Page 105 - Jades from the Chang We Hwa collection Hong Kong Dec 3 2021

A SHORT NOTE ON BELT HOOKS

Hsiung Yi-Ching

Although jade plaques resembling belt hooks have been language. The Xianbei people worshipped it, and use it as
excavated from Liangzhu Culture sites, no actual belt their tribal name. They also made casts of it to decorate
hooks have been found. The belt hooks as we know them their belts. Archaeologist Wang Guowei (1877-1927) and
only started to appear in late Spring and Autumn period. Japanese historian Shiratori Kurakichi (1865-1942) both
By mid Warring States period, the use of belt hooks adopted this theory that xianbei, xipi and shibi were one
was commonplace and many excavated and heirloom and the same, and denote belt hooks of tribal people.
examples exist. Most of them were made of bronze, but
there were also examples made of gold, silver, iron and When discussing ‘belt hooks’ as a collecting category, we
jade etc., as well as multi-media examples. have to view them from a multi-cultural perspective as
works of art that have an unbridled, diverse quality. A
Belt hooks were not only a necessity in daily wear during Western Han dynasty yellow jade belt hook (formerly
this period, they were also status symbols, especially for in the collection of Shanghai collector Chen Rentao in
the aristocrats and the upper classes. Their belt hooks were 1930s and 1940s, and later that of Baroness von Oertzen),
made with much attention to detail, decorated with gold estimated at £600,000-800,000, was sold in Christie’s
or jade for sumptuousness, in order to signify the wearer’s London, 3 November 2020, for the price of £2,902,500
exalted status and showing the fashion of the day. (25,200,000 RMB), making it the most expensive archaic
jade belt hook ever sold at auction, and showing the value
It is recorded in Huainanzi composed in early Western collectors placed on rare jade belt hooks.
Han dynasty that: ‘As one looks at the guests in this fully
attended hall, each was wearing a unique belt hook, How were belt hooks used? According to scholars, the
attached to a singular ring and belt.’ These personal luxury hook would have been fastened pointing to the left,
items were a means to show one’s status in a group setting. with the left hand holding the belt and the right hand
holding the hook, the leather or silk/textile belt was tied
Belt hooks were called xipi in ancient times. In Hanshu: to the hook. In March of 1998, Dr. Yang Chün-Hsiung
Xiongnuzhuan (History of Han: Accounts on the Xiongnu of Yangdetang Collection donated a set of bronze belt
tribe), Yan Shigu noted in the commentary that: ‘Xipi – buckle with its original silk belt dating to the Warring
the tribal people use it as belt hooks; it was also called States period (the silk was carbon-14 tested by the
xianbei or shibi, all denoting the same thing, just with Rafter Radiocarbon Laboratory in New Zealand to be
different accents.’ It was recorded in Shiji suoyin (Index to of the period) to the Taipei Palace Museum, providing
the Records of the Grand Historian) by Zhang Yan that: researchers with an invaluable physical example of how
‘xianbei – an auspicious animal found on guoluo belts, the early belt hooks were used. In later times, belt hooks
eastern tribal people were fond of wearing them.’ Guoluo take on a more ornamental function, and were worn as
belts were leather belts worn by the Tujue tribe; while pendants besides being used for belt fastening, with ever
xianbei was a type of five-clawed tiger in the Mongolian more refined decoration, and became real collector’s items.

103