CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

H3
Jade belt hook
Height 6.2 (2 ! / 2 ), width 18.8 (7 3 /«), depth 0.6 ('A)
Western Han Dynasty, second century BCE
From the tomb of the King of Nanyue at Xianggang,
Guangzhou, Guangdong Province
The Museum of the Western Han Tomb of the
Nanyue King, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province
Hooks were used to fasten the two ends of a belt:
a round stud at the back attached the object to
one end of the belt, while a loop or ring attached
to the other end of the belt slotted over the hook.
Such functional ornaments seem to have been
introduced during the sixth century BCE, possibly
from Central Asia. Among the earliest to be found
in China are some finely cast gold hooks from Yimen,
near Baoji, in Shaanxi province. Gold belt
hooks seem to have been prized in areas to the west
of the Qin state; elsewhere, hooks were also made
in bronze and, less commonly, in jade; bronze
examples are sometimes decorated with gilding,
precious-metal inlays, and semiprecious stones. 1
This example, carved from a single piece of
translucent white jade, has an unusual form, consisting
of a dragon with a sinuous body in a double
band. 2 The creature s head is shown in striking
profile; its large eye is emphasized by a distinct
relief ridge, and it has small crest or horn behind
the head. In its open jaw, the dragon grasps a ring,
which is braced by one of its claws; the second claw
emerges from the underside of the body. The convex
surface of the jade is exquisitely carved: sharply
cut lines delineate the head and claw, and interlinking
scrolls incised on the body catch the light; the
reverse of the hook is plain.
The combination of dragon and disk appears
in a painted coffin design and in a banner from
Mawangdui, 3 on which two dragons wind through
a central disk. The design may have originated in
simple pendants (produced from the fifth century
BCE onward and common in tombs of the fifth to
fourth centuries BCE) composed of carved disks
supported by dragons on either side. The painted
banner and coffin, while ostensibly simply formal
elaborations of the earlier jade pendants, in fact
constitute a more powerful rendering of the motif.
The jade belt hook seems to be a return to the
representation of these elements in ornamental
pendants. JR
1 See Rawson 1995, 303 - 307.
2 Excavated in 1983 (D 45); reported Guangzhou 1991,
1:192-193, fig. 125:3.
3 For the tomb at Mawangdui, see Hunan 1973, i: figs. 24, 38.
422 | EARLY IMPERIAL CHINA