THE ORIGINAL SIGNIFICANCE OF BI DISKS: INSIGHTS BASED ON LIANGZHU JADE BI WITH INCISED SYMBOLIC MOTIFS

BY

TENG SHU-P’ING (National Palace Museum, Taibei)

Translated by Lothar von Falkenhausen (UCLA)

Abstract This article discusses the symbolic markings incised on a small group of jade bi disks from the Neolithic Liangzhu Culture in southeastern China, now dispersed among museums all over the world. A close description of the objects and their incised motifs— which are, for the most part, diplayed with the center of the bi as the implied point of reference—is followed by an attempt at interpretation. It is found that these objects testify to early stages of development of cosmological concepts that remained impor- tant in Chinese culture during the Warring States and Han periods: the notion of a covering sky ( gaitian) that revolves around a central axis, the cycle of the Ten Suns, and the use of an early form of the carpenter’s square. These objects were handled by shamans who were the religious leaders of Liangzhu society and the transmitters of cosmological knowledge.

Introduction

The enigmatic symbols incised on some Neolithic jades from China have aroused scholarly interest ever since a line drawing of a cong with such markings was Žrst published more than eight decades ago by a French collector (Gieseler 1915). New discoveries during recent years have aroused renewed interest in the matter, and in a 1993 article I Žrst comprehensively discussed the material then known (Teng 1993a). 1

1 The corpus discussed in Teng 1993 has been augmented, for the present article, by two additional pieces: a bi in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Watt 1988- 89), which I had overlooked earlier, and an important bi in the Lantian Shanfang Collection Žrst published in my 1995 catalogue of the jades in that collection (Teng 1995, pl. 10). Since the completion of this article, another six Liangzhu jades with

© Brill, Leiden 2000 JEAA 2, 1–2 166 teng shu-p’ing

Table 1.Dimensions of bi with symbolic markings (in centimeters)

Item No. Diameter Diameter of Thickness (Collection) of disk central hole 1. (Freer Gallery) 23.65 4.50 1.20 2. (Freer Gallery) 31.75 4.40 1.40 3. (Freer Gallery) 24.60 4.55 1.20 4. (Freer Gallery) 16.62 n/a 1.20 5. (National Palace Museum) 13.44 2.16 1.50 6. (Anxi) 26.20 4.30 1.20 7. (Lantian Shanfang Collection) 27.50 4.50-4.70 1.30 8. (Victoria and Albert Museum)32.50 3.90 1.55

At present, the corpus of jades with incised symbolic motifs—includ- ing archaeologically provenienced pieces as well as those dispersed among museums and collections in China and abroad—amounts to fourteen pieces: eight bi disks, Žve cong tubes, and one zhuo armring. In the present article, I wish to focus on the eight bi. The main objec- tive lies in searching for the origins of the bi shape, as well as the origi- nal meaning of such objects. For such an inquiry, bi disks with incised symbolic motifs provide a useful point of departure.

Description

The dimensions of the eight known bi with incised symbolic motifs are given in Table 1. Their overall appearance, as well as the shape, location, and alignment of their incised motifs, will here be described one by one, followed by comprehensive discussion under nine headings. incised symbolic markings—three bi and three cong —have become known. Three are in the Palace Museum, Beijing (see Zhou 1996, pls. 26, 32, and 33). One of them, a bi, features on both faces a faintly-incised geometric ornament, which is greatly dif- fers from those discussed in the present article. The other two are cong with a decora- tion pattern resembling, but differing somewhat from, the one described in the present article, appearing on their lower extremities. A bi in the Shanghai Museum (Shanghai 1996: 4) features the motif of a “bird standing on a sacriŽcial platform” very similar to the one on item 3b discussed in the present article. A cong in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Wilson 1995-96) shows an ornament on its lower extremities that resembles the one seen on the two just-mentioned specimens in the Palace Museum, Beijing. Finally, Professor Mou Yongkang discovered a bi in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, but without bird or Žsh motifs; illustrations have not yet been published. It seems possible that numerous other museum pieces have similar decoration that so far has escaped researchers’ attention due to the faintness of incision. Further careful study will surely result in the publication of even more material.