Page 13 - 2020 December 1 Bonhams Hong Kong, Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of art

The importance and value of bi discs is recorded in the Chinese Jiangsu Province, in the Nanjing Museum, illustrated by G.Fang, The
historical literature, Shiji, or the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Pictorial Handbook of Ancient Chinese Jades, Beijing, 2007, p.265.
Qian (206BC – AD 220), where a minister of the State of Zhao named Another smaller green jade bi disc with similarly carved patterns
Yu Qing was made governor of the land of Yu, and gifted a pair of (14cm diam.), late Warring States period to mid Western Han dynasty,
white jade bi discs together with a hundred yi (unit of weight equal to is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated by Tsai Ching
20 taels of silver) by the King Xiaocheng of the Zhao State, see Shiji: Ling, Betwixt Reality and Illusion: Special Exhibition of Jades from
Ping Yuan Jun Yu Qing Lie Zhuan, sector 16, 1993 (reprint), Chinese the Warring States Period to the Han Dynasty in the Collection of the
University of Hong Kong, 1993. National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2020, p.68, no.F-2-08.

It is extremely rare to find large jade bi discs in a pair that are carved Compare a very similar large pale greenish-white and brown jade
out of a single white jade stone of such purity and lustre. Compare bi disc (15.8cm diam.), Western Han dynasty, from the Robert H.
two closely-related but slightly smaller pale jade bi discs (14cm diam.) Ellsworth collection, which was sold at Christie’s New York, 19
in the Winthrop collection, Western Han dynasty, both with relief March 2015, lot 592; see another related jade disc from the Mr and
patterns of small hexagonal elevations, illustrated by M.Loehr, Ancient Mrs Malcolm E. McPherson collection (14.5cm diam.), Western Han
Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg dynasty, but carved with ‘comma’ spirals on the surfaces, which was
Art Museum, Cambridge, 1975, pp.527-528, nos.364-365, where sold at Christie’s New York, 19 March 2008, lot 481.
the author states that they may have formed a pair. Compare also a
larger grey white jade bi disc (18.5cm diam.), Eastern Zhou period,
but carved with rows of small spirals in relief, in the British Museum,
illustrated by J.Rawson, ibid., London, 1995, pl.15:1. See also a
large green jade bi disc of similar size and hexagonal bosses (15.4cm
diam.), Western Han dynasty, excavated from tomb no.2 in Yangzhou,