Harvesting knife (hu 笏) with geometric decoration, fragment

• 1. (Jenny F. So. Draft entry for the catalogue of the Singer collection. 1970-1990?).jst
  
  41           
  Knife
  Neolithic period-Shang dynasty, 2d millennium B.C.
  Jade
  Length 40.9 cm (16 1/8 in.)
  Illustrated in color, p.
  
  This large, trapezoidal knife is very thinly sliced.  Three conical holes placed in a row pierce the top blunt edge.  The two holes on each end are drilled from the same side, but the middle hole is drilled from the other side.  One of the short ends of the knife is smooth, but the other is broken by ragged, uneven notches.  Spreading in from the notched edge on both sides of the blade is a masklike design engraved in faint angular meander patterns.  The slender body of the knife is ground even thinner toward the bottom edge.  The dark mottled gray green jade is altered at one end to grayish white.
  Two distinguishing features of the Singer knife---the notched edge and angular ornament---link it with a similar knife in the Arthur M. Sackler collections.1  These two knives have been compared to a stone scepter collected from the Longshan site at Rizhao Liangchengzhen, Shandong Province, which shows a masklike ornament with an almost baroque curvilinearity.2  Comparisons with the Liangchengzhen scepter and similar designs on certain Liangzhu jades found further south suggest a late Neolithic date for the Singer and Sackler knives.3  While a late Neolithic date is supported by the fine grinding of the paper-thin blade and configuration of the motifs, the hesitant angularity of the designs on the Singer and Sackler knives is still an illusive element among Neolithic decorated examples.   JFS
  
  Notes
  1.  Childs-Johnson 1988b, fig. 17; Arthur M. Sackler Gallery 1987, no. 36.
  2.  Kaogu, no. 4 (1972): 56--57, figs. 1--2.
  3.  See Childs-Johnson 1988b, pp. 35--37.
  
  1. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 8, 2008) Weapon and Armament added as secondary classification.

  2. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, April 2, 2010) Object name changed from "Weapon" to "Ceremonial object"; title from "Blade" to "Harvesting knife (hu 笏), fragment."

Draft catalogue entry (no. 41) for S2012.9.167 for the catalogue of the Singer collection (1970--1990); by Jenny F. So

Knife
China, Neolithic period Shang 商 dynasty, 2d millennium BCE
Jade
Length 40.9 cm (16 1/8 in.)

This large, trapezoidal knife is very thinly sliced. Three conical holes placed in a row pierce the top blunt edge. The two holes on each end are drilled from the same side, but the middle hole is drilled from the other side. One of the short ends of the knife is smooth, but the other is broken by ragged, uneven notches. Spreading in from the notched edge on both sides of the blade is a masklike design engraved in faint angular meander patterns. The slender body of the knife is ground even thinner toward the bottom edge. The dark mottled gray green jade is altered at one end to grayish white.

Two distinguishing features of the Singer knife--the notched edge and angular ornament--link it with a similar knife in the Arthur M. Sackler collection. [1] These two knives have been compared to a stone scepter collected from the Longshan 龍山 site at Rizhao 日照 Liangchengzhen 兩城鎮, Shandong 山東 Province, which shows a masklike ornament with an almost baroque curvilinearity. [2] Comparisons with the Liangchengzhen 兩城鎮 scepter and similar designs on certain Liangzhu 良渚 jades found further south suggest a late Neolithic date for the Singer and Sackler knives. [3]
 
While a late Neolithic date is supported by the fine grinding of the paper thin blade and configuration of the motifs, the hesitant angularity of the designs on the Singer and Sackler knives is still a rarely encounted element among Neolithic decorated examples.

Notes
[1] Elizabeth Childs Johnson, "Dragons, Masks, Axes and Blades from Four Newly Documented Jade-Working Cultures of Ancient China," Orientations 19, no.4 (1988), fig. 17; Thomas Lawton et al., Asian Art in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery: The Inaugural Gift (Washington, D.C.: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1987), cat. 36.
[2] Liu Tun-yuan [Liu Dunyuan] 劉敦願, "Chi Liang-ch'eng chen i-chih fa-hsien ti liang chien shih-ch'I [Ji Liangcheng zhen yizhi faxian de liangjian shiqi] 記兩城鎮遺址發現的兩件石器," K'ao ku [Kaogu] 考古 1972.4, pp. 56--57, figs. 1--2.
[3] See Elizabeth Childs Johnson, "Dragons, Masks, Axes and Blades from Four Newly Documented Jade-Working Cultures of Ancient China," Orientations 19, no. 4 (1988), pp. 35--37.

• J. Keith Wilson, Jingmin Zhang. Jades for Life and Death. .
• Elizabeth Childs-Johnson. Dragons, Masks, Axes and Blades from Four Newly-documented Jade-producing Cultures of Ancient China. vol. 19, no. 4 Hong Kong, 1988. p. 34, fig. 15.