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



The Chou li mentions a plate of jade used in a ceremony when the 

 feudal princes gave the oath of allegiance to the emperor. An ox was 

 slaughtered on this occasion, and one of its ears cut off. The partici- 

 pants rubbed their lips with the blood as a sign of allegiance. A basin 

 ornamented with pearls contained the ear, and the grain offered was 

 placed on the jade plate; but according to another commentary no 

 grain was offered in this ceremony, and the plate was used to collect 

 the blood of the victim (Biot, Vol. I, p. 126). According to Cheng 

 Se-nung, this vessel was of the type called tui, and Wu Ta-ch'eng has 

 identified a jade tui in his collection with the Chou vessel for administer- 

 ing the oath (Fig. 199). "It is a red jade," he remarks; "the patterns 

 are cleverly carved, and it is identical with the bronze vases tsun and 

 i of the Shang and Chou periods ; but while the bronze tui are sacrificial 

 vessels, the jade tui are covenant vessels." Fig. 200 illustrates another 

 bowl of the same type in his collection; it is carved from white jade 

 of an ivory color and was excavated near the ancient city of Feng- 

 siang fu in Shensi Province. 



If we can depend upon the Li ki (Ming Vang wei, 27), the Hia 

 dynasty would have availed itself of four vessels called lien, and the Yin 

 dynasty of six vessels called hu, both words formed with the radical 

 denoting "jade" and described by the commentaries as made of jade 

 and holding millet and grain in the ancestral temple. 



Ancient jade vases of the Chou and Han periods are now exceedingly 

 rare, even in Chinese collections. I doubt if any exist outside of China. 

 Our collection comprises a representative series of jade vases of later 

 epochs which may convey an idea of the shapes and designs of the an- 

 cient pieces and may even surpass them in beauty of workmanship. 

 As in the corresponding bronze vases of the same dates', all religious 

 symbolism formerly connected with them is lost also in the vessels of 

 jade, and the antique forms were simply imitated for artistic and decora- 

 tive purposes. 



The Mongol emperors kept jade jars of tremendous size to hold 

 wine. One of these is described as being of black jade with white veins, 

 and in accordance with these veins, fish and animals were carved on the 

 jar. It was so big that it could hold more than thirty piculs of wine 

 (Bretschneider, Arch, and Hist. Researches on Peking, Chinese 

 Recorder, Vol. VI, 1875, p. 319). Odoric de Pordenone mentions in the 

 midst of the Great Khan's palace a jar of a certain precious stone called 

 merdacas, all hooped round with gold, in every corner of which a dragon 

 was represented as in the act of striking most fiercely ; drink was con- 

 veyed into this vessel by conduits from the court of the palace. The 

 word merdacas has not yet been explained. I believe it is a corruption 



