CHINESE IDEAS OF ANTIQUES 79 



ashamed to own the work. The delineation of figures both 

 of men and things on these gems is no common art. Its 

 origin seems to date back to the " San tai " period. In the 

 early stages of the art of polishing gems, the artisans appar- 

 ently had no definite idea of how these figures could be 

 produced, nevertheless they gradually succeeded in produc- 

 ing them, and the more they persisted the more perfect 

 they became. That the artisans of the Sung period succeeded 

 in developing this art is all the more remarkable since 

 succeeding generations failed to do so. The ancients 

 selected their material and approached their work in a way 

 which is very difficult to understand or appreciate. The 

 imaginative genius of the Sung period in their abilities of 

 polishing and in their ideals of carving, only exceeded the Han 

 period in unimportant items, while in the more important 

 points, they are inferior; the double knife lathe, the delinea- 

 tions resembling dormant silkworms are superior to every 

 thing else ever produced. It is by these signal marks that 

 the Han and Sung wares are recognisable at first sight. 



At a later period there was a certain Luh Tsi Kang 

 (US -f* 153) who was a famous carver and polisher of gems. 

 Everything he produced, whether large or small, were all 

 beautifully polished, and have had no equal, either before 

 or since. 



Ancient gems which have been excavated from the 

 earth have decided earth corrosions which are very difficult 

 to imitate. On these gems there will be blood stains, while 

 on the blood red colours are found black ink like earth 

 marks, which are deeply eaten into the gem, and have the 

 appearance of having been varnished. The patterns are 

 very elegant, round and smooth, and are called ancient corpse 

 (P ~&) gems. If these antiques should have a layer of 

 yellow clay encasing the whole, then they would be called an 

 earth antique (±. ~fc). Another variety of ancient gems, is 

 that which has been deposited in the earth for a long period 

 of years in close proximity to some copper ware, and in con- 

 sequence is either partially or completely covered with a 

 bluish green earth rust, or ox hair like variegations. These 

 latter gems date from the Han and T'ang periods. 



Chinese gems are classed under two heads (1) Mountain 

 gems, (2) Water gems. The mountain gems are hard and 

 dry with many little cracks and are called Kiang Yu Liu 

 (& & ffli). Gems coming from the Yunnan province come 

 under this class of mountain gems. The water gems are 

 white like an egg shell, soft and damp to the touch. The 

 Yu t'ien (^ W!) or khoten gems come under this class of 

 gems. 



