Finial in the form of a human hybrid with dragon

• 1. (Thomas Lawton, 1987) Exhibition In Praise of Ancestors label text; moved to label field.
   
  2. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 29, 2008) Ceremonial object added as secondary classification.
   
  3. (Jeffrey Smith per Janet Douglas, June 17, 2010) Nephrite added as modifier to existing medium of "jade" based on conservation analysis.

  4. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, February 3, 2020) Title changed from "Handle (bing)" to "Finial in the form of a human hybrid with dragon"; Object Name changed from "Handle" to "Ceremonial object"; Period One changed from "Western Zhou dynasty" to "Forgery in the style of Western Zhou dynasty"; Date changed from "11th century BCE" to "20th century"; added Chinese Caption by Jingmin Zhang; and added Unpublished research by Jenny F. So.

  Added the following to the Description field, "The elongated jade piece was decorated identically on both sides, tapering to a pointed tang. The primary motif, stretching its entire length, is a humanoid figure with legs that end in large bird’s claws just above the tang. Sprawled along his back is a dragon. (Largely calcified; crack runs through midsection [old repair?]; nicks in tip of tail; cinnabar; soil adheres.)"

  5. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, October 4, 2024) Classification changed from "Ceremonial Object" to "Jewelry and Ornament" 

  
  

Draft catalogue entry for S1987.882; by Jenny F. So (2003)
Tiger-man-bird fitting or finial
Early Western Zhou 周 period, 1050--1000 BCE
Nephrite, opaque gray green with white altered patches
Height 16.4 cm; width 4.3 cm

A generous piece of elongated jade, decorated identically on both sides, tapers to a pointed tang. Irregularly placed notches, flanges, and protrusions break its silhouette, denoting its complex composition. The primary motif, stretching its entire length, is a humanoid figure with legs that end in large bird's claws just above the tang. His head, seen at the top in profile, shows a flat nose, broad mouth, angular jaw ending in a spiral, small eyes with finely marked eyebrows, and large C-shaped ears. He has short hair rendered in fine parallel lines and notches running down his head. His arms are raised in front of his chest, the fingers stopping just below the chin. Sprawled along his back is a tiger, with striped body, long curled tail, and front and back legs that end in sharp claws. Large notched flanges issue from both edges about midway down from the head. The coarse material, rather unrefined workmanship, and its unusual size together express a forceful directness not seen on similar pieces.

The angular-jawed, flat nosed features of this face closely resemble that of the crouching man in S1987.860 and its related counterparts. The main difference is the standing, bird-clawed leg of this figure. This feature, however, links it to a group of bird-man figures from Bronze Age contexts. An example worked from a golden-brown pyrophyllite was recovered at Xin'gan 新幹 Dayangzhou 大洋洲, Jiangxi 江西 province. [1] This figure is worked in the round to show a humanoid figure, arms and legs in a crouching pose, and the head of an elaborately crested bird. Feathers mark his rump. A square peg extends from underneath the feet (broken off) and an oblique perforation between the legs together serve for attachment. From the late Shang 商 sacrificial pits at Sanxingdui 三星堆, Sichuan 四川 province came a fragment of an oversized bronze example, now with only the legs ending in claws standing on top of bird heads remaining. The bird-man combination continued to be used as some sort of totemic insignia in south China well into the first millennium BCE. [2]

Like the tiger-man motif, the bird-man motif seems also to be especially important to inhabitants along the Yangzi 揚子 valley. But the distinctive facial features of the jade figure in the Sackler collections compare best with those on bronze figures associated with northwest China (F1998.6). [3] It is therefore possible that the bird-man motif traveled from south to north China via the middle Yangzi 揚子 valley and over the Qinling 秦嶺 mountains into northwest China, where it was adopted by the Zhou 周 people as their emblems of power (see also S1987.480; RLS1997.48.3699). A similar columnar fitting showing a crested human head and a body wrapped by wings was recovered from an early Western Zhou 周 burial at Lingtai 靈臺 Baicaopo 白草坡, Gansu 甘肅 province, the same site that yielded the bronze weapons with similar human images; a somewhat later image came from the Jin 晉 Duke cemetery at Tianma-Qucun 天馬曲村. [4]

Published: Alfred Salmony, Carved Jades of Ancient China (Berkeley, CA: Gillick Press, 1938), pl. 20:2; Deng Shuping 鄧淑蘋, "Yizhen jijin 2: 'Ren' wen guyu 遺珍集錦2: '人'紋古玉," Gugong wenwu yuekan 故宮文物月刊 The National Palace Museum Monthly of Chinese Art 89 (1990), fig. 25a-b.

[1] Jiangxi sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo 江西省文物考古研究所 and Xin'gan xian bowuguan 新干縣博物館, Xin'gan Shangdai damu 新干商代大墓 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1997), color pl. 46; p. 158, fig. 80: 1. The material indicated, with a hardness of just 1-2 on Mohs scale, follows the description on p. 159. Given its softness, the making of the linked rings attached to the crest is therefore not such a remarkable technical feat.

[2] Jingzhou shi bowuguan 荊州市博物館, "Hubei sheng Jingzhou shi Tianxingguan erhao mu fajue jianbao 湖北省荊州市天星觀二號墓發掘簡報," Wenwu 文物 2001.9, fig. 39.

[3] For discussion of the human figures on the scabbard ornament, see Jenny F. So and Emma C Bunker, Traders and Raiders on China's Northern Frontier (Seattle: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, in association with University of Washington Press, 1995), cat no. 41.

[4] For Lingtai 靈臺 Baicaopo 白草坡, Gansu 甘肅 province, see Gansu sheng bowuguan wenwudui 甘肅省博物館文物隊, "Gansu Lingtai Baicaopo Xi Zhou mu 甘肅靈臺白草坡西周墓," Kaogu xuebao 考古學報 1977.2, pp. 99--129, fig. 19.

• J. Keith Wilson, Jingmin Zhang. Jades for Life and Death. .
• "全球化背景下考古學新前沿 : 解讀中國古代傳統." Quan qiu hua bei jing xia kao gu xue xin qian yan: jie du Zhongguo gu dai chuan tong [New Frontiers in Global Archaeology: Defining China's Ancient Traditions]. New York, 2008. p. 310.