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Jade objects of early ages(Neolithic through Chou)
fall into five categories: small decorative and
functional ronaments such as beads, pendants, and
belt hooks weapons and related equipment meant more forceremonial
than for practical use; independent sculptrual
forms (especially of real and mythological animals), perhaps
used as talismans; small objects of probably emblematic value,
including the huan(a braceletlike disk with a large hole), the
huang(l flat, half-ring pendant), the han(ornaments,often carved
in the shape of a cicada, to be placed in the mouth of the
dead), and the changand kuei(f)at, bladelike tablets that served
as official insignia of the owner);and many examples of larger
objects-such as the ts'ung(a hollow cylinder or truncated cone)
and the pi(a flat disk with a hole in its centre)-with certain
essential shapes that have invited much lpeculation as to value
and function. |
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