Harvesting knife (hu) with interlaced dragons and birds, reworked

1. Acquired by gift from Mrs. Eugene Meyer, Washington, DC, and Mt. Kisco, New York. To be acknowledged as Gift of Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer.

2. (Thomas Lawton, 1968) Reproduced, Alfred Salmony, Carved Jade of Ancient China (Berkeley, CA: Gillick Press, 1938), pl. 60:1.

3. (Hin-cheung Lovell, 1977) Dr. B. J. Brief of Columbus, Ohio, visited the gallery and showed Hin-cheung Lovell a rubbing of an identical jade blade in his collection. The two appear to be identical in measurement, ornamentation and the  number and placement of the perforations. However, according to Dr. Brief, his piece is greenish in color.

4. (Julia K. Murray, 1982). In shape, F1968.38 is similar to the horizontal knives represented by F1917.24; however, the perforations and relief decorations distinguish it from that group. The external contour is notched in coordination  with the silhouette of the surface ornamentation. The ornament is executed on one side only in a combination of relief lines and bands and incision; and it might be noted that striation occurs only on curls on the narrow half.  The plain side is polished to a very high gloss. In addition to the large hole on the narrow end, there are five tiny biconical holes at irregular intervals elsewhere on the blade. 

For a further discussion see F1917.24.

5. (Thomas Lawton, Chinese Art of the Warring States Period: Change and Continuity, 480--222 B.C. [Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1982], cat. no. 105) The trapezoidal blade of highly polished buff and light brown nephrite has a wide border with stylized decoration on three sides. The taut design, consisting of a series of horned dragon heads seen  in silhouette, is carved only on the face of the blade. One dragon head is placed at each of the four corners.  Interlaced tripartite raised bands connect the animal heads at the corners with those along the lower edge of the  blade. Twisting striated lines, applied with no apparent order, provide some variation to the plain raised bands. With one incomplete exception, these straited lines occur only on the right half of the blade, suggesting that the ornamentation is unfinished. One large and five small conical perforations, connected by surprisingly crude straight  lines, occur on the plain inner surface of the blade. [1]
 
The Freer blade, derived from a Neolithic stone harvesting knife, is an example of the remarkable persistence of  China's lithic industry into historical times. It provides an early example of archaism--the reinterpretation of  antique forms and styles--an aspect of Chinese art that has continued to the present day. Shang 商 and Western Chou [Zhou 周] period hu 笏 blades generally preserve the overall shape of their Neolithic prototypes, with the characteristic concave cutting edge and perforations for hafting. Minor changes do occur, of course, reflecting a shift in emphasis from ritual to secular antiquarian appreciation. By the Warring States period, as illustrated in the Freer example, the original trapezoidal hu 笏 shape has no equivalent in earlier periods.

There is a virtually identical blade in a private American collection.

[1] The Freer blade has been illustrated and discussed by Alfred Salmony, Carved Jade of Ancient China (Berkeley, CA: Gillick Press, 1938), pl. 60:1; and Umehara Sueji 梅原末治, Sengoku-shiki doki no kenkyu 戰國式銅器の研究 (Kyoto: Toho bunka gakuin Kyoto kenkyujo, 1936), fig. 33.

6. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 8, 2008) Ceremonial Object added as secondary classification.

7. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, April 2, 2010) Object Name changed from "Ceremonial weapon" to "Ceremonial object"; Title from "Ceremonial weapon: Oblong blade with wide, deeply carved geometrical border on one side" to "Harvesting knife (hu 笏)."

8. (Jeffrey Smith per Janet Douglas, June 17, 2010) Nephrite added as modifier to existing medium of "jade" based on conservation analysis.

9. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, November 20, 2023) Added Period Two as "Spring and autumn period"; Title changed from "Harvesting knife (hu) with dragons" to "Harvesting knife (hu) with interlaced dragons and birds, reworked"; Date changed from "5th-4th century BCE" to "600-476 BCE"; added Chinese caption by Jingmin Zhang; removed the following from the Description field "Ceremonial Weapon: Oblong blade with wide, deeply carved geometrical border on one side." Added the following to the Description field "Oblong blade with wide, deeply carved geometrical border on one side. Horned dragons are principal motif. Buff and light brown colored jade."