Disk (bi 璧) with incised glyph and decorated edge

Perforated disk of the type pi [bi] 璧; bored from both sides, leaving rough median ridge; darkly mottled green and golden brown; bluish-gray frosting and veins of incipient disintegration; scattered granular pittings; decoration: lightly incised, a device on obverse, birds, arrows and geometric pattern around outer rim.

Acquired with a box, now lost.

Maker(s)
Artist: Liangzhu culture 良渚 (ca. 3300-ca. 2250 BCE)
Historical period(s)
Late Neolithic period, ca. 3300-2250 BCE
Medium
Jade (nephrite)
Dimensions
Diam x D: 23.6 x 1.4 cm (9 1/4 x 9/16 in)
Geography
China, Lake Tai region, purportedly found at Anxi, Zhejiang province
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1917.348
On View Location
Freer Gallery 19: Afterlife: Ancient Chinese Jades
Classification(s)
Ceremonial Object, Jade
Type

Ceremonial object: disk (bi)

Keywords
bird, China, inscription, Late Neolithic period (ca. 5000 - ca. 1700 BCE)
Provenance

Reportedly excavated in Anki in Chekiang province [1]

To 1917
You Xiaoxi (late 19th-early 20th century), Shanghai, to 1917 [2]

From 1917 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from You Xiaoxi, in New York, in 1917 [3]

From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [4]

Notes:

[1] According to Curatorial Remark 2 in the object record.

[2] See Original Miscellaneous List, S.I. 1288, pg. 288, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

[3] See note 2.

[4] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919
You Xiaoxi (C.L. Freer source) late 19th-early 20th century

Description

Perforated disk of the type pi [bi] 璧; bored from both sides, leaving rough median ridge; darkly mottled green and golden brown; bluish-gray frosting and veins of incipient disintegration; scattered granular pittings; decoration: lightly incised, a device on obverse, birds, arrows and geometric pattern around outer rim.

Acquired with a box, now lost.

Published References
  • J. Keith Wilson, Jingmin Zhang. Jades for Life and Death. .
  • Minao Hayashi. Chugoku kodai no sakegame., reprint: Kokogaku zasshi, vol. 65, no. 2 (1979) pp. 97-118. Tokyo, 1979. pl. 22.
  • Alfred Salmony. Chinese Jade Through the Wei Dynasty. New York, 1963. pl. 7, fig. 1.
  • Grace Dunham Guest, Archibald Gibson Wenley. Annotated Outlines of the History of Chinese Arts. Washington, 1949. p. 6.
  • Na Chih-liang. "玉器通史." Yu ch'i t'ung shih [A General Study of Chinese Jade]. Hong Kong, 1965. p. 7, fig. 10.
  • Julia Murray. Neolithic Chinese Jades in the Freer Gallery of Art. vol. 14, no. 11 Hong Kong, November 1983. p. 16.
  • Shuping Deng. Tianming xuanniao, jianger shengshang: guyu huawen suo fanying de gudai xinyang. no. 42 Taipei, 1986. p. 19, fig. 5.
  • Minao Hayashi. Jade of the Liang-chu Culture. no. 360 Tokyo, March 1981. p. 28, fig. 3.
  • Shuping Deng. Liangzhu yuqi shang de shenmi fuhao. no. 117 Taipei, 1992. p. 32, fig. 9.
  • Wu Hung. Bird Motifs in Eastern Yi Art. vol. 16, no. 10 Hong Kong, October 1985. p. 35.
  • Elizabeth Childs-Johnson. Dragons, Masks, Axes and Blades from Four Newly-documented Jade-producing Cultures of Ancient China. vol. 19, no. 4 Hong Kong, 1988. p. 36, fig. 22.
  • Shuping Deng. Guyu de renshi he shangxi: You Gaomeiguan zhanlan tanqi. no. 141 Taipei, 1994. p. 53.
  • Chuping Dong. Liangzhu wenhua chuangshi shenhua buzheng. no. 174, 1997. p. 77, fig. 1.
  • Elizabeth Childs-Johnson, Fang Gu. Yuqi shidai: Meiguo bowuguan cang Zhongguo zaoqi yuqi [The Jade Age: Early Chinese Jades in American Museums]. Beijing, 2009. pp. 82-83.
Collection Area(s)
Chinese Art
Web Resources
Jades for Life and Death
Google Cultural Institute
CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

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