SONG DYNASTY (AD 960-1279)

The design of this archaistic bi disc, with the inner band of comma spirals within an outer band of interlaced horned masks and scrolls is based on that of earlier examples produced from the Eastern Zhou to the Western Han period (770 BC-AD 220), such as those included in the 2^nd century BC tomb of the King of Nanyue and illustrated in Jades from the Tomb of the King of Nanyue, Hong Kong, 1991 and the example illustrated by Gu Fang (ed.), The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China, vol. 11, Beijing, 2005, p. 51. (Fig. 1) The link between these earlier bi and later examples is discussed by Elinor Pearlstein in “Salmony’s Catalogue of the Sonnenschein Jades in the Light of Recent Finds”, Chinese Jade: Selected Articles from Orientations 1983-1996, pp. 130-40, where the author illustrates a Western Han-dynasty (2^nd-1^st century BC) disc carved with this design, p. 139, fig. 35, and compares it to the present Song-dynasty bi disc, fig. 36. Both are carved with the same motifs, but on the current disc they are now more refined, and in the outer border are more graceful and curvilinear.