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



a black wood frame, the ornaments of which are inlaid with silver wire, 

 and placed in a stand of carved blackwood, with a panel in open-work. 

 On the one face of the slab (Plate LXII) two spotted deer, a stag re- 

 clining, and a doe walking are engraved with two fir-trees as background. 

 Ripe cones are hanging from the branches. The fungus of immortality 

 (ling chih) emerges also here from the ground and reminds us of the 

 symbolical significance of the picture which implies a wish for old age 

 and good income (lu "deer" by means of punning being the equivalent 

 of lu "income"). The other face of the screen (Plate LXIII) is deco- 

 rated with trunks of plum-trees, the branches being laden with blossoms. 

 We observe that in both cases the artist has intentionally chosen to draw 

 one tree, in horizontal position, in order to better fill the space. 



The objects grouped on Plate LXIV are all works of the K'ien-lung 

 period (i 736-1 795). 



Figures 1 and 2 are ornaments fastened to the central part of a woman's 

 girdle, both very finely carved from gray jade in open-work. The design 

 in Fig. 1 (10 cm X 8 cm) is a goose with wings outspread covered and 

 surrounded by lotus-flowers and leaves. The goose is a symbol of 

 conjugal fidelity, and the lotus (lien), by way of punning with lien 

 ("to join, to connect"), is suggestive of the notion of permanent ties. 

 The object is therefore a love-token. The rectangular plaque in Fig. 2 

 (6.8 cm X 4-7 cm), cut out in two layers, displays on a diapered back- 

 ground, a pine-tree rising from the ground in the centre, bamboo-leaves 

 on the left and plum-blossoms to the right; below, a stag and a doe 

 facing each other in the shade of the pine-tree. The stag lu reads in 

 the rebus lu "official salary, good income," the entire rebus being "we 

 always pray for old age (symbolized by the pine-tree) with sufficient 

 income!" 



Figure 3 of Plate LXIV represents the cover to a round box for hold- 

 ing ink (7 cm in diameter), with a relief design of "the mother hydra 

 watching two young ones" E embedded in ornamental clouds. 



Figure 5 on Plate LXIV illustrates a paper-weight (shu chen) of white 

 and red agate on which eight lizard-dragons mutually interlaced are 

 carved out (7.3 cm X 6.5 cm, 4 cm high). The Ku yii t'u p'u contains 

 a great many varieties of this type adorning the scholar's desk, carved 

 into figures of animals. 



Figure 4 on the same Plate is a purely decorative piece for the wall, 

 carved in open-work from a gray-green jade with a layer of brown, 

 representing a landscape of rocks with pine-tree, maple-tree, and fungus 

 (13.2 cm X 8.7 cm). 



A pair of jade flutes of the K'ien-lung period called "male" and 



1 Compare above p.276. 



