EARLY TO MID-WARRING STATES PERIOD, CIRCA 476-300 BC

During the Eastern Zhou period, Zhou rulers gradually lost their control of power, and the Chu State in the Yangzi River region grew rapidly. The ‘animal-spirits worship’ of ancient Eastern China and the deep-rooted ‘bi-disc worship’ enjoyed a renaissance. Hubei, Hunan and Anhui were the centre of the Chu culture. At some unknown location a jade mine of grass-green coloured nephrite was uncovered, and the Chu people used it to make sizeable grain-patterned bi discs, such as the present lot, and grain-patterned huang pendants, such as lot 2732 in this sale. compare a larger disc (21.7 cm.) similarly carved with a large central aperture from the Yangdetang Collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 November 2017, lot 2777.