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



there were in the Chou period five gradations according to rank. 

 White jade considered the most precious was the privileged ornament 

 of the emperor; jade green like the mountains was reserved for the 

 princes of the first and second ranks (kung hou); water-blue jade was 

 for the great prefects (tai fu) ; the heir-apparent had a special kind of 

 jade called yii assigned to him; and a plain official had to be content 

 with a stone inferior to jade called juan min (presumably prehnite) 

 (Yii tsao, III, 9). 



In a beautiful song of the Shi king (Legge, Vol. I, p. 134), suggestive 

 of a pleasant picture of domestic life, a wife expresses her affection for 

 her husband and encourages him to cultivate friendships with men of 

 worth to whom she would offer jewels for the girdle out of regard for 

 him. 1 "When I know those whose acquaintance you wish, I will 

 give them various girdle-ornaments. When I know those with whom 

 you are cordial, I will send to them various girdle-ornaments. When 

 I know those whom you love, I will repay their friendship (or thank 

 them) by gifts of girdle-ornaments." We see that presents of such 

 ornaments were prompted by a feeling of amity and by a desire to keep 

 up friendly relations. 



It is an irreparable loss that the proper significance of many words 

 designating either particular kinds of jade or ornaments of jade and 

 occurring in the Shi king and other ancient texts is entirely unknown; 

 the commentators are too easily satisfied in explaining them as a 

 beautiful jade or an ornament. If we had fuller definitions of them, 

 we could make much more out of the symbolism which was probably 

 associated with them. Thus, e. g. in a little song of the Shi king (Legge, 

 Vol. I, p. 203) Duke K'ang escorts his cousin of whom he was very fond, 

 and gives him kHung-kuei stones for his girdle as a parting gift; the 

 translation "precious jasper" in this passage is a poor makeshift, 

 for it is doubtless the question here of a specific ornament with a hidden 

 meaning suitable to the occasion, which, however, is unfortunately lost. 



In discussing the single jewels composing the girdle-pendant, we 

 shall notice how deeply they are related to friendship and love by 

 means of punning upon the words used to designate them (so-called 

 phonetic rebus). Here we speak of the significance of the girdle-orna- 

 ments in general. They were an object of mutual attraction between 

 the two sexes and naturally played a r61e in sexual imagination, as 

 the desire to please the other sex is the keynote of all primitive orna- 



X I do not understand the passage with Legge that "she would despoil herself 

 of her feminine ornaments to testify her regard for them (». e. her husband's friends)," 

 which, even granted the greater freedom enjoyed by woman in ancient times, would 

 never be congruous with Chinese customs. The text implies only that she would 

 gladly give any girdle appendages (not her own) as gifts to his friends, out of respect 

 for, or to please, her husband. 



