Feb., 1912. 



Jade. 



171 



Fig. 79. 

 Jade of the Type huang. 



Fig. 80. 

 Jade of the Type huang (from Ku yii t'u p'u). 



legend of Lil Shang or T'ai-kung wang catching a carp in whose belly 

 a jade carving huang was found with the inscription: "The family 

 Ki will be elevated to the throne, and Lu will aid it." W6n-wang then 

 met him and recognized in him the minister whom his ancestor had 

 selected as the only man capable to make the house of Chou prosper. 1 

 Here we have an example, — and there are several others, 2 — of jade 

 used in a prophecy. It is possible that this legend may have induced 

 an artist to produce a huang in the shape of a fish, but it does not appeal 

 to us as a general explanation, for in our collection there are two burial 

 jades of similar shape in fish-form (Plate XXXVIII, Figs. 4 and 7) 



1 Compare Pe tillon, Allusions litt£raires, p. 249. Chavannes, Se-ma Ts'ien, 

 Vol. IV, p. 35. This legend is not narrated in Se-ma Ts'ien, but in the Bamboo 

 Annals {Chu shu ki nien). 



2 Chavannes, Se-ma Ts'ien, Vol. II, p. 183. 



