Feb., 1912. 



Jade. 



3i3 



Chinese sketches, I think it is not older than the Han time. It is further 

 said in the text that in the period Yen-yu (1314-1321 a. d.) Chao Tse- 

 ang ' obtained this piece by purchase from Ch'eng Chih and used it as 

 a paper-weight, — one of the many examples of how Chinese turn 

 antiquities to a new practical mode of use. 



The extravagance which the emperors of the Chou, Ts'in and Han 

 dynasties exercised in the erection of their mausolea, and the wealth of 

 treasures which they had interred in their vaults was stupendous. One 



A 3ft 



Fig. 197. 

 Ancient Jade Carving of the Monster p'i-siek, used as Paper-Weight by the Painter Chao Meng-fu 



(from Ku yu t'u). 



third of all the taxes of the empire is said to have been apportioned by 

 the house of Han to being hoarded in the imperial graves. When the 

 Emperor Wu died in b. c. 87, his mausoleum which was seventeen feet 

 high and twenty feet square, with a mound of two hundred feet in diam- 

 eter, was so filled up with treasures of all kinds that nothing more could 

 be placed in it, and insurgents rifling the tomb were not able to carry off 

 half of the valuables. Nine carriages were entombed with every emper- 

 or, and even live horses, leopards, and tigers, one hundred and ninety 

 live animals being on record in one particular case. The reader may 

 be referred to the description given by De Groot (The Religious System 

 of China, Vol. II, Ch. IV). As all these graves were disturbed and 

 pilfered at an early date, there is little hope that any remarkable spoils 

 will ever come to light from them in the future, and we must be content 

 with a few treasures which may impart some idea at least of the mag- 

 nificence and glory of that Augustan age. 



1 Or Chao M£ng-fu, the famous painter, 1254-1322. 

 horse-paintings of his and dated 1305 is in our collection. 



An album containing six 



