XL VASES OF JADE 



Sacrificial vessels carved from jade were employed during the Chou 

 period in the ancestral cult together with bronze vessels. Of great 

 archaeological importance in this lespect is the brief paragraph relating 

 to the offerings made in honor of Chou-kung in his ancestral temple in 

 the kingdom of Lu (Li ki, Ming fang wei, 9) who was honored with the 

 same ceremonies of the solemn sacrifice made by the emperor to his 

 ancestors. The victim was a white bull. Of bronze vessels, they 

 employed three, the bronze figure of a bull (hi), and the bronze figure 

 of an elephant, both carrying the vase tsun on the back, 1 and the bronze 

 vase lei with hill patterns. As vase (tsun) for the fragrant wine they 

 employed the type called huang mu "yellow eye." 2 For the libations, 

 they used the jade cup tsan provided with a handle in the shape of the 

 great jade tablet kuei. To present the offerings, they used a jade tazza 

 (yii tou) 3 and carved bamboo vases. As drinking-cup, they used the 

 jade cup chan carved in the usual manner, and they added the cups 

 called san and the cups called kio, both made of the jade called pi* 

 A cup of this type (yii chan) is illustrated in Fig. 198 after Wu Ta-ch'&ng 

 who proposes this identification on the ground of the passage quoted. 5 



1 It seems to me that this is the only possible definition doing justice to the 

 archaeological facts; there are no such things as "cups with the figure of a victim 

 bull, of an elephant," as Legge translates, nor "vases on which an ox is represented," 

 as proposed by Couvreur who, however, adds also the translation "vase in the shape 

 of an ox, of an elephant;" but it should be understood that the vase tsun is carried 

 on the backs of the animals, the whole affair being made in one cast. These two 

 vessels were doubtless used to receive the blood of the sacrificial bull, and are said 

 to have originated at the court of the Chou (Ming fang wei, 18). 



2 The vases tsun are usually decorated with the conventionalized figures of the 

 monster fao-fieh, the eyes of which are sometimes indicated by inlaid patches of 

 gold. In Ming Vang wei, 20, this vessel is ascribed to the Chou. I am inclined to 

 think that huang mu in many cases designates the t'ao-fieh itself, merely being its 

 epithet. Thus, in the Ku yii fu p'u (Ch. 28, p. 2) the ornaments of a jade axe (re- 

 produced in Fig. 2) are described as consisting of the huang mu and the cicada pattern, 

 and as besides the latter only the t'ao-l'ieh is represented, it must be identical with 

 the term "yellow eye." 



'Legge translates: "The dishes with the offerings were on stands of wood, 

 adorned with jade and carved." And Couvreur: "des vases de bois ornes de 

 jade." It is unnecessary to criticise these translations made without any regard 

 to archaeology. The yii tou are exactly what their name implies, tou or tazza made 

 of jade. For illustrations see Han Pottery, pp. 188, 189. According to Ming fang 

 wei, 28, they are connected with the house of Yin. 



4 Legge: "There were also the plain cups and those of horn, adorned with 

 round pieces of jade." Couvreur: "Les coupes additionelles £taient le san et la 

 corne, dont le bord 6tait orne' de jade." 



6 It is worthy of note that, according to the T'ao shuo (Bushell, Description 

 of Chinese Pottery, p. 96), those ancient jade cups were the prototypes of the por- 

 celain cups made under the Sung, and that under the T'ang they were still turned 

 out of white jade and designed for drinking wine. 



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