lower 



