1. Bought from Seaouke Yue [You Xiaoxi] 游筱溪, of Shanghai 上海. Formerly in the collection of the Viceroy Tuan Fang [Duanfang] 端方, and said to have been excavated in Sianfu [Xi'an] 西安, Shensi [Shaanxi] 陝西. For price, see Original Miscellaneous List, p. 332.
2. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Original attribution: Chou [Zhou] 周. See further, S.I. 1411, Appendix IX.
3. (Isabel Ingram Mayer, 1945) Late Chou [Zhou] 周 dynasty. For discussion of type, see Folder Sheet F1939.14, note 3.
4. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Sp. G. is 2.970. Nephrite.
5. (Thomas Lawton, 1973) The following information was carved on the box in which this object arrived: Chou ku pi [Zhou gu bi] 周榖璧. T'ao chai shou-ts'ang [Taozhai shoucang] 陶齋收藏.
6. (Thomas Lawton, 1978) Late Eastern Chou [Zhou] 周, Warring States period, 3rd century BCE. See Folder Sheet F1916.510.
7. (Thomas Lawton, 1982) Changed attribution to Late Warring States-early Western Han 漢 periods, 3rd century BCE.
(Thomas Lawton, Chinese Art of the Warring States Period: Change and Continuity, 480-222 B.C. [Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1982], cat. no. 124) Fashioned of mottled green nephrite with irregular streaks of lighter and darker tones, this disk displays remarkably perfunctory workmanship. The incised lines around the inner and outer edges of the disk are a simplified rendering of the flat, slightly recessed edges that are found on contemporary disks of finer quality (see cat. no. 123, F1917.85). Incised spirals embellish the raised dots that are worked onto both surfaces of the disk within a series of irregularly designed hexagonal grids. The unevenness of craftmanship is clearly apparent in the careless manner in which the hexagonal lines are worked into the surface.
8. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 8, 2008) "Ceremonial Object" added as secondary classification.
9. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, April 20, 2010) Object Name changed from "Disk (bi 璧)" to "Ceremonial object."
10. (Jeffrey Smith per Janet Douglas, June 17, 2010) "Nephrite" added as modifier to existing medium of "Jade" based on conservation analysis.
11. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, June 6, 2023) Title changed from "Disk (bi)" to "Disk (bi) with raised uniform curls arranged in a grid"; Period One changed from "Eastern Zhou to Western Han dynasty" to "Eastern Zhou or Western Han dynasty"; added Period Two as "Warring States period"; Date changed from "3rd century BCE" to "475 BCE-9 CE"; Geography changed from "China" to "China, purportedly found at Shaanxi province, Xi'ian"; and added Chinese Translation by Jingmin Zhang.
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