Feb., 1912. Jade. 235 



idea of preventing the flesh from decay; that they were, accordingly, 

 protecting amulets in the grave. This custom will be discussed at 

 length in Chapter VIII. From this usage we recognize that the sym- 

 bolism of these ornaments was deep and serious with an ethical reminder 

 of death. It was a love-token given by the husband to his wife to 

 remind her of their happy union and at the same time of their final 

 separation by death; hence the appropriate application of the kiieh, 

 the ring of separation; and now we understand why all these ornaments, 

 despite the fact that they allude to a union in the duplication of animals, 

 are simultaneously emblems of parting {kiieh) and death. But death, 

 in the view of the Chinese, does not mean a permanent, but rather a 

 temporary separation. The relations of a husband and a wife did not 

 cease at the moment of death ; they continued to be united even beyond 

 the grave, and expected to resume their marital relations in a future 

 life. 1 The custom tending to preserve the flesh by means of the jade 

 substance (even though imaginary) shows plainly that the post-mortem 

 relations were not viewed as merely platonic, but also as substantial 

 enjoyments. This abundance of ideas covering the span of life and 

 death in the fundamental human relations imbues the art of the Han 

 with a spiritual tendency and an intrinsic idealistic import. From 

 this point of view, the art of the Han period as embodying ideas and 

 ideals is preeminently idealistic. 2 It should, further, be defined as 

 emotional transcendentalism, as these ideas have their basis in emotions, 

 not in deductions. Whether the conception of transcendental love 

 meant also eternal love, we do not know; but however this may be, 

 this is of all Chinese ideas the most idealistic ever conceived of, one 

 which had a profound bearing on ethical conduct and at the same time 

 a fruitful effect on art. This belief in the resurrection of love somewhat 

 savours of that mysterious symbolism which the greatest poet of the 

 Germanic race, Ibsen, has embodied in his dramatic legacy "When 

 We Dead Awaken." 



The four girdle-pendants in Figs. 142-145 are derived from the work 

 of Wu Ta-ch'eng, not being commented upon by him in an explanatory 

 text. For several reasons, they deserve reproduction. Figures 142 and 

 144 are designated as "dragon-shaped girdle-pendants, both of white 

 jade, the one with additional russet spots, the other with a yellow 



1 Also in ancient times as at the present time husband and wife were buried in 

 the same grave, but in different coffins. The grave was considered a dwelling-place, 

 and a widow mourning the death of her husband expresses the desire "to go home 

 to his abode or chamber" on her death (Shi king, ed. Legge, Vol. I, p. 187). 



2 Like the poetry introduced by the Pan family in which, according to the Chinese 

 critics, human feelings and moral sentiments were involved. Poetry became with 

 them a moral instructor and, at the same time, touched the feelings (Edkins, 

 /. c. p. 238). < 



