TWO JADE BI DISCS, LIANGZHU CULTURE NEOLITHIC PERIOD

each circular disc with a small central aperture drilled from the sides, polished overall to a smooth surface, the smaller stone of a variegated black tone suffused with silvery-white flecks and caramel-brown inclusions, the larger stone of a dark olive-green tone with black mottling, suffused with calcified milky-brown inclusions

Collection of A.W. Bahr (1877-1959), Weybridge.
Collection of Dr Arthur M. Sackler (1913-87), acquired in 1963.
Christie's New York, 14th September 2009, lot 36.

Smaller disc: The Arts of China, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1973-78.

Jade discs of this type are among the earliest non-ceramic artefacts of China that have survived and must be counted among the great masterpieces of the Neolithic period. Nephrite is an extremely difficult and laborious stone to work since it cannot be cut but has to be shaped with the help of abrasives. The fine craftsmanship of a piece such as the present disc is particularly remarkable in a period which knew only stone tools.

The purpose of these bi discs has been much debated and traditionally they have been considered as representing symbols of heaven, used in ancient rituals together with square cong tubes symbolising the earth. This interpretation was based on passages from the Zhou li [Rites of Zhou], a Warring States text, where the use of these and other ritual jades in royal burials is discussed. More recent archaeological excavations of Neolithic sites, however, show bi to have been placed in very prominent positions in the tomb and suggest that at that period bi and cong were not used together as a set. 

Jade bi are now considered as more general emblems of power with more complex meanings; see Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, British Museum, London, 1995, p. 13ff. and section 4. 

Jade discs are known from various neolithic cultures, but particularly from sites of the Liangzhu culture, which flourished in southeastern China in the 3rd millennium BC. See a few comparable discs of various sizes from the Liangzhu culture in the collection of the British Museum, London, illustrated ibid., cat. pls 4:1-4:6. Numerous jade discs have been excavated from Liangzhu archaeological sites; compare a mottled dark green example of comparable size (d. 20.5 cm) unearthed from Zhangshan in 1980, included in The Dawn of Chinese Civilization: Jades of the Liangzhu Culture, Art Museum, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1998, cat. no. 23.