A white jade bear, Western Han dynasty | 西漢 白玉熊

Jenny F. So, Chinese Jades from the Cissy and Robert Tang Collection, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Art Museum, Hong Kong, 2015, cat. no. 26a.

蘇芳淑，《玉澤恆輝：喜聞過齋藏玉》，香港中文大學文物館，香港，2015年，編號26a

The present white jade sculpture of a bear represents an extraordinary level of naturalism possible in jade carvings from early periods. Small jade sculptures of animals are often associated with imperial Han mausoleums and may have formed part of an attempt to create a miniature Paradise of Immortals where the Han emperors hoped to access in death, see a detailed discussion by Jenny F. So, ‘The Functions of Jade Animal Sculptures in Ancient China’, Chinese Jade Animals, Hong Kong, 1996, pp. 29-30.

A related white jade carving of a bear, Western Han dynasty, with its head raised, was excavated from Weicheng District, Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province, in the Xianyang Museum, is illustrated in Gu Fang, The Pictorial Handbook of Ancient Chinese Jades, Beijing, 2007, p. 271. See also a related large jade weight in the form of a bear, Western Han dynasty, excavated at Beidongshan, in Xuzhou Museum, Jiangsu Province, illustrated in James C.S. Lin ed., The Search for Immortality: Tomb Treasures of Han China, Cambridge, 2012, no. 37.

對比參看一件陝西省鹹陽市渭城區漢墓出土的白玉熊，現存玉鹹陽市博物館，著錄於古方，《中國古玉器圖典》，北京，2007 年，頁 271。另見一件江蘇徐州北洞山出土的西漢玉熊席鎮，尺寸較大，現藏於徐州博物館，見林政昇，《追尋不朽：中國漢代墓葬精華》，劍橋，2012 年，編號37。