DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63296#0070
EARLY CHINESE JADES
Another type of kuei is mentioned in the Chou Li, the ko kuei with
straight sides and ssat surfaces decorated with grain pattern* This is said
to have been given by the Emperor to his bride* Still another type exists
in which the“ grain ” pattern is replaced by “ rush” pattern, a kuei pre-
sumably used for some other purpose*
The last two lowest ranks of feudal princes were invested with insignia
in the shape of pi and will be dealt with elsewhere* Many tablets shaped
like hammers, axe-heads, and knives are indiscriminately called kuei.
For the sake of clearness it seems better to treat them separately from the
pointed kuei symbol of the spring.
THE CHANG
With this tablet, red in colour, homage was paid to the region of the
South* It symbolised the element fire, later on the pheasant, and was in
some way connected with sun worship. A commentator on the Chou Li
says, 44 it is the shape of a kuei cut in half length-wise ” j1 the Tu Shu
follows this commentator, but of this statement Dr. Gieseler says : 44 This
lapidary phrase is intended to strike the imagination, because referring to
the chang which we know as a mark of rank; we can state clearly that it
resembles a halberd* This is a fresh example of a weapon symbolising
one of the cardinal points and one of the elements.”1
Dr* Laufer believes no example has survived—an improbable hypo-
thesis. If the tablets of the North, East, and West have come down to us
in considerable numbers, why no tablets of the South S' The probability
is rather that they have not yet been recognised owing to lacunae in Chinese
archaeological literature* Wu Ta ch'eng gives two knife-shaped tablets
of differing shapes as Chang. The Chou Li2 mentions a jade tablet called
yii chang, in other words, the 44 tablet chang with a tooth,” which serves
to mobilise troops. Its form, says Wu, has been chosen from amongst
military weapons* It seems possible that the tablet illustrated by Wu Ta
ch'eng was the one which served for the mobilisation of troops and that it
had no connection with the emblem of the South* It may be described
in shape as half a kuei, but it seems to me improbable that half a kuei had
to do with the worship of the South, or of fire or of the sun.
Under the Tsin dynasty there was dispute as to the shape of the chang ;
no one could tell its form with certainty, and it was replaced by a red pi
9/ioths of a foot in diameter* In 1748 in the Temple of the Sun it was
stipulated that the disc pi of red colour with a diameter 4 6/ioth inches
1 P. 97, Le Jade dans le Culte. 2 P. 252, Vol. II, Tcheou Li.
46
Another type of kuei is mentioned in the Chou Li, the ko kuei with
straight sides and ssat surfaces decorated with grain pattern* This is said
to have been given by the Emperor to his bride* Still another type exists
in which the“ grain ” pattern is replaced by “ rush” pattern, a kuei pre-
sumably used for some other purpose*
The last two lowest ranks of feudal princes were invested with insignia
in the shape of pi and will be dealt with elsewhere* Many tablets shaped
like hammers, axe-heads, and knives are indiscriminately called kuei.
For the sake of clearness it seems better to treat them separately from the
pointed kuei symbol of the spring.
THE CHANG
With this tablet, red in colour, homage was paid to the region of the
South* It symbolised the element fire, later on the pheasant, and was in
some way connected with sun worship. A commentator on the Chou Li
says, 44 it is the shape of a kuei cut in half length-wise ” j1 the Tu Shu
follows this commentator, but of this statement Dr. Gieseler says : 44 This
lapidary phrase is intended to strike the imagination, because referring to
the chang which we know as a mark of rank; we can state clearly that it
resembles a halberd* This is a fresh example of a weapon symbolising
one of the cardinal points and one of the elements.”1
Dr* Laufer believes no example has survived—an improbable hypo-
thesis. If the tablets of the North, East, and West have come down to us
in considerable numbers, why no tablets of the South S' The probability
is rather that they have not yet been recognised owing to lacunae in Chinese
archaeological literature* Wu Ta ch'eng gives two knife-shaped tablets
of differing shapes as Chang. The Chou Li2 mentions a jade tablet called
yii chang, in other words, the 44 tablet chang with a tooth,” which serves
to mobilise troops. Its form, says Wu, has been chosen from amongst
military weapons* It seems possible that the tablet illustrated by Wu Ta
ch'eng was the one which served for the mobilisation of troops and that it
had no connection with the emblem of the South* It may be described
in shape as half a kuei, but it seems to me improbable that half a kuei had
to do with the worship of the South, or of fire or of the sun.
Under the Tsin dynasty there was dispute as to the shape of the chang ;
no one could tell its form with certainty, and it was replaced by a red pi
9/ioths of a foot in diameter* In 1748 in the Temple of the Sun it was
stipulated that the disc pi of red colour with a diameter 4 6/ioth inches
1 P. 97, Le Jade dans le Culte. 2 P. 252, Vol. II, Tcheou Li.
46