2 26 



NATURE 



[May i, 191 3 



Distribution of Spectroscopic Double Stars.— In 

 the April number of L' Astronomic, Prof. P. Stroobant 

 of the Observatoire Royal de Belgique, using CampI 

 bell's second catalogue of spectroscopic binary stars, 

 published in 1910, shows that representatives of this 

 class of stars are most abundant in the neighbourhood 

 of the Milky Way— a similar result to that already 

 found by E. Zinner for variables of tin Algol type, to 

 which the spectroscopic doubles bear a strong analogy. 

 Stroobant shows that in this condensation the stars 

 in question obey the law of distribution found by 

 Pickering for the helium stars, being almost precisely 

 proportional to the number of class B stars amongst 

 the binaries. 



JADE IN CHINESE SECULAR LIFE AND 



RELIGION. 1 

 THE sumptuous monograph on the Bishop collec- 

 „ ,. tio . n in New York entitled " Investigations and 

 Studies in Jade " is so rare as to be inaccessible, and 

 consequently there is room for another work on the 

 subject. The authorities of the Field 

 Museum of Natural History of Chicago 

 were well advised to entrust the Black- 

 stone expedition to Tibet and China to 

 Dr. B. Laufer, and to encourage him to 

 • describe the jade objects he collected in a 

 comprehensive monograph. As a matter 

 of fact, his specimens largely supplement. 

 and only slightly duplicate, the wonderful 

 collection in New York, as most of them 

 were exhumed from ancient graves, 

 whereas the majority of the specimens in 

 the Bishop collection are modern. Simi- 

 larly, his monograph supplements the 

 other; he does "not deal with jade for its 

 own sake, but as a means to a certain 

 end ; it merely forms the background, the 

 leading motive, for the exposition of some 

 fundamental ideas of Chinese religious 

 concepts which find their most character- 

 istic expression and illustration in objects 

 of jade." 



The oldest Chinese term for jade is just 

 as general and comprehensive as our 

 word, _ and includes nephrite, jadeite, 

 bowenite, and occasionally serpentine^ 

 &c. ; at present only the first two 

 are acknowledged as true jade by 

 the Chinese. The jades of the Cho'u and Han 

 dynasties are made of indigenous material from the 

 Shensi province, but the supply was exhausted long 

 ago, and about the beginning of the Christian era 

 lurkestan became the chief source for the supply of 

 jade to China, Yunnan and Burma also contributing 

 later. The importance of the trade in jade can be 

 realised when one remembers that "for the last two 

 millenniums Turkestan has furnished to China the 

 greater supply of her jade, wrought and unwrought 

 and the most colossal boulders of the mineral were 

 constantly transported from Khotan to Si-ngan-fu and 

 Peking, over a trade route unparalleled in extent and 

 arduousness in Europe, and requiring a four to six 

 months' journey." 



In dealing with stone implements. Dr. Laufer points 

 out that none of Palaeolithic type have as vet been 

 found; all are polished, thev are found scattered in 

 certain parts of the country, and are generally scarce 

 In the present state of our knowledge it is not justify 



1 Field Museum of Natural History. Anthropological Series PuhlicMion 



a f e, J t : x ^s^ P s e5 (ci^? i ^.r d Re,ig!o --" "* * 



able to speak of a Stone age in China, and still less 

 of a Stone age of the Chinese, since at the time when 

 they Were settling and spreading they were already in 

 possession of metal implements. Four centuries ago 

 Chinese antiquaries spoke of " thunder-axes," and in 

 the eighth century they were described as "stones of 

 the God of Thunder " ; sometimes they were made of 

 jade. 

 ^ The ancient spade-shaped stone implements of the 

 Kolarian-Mon peoples were reproduced in jade and 

 bronze in the Han period, but in the earlier Chou 

 period there was a bronze currency of similar shape. 

 The first sovereign of the Han dynasty (b.c. 206-195) 

 announced his accession to the throne by sacrificing 

 to heaven an engraved jade tablet, a custom which 

 continued for a thousand years or so ; these writing 

 tablets were developed from the ancient bamboo slip's 

 or wooden splints which served as writing material 

 before the invention of paper. 



There is a correlation between the jade objects used 

 in nature-worship and those buried in the graves of 

 the Chou era. Heaven, earth, and the four quarters 

 were six cosmic powers or deities, and the jade carv- 



N— a, Plain type of tongu 

 cicada — upper face ; c, ti 

 From "Jade : A Study in I 



, /; tongue-amulet carved in shape of realistic 

 -ilet showing conventionalised form of cicada, 

 rcnaeology and Religion." 



2270, VOL. 91] 



>ngs serving their worship were nothing but the real 

 images of these deities under which they were wor- 

 shiped. Anthropomorphic conceptions are lacking in 

 the oldest notions of Chinese religion, and therefore 

 no anthropomorphic images are known. The shapes 

 l' h f a ™ages are geometric in design : a jade disk, 

 round and. perforated, representing heaven, a tube 



north?"** y a ° 6arth ' 3 se ™ icircular disk the 



In addition to the use of jade in religious worship 



sftZ XT -r° inS J Sea,s ' and P erso " al ornaments 

 is fully dealt with, and a very interesting account is 

 given of the various kinds of jade amulets for the dead, 

 other objects being buried besides these. The belief 



n r p e srof1 h th K t , jade , had the pr °P ert >' of Preserving the 

 flesh of the body and keeping it from decay, and it was 

 also believed that immortality could be "obtained by 

 eating from bowls made of a marvellous kind of iade 

 worn J}1 perfect,on ° f - ia de." Among the amulets 

 worn by the .corpse, those placed on the tongue were 

 the most important, and were shaped in the outline 

 of that organ; many are in the form of a cicada 

 doubtless as an emblem of resurrection; indeed the 



