Straight chisel (gui) with raised uniform curls arranged in a grid

1. Bought from Seaouke Yue [You Xiaoxi] 游筱溪, of Shanghai 上海, in New York. For price, see Original Miscellaneous list, p. 232.

2. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Original attribution: Chou [Zhou] 周. See further, S.I. 1042, Appendix VIII. Said to have been excavated in Shansi [Shanxi] 山西. See Paragraph 5.

3. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Sp. G. is 2.893.

4. (Archibald Gibson Wenley, 1945) Chou [Zhou] 周 dynasty.

5. (H. Elise Buckman, 1964) The Envelope File contained no further information, and has now been destroyed.

6. (Thomas Lawton, 1978) Warring States period.

7. (Julia K. Murray, 1981) This object was published (as Western Chou [Zhou] 周) in Ueyama Shunpei 上山春平, "The Six Ministries (Liu guan 六官) in the Chou li [Zhouli] 周禮 and the Cubical Divine Symbol (Fang ming 方明) in the Yi li 儀禮 = 周禮の六官制と方明," Toho gakuho 東方學報 53 (1981), p. 165, fig. 3, left. (The attribution to the Western Chou [Zhou] 周 period seems wrong  in view of the Warring States style of raised curls appearing as surface ornament on the piece.)

8. (Thomas Lawton, Chinese Art of the Warring States Period: Change and Continuity, 480--222 B.C. [Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1982], cat. no. 109) Fashioned of semi translucent gray green nephrite, the slender kuei [gui] 圭 has a pointed top and straight base. In cross section, the form is an elongated diamond. Both faces of the kuei [gui] 圭 are decorated with raised spirals arranged in diagonal and horizontal rows and framed by a median crest  and convex border around the edges. This kuei [gui] 圭 is said to have been unearthed in Shansi [Shanxi] 山西 province. [1]
 
The characteristic pointed shape of late Eastern Chou [Zhou] 周  kuei [gui] 圭 has prompted some scholars to suggest that it derives ultimately from the ko [ge] 戈, or dagger axe. Perhaps the most speculative interpretation of the kuei [gui] 圭 is that given by Howard Hansford, who suggests that the kuei [gui] 圭 used during the early and middle Chou [Zhou] 周 actually were Shang 商  dynasty jade ko [ge] 戈 captured at the time of the conquest conferred by the Chou [Zhou] 周 ruler on his feudal lords, and subsequently passed on their successors as titles to their fiefs. Hansford also suggests that if insufficient Shang  jade ko [ge] 戈 were available, facsimiles would have been made in the Chou [Zhou] 周 dynasty to bestow on newly created nobles, and that some of those jades that have come down to us are, in fact, of Chou [Zhou] 周 manufacture. [2]

Judging from the wide variety in the proportions of the fifty-nine kuei [gui] 圭 unearthed at Chung chou lu [Zhongzhoulu] 中州路, Honan [Henan] 河南 province,  there does not appear to have been any standard, even though the general shape of  kuei [gui] 圭 was already well established by the Eastern Chou [Zhou] 周. A kuei [gui] 圭 from tomb 2145, assigned to the Eastern Chou [Zhou] 周, provides a transitional form, since all edges, except the butt end, are beveled as with a ko [ge] 戈. The perforation at the butt end also recalls  those on jade ko [ge] 戈. [4]

In his study of ceremonial jades in ancient China, Hayashi Minao 林巳奈夫 identifies the Freer piece as a ku kuei [gugui] 榖圭.  According to the Chinese texts, the ku kuei [gugui] 榖圭 was one of the jades used by the Chinese ruler when "settling  conflicts" and "arranging marriages." A commentary by the Han 漢 dynasty scholar Cheng Hsuan [Zheng Xuan] 鄭玄 (127--200)  stated that the ku kuei [gugui] 榖圭 was the symbol of a representative of the ruler and was decorated with a grain pattern.  Hayashi stresses the rarity of this type of  kuei [gui] 圭, remarking that the Freer example is the only one known to him. He dates it to the late Warring States--early Han 漢 periods. [5]

[1] Alfred Salmony includes the kuei [gui] 圭 in Chinese Jade through the Wei Dynasty (New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1963), pl. 15:1.

[2] S. Howard Hansford, Chinese Carved Jades (London: Faber, 1968), p. 62

[3] 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), p. 115.

[4] 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), pl. 48:3.

[5] Hayashi Minao 林巳奈夫, "Chūgoku kodai no saigyoku, zuigyoku 中國古代の祭玉，瑞玉 = Ceremonial Jades of Ancient China," Toho gakuho 東方學報 40 (1969), pp. 234--35.

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

10. (Stephen Allee, March 23, 2009) Added designation "nephrite" to Medium as per Janet Douglas using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (January 8, 2009).

11. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, April 2, 2010) Object Name changed from "Ceremonial implement" to "Ceremonial object." Title changed from "Ceremonial implement" to "Straight chisel (gui 圭)."

12. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, November 21, 2023) Title changed from "Straight chisel (gui)" to "Straight chisel (gui) with raised uniform curls arranged in a grid"; Added Period Two as "Warring States period"; Date changed from "3rd century BCE" to "475-221 BCE"; Geography changed from "China" to "China, purportedly found at Shanxi province"; added Chinese caption by Jingmin Zhang; Removed the following from the Description field "Chinese

Late Eastern Chou Dynasty, Warring States period
3rd century B.C.

Ceremonial implement.
Tablet; long slender form with pointed top and straight base, lontudinal ridge on both sides; a variation of the type "kuei;" translucent greenish gray with silvery incrustation; decoration: carved in low relief, both sides alike, grain pattern in comma shape. Box."

Added the following to the Description field: "Tablet; long slender form with pointed top and straight base, longitudinal ridge on both sides; a variation of the type kuei [gui] 圭; translucent greenish gray with silvery incrustation; carved in low relief, both sides alike, grain pattern in comma shape.

Acquired with a box, now lost."