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



perforated; but the figure of the cicada here illustrated, as well as the 

 following figures of the dragon, fish, tiger, etc. have all solid bodies 



without perforations. Hence 

 they cannot be designated kileh, 

 but should only be styled 

 girdle-ornaments (p'ei) ; merely 

 for the sake of order, they have 

 been arranged among the kileh, 

 whereby confusion may aiise 

 from this nomenclature, as in 

 the Po ku t'u from the name 

 "kettle" (ling) which is indis- 

 criminately used for the sacrifi- 

 cial vessels ts'un and *." Not- 

 withstanding, this work also 

 retains the name kileh for some 

 of these objects, while it desig- 

 nates as p'ei others which still 

 display a certain relation to the 

 ancient kiieh. 



The twenty-four illustra- 

 tions of these girdle-ornaments 

 given by the Ku yil t'u p'u 

 (Chs. 62-65) present the greatest merit of 

 this book and allow us to trace the devel- 

 opment of these decorative objects from the 

 Han to the Sung period, and to connect 

 these more ancient with the modern forms. 

 The majority of these designs, whatever 

 their supposed age may be, have also highly 

 artistic merits and betray an unusual beauty 

 of form and line. These objects are not the 

 result of antiquarian speculation as the jade 

 tablets of rank or the official headdresses, 

 but live affairs which were really made and 

 worn by all classes of people. Because of 

 this intrinsic value, the whole series is here 

 reproduced in its entirety in the same 

 succession as in the original, with the 

 addition of necessary criticism. The first 

 four objects are designated as girdle-ornaments (p'ei), all others as kileh. 

 Figure 118 represents a pair of fishes standing erect, carved from green 



Fig. 119. 



Jade Girdle-Pendants. Pairs of 



Fishes (from Ku yil t'u p'u). 



