Dagger-axe (ge 戈)

1. Bought from Seaouke Yue [You Xiaoxi] 游筱溪, of Shanghai 上海. For price, see Original Miscellaneous List, p. 325.
 
2. (John Ellerton Lodge, 1940) The lid of the box is inscribed as "周牙璋. 陶齋所藏古玉之一." This may be translated: "Tooth-scepter of the Chou [Zhou] 周 dynasty. A piece from T'ao-chai [Taozhai] 陶齋's collection of ancient jades." T'ao-chai [Taozhai] 陶齋 is the hao 號 name of Tuan Fang [Duanfang] 端方 (see Folder F1918.1, Paragraph 2), and there seems to be no reason to doubt that this fine jade, like many another, once belonged to him. If he called it a ya chang [yazhang] 牙璋, or "tooth-scepter," that term may be accepted as correct modern usage; but chang [zhang] 璋 is a pretty general term at best, and the fact remains that the jade itself is a ko [ge] 戈 in form (see Folder F1919.13, Paragraph 3), and very different from a ya chang [yazhang] 牙璋 as illustrated by Wu Ta ch'eng [Wu Dacheng] 吳大澂 in his Ku yu t'u k'ao [Guyu tu kao] 古玉圖考 (Shanghai: Tongwen shuju, 1889), pp. 21--22 recto. His identification is, of course, based on the pertinent passages in the Chou li [Zhou Li] 周禮 and its Commentaries, which he quotes at length.

There are two references to the ya chang [yazhang] 牙璋 in the Chou-li [Zhou Li] 周禮, neither of them very informative except regarding the emblematic significance of the thing. The first reference (Chou-li [Zhou Li] 周禮, "Ch'un-kuan [Chunguan] 春官," Tien-jui [Dianrui] 典瑞, vol. III, p. 34, of our edition; see Edouard Biot, Le Tcheou-li [Rites des Tcheou] [Paris: L'Imprimerie nationale, 1851], vol. I, pp. 489--90) says that the ya chang [yazhang] 牙璋 was used in connection with the gathering and control of military forces and weapons. The second reference (Chou-li [Zhou Li] 周禮, "Tung-kuan [Dongguan] 冬官," Yu-jen [Yuren] 玉人, vol. VI, p. 35 verso of our edition; see Edouard Biot, Le Tcheou-li [Rites des Tcheou] [Paris: L'Imprimerie nationale, 1851], vol. II, p. 527) repeats this verbatim and adds the following information: 牙璋中璋七寸射二寸厚寸. "The ya chang [yazhang] 牙璋 and the chung chang [zhongzhang] 中璋 are 7 inches [long, with a] projection of 2 inches, and the thickness of 1 inch." Wu 吳 (Ku yu t'u k'ao [Guyu tu kao] 古玉圖考 [Shanghai: Tongwen shuju, 1889], pp. 21--22 recto) neither quotes nor comments on the measurement of thickness; but he understands the total length to be 9 (7 plus 2) inches, and in this he is supported by a preceding paragraph of the Chou-li [Zhou Li] 周禮 (vol. VI, p. 34 verso of our edition; Edouard Biot, Le Tcheou-li [Rites des Tcheou] [Paris: L'Imprimerie nationale, 1851], vol. II, p. 525) which gives 9 inches as the length of both the chung chang [zhongzhang] 中璋 and the ta chang [dazhang] 大璋. The same paragraph mentions, also, the pien chang [bianzhang] 邊璋, which is said to be 7 inches long, with "a projection of 4 inches and the thickness of 1 inch," making a total length of 1 foot plus 1 inch. By the word "projection" in this and the previous quotation from the same source, it is probably best to understand that the pointed part of the chang [zhang] 璋 is meant. This, anyway, is the sense given it by Wu 吳 in his illustrated description (Ku yu t'u k'ao [Guyu tu kao] 古玉圖考 [Shanghai: Tongwen shuju, 1889], vol. I, pp. 19--20) of a jade which he simply calls a chang [zhang] 璋 but tentatively identifies with the pien chang [bianzhang] 邊璋.

In general, the type of scepter called chang [zhang] 璋 is defined as a half kuei [gui] 半圭, and, as we have seen, the Chou-li [Zhou Li] 周禮 mentions four specific forms of it: the ta chang [dazhang] 大璋 or "great scepter," the chung chang [zhongzhang] 中璋 or "medium scepter," the pien chang [bianzhang] 邊璋 or "side scepter," and the ya chang [yazhang] 牙璋 or "tooth scepter," as well as an ornamented chang [zhang] 璋 and one made without ornamentation. Each of these forms, according to the Chou-li [Zhou Li] 周禮 and its commentators, was used ceremonially or emblematically, -- sometimes in more than one connection; but the "tooth scepter" seems to have figured only in the raising of troops, --a function, however, which was proper also to the "medium scepter." Early drawings of the ya chang [yazhang] 牙璋 resemble Wu's 吳 chang [zhang] 璋 or pien chang [bianzhang] 邊璋 to the extent, at least, that they depict long, flat, rectangular slabs with one end champfered (see, e.g., Nieh Ch'ung I [Nie Chongyi] 聶重義, San li t'u [Sanlitu] 三禮圖, Chapter X, p. 3 recto; also Ku yu t'u p'u [Guyu tupu] 古玉圖譜, Ch'ien lung [Qianlong] 乾隆 edition, Chapter XIX, pp. 7--10); but they show the characteristic detail suggested by the word ya 牙 either by representing the champfered end as deeply serrated, or by decorating the margin of the chang [zhang] 璋 with a zigzag pattern which produced the effect of a double row of triangular teeth.

Such drawings can hardly have been based on actual objects or on the text of the Chou-li [Zhou Li] 周禮, but rather on the remarks of one of the commentators who, referring to the ya chang [yazhang] 牙璋 and the chung chang [zhongzhang] 中璋 says: "Both are ornamented with teeth on the margin of the point," --as, indeed, the drawings show them. Wu 吳, however, points out (Ku yu t'u k'ao [Guyu tu kao] 古玉圖考 [Shanghai: Tongwen shuju, 1889], vol. I, pp. 19--20) that because of the military symbolism attached to it, the ya chang [yazhang] 牙璋 has the form of a military weapon, with a tip like a knife, but with the two long edges not sharpened; it is, he says, commonly and mistakenly called a yudao 玉刀 (jade knife) (see Folder F1919.13, Paragraph 3). As a rule, he continues, kuei [gui] 圭 and chang [zhang] 璋 have straight edges; only this  type, indeed, has edges curved like a tooth, wherefore it is called a ya chang [yazhang] 牙璋.

Wu 吳, unlike his predecessors, is here engaged in establishing the identity of an actual object, and if he does not conclusively prove his point, he at least makes a good enough case to suggest that the term ya chang [yazhang] 牙璋 is not properly applicable to the jade now under examination. He does not, however, discuss any jades of the ko [ge] 戈 type; nor does the Chou-li [Zhou Li] 周禮 refer to them recognizably as such. Nevertheless, the type can hardly be called rare nowadays, since our collection includes a number of examples (F1915.108, F1917.396, F1919.13, F1919.61, F1939.21, F1941.3) in addition to this one, and Huang Chun [Huang Jun] 黃濬 reproduces several more in his Ku-yu t'u-lu ch'u-chi [Guyu tulu chuji] 古玉圖錄初集 (Beijing: Zunguzhai, 1939). Thus it is difficult to see how either Wu 吳 or the Chou-li [Zhou Li] 周禮 can have been wholly unaware of this type of emblematic jade which has survived in considerable numbers from late Shang 商 or early Chou [Zhou] 周 times, and, because of its ko [ge] 戈 shape, may be regarded, at least in that respect, as a suitable symbol of military authority. Moreover, it can be likened to a tooth quite as plausibly as Wu's 吳 ya chang [yazhang] 牙璋 and comes much nearer than the latter to meeting the Chou-li [Zhou Li]'s 周禮 specification of length. In this connection, indeed, Wu 吳 suspects that his own ya chang [yazhang] 牙璋, because of its great length ("17 1/2 inches"), may well be a product of the Eastern Chou [Zhou] 周 period, --subsequent, that is, to 772 BCE. Can Wu 吳 be mistaken in his identification of the ya chang [yazhang] 牙璋? And is the relationship he suggests between size and date applicable to other types?
 
3. (Undated Folder Sheet note) In all, then our collection contains seven emblematic jades of the ko [ge] 戈 type, and of these, four --F1917.396, F1919.61, F1939.21, and the present example, --have blades of closely similar pattern. This pattern has already been described (see Folder Sheet F1917.396, p. 4) and it only remains to note in this case the greater prominence of the pair of small projections from which the pointing of the blade starts, and the more pronounced way in which the butt of the blade is set off from the tang; this represents, no doubt, the transverse ridge or stop against which the haft was brought to bear in the case of a ko [ge] 戈 weapon made of bronze (see, e.g., F1934.11). In execution and finish, this jade is of the finest quality.
 
4. (Julia K. Murray, 1980) Exhibition Ancient Chinese Jade label text; moved to label field.
 
5. (Julia K. Murray, 1982) For a general discussion of jade ko [ge] 戈, see Folder Sheet F1917.396.

The darker tonality of the stone from the pointed end to about the middle of the blade suggests that the ko [ge] 戈 F1919.17 may have been wrapped up for burial; the boundary separating the different colors is fairly distinct and straight. The workmanship on this ko [ge] 戈 is particularly fine and the result quite elegant.
 
6. (Richard Louie, March 1984) This jade was informally appraised at $40,000 to $50,000 by Mr. Sammon of Sotheby's on March 20.
 
7. (Undated Folder Sheet information, Thomas Lawton) The form of this mottled beige nephrite ko [ge] 戈 is more developed than that of the preceding example. The median crest, running from the conical perforation to the tip, follows the tapering and upward curve of the blade. Facetted edges on either edge of the blade begin at the projecting lugs that demarcate the tang from the blade proper and end where slight projections mark the point at which the blade tapers to the tip. There is a break at the butt of the tang. The ko [ge] 戈 is said to have been in the collection of the late Ch'ing [Qing] 清 dynasty statesman and connoisseur, Tuan fang [Duanfang] 端方 (1861--1911), but it is not included among those pieces illustrated in his catalogue, T'ao chai ku-yu t'u [Taozhai guyu tu] 陶齋古玉圖 (Shanghai: Laiqingge, 1936).
 
8. (Stephen Allee per Keith Wilson, June 12, 2008) As per Jenny F. So, Jade Project Database, changed Period from "Shang 商" to "Late Shang 商"; changed Date from "12th--11th century BCE" to "1200--1000 BCE"; changed Object Name from "Dagger (ko [ge] 戈)" to "Ceremonial object"; changed Title from "Emblematic weapon of the ko [ge] 戈" to "Dagger-axe (ge 戈)." Added Previous Owner to constituents (ex-collection Duanfang 端方, 1861--1911). Added Dimensions per Christine Lee, from Jade Project Database. Added designation "nephrite" to Medium as per Elizabeth West Fitzhugh, August 1959, as determined by x-ray diffraction.
 
9. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 17, 2008) Ceremonial object added as secondary classification.

10. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, June 10, 2010) Added "Anyang 安陽 period"; changed date from "1200--1000 BCE" to "ca. 1300--1050 BCE."

11. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, August 17, 2017) Title changed from "Dagger-axe (ge)" to "Dagger-axe (ge 戈)"; and Geography changed from "China" to "China, probably Henan province, Anyang".

12. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, February 5, 2019) Added Chinese Translation by Jingmin Zhang; removed the following from the Description field, "Emblematic weapon of the type "ge." Opaque nephrite in shades of pale to dark brown, tinged with green on one side. One conical perforation, and a notch in the tang. Wooden box."

Added the following to the Description field, "Emblematic weapon of the type ko [ge] 戈. Opaque nephrite in shades of pale to dark brown, tinged with green on one side; one conical perforation and a notch in the tang. Acquired with a wooden box, now lost."; and added past Label Text by Julia K. Murray from the exhibition, Ancient Chinese Jade.