Feb., 1912. Jade. 299 



in its real sense, for it would be difficult to see how a band of soldiers 

 could be provided with these jade pieces at a moment's notice just 

 before going to battle, unless we should suppose it a custom that every 

 man should carry with him his mouth-jade, which is not very probable, 

 and the general could hardly expect that a man while holding a piece 

 of jade on his tongue could do efficient fighting. I therefore understand 

 the sentence in a figurative sense meaning to say that the battle will 

 be so fierce that every one should be prepared for death and burial. 



The mortuary amulets in our collection described on the following 

 pages were procured in Si-ngan fu from the private collection of a well 

 known Chinese scholar and archaeologist who has been engaged for many 

 years in antiquarian researches with great success. For the definition 

 of these objects, I entirely depend on his explanations which agree with 

 the general opinions upheld in Si-ngan fu. It will be seen that there is 

 not only the tongue-amulet mentioned in the Chou li, but a whole series 

 of jade amulets serving also for the preservation of other parts of the 

 body. The underlying idea evidently was to close up all apertures of 

 the body by means of jade, the essence of the yang element which was to 

 triumph over the destructive underground agencies of the yin element, 

 and it is assumed that this full equipment of the body was developed in 

 the Han period. 1 The characteristics of the pieces point to the same 

 epoch. This is the most complete collection of this kind on record, and 

 most of these types have not yet been described by Chinese archaeolo- 

 gists. 



Among the personal amulets worn by the corpse, those to be placed 

 on the tongue are most important and frequently spoken of in the 

 ancient texts. As all these amulets are imitative of bodily foims, 

 those for the tongue are shaped in the outline of this organ. There are 

 four types of them, the one plain, almost geometrically constructed, 

 the other of a realistic design carved into the figure of a cicada, but 

 simultaneously preserving the shape of a tongue. A series of nine pieces 

 is illustrated on Plate XXXVI all in natural size, the four first being 

 of the plain tongue-shaped type. The first three are made of the same 



1 The archaeological evidence quite agrees with the literary researches of De 

 Groot, The Religious System of China, Vol. I, pp. 271 et seq. The most important 

 quotation for our purpose is that by Ko Hung: " If there is gold and jade in the 

 nine apertures of the corpse, it will preserve the body from putrefaction." And 

 T'ao Hung-king of the fifth century: "When on opening an ancient grave the 

 corpse looks like alive, then there is inside and outside of the body a large quantity 

 of gold and jade. According to the regulations of the Han dynasty, princes and lords 

 were buried in clothes adorned with pearls, and with boxes of jade, for the purpose 

 of preserving the body from decay." The stuffing of the corpse with jade took the 

 place of embalming, except that it did not have the same effect. In the case of 

 the Han Emperor Wu (b. c. 140-87), the jade boxes mentioned had their lids carved 

 with figures of dragons, phenixes and tortoise-dragons (I. c, Vol. II, p. 401). 



