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



for relapsing criminals. A hymn in honor of this divine plant was 

 composed in the same year (Chavannes, Se-ma Ts'ien, Vol. Ill, 

 p. 624; J. Edkins, Journal Peking Oriental Society, Vol. II, p. 230). 

 This event may have led at that time to the reception of this fungus as 

 a motive of art in girdle-pendants. Subsequently, it became one of the 

 magic emblems of Taoism and a symbol of long life. We shall meet 

 them repeatedly in connection with this design of the fungus on later 

 carvings of jade. 



The jade agarics (yii chih) mentioned in the year 748 a. d. as "pro- 

 duced on the pillars of the Ta-t'ung Palace and shining through the 

 hall with magic splendor" (Hirth, Scraps from a Collector's Note 

 Book, p. 78) were perhaps really carved from jade, although the word 

 ch'an "to produce " used in this passage would seem to refer to a natural 

 phenomenon and to favor the view expressed by Hirth. There is 

 indeed, if not a real, a fabulous kind of agaric called yii chih and sup- 

 posed to grow on the sacred mountain Hua shan in Shensi. A special 

 agaric is ascribed to each of the four sacred mountains with the addi- 

 tion of two others, making six kinds altogether (see Bretschneider, 

 I. c, Part III, p. 418). An illustration and description of the ling chih 

 is given by G. Schlegel in T'oung Pao, Vol. VI, 1895, pp. 18-21. 



The favorite girdle-ornaments were doubtless the ring and the 

 half-ring. Huan (Giles No. 5043) "a jade ring" is written with the 

 same phonetic and pronounced with the same sound as huan (No. 5047) 

 "to return, to repay." It was accordingly the symbol by which the 

 emperor summoned an exiled official to return, or the signal given for 

 besieging a city (on account of the word huan Nos. 5040 and 41 "an 

 enclosing wall"). 1 In making such a ring over to a friend as a gift 

 it doubtless meant an expression of thanks, 2 or implied also the philo- 

 sophical symbolism underlying the ring, — all divine principles being 

 supposed to run in a ring or circle without beginning or end (see Giles 

 No. 4862). The opposite sense is connected with the incomplete or 

 half -ring kiieh (Giles No. 3222). This character is alternately used 

 with the word kiieh (No. 3219) meaning "to cut off, to slay; to pass 

 sentence; to decide, to settle." Conrady (I. c, p. 9) has discovered 

 the oldest authenticated use of this half-ring in the tragic case of 

 Prince Shen-sheng who in b. c. 659 was sent by his father, to please a 

 concubine, on a fatal war expedition and received from him a half- 

 ring as girdle-pendant, signifying that he was cast off and should not 

 return. The emperors availed themselves of this symbol in banishing 



1 See Conrady, /. c, p. 10. 



2 As proved by the story of Yang Pao and the gold bracelets of the Chou family 

 (P£tillon, Allusions litt^raires, p. 250). 



