Feb., 1912. Jade. 175 



does not relate in fact to these objects, and the passage from the Tso 

 chuan. 



The tiger is in this case a celestial deity symbolizing the cardinal 

 palace of the West and at the same time the autumn, as the Green 

 Dragon corresponds to the spring (East), the Red Bird to the summer 

 (South) and the Tortoise to the winter (North). According to L. de 

 Saussure {T'oung Pao, 1909, p. 264) the tiger as symbol of the autumn 

 is Orion. The same author explains the association of this animal with 

 the autumn by referring to the legend according to which Huang-ti 

 tamed tigers for purposes of war so that the name of the tiger remained 

 associated with that of the warrior, and finally by the fact that the 

 tiger descends in the fall from the mountains to invade the human habi- 

 tations. This explanation is quite correct. Schlegel (Uranographie 

 chinoise, p. 572) has aptly pointed out that, according to the Chinese 

 naturalists, the tigers pair towards the autumnal equinox, and that the 

 tigress brings forth the young ones towards the end of April, so that 

 they will appear about the month of May, the first month of the summer. 

 I can confirm this observation from a personal experience: while once 

 strolling around in the province of Hupeh in the latter part of May, 

 I met a party of sturdy Chinese hunters who had just caught aJive a 

 couple of graceful tiger-cubs in the high mountains and offered it to 

 me for sale. They were two jovial little creatures tame like cats, and 

 certainly only a few weeks old. During the summer, they remain in 

 their mountain resorts, — and therefore the tiger is a solar animal 

 (yang wu), 1 the lord of the mountains (shan kiin), the chief of all the 

 quadrupeds (pai shou chih ch'ang), — until they have gained sufficient 

 strength to enter on their d£but in the autumn. For this reason, the 

 image of the tiger is a sign of the zodiac to mark the commencement of 

 the summer, and the beginning of the fall is signalized by the awakening 

 of the young tiger to its full strength. We now understand why in the 

 Han period the tiger symbol was used as a token of command over the 

 army. 



Figure 81 derived from the work of Wu Ta-ch'£ng represents a 

 tablet of white jade perforated in the apex showing a band below the 

 aperture on which the figure of a recumbent tiger is engraved in flat 

 relief. The reverse displays the same design. I am under the impres- 

 sion that this object presents the oldest form of these tiger-jades used in 

 the cult. The tablet was doubtless suspended freely from a cord 

 passing through the aperture so that the design of the animal could 

 be viewed from both sides. 



1 He is seven feet in length, because seven is the number appertaining to yang, 

 the male principle, and for the same reason his gestation endures for seven months 

 (Mayers, The Chinese Reader's Manual, p. 60). 



