ETHNOLOGY. 407 



" white, like lard, yellow, like chestnuts cooked in the steam of boiling 

 water, black, like varnish, red, like a cock's comb or painted lips;" but the 

 green and transparent variety, more or less deep colored, is by far the 

 most common. That of a whitish hue partakes of nine shades or grada- 

 tions of color, from the fiuest to the commonest. During the years 

 siouau-no, the notice adds, there was at the palace a standard of compari- 

 son for all the various tints and shades of jade to which all specimens 

 were subjected when acquired for the emperor, just as now there is a 

 standard for estimating the different degrees of purity in gold, and es- 

 tablishing its value. 



This collection of notices is not the only work in which are found ac- 

 counts of different colored jades. The Chi-kung, a book of verses, a 

 collection of odes and songs dating previous to the sixth century before 

 ourera, and arranged by Confucius, speaks of a celestial blue jade ; and 

 according to Chi-tchin, who quotes from the Tai-phing-yu-Kian, there is 

 found at Lant-hian a lamb-like jade, which is the color of pastel-blue, 

 whence it appears that the country has received the name of Lau-thian, 

 signifying the pastel country. The author also undertakes to describe 

 the sources as follows : The white yu is found at Kiao-tcheon ; the red 

 yu in Fou-yu, a part of Corea ; the green yu in the land of I-leon, or 

 Eastern Tartary ; the pale-green yu in Tai-tseou 5 the black yu in 

 the western part of the land of Chou, toward Thibet. The Teheon-li, 

 when speaking of the coronet of the emperor, says, further, that a band 

 around the upper part is composed of six colors, and twelve pendants 

 complete. All of these pendants are composed of twelve pieces of jade 

 of five colors. Finally the Li-Ki, or book of ceremonies, distinguishes 

 jade as flesh-colored, yellow, white, red, cinnabar, and deep maroon ; 

 but, as the yu was a chief ornament of the imperial dress, and as it is 

 to this occasion that the Li-Ki refers, we are led to infer that the word 

 yu comprised other and different kinds of precious stones, since, at the 

 present da}*, there are not found any specimens which correspond in 

 color to those mentioned in this ancient canonical book. 



Now let us return to the jade mine- of Kho-tau. The Chinese have 

 resorted to this city for their supplies of the mineral from very ancient 

 times. The notices, quoted above, furnish sure proof of the antiquity 

 of these beds. One of them, on the history of the dynasty of Soung, 

 relates, in fact, that the embassadors of the King of Yu-thiau sent, in 

 the third year of Kian-te (9G5,) a tribute consisting of five hundred 

 pieces of jade and five hundred pounds of yellow amber. The city of 

 Yu-thian was moreover annually subjected to this impost levied by the 

 Son of Heaven, as the author of the same notice declares that a year 

 was never suffered to pass without the exaction and payment of this 

 tribute. 



Finally, in the course of the years Tai-kouan, about HG7- ? 70, the Chi- 

 nese desiring to execute some embellishments, a large mass of jade was 

 demanded of the King of Khotan. He sent an embassador with a letter, 



