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



4. Jade Images of the Deity of the West 



Under the name hu (Giles No. 4922) the Chinese archaeologists 

 present us a number of ancient jade carvings which differ widely in 

 shape and design. There can be no doubt about the meaning of the 

 word: the character is composed of the symbols for "jade" and 

 "tiger," and the word, accordingly, signifies a jade carving in the shape 

 of a tiger, or a jade on which the figure of a tiger is carved. It is but 

 rarely mentioned in the ancient texts, twice in the Chou li, once in the 

 Li ki, once in the Tso chuan, and first defined in the dictionary Shuo wen 

 (100 a. d.) "as an auspicious jade being the design of a tiger, used to 

 mobilize an army." This, however, was a custom springing up under 

 the Han dynasty, connected with the ancient bronze tallies called fu; 

 but the shapes and designs of the latter differ from the jade carvings 

 hu, and I have no doubt that they represent a type of objects developed 

 independently from the hu. 1 During the Chou period, the jade tablet 

 chang provided with a "tooth" was employed to levy and move soldiers, 

 the teeth being the emblems of war. From the Li ki (ed. Couvreur, 

 Vol. I, p. 545) and from the Tso chuan (Legge, Chinese Classics, Vol. V, 

 pp. 739, 741) 2 we learn only that these carvings were given as presents; 

 when an emperor offered a prince a jade in the shape of a tiger or the 

 semicircular jade huang, he presented them together with a wine-cup. 

 In these cases we see that these carvings were precious objects. To 

 understand their real meaning, we have to turn to the Chou li. There 

 we are informed that the tiger- jade of white color is used in the worship 

 of the western quarter (see above p. 120). The commentator Cheng 

 adds that it has the shape of a tiger, and that the tiger in his ferocity 

 symbolizes the severity of the autumn. Again, we learn from the Chou 

 li (see p. 120) that, together with five other objects of jade, the tiger-jade 

 was buried in the grave at the right side of the corpse, i. e. facing west 

 in the grave. Also there, the figure of a tiger was the emblem or image 

 of the West. It is striking that Wu Ta-ch'eng does not call any atten- 

 tion to these passages of the Chou li and does not investigate this sub- 

 ject; he is content with quoting the definition of the Shuo win, which 



1 Lt) Ta-lin, the author of the K'ao ku t'u (Ch. 8, p. 3) quoting this definition of 

 the Shuo wen remarks that such a statement is not to be found in canonical literature 

 (king), and that it is not known on what source Sii-shen, the author of that dictionary, 

 bases his statement. The Han, adds LO Ta-lin, availed themselves of bronze 

 tallies representing tigers (t'ung hu fu) to mobilize troops, and it may be that his 

 statement is derived therefrom. 



2 Legge translates "a piece of jade with two tigers cut upon it," and Giles 

 follows him. All surviving specimens, however, show only one tiger, even when 

 the carving is executed on both faces, which suggests but one animal to the Chinese 

 mind; also from a purely grammatical viewpoint, shuang hu can mean only "two 

 tiger-jades." 





