Page 23 - Yangdetang Coollection of Jades November 2017 HK

Lot 2720
拍品 2720

Lot 2777 became more fashionable. In the late Shang period post 1250 B.C.,
拍品 2777 jade animal carvings were very popular.There are many examples
of these three-dimensional or flat carvings in the Yangdetang
Lot 2776 Collection, and all of them were probably ritual objects that were
拍品 2776 once sewn onto the Shaman’s robes to aid their communication
with the spiritual world.
Lot 2778
拍品 2778 The Zhou people of Western China advanced eastward and
replaced Shang, establishing a dynasty that lasted 800 years (circa
1046-221 B.C.). In reality, the Zhou ruling class did not control
the middle-to-lower course of Yellow River until the Duke of
Zhou conquered modern-day Shandong and made Qi and Lu
states hereditary land. The typical jade ritual objects of the Zhou
Clan were the ‘gui tablet and bi disc combination’ and the ‘multi-
huang pendant sets ’. The former effectively became the de rigueur
jade ritual objects of the succeeding dynasties in the next three
thousand years. The two large and magnificent jade ge blades (lot
2720) in the Yangdetang Collection dated to late Shang/early
Western Zhou period, are the ‘gui-tablet’ featured in the ‘gui and bi
combination’.

The components of the ‘multi-huang pendant sets’ in Western
Zhou are often pieces taken from Qijia Culture ‘triple-huang bi
discs’, reworked with decorations of dragon, tiger etc., and strung
together with beads and small cylinders, as shown in fig. 15, were
worn around the neck. After mid-Spring and Autumn period, as
dresses changed, the formations of pendant sets became less rigid,
as shown in figs. 16 and 17, and were often worn from the belt.

I would like to make a special mention of Chu-style ritual
jades, often neglected by collectors, but containing great cultural
significance.

During the Eastern Zhou period, Zhou rulers gradually lost their
control of power, and the Chu State at the Yangzi River region
grew rapidly.The ‘animal-spirits worship’ of ancient Eastern China
and the deep-rooted ‘bi-disc worship’ enjoyed a renaissance. Hubei,
Hunan and Anhui were the centre of the Chu culture.