Feb., 191 2. Jade. 233 



community in the same form; it did not spring up from an individual 

 thought, but presented an ethnical element, a national type. Senti- 

 ments move on manifold lines and pendulate between numerous degrees 

 of variations. When sentiment demanded its right and conquered its 

 place in the art of the Han, the natural .consequence was that at the 

 same time when the individual keynote was sounded in the art -motives, 

 also variations of motives sprang into existence in proportion to the 

 variations of sentiments. 



This implies the two new great factors which characterize the spirit 

 of the Han time, — individualism and variability, in poetry, 1 in art, 

 in culture and life in general. The personal spirit in taste gradually 

 awakens: it was now possible for every one to choose a girdle-ornament 

 according to his liking. For the first time, we hear of names of artists 

 under the Han, six painters under the Western Han, and nine under the 

 Eastern Han (Giles, Introduction etc., pp. 6, 7), also of workers in 

 bronze and other craftsmen (Laufer, Chinese Pottery, pp. 196, 292, 

 296). The typical, traditional objects of antiquity now received a 

 tinge of personality or even gave way to new forms ; these dissolved into 

 numerous variations to express the correspondingly numerous shades 

 of sentiments, and to answer the demands of customers of various minds. 

 I am in a position to lay before the reader four burial pieces of girdle- 

 ornaments (Plate XXIX) which in style and technique agree with the 

 last six of the Ku yii t'u p'u. They are authentic objects of the Han 

 period originating from graves west of Si-ngan fu. Their character as 

 mortuary offerings will allow us to advance one step further in the 

 understanding of their symbolism. The finest qualities of jade of the 

 most exquisite colors have been selected for this purpose, and the execu- 

 tion of the work in which the three processes of engraving, carving in 

 relief and d jour are united, is perfect. The glyptic art of antiquity 

 has reached in these carvings a climax unattained by any later age. The 

 piece in Fig. 1, Plate XXIX, is remarkable for the magnificent colora- 

 tion of the jade in various shades of brown and red standing out from 

 an apple-green background, and for the freedom and mastery in the 

 treatment of the design. Around a perforated elongated foundation, 



1 J. Edkins, On the Poets of China (Journal of the Peking Oriental Society, Vol. II, 

 p. 219) has given a good characteristic of Han poetry. "The Han poets were men 

 who felt within themselves the impulses of poetry, which must find expression in 

 some way. The old Odes were like the pleasant murmuring of the brook, the whisper 

 of the pines in mountain hollows, the tinkling of the sheep bell heard from afar. The 

 compositions of the Ch'u poets were marked by the depth and dashing speed of the 

 river which forces its way through rocks attended by deafening sound and distinct 

 contrasts of light and shadow. There was more art in these compositions than in 

 those of earlier date, and it was accompanied by profounder feeling. Consequently, 

 the Han poets could adopt no other course. In short, they made poems of the same 

 kind" etc. 



