CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

35
Jade zhuo bracelet
Height 2.6 (i), exterior diam. 7.4 (2 7 A),
interior diam. 6 (2 3 /s)
Liangzhu Culture, c. 3200-2000 BCE
From Yaoshan, Yuhang, Zhejiang Province
Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Archaeology,
Hangzhou
This thick-walled bracelet 1 is beautifully formed,
elaborately decorated, and polished to a soft luster.
Four monsterlike faces carved in high relief encircle
its exterior, each featuring a pair of round eyes
with bulging pupils and a wide, straight mouth with
neatly aligned teeth. Thin, sunken lines define the
arched eyebrows, round nose, and prominent jaws.
Unlike the awesome expression of most Liangzhu
monsters, these faces appear rather playful.
The jade is creamy white, but scattered spots
and fine streaks of olive color suggest that the
stone was originally translucent green. The form of
this bracelet, as well as the symmetrical arrangement
of the monster faces at the four corners, exhibits
a close affinity with that of the cong, which
indeed may have been its inspiration.
Bracelets number among the earliest Liangzhu
jade forms; their antecedents can be traced to the
very beginnings of eastern-coast jadework during
the fifth millennium BCE. Examples from Liangzhu
display a rich variety of shapes and designs —
slim, thick, or convex walls and surface patterns
engraved in intaglio or raised in relief. Decorative
motifs primarily comprise face images and scrollwork,
but twisted-rope patterns occasionally appear.
A bracelet found on the arm of the deceased in a
Fuquanshan tomb in Shanghai consists of two half-
131 LIANGZHU CULTURE