Tube (cong 琮)

• 1. (Undated Folder Sheet note) The outer surfaces of this square, slightly tapering prism are flat and unornamented. The four corners at each end of the zong (cong) 琮 are beveled, thereby forming an octagonal collar. Several small unfinished areas suggest that the Chinese artisan conceived the form as somewhat larger than the jade available. The interior was drilled longitudinally from both sides, resulting in a slight horizontal ridge in the middle of the cylindrical hollow center (see F1968.24).

  While the shapes of some Chinese ritual jades seem to have been derived from Neolithic stone implements, that of the zong (cong) 琮 appears to have been meant for ritual purposes from the very beginning. Recent excavations in southwestern China have yielded intricately decorated zong (cong) 琮, suggesting that the shape may have developed in that area, where it had particular significance. Only later, and in more simple form, does the zong (cong) 琮 appear in northern China. A particularly important archaeological find for information relating to late Neolithic jade zong (cong) 琮 in southeastern China is described in Nanjing bowuyuan 南京博物院, "1982 nian Jiangsu Changzhou Wujin Sidun yizhi de fajue 1982年江蘇常州武進寺墩遺址的發掘," Kaogu 考古 1984.2, pp. 109--29.

  2. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 17, 2008) Ceremonial Objects added as secondary classification.

  3. (Stephen Allee, March 24, 2009) Jenny F. So, Jade Project Database, gives Period One as "Early Eastern Zhou 周" and Date as "770--500 BCE"; but as per Keith Wilson, retained "Shang 商dynasty" and changed Date from "13th--11th centuries BCE" to "1500--1050 BCE." As per Jenny F. So, Jade Project Database, added Previous Owner: "Ex-collection A. W. Bahr"; also added Description and Published References (1 item). As per Keith Wilson, changed Title from "Cong 琮" to "Tall tube (cong 琮)"; changed Object Name from "Cong 琮" to "Ceremonial object." Changed Medium "Jade" to "Jade (?)," as no scientific analysis is recorded. Added Measurements (H x W: 16.47 x 7.48; Diam. hole: 6.27), as per Christine Lee, Jade Project Database.

  4. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, April 20, 2010) Title changed from "Tall tube (cong 琮)" to "Tube (cong 琮)."

  5. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, August 2, 2017) Title changed from "Tube (cong)" to "Tube (cong 琮)"; period one changed from "Shang dynasty" to "Probably Late Shang dynasty"; period two added "Anyang period"; geography changed from "China" to "China, probably Henan province, Anyang"; date changed from "ca. 1600-1050 BCE" to "ca. 1300-1050 BCE"; medium changed from "jade" to "Jade (nephrite)"; object name changed from "ceremonial object" to "Tube".

  6. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, July 26, 2018) Chinese translation added; changed the description from "(Jenny So, Jade Project Database, entered 24 March 2009) Less tall and broader in section, this cong is also totally plain. The collars are taller, and the edges are sharply and precisely cut. The inner walls of the cylindrical perforation are also smoothly finished." to "The object of conventional outline is the ts’ung [cong] 琮, archaeological symbol of earth. It is pleasing because of its color and markings. The stone is pale green with brown and cream areas. (Calcified streaks; cracked; pitted, eroded veins, one filled; old, polished-over surface nicks at one edge; chipped corner at the other end.) (Jenny F. So, from Jade Project Database) Less tall and broader in section, this cong 琮is totally plain. The collars are taller, and the edges are sharply and precisely cut. The inner walls of the cylindrical perforation are also smoothly finished." Added unpublished research Jenny F. So; geography changed from "Northwest China" to "China, probably Henan province, Anyang".

  7. (YinYing Chen per Keith Wilson, February 21, 2023)
  Change period from "Probably Late Shang dynasty, Anyang period" to "Late Shang dynasty, Anyang period."
  Change period from "疑似晚商安陽時期" to "晚商安陽時期" in the translation field.
  Change date from "ca. 1300-ca. 1050 BCE" to "ca. 1150 BCE."
  Change date from "公元前1300-1050年" to "公元前1250-1050年" in the translation field.
  Change medium from "Jade (nephrite)" to "Jade (nephrite) imported from the northeast."
  
   

Draft catalogue entry for S1987.466; by Jenny F. So (2003)

Cong 琮 -- ritual instrument
Bronze Age, late 2nd or early 1st millennium BCE
Northwest China
Nephrite, even olive green with tan and dark brown patches
Height 16.28--16.47 cm; dimensions at top 7.35--7.48 cm; at bottom 7.29--7.34 cm; diameter of opening 5.77--6.27 cm; of collar 7.07--7.53 cm
Former A. W. Bahr collection
Gift of Arthur M. Sackler
S1987.466

Made from an impressively generous piece of nephrite, this large cong 琮 is undecorated to display the fine-grained and evenly hued olive-green material to maximum effect. Its shaping is precise and sharp, the collars standing unusually tall above the squared corners. The inner walls of the opening have been ground smooth.

There are numerous examples of similarly plain and precisely shaped cong 琮 in Western collections, many given Western Zhou 周or Eastern Zhou 周 dates. [1] More recently, with the help of excavated counterparts, scholars have begun to identify such cong 琮 with the late Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples of northwest China. An example in the Hotung collection given a Shang 商 or Western Zhou 周 date is virtually identical to the Sackler cong 琮in shape, proportions, material, and workmanship. [2] Another 20.7-centimeter-tall cong 琮made of similarly fine-grained material was a surface find from the vicinity of the Western Zhou 周 capital in a pit with a mixed assortment of early Western Zhou 周 objects. This cong 琮 has been variously dated by scholars to the early second to the early first millennium BCE. [3] A slightly smaller cong 琮, but closely comparable in proportions and material, was recovered from a Qin 秦 palace site (7th century BCE) at Fengxiang 鳳翔, Yongcheng雍城, Shaanxi 陝西 province. [4] These excavated examples demonstrate the inherent difficulties in dating undecorated jades when even archaeological context can only provide a terminus ante quem, without answering questions regarding their actual dates.

[1] For examples in the Winthrop collection at Harvard University, see Max Loehr, Ancient Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, 1975), nos. 404--407; in the Sonnenschein collection at the Art Institute of Chicago, see Alfred Salmony, Archaic Chinese Jades: From the Edward and Louise B. Sonnenschein Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1952), pls. 64--65; collected by Bahr for the Field Museum of Chicago (accession nos. 127302 and 127200).

[2] For examples in the Hotung collection, London, see Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing (London: British Museum Press, 1995), pp. 150--51 and nos. 7:1--2.

[3] Dai Yingxin 戴應新 in "Shenmu Shimao Longshan wenhua yuqi tansuo 神木石峁龍山文化玉器探索," Gugong wenwu yuekan 故宮文物月刊 = The National Palace Museum Monthly of Chinese Art 125 (1993), pp. 51--52, dates it Western Zhou 周; Hayashi Minao 林巳奈夫 in Chūgoku kogyokuki sōsetsu 中国古玉器総說 (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 1999), pp. 268--69, disagrees with Dai 戴and considers it Longshan 龍山.

[4] Zhao Congcang 趙從蒼, "Ji fengxiang chutu de chunqiu qingguo yuqi 記鳳翔出土的春秋秦國玉器," Wenwu 文物 1986.9, p. 56, fig. 10; see also Hayashi Minao 林巳奈夫, Chūgoku kogyoku no kenkyū 中國古玉の研究 (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 1991), fig. 3-43.

• Dr. Paul Singer. Chinese Art: a thousand masterpieces from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections. cat. 136.
• et al. Asian Art in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery: The Inaugural Gift. Washington, 1987. cat. 44, p. 88.
• J. Keith Wilson, Jingmin Zhang. Jades for Life and Death. .