Feb., 1912. 



Jade. 



269 



and made a specialty of dragons. 1 None of his works have survived, 

 but as a number of them were still preserved in the gallery of the Em- 

 peror Hui-tsung, the authors of the Ku yii Vu p'u were placed in a 

 position to be acquainted with his style. And it is interesting that they 

 point out to us in the dragon of this jade buckle a type of dragon in the 



Ancient Jade Buckle with Head of p'i-sieh 

 (from Ku yii t'u p'u). 



Fig. 172. 

 Ancient Jade Buckle with Head of the 

 Animal t'ien-lu (from Ku yii t'u p'u). 



style of that great artist. We doubtless meet here the Indian type of 

 dragon which Chang had received from India with his other Buddhistic 

 motives. If the authors of the Ku yii Vu p'u are correct in their observa- 

 tion, the inference would naturally be to date this jade buckle in the 

 sixth century a. d. 



It is therefore a matter of surprise to see the dragon-buckle in the 

 next Fig. 174 dated in the first years of the Eastern Han (Tung Han 



1 Giles, An Introduction to the History of Chinese Pictorial Art, pp. 29-31; 

 Hirth, Scraps from a Collector's Note Book, pp. 59-61. 



