Ancient Chinese Jade Lost Overseas - Shang Dynasty (I)

Since the Shang Dynasty, there have been more jade objects in the shape of animals, and there are dozens of animal types of Shang Dynasty jade, flying in the sky, swimming in the water, walking on the ground, in addition to some animals with special significance (such as dragons, tigers, cicadas, parrots, phoenixes, turtles, frogs, fish, cattle, eagles), horses, deer, dogs, rabbits, lizards, chickens, pigeons, ducks, geese, cormorants, swallows, praying mantises and other animals and insects are not uncommon. Influenced by the Hongshan culture, the Shang Dynasty began the revival of dragon culture, with a variety of styles such as dragon-shaped Jue, dragon-shaped Huang, Dragon-shaped Zhen, Panlong, and Wolong. The Shang people have a special preference for fish, there are fish-shaped huang, fish-shaped carving knives, fish-shaped pendants and other forms, Shang Dynasty tombs often unearth a large number of small fish, sometimes as many as hundreds of pieces in a tomb, this small fish carving is relatively rough, because they are not peiyu, but a special coffin, and in the Western Zhou noble tombs, we will also see the same scene. The ancients believed that the dragon was the chief of the scale insects, that is, the king of the water tribe, and the fish and shrimp symbolized the millions of people and the dragon children and dragons. The fish also symbolizes the beginning of the dragon, and after crossing the dragon gate, the fish becomes a dragon. The Shang people worship cattle, and often use marble to carve giant cattle for town tombs, and owls, dragons, cattle, and tigers are all town tomb gods. The worship of cicadas began in the Hongshan era, Shang Dynasty jade such as Chun, handle-shaped utensils, Xuanjie, etc., often used cicadas for decoration, the ancients believed that cicadas have the function of metamorphosis and rebirth, and also because of this function, there are also pupae. The Shang gradually developed from Shandong, Hebei, and eastern Henan to the Central Plains, and they often carried the genes of the Dongyi culture and the Hongshan culture transmitted from the south. Legend has it that the Shang clan was responsible for the heavy responsibility of water control in the summer, but water control has always been a thankless messenger, and a former king of the gonggong, carp, and shang have all been convicted or died in water control, so water control is often the labor of "second-class nationalities". The great Merchant peoples were good at business, and in order to record the comings and goings of goods, they took the lead in inventing a systematic, directly recorded language script, which is called "oracle bone" and is the predecessor of Chinese characters. ShangXian Wang Hai once led his people to long-distance trafficking, because the huge wealth Wang Hai was killed by the Youyi clan in Hebei, and a few generations later, the Shang clan became stronger because without strong force, no nation could save its life and wealth. In Anyang Yin Ruins, nine large tombs of the Shang kings that have been discovered have been excavated, and some small funerary tombs have survived, except for the tomb of women, it is difficult for people to see the system and full picture of the Shang Dynasty jade. Overseas, the number of Shang dynasty jades is staggering, and the loss of these jades is set against the backdrop of a weak China in the semi-colonies of the past hundred years. Like many ancient jades of other eras, overseas Shang jade is an important reference for us to understand Shang jade, and there are many Shang jades that are difficult to see in the museums of the two Forbidden Cities.

Royal Ontario Museum of Canada

(Germany) Old collection of Mr. A.W. Bahr (Barr).