Disk (bi) with raised linked curls

1.  From original Folder Sheet note: Late Eastern Chou [Zhou] 周.

Bought from C. T. Loo [Lu Qinzhai] 盧芹齋, New York. For price, see Freer Gallery of Art Purchase  List After 1920.

2. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Original attribution: Han 漢 dynasty.

3. (Archibald Gibson Wenley, 1943) Owing to similarities of work, material and design with authenticated Lo yang [Luoyang] 洛陽 objects, we feel  that this piece is also of that group.

4. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Sp. G. is 2.952. Advanced altering by decomposition prevents an accurate reading for nephrite.

5. (Undated Folder Sheet note) For discussion of type pi [bi] 璧, see Folder Sheet F1939.14, note 3.

6. (Julia K. Murray, 1980) Changed "Late Chou [Zhou] 周" to "Late Eastern Chou [Zhou] 周 dynasty, Warring States period."

7. (Thomas Lawton, Chinese Art of the Warring States Period: Change and Continuity, 480--222 B.C. [Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, 1982], cat. no. 117)  Most of the surface of the disk has altered to an opaque cream, with irregular areas of translucent tan along the  edge on one side. In spite of the alteration, the entire surface of the piece retains a highly polished luster. Incised  curls in low relief are precisely arranged in concentric circles radiating outward from the center. Suggesting a  complex variety of interrelationships, vertical and horizontal lines interlock the curls in a tightly cohesive  composition.

The small scale, precise execution, and high polish are all features that relate the Freer disk to those jade pieces  associated with the Warring States tombs at Chin ts'un [Jincun] 金村, near Loyang [Luoyang] 洛陽, Honan [Henan] 河南 Province. [1]

[1] William Charles White, Tombs of Old Lo Yang: A Record of the Construction and Contents of a Group of Royal Tombs at Chin ts'un, Probably Dating to 550 B.C. (Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh Limited, 1934), pls. 123--24. Further support for such an attribution is provided by the inclusion of the disk in Umehara Sueji 梅原末治, Rakuyō Kinson kobo shūei 洛陽金村古墓聚英 (Kyoto: Kobayashi shashin seihanjo shuppanbu, 1937), pl. 88:6.

8. (Stephen Allee per Keith Wilson, June 18, 2008) As per Jenny F. So, Jade Project Database, changed Date from "5th-4th century BCE" to "475-221 BCE." Also changed Object Name from "Disk (bi 璧)" to "Jewelry"; changed Title from "Disk" to "Pendant in the form of a disk (bi 璧) with raised knobs." Added Dimensions per Christine Lee,  from Jade Project Database. Added "Possibly Jincun 金村, Henan 河南 province" to Geographical Location, Origin.

9. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 17, 2008) "Jewelry" added as secondary classification.

10. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, May 24, 2010) Changed Object Name from "Pendant: disk" to "Jewelry."

11. (Jeffrey Smith per Matthew Clarke, July 8, 2022) Medium changed from "Jade (nephrite ?)" to "Jade (nephrite)."

12. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, June 6, 2023) Classification changed from "Jewelry and Ornament" to "Ceremonial Object"; Object Name changed from "Pendant" to "Ceremonial object: disk (bi)"; Title changed from "Pendant in the form of a disk (bi) with raised knobs" to "Disk (bi) with raised linked curls"; and added Chinese Translation by Jingmin Zhang.