Object: Five-tier tube (cong 琮) with masks F1917.63

Classification: Ceremonial Object

Maker(s): Artist: Liangzhu culture 良渚 (ca. 3300-ca. 2250 BCE)

Historical period(s): Late Neolithic period, ca. 3300-2250 BCE

Object Date: ca. 3300-2250 BCE

Medium: Jade (nephrite)

Dimension(s): H x W x D: 17.6 × 7.7 × 7.6 cm (6 15/16 × 3 × 3 in) Diam (hole - top): 5.4 cm (2 1/8 in) Diam (hole - bottom): 4.9 cm (1 15/16 in)

Origin: China, Lake Tai region

Credit Line: Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Collection: Freer Gallery of Art Collection

Accession Number: F1917.63

: 人面紋五節琮
新石器時代晚期良渚文化（公元前3300--2250年）
中國太湖地區
軟玉
高17.6、寬7.7、厚7.6 釐米；孔徑5.4 釐米
查爾斯·蘭·佛利爾贈送
器物編號：F1917.63

Provenance: To 1917
Li Wenqing (late 19th-early 20th century), Shanghai, to 1917 [1]

From 1917 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Li Wenqing, in New York, in 1917 [2]

From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

Notes:

[1] See Original Miscellaneous List, S.I. 1150, pg. 262, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. See also, Voucher No. 18, December 1916.

[2] See note 1.

[3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

Previous owner(s): Li Wenqing 李文卿 (C.L. Freer source) (ca. 1869-1931)
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

Description: Squared hollow cylinder of the type ts’ung [cong] 琮; tall form with wide projecting collar at both ends; irregularly bored leaving two deep ridges; mottled shades of medium green and some brown; partly covered with grayish incipient disintegration, more profuse in interior which also has rust stains; decoration: incised and channeled, grooves and corner ridges; surface worn smooth. (Breaks on collar.)

Acquired with an inscribed box, now lost.

Past label text: 1. Studies in Connoisseurship: 1923–1983, September 23, 1983–March 1, 1984; by Julia K. Murray (shown with F1916.499, F1916.118, F1916.410, F1918.14; additional jades organized by types shown in same case)

A few jades related to these plaques and beads by shape or by decoration have recently come to light in the excavation of sites associated with a late phase of the Liang-chu [Liangzhu] 良渚 culture, which flourished during the late Neolithic period in eastern coastal China. They include an angular plaque, of a different shape than the Freer pieces (F1916.628, F1917.382), bearing an arrangement of large oval eyes executed in low relief; such large eyes in further elaboration are seen on a plaque in the Freer collection (F1916.511). Other jades with comparable décor include a few ts'ung [cong] 琮 with demonic-mask motifs (F1916.118, F1916.499), sometimes in multiple registers. The mask motif may be ancestral to the ubiquitous t'ao-t'ieh [taotie] 饕餮 found on Shang 商 dynasty bronze vessels. The beads (F1917.378a, F1917.378b) probably were originally part of an elaborate necklace.

Curatorial Remarks

1. Bought from Lee Van Ching [Li Wenqing] 李文卿, of Shanghai 上海, in New York. For price, see Original Miscellaneous List, p. 262. $350

2. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Original attribution: Chinese. Chou [Zhou] 周. See further, S.I. 1150, Appendix VIII.

3. (Archibald Gibson Wenley, 1946) Chou [Zhou] 周 dynasty.

4. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Sp. G. is 2.999. Nephrite.

5. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Exhibited: 1917, Chicago, Illinois. The Art Institute, no. 102.

6. (Thomas Lawton, 1973) The following information was carved on the box in which this object arrived: "San-tai tsu ts'ung [Sandai zu cong] 三代組琮."

7. (Julia K. Murray, 1982) For a discussion of the tall ts'ung [cong] 琮 with segemented-band decor, a type found in the late Neolithic jade inventory in eastern China, see Folder Sheet F1916.410.

The band-and-circle decor on ts'ung [cong] 琮 F1917.63 is organized in five horizontal registers, and each of the four walls is bisected vertically by a wide, shallow trough. Although the surface is described above as being "worn smooth," it seems more likely in view of the extreme hardness of jade that the decor merely was cut less deeply than in other examples.

Change to Neolithic, ca. 2000 BCE, from Western Chou [Zhou] 周 dynasty.

8. (Stephen Allee per Keith Wilson, February 8, 2008) On this date entered: Period One (Late Neolithic period), Date (3300--2250 BCE), Artist (Liangzhu 良渚 culture), Title, Object name, Geographical region (Lake Tai 太湖 region); plus Dimensions per Christine Lee, from Jade Project Database.

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

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

Published References

Frederick William Gookin. Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Paintings, Sculptures and Jade Objects from the Collection formed by Charles Lang Freer, and Given by Him to the Nation through the Smithsonian Institution, Exhibition November 15 to December 8, 1917. Exh. cat. Chicago, November 15 - December 8, 1917. no. 102, p. 46.
Geoffrey WIlls. Jade of the East., 1st ed. New York, 1972. fig. 16.
J. Keith Wilson, Jingmin Zhang. Jades for Life and Death. .
Julia Murray. Neolithic Chinese Jades in the Freer Gallery of Art. vol. 14, no. 11 Hong Kong, November 1983. p. 20.
Masterpieces of Chinese and Japanese Art: Freer Gallery of Art handbook. Washington, 1976. p. 30.
Elizabeth Childs-Johnson, Fang Gu. Yuqi shidai: Meiguo bowuguan cang Zhongguo zaoqi yuqi [The Jade Age: Early Chinese Jades in American Museums]. Beijing, 2009. p. 113.

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Five-tier tube (cong 琮) with masks

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