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



5. Jade Buckles 



Among the jade relics of the Han period, there are also buckles 

 (kou) for the belt of a gracefully curved shape, at the top always pro- 

 vided with some animal-head turned over and looking downward, 1 and at 

 the back with a projecting stud which was either stuck like a collar- 

 button into a slit of the belt or slipped under a metal ring fastened to 

 the belt. An idea of their general appearance will be best gained from 

 Figs. 166 and 167 reproducing two specimens in Wu's collection; the 

 one is of white jade with "a yellow mist," the other of uniformly white 

 jade. Wu has appended no discussion to this type, since it is generally 

 known to Chinese archaeologists. It has survived until the present 

 day, and pieces similar to the Han models, though much clumsier and 

 far from reaching their beauty, aside from the inferior glassy modern 

 material, are still turned out. The gulf separating the Han from the 

 modern buckles is so deep that, at first sight, the two can be distin- 

 guished. 



Two jade girdle-buckles of the Han period are represented on Plate 

 XXXIV, Figs. 1 and 2. The one (8.5 cm X 1.8 cm) of gray jade with 

 moss-green and black layers is surmounted by a well carved horse-head 

 looking downward, while from below, a monkey seizing a bee in its right 

 forepaw is crawling upward towards the horse. 2 



The other piece in Fig. 2 (7.8 cm X 2.3 cm) of white and brown-red 

 jade terminates in a dragon's head with two long horns. A hydra is 

 cut out in high relief on the surface. 3 



A number of bronze buckles of the same type are in our collection, 

 one of which is selected here for comparison with the jade types, in 



J The lower end opposite this head is called "the tail" (wei). 



2 The monkey with the bee (f8ng hou) is usually a rebus with the meaning 

 "to bestow on one the investiture (feng) of a vassal prince (hou) " (compare Grube, 

 Zur Pekinger Volkskunde, p. 95). Neither the cause for the association of the 

 monkey with the horse, nor the meaning of the word ma "horse" with reference to 

 the rebus, are known. The proverb quoted by Giles (under ma) may be called 

 to mind: "The heart is like a monkey, thought like a horse," — for restlessness and 

 speed. Pictures of monkeys are sometimes presented to candidates where hou "the 

 monkey" is read hou "to expect" scil. an office. Perhaps the significance of the 

 above rebus was: "May you obtain office or rank with the speed of a horse!" 

 or "Quick promotion in the race for office!" or something like this. 



3 The same type is pictured in the Ku yu t'u (Ch. 1, p. 11) and ascribed to the 

 Han period. The following buckle, also with a dragon-head, is without any reason 

 dated in the Shang dynasty, which is absurd. The third is placed in the San-tai 

 (i. e. Hia, Shang, Chou) period; it has a hydra's head, and is further described to 

 bear on the "tail" (end) a tiger's head and body dragging along its feet a monkey, 

 which is not shown in the illustration. The fourth buckle is even made an object 

 prior to the San-tai; it is provided with a horse-head like ours in Fig. 1, Plate XXXIV, 

 and it is curious in that it terminates in a hydra's head at the other end, — the only 

 piece with double head that is known to me. 



