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



to suspect that it belongs to the Turkish-Tibetan culture-sphere. 1 

 Indeed, many Tibetan specimens of this kind have an originality of 

 design not to be met with in the Chinese counterparts. At all events, 

 it is certain that in ancient times the Chinese did not avail themselves 

 of similar chatelaines which seem to spring up among them not earlier 

 than in the T'ang period. 



Of the central pieces of the girdle-pendant, only a few have sur- 

 vived. The Ku yil t'u p'u is able to reproduce only two (Figs. 105 and 

 106). The one in Fig. 105 with a meander pattern in the outer zone 

 and a floral design in the centre explained as "banana-leaves fulfilling 

 every wish" (ju i tsiao yeh) is made a work of the Han or Wei period; 

 the other in Fig. 106 with a band of wave-ornaments (yen po wen) and 

 a star-shaped leaf -pattern is alleged to be pre-Han. 



Two of the central side-pieces (ku) used in the girdle-pendant may 

 be viewed in Figs. 107 and 108, both ascribed to the Han time which is 

 possible. The names given by the Ku yil t'u p'u for the ornaments 

 are interesting. The eight groups of quadruple "square" spirals are 

 styled tieh shing, i.e. accumulated, superposed or repeated ornaments, 

 the woid sheng denoting an ornament in a woman's hair -dressing. 2 

 Fig. 108, as will be seen from the Chinese legend, is labeled wet kio 

 tiao "carved with the corners cut out" alluding to the four chamfered 

 corners. The four plant designs in the interior are designated as 

 "mallows;" the entire pattern is stated to be "of such elegance that 

 there is no doubt that this is an object of the Han." This elegance 

 of the art of the Han is frequently insisted on by these authors, and 

 they are certainly right in their judgment. 



Figure 109 represents a lower central jewel (ch'ung yd) used in the 

 girdle-pendant, derived from the same work. It is segment-shaped 

 as in Fig. 95, and decorated with designs of "sleeping silkworm-co- 

 coons (wo tsan) and beads (lien chu)" a design "breathing the spirit 

 of Han work." The Sung Catalogue gives, further, this ornament 

 without any decoration. 



We are not bound to assume that all the ancient girdle-pendants 

 looked like the typical one in Fig. 95 which is nothing more than an 

 attempted reconstruction of the Sung period. There is, in fact, no 



x The type of these pendants is widely disseminated and occurs among the 

 antiquities of Siberia and the Finno-Ugrians. A striking analogy to the ancient jade 

 type of Turkistan is offered by silver types found in tombs near Kasan (see De 

 Ujfalvy, Expedition scientifique en Russie, Vol. Ill, p. 151, and Vol. VI, PI. XXIII). 



2 In modern Peking ornaments occurs the fang shSng, a geometrical figure con- 

 sisting of two overlapping squares, employed as a rebus in the sense of "flourishing 

 condition" (Grube, Zur Pekinger Volkskunde, p. 147). The meaning of tieh sheng 

 in application to the above ornament may, accordingly, have been "duplicated or 

 repeated abundance " or " may you thrive in all ways and directions as this meander ! ' ' 



