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



with bird-heads; 1 between them a naming ball or jewel as is often seen 

 between two dragons or two lions; it is very likely an emblem of the 

 sun. 



Measured over the kuei, it is 8 cm in length and 1.5 cm in width; 

 the disk is 3.8 cm in diameter and 6 mm thick. The ground color 

 of the jade is white in which brown shades of an agate-like appearance 

 are sprinkled, from a light iron-rust or blood color to a dark-brown 

 with black specks. 



In the Bishop collection No. 318 (Vol. II, p. 104; the plate is in 

 Vol. I) there is a very curious kuei pi teeming with elaborate decorative 

 designs. Dr. Bushell defines it as a " sacrificial tablet, previous to 

 the Han dynasty." The central portion, perforated in all other speci- 

 mens, is here solid and countersunk. The pi is decorated with the 

 raised knobs of the "grain" pattern which Bushell calls "mammillary 

 protuberances" by confounding them with the so-called nipples on 

 ancient bronze bells and mirrors, quite a different matter (see Hirth, 

 Chinese Metallic Mirrors, pp. 250, 257). The upper part of the kuei 

 is surrounded by two dragons carved in open work, the lower part 

 filled with wave patterns; on the other face appear the three-legged 

 crow representing the sun and the hare pounding drugs with a pestle 

 in a mortar, — designs springing up only in the Han period. There 

 are three stars on the top and mountains below, — completing the 

 evidence that an attempt has been made at a reconstruction of the 

 Chou tradition, — sun, moon and stars, with the addition of sea and 

 mountains. It is certainly an ancient piece, judging from the character 

 and color of its jade and from its technique, but it cannot be anterior 

 to the Han period. 



Another kuei pi in the Bishop collection No. 325 (Vol. II, p. 107; 

 plate in Vol. I), also made "previous to Han dynasty" is decidedly 

 much later than the Han period. It is covered with an inscription of 

 four characters in an antique style (but of such a style as proves nothing 

 in favor of antiquity) read by Bushell ts'ien ku shang hia and translated 

 by him "The thousand ages of the above and below, that is, of heaven 

 and earth." As I before pointed out, inscriptions on ancient jade 

 pieces are always open to suspicion. But more than this, I am sus- 

 picious of the design of five bats as symbols of the five kinds of happi- 

 ness, arranged on this kuei, — which, to my knowledge, occurs neither 

 in the Chou nor in the Han period. From a consideration of the jade 

 court-girdles of the T'ang dynasty, it will appear that the bat as ai 

 emblem of happiness on objects of jade occurs not earlier than in the 

 T'ang period. 



Compare Fig. 74, p. 162. 



