July, 1913. Notes on Turquois. 61 



the exploitation of turquois mines in China was taken up again only 

 at that time, while it was interrupted during the Ming period. In the 

 records of the Ming and Ts'ing dynasties, there is no reference to 

 quarrying turquois. The great work on natural history of the six- 

 teenth century, the Pen ts'ao kang mu, has nothing to say regarding this 

 matter. In the K'ien-lung period (1736-95) turquois was occasionally 

 used in the imperial manufacture at Peking, as we may ascertain from 

 several specimens in the Bishop collection in the Metropolitan Museum 

 of New York. It contains, for instance, a scabbard of chiseled repousse 

 gold decorated with the eight Buddhist emblems {pa poo) carved in 

 turquois, apparently intended as a gift for some Mongol prince, and 

 an imperial knife marked with K 'ten-lung's seal, the handle being 

 studded with lapis lazuli, camelian and turquois.^ 



It appears that the Manchu emperors with their predilection for 

 Lamaism and their interests in the Mongols and Tibetans derived the 

 application of turquois from these peoples, and followed in this respect 

 the trail of the Mongol emperors. Among the Chinese these stones 

 never became popular.^ They were occasionally employed for inlaying, 

 but then in connection with other stones to produce certain color 

 effects. BusHELL ^ figures a box of carved red lacquer, decorated with 

 floral designs, the fruit, flowers and other details inlaid in green and 

 yellow jade, lapis lazuli, turquois and amethystine quartz. In the 

 Chinese collection in the Field Museum there is a pair of jade trees in 

 pots of cloisonne enamel, the leaves of which are beautifully carved out 

 of turquois.'* 



It was for the first time also in the K'ien-lung period that the stone 

 was officially adopted and its use sanctioned for the imperial cult. 



Turquoises enter the imperial robe on some occasions, as recorded 



^ See Bishop, Investigations and Studies in Jade, Vol. II, p. 244. 



^ This lack of popularity is best evidenced by the fact that the turquois does not 

 appear in the Chinese materia medica as it does in India and Tibet, nor are there any 

 superstitious beliefs regarding it. This is remarkable considering among the Chinese 

 the widest utilization for medicinal purposes of all substances occurring in the three 

 kingdoms of nature. 



' Chinese Art, Vol. I, p. 133. 



* Figured in Jade, Plates LXVI and LXVII. The model of the Chinese jade 

 trees presumably is to be looked for in the Bodhi trees of India made from precious 

 stones and metals. The Great Chronicle of Ceylon (W. Geiger, The Mahavarnsa, 

 p. 203, London, 1912) from about the sixth century A. D. has this report: "In the 

 midst of the relic-chamber the king placed a Bodhi tree made of jewels, splendid in 

 every way. It had a stem eighteen cubits high and five branches; the root, made of 

 coral, rested on sapphire. The stem made of perfectly pure silver was adorned with 

 leaves made of gems, had withered leaves and fruits of gold and young shoots made of 

 coral. The eight auspicious figures [these are, lion, bull, elephant, water-pitcher, 

 fan, standard, conch-shell, lamp] were on the stem and festoons of flowers and 

 beautiful rows of four-footed beasts and rows of geese." Then follows a description 

 of the canopy consisting of pearls and precious stones. 



