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Jade Into Ware: Jade Culture in archaeological art history is the first Chinese translation by Professor Jenny F. So, an expert on early Chinese art history in the United States. Since the Neolithic Age, the book conducts in-depth discussions on ten academic issues in the jade excavated and handed down from generation to generation in China, involving Niuheliang, Hongshan, Liangzhu, Sanxingdui and other cultural settlements, taking us to understand the specific ways of ancient people mining jade, jade management, and the use of jade, as well as the role of jade in the etiquette and social life of different eras, the relationship between jade decoration and other utensils, and also the cultural details of Chinese civilization and surrounding cultural exchanges through jade.
The following is selected from the chapter "Jade and Stone of Sanxingdui" in the book, with some deletions and notes omitted.
Text/Su Fangshu
Since the 20th century, jade and stone tools have often been found near the ancient city of Sanxingdui. The earliest came from the north of the ancient city. In 1929, a local landowner built an irrigation canal next to his yard and excavated hundreds of bi, go and other artifacts from the bottom. Archaeologists at West China Union University (the predecessor of Sichuan University) surveyed the site in 1933, by which time most of the relics had been sold and the remainder was collected by the Sichuan Provincial Museum as well as the Sichuan University Museum. The remains of workshops have been found many times in the ancient city, with excavated tools, unprocessed stone and semi-finished products, indicating that there was once a prosperous stone tool processing here. In 1986, a wealth of relics were unearthed from two amazing sacrificial pits, including more than 200 pieces of jade and stone tools. At present, our understanding of Sanxingdui jade and stone tools can already glimpse its characteristics, which are different from the jade processing industry in other parts of China in the same period.
Materials and processes
According to archaeological reports, of the nearly 200 pieces of "jade" unearthed from the Sanxingdui sacrificial pit, less than six percent of them really belong to nephrite, and most of the others are marble or limestone with relatively low hardness, which can be polished with jade sand or directly processed with metal tools (Figure 1). In the report, the statistical table of jade excavated from the First Sacrifice Pit lists a total of 105 pieces of "jade", but only 4 of them are indicated as nephrite jade; the Statistical Table of the Second Sacrifice Pit lists 81 pieces of "jade", and only 6 pieces are nephrite. Utensils made of softer materials should be local products from the point of view of shape. Nephrite products include a small number of beads, ring ornaments (Fig. 2), go and polishing tools, of which go and bi/ring ornaments may be foreign imports. Even if they are not foreign, the preciousness of their materials will give them a special significance in the Sanxingdui culture.
Fig. 1 Oblong oval broad-sided vessel, dolomite limestone, early to mid-2nd millennium BC
Figure 2 2.Broad-sided bracelet, nephrite, 13th century BC or 12th century BC
Many of the remaining artifacts made of stone of varying hardness should not be foreign. For example, the forked blade (fig. 3), whose shape and the characteristics of the carved hook-shaped tooth ornament on both sides indicate that it is a local product. An oversized knife-shaped vessel from Pit 1, with a length of 162 cm, is also locally produced (fig. 4). Both are processed from highly hard quartzite-like materials to form a complex hook-shaped tooth ornament with a Y-shaped handle, which is very difficult to process on quartzite. If sanxingdui jade craftsmen already have the ability to saw, drill, polish, and grind such hard stones, then they use softer stones as production materials in large quantities, which should not be due to backward tools or technology, but more likely to supplement the lack of raw materials. The polishing tools excavated at the site are harder, some of them nephrite, and the rest are mainly of quartz mica (hardness 7) material (fig. 5). A limited number of hard stones may be preferred to manufacturing tools over finished products.
Figure 3 Y-shaped vessel, quartzite, 12th century BC
Fig. 4 Y-shaped vessel, coated with vermilion limestone. The site of Sanxingdui was excavated in the second half of the 2nd Millennium BC
Figure 5 Polishing tool
Most of the excavations from Sanxingdui are flat sheets, all dated to the Bronze Age. Before the invention of the use of metal tools, any stone could only be processed by grinding; after the advent of metal tools, the Samsung stone stacker industry split into two. Stone that is hard and should not be cut directly with metal will inevitably continue to be ground (of course, metal tools can make grinding more efficient). For softer stones like limestone, they can be shaped directly with metal tools, resulting in a significant increase in processing speed and productivity. Many of the objects have straight saw marks on the edges or surfaces, indicating the use of metal saw-like tools. The contour lines on the surface of the mixed type gordon (fig. 6) inside the tooth ornament are thin and straight, and they are neatly opposite to the tooth decoration on both sides, indicating that a sharp metal tool is used to process along the ruler type of tool. On the other hand, the perforations on these artifacts are all single-sided drills, and the hole wall is tilted more, indicating that the drill bit used is made of softer materials such as wood and bone, and the diameter gradually decreases with the defects in the drill bit when grinding and drilling. Large diameter perforations are generally drilled with hollow bamboo tubes, but are also drilled from a single side, leaving a sloping wall of holes (Fig. 7). Artifacts traditionally referred to as "collared bi" and "collared rings" (renamed "wide-brimmed jade bracelets" here according to their use) are different, and their perforations are obviously drilled from two sides. This is the most common standard operation method for jade workers in the Yellow River Basin and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, so it has become one of the bases for us to speculate that such artifacts unearthed from Sanxingdui are foreign products.
Fig. 6 Mixed type of go, marble, 13th century BC or 12th century BC
Fig. 7 Bi and bi core, the stone quality is unknown. Guanghan Zhenwu Village was excavated in 1987
Form, size and function
Most of the jade tools excavated from the Sanxingdui site are specially made for a worship ceremony. In addition, there are a few wide-brimmed jade bracelets, rings, beads, etc. that are ornaments. There are three types of ceremonial vessels that are more special. One of the most common is the Go-shaped weapon, which imitates the shape of a Chinese Bronze Age weapon, that is, a bronze gob with a double-edged blade on a wooden handle. The Shi Ge excavated from Sanxingdui No. 1 Pit (Figure 8) shows all the characteristics of the typical jade ge in the Yellow River Basin. Such golems have been unearthed in both sacrificial pits. On the other hand, the elongated body of the Shi Ge (Fig. 9) excavated from Pit 2 is a unique style of Sanxingdui and may be a standard local morphological variant.
Figure 8 Goth, marble, 13th century BC or 12th century BC
Figure 9 Go, Dolomite, 14th to 12th centuries BC
The second type of artifact has attracted the most attention from researchers, with a rectangular stalk, a protruding carved and curly toothed ornament on both sides of the upper part, and the body gradually expands outward, and the tip is either flattened, slightly concave, or forked (Figures 10, 11). Such artifacts are generally referred to as "Zhang". However, the word "Zhang" was first only found in the ancient books of the Warring States Period, and their editors may never have seen such an instrument, so it is not correct to use "Zhang" to refer to this instrument. In order to avoid the misgrafting of associations due to the use of nouns from later texts, this article refers to such artifacts as forked blades.
Figure 10 Y-shaped vessel, stone unknown, early and middle 2nd millennium BC
Figure 11 Y-shaped vessel, basalt, XII century BC
Due to its peculiar shape, the Y-shaped instrument has no practical tools or weapons that can be clearly regarded as its prototype, which has long been a mystery in the minds of ancient jade researchers. Alfred Salmony thought it could be used as a scraper to clean animal skins or remove fish scales. Later scholars speculated that the prototype of the shape may be a bone, and associated its jade product with the worship of the sun. The specimens unearthed at Sanxingdui, while not giving new clues to the discussion of the prototype, provide new information for understanding its function. According to the scenes inscribed on the engraved knife type vessels (Fig. 12), it can be considered that at least within the scope of the Sanxingdui culture, these Y-shaped vessels are hand-held instruments of some kind of ritual sacrifice, and when used, the end of the concave or forked side is facing upwards.
Fig. 12 Carved knife-shaped vessel, stone unknown, 12th century BC
The mixed type of go (Fig. 13) in the tooth ornament is a third type of artifact, which is currently only found in Sanxingdui. Archaeological reports do not distinguish it from the aforementioned Y-shaped vessels, collectively referred to as "Zhang". However, this type of instrument clearly has its own characteristics - its top is not forked or flattened, but has a sharp edge like a go- and should be divided into a separate category. In fact, the shape of the instrument combines the shank of the Y-shaped ornament teeth with the gradually narrowing and asymmetrical outline of the aid, which is a mixture of the two. Although both of these instrument forms originated and are distributed in other regions, their mixer shapes are currently only found in Sanxingdui. Figure 6 is the most special example of this type of instrument, the tip is carved with a bird, and the two sides of the body are carved with a Y-shaped instrument, and the image is more elaborate and delicate than the excavated real thing. Interestingly, there are ge in both sacrificial pits (45 excavations from pit 1 and 31 from pit 2).
Fig. 13 Mixed type ge within the tooth ornament, dolomite limestone, 13th century BC or 12th century BC
Personal ornaments are usually rare in sacrificial remains, as they are not typical artifacts used for sacrifice. A small number of artifacts in the sacrificial pits of Sanxingdui may have been ornaments, but rather than speculating that they had a special ceremonial function, they were buried because they were precious. The vast majority of these are rings, some with wide edges, and may be worn as bracelets (Figure 2). Many of these bracelets were unearthed in bronze vessels together with shells and jade beads. Wide-brimmed bracelets (Fig. 14) are a very small number of jade tools unearthed at Sanxingdui, but their bronze imitations are staggering: 74 were unearthed in the First Sacrifice Pit and 56 in the Second Pit, and these bronze imitations are not found elsewhere. The existence of a large number of bronze imitations indicates that its jade prototype is of high value due to its excellent material and laborious production. And if they are imported, their preciousness will be greatly increased. Wide-brimmed bracelets may have originated in the Neolithic cultural areas of the East, where pottery, stone and jade bracelets and bracelets were popular, but jade products were mainly excavated from the Bronze Age sites of Anyang, Jiangxi Xingan and Sanxingdui. The total number of bronze and jade rings unearthed at Sanxingdui exceeds 100 pieces, indicating that the shape has a special significance or status here, or is particularly popular. Specimens unearthed in northern Vietnam and Malaysia reflect the spread of the vessel from Sichuan all the way south.
Fig. 14 Broad-sided bracelet, stone unknown, 13th century BC or 12th century BC
Another unique feature of the various stone tools excavated from Sanxingdui is that they are diverse in size. The above-mentioned stone fragment knife is the largest one seen so far, and even if the length is broken, it still reaches 162 cm. In 1929, a stone bi was unearthed, with a diameter of 69 cm and a weight of 50 kg. Y-shaped devices range in size from up to 90 cm long to only three or four cm long. Not only are there tiny specimens in jade, but also in gold leaf (which could have been wrapped around the surface of the wood). Some specimen sizes are suitable for use during ritual use, while others are more suitable for static display, such as miniature artifacts held in the hands of small bronze figures.
With the exception of specimens that were unearthed in bronze vessels, the vast majority of jade objects in both sacrificial pits were burned before burial. This results in a chalky color, dry feel, and fine cracks or grayish-black (Figure 12). There are also many stone tools with a red substance on the surface, possibly cinnabar (according to excavation reports, there is no detection analysis), which completely obscures the color and texture of the stone itself (Figure 4). This treatment is often seen in limestone artifacts and bi, or in the intentional act of improving poor materials, or in the case of paint for some ceremonial procedure. Cinnabar is common in Central Plains tombs, but the specific practice there is to sprinkle cinnabar on the corpse or the entire tomb, rather than smearing it on individual utensils. Two Y-shaped vessels excavated from the Erlitou site and one collected in Zhengzhou are coated with a layer of red on the surface, which is very rare in archaeological discoveries in the Central Plains (Figure 15). Given that their material is limestone rather than nephrite, and the contours and perforations of the tooth ornaments are consistent with the specimens excavated in Zhongxing Township north of Sanxingdui, it is speculated that they may have been made by Sanxingdui and spread to the Yellow River Basin of the Central Plains through some circumstances.
Fig. 15 Y-shaped vessel, coated with vermilion limestone. The first third tomb of Yanshi Erli in Henan was excavated
Sanxingdui and surrounding culture
Sanxingdui jade processing industry is undoubtedly very unique, but it is not completely isolated from the jade industry in other regions. Ge and wide-brimmed bracelets are all instrumental shapes imported from the Yellow River Basin; other instruments may come from the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Most of the bronze vessels unearthed in the Sanxingdui sacrifice pit are derived from the culture of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River; the heterogeneous jade stone ge can be associated with specimens excavated from the Erligang cultural site in Panlongcheng, Hubei Province. Not only that, from 1997 to 1998, a conical ornament was excavated in a cemetery on the western outskirts of the ancient city, which is similar to the Liangzhu culture in the Yangtze River Delta, and the gray and white pottery excavated at the same time is similar to the Shijiahe culture pottery of the late Neolithic period in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River (about 2200 BC - 1800 BC). Therefore, the relationship between Sichuan and the culture of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River has been glimpsed in the earlier stage of the Sanxingdui sacrifice pit.
In addition, the origin of the Y-shaped vessel with the carved hook-shaped tooth ornament should be considered, but the vision should be turned to the late Neolithic culture north of Sichuan. The Shenmu site in northern Shaanxi is the only late Neolithic site that has unearthed a large number of such Y-shaped artifacts, and the number is closest to Sanxingdui, and its form is slightly simplified, but the same. However, due to the fact that a small number of Y-shaped instruments have also been excavated in Erlitou and Zhengzhou in the Yellow River Basin, general scholars believe that the Y-shaped instruments were first transmitted from Shenmudong to Erlitou, and then from Erlitou to Sanxingdui. In fact, the Y-shaped instrument is more likely to follow the Yellow River, spontaneously originating from the tributaries of the Qinling Mountains to the south or southeast to Sichuan. The Qi family culture does not produce a Y-shaped instrument, indicating that it is not transmitted through the southern part of Gansu. Anyang also lacks a Y-shaped instrument, which shows the unique significance of this instrument in the northwest and southwest regions. Therefore, the Y-shaped artifacts found in Erlitou and Zhengzhou should actually be from Sanxingdui, passing through the middle reaches of the Yangtze River to the north to reach the site of the Yellow River Basin. In addition, the unique Y-shaped instruments of the Sanxingdui culture are more clearly exported in the other direction, south to Hong Kong, China, Phung Nguyen in northern Vietnam, and even Malaysia.
In terms of processing technology, Sanxingdui jade tools show that they are closely related to northern Shaanxi and Gannan. Stone tool manufacturing in these regions has many of the same characteristics: the use of metal saws, which leave a straight saw mark on the surface of the vessel; the use of a syring drill to drill holes from one direction, leaving a distinctly inclined wall of the hole; and the retention of the core for reworking, which are not seen in other jade workshops. Sanxingdui and QiJia jade craftsmen also use similar stone varieties, including nephrite, various limestone and marble.
The unique features of the Sanxingdui culture are very prominent through bronze ware. By studying the origins, connections and influences of bronzes, we learned about the culture's connection to the outside world, and the above jade ware research has added further information to this. Because jade tools may often be earlier than the burial time, they can bring out more profound historical developments than bronzes, indicating that there have been perhaps brief contacts and exchanges between the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River Basin from the late Neolithic period, and maintaining continuous contact with the surrounding northwest and southwest regions.
(This article is excerpted from the book "Jade Into Ware: Jade Culture in the History of Archaeological Art", authorized by Shanghai Calligraphy and Painting Publishing House)
Non-fiction | Translated book | Art history
Jade Craftsmanship: Jade Culture in the History of Archaeological Art
By Su Fangshu
Translated by Zen Xin, Dai Lijuan, and Xu Xiaodong
Shanghai Calligraphy and Painting Publishing House
September 2021
Born in Hong Kong, Jenny F. So holds a master's and doctorate degree from Harvard University in the United States, and under the direction of Professor Max Loehr, she specializes in the study of early Chinese art history from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. From 1990 to 2000, he was a Senior Curatorial Fellow in the Department of Ancient Chinese Art at the Freell-Sackler Museum of Art at the Smithsonian Institution. He has been a Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Arts at the University of Chinese, Hong Kong since 2001, the Director of the Institute of Chinese Culture at the University of Chinese, Hong Kong since 2002, and the Director of the Heritage Museum of the University of Chinese, Hong Kong in 2013. He settled in the United States after retiring emeritus in 2015. He is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Chinese, Hong Kong, and a Visiting Fellow at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. Notable publications include Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (2019), Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections (1995), The Great Bronze Age of China (1980).
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