Jade thick bracelet (zhuo)

A jade bracelet (zhuo) of square section and slightly uneven thickness. Flaws in the stone have caused a number of dents, which have been carefully smoothed down.  On the inside of the bracelet a raised line indicates where the holes drilled from either end meet.  The surface is entirely plain.  The oatmeal-coloured stone is completely calcified and shows brown and reddish veining.  The surface is smooth and has a silky touch.

•  As early as the Neolithic period jade carving was widespread in China, and of particular importance was the area around the lower reaches of the Yangze river in both Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces.  Many of the tombs belonging to the Liangzhu ruling class have been found to contain significant quantities of jade, bearing witness to the great esteem in which jade was held at this time.  Both ritual and ornamental jades were produced during the Liangzhu culture.  This thick bracelet evidently belongs to the latter category; describing a similar bracelet in the Shanghai museum Huang observes “Until recently such objects were referred to simply as huan (rings), but the discovery […] at Fuquanshan of similar items on the arms of bodies has led to their classification as zhuo.” 1   The calcification of the jade, which together with the smoothly polished surface of the stone, is referred to in Chinese as jigubai, boliguang (‘chicken-bone white, glass-like shine’), may have been caused deliberately by exposing the jade to heat; fire-worship was an important aspect of Liangzhu culture.2   Another comparable bracelet is in the Hotung collection.3 

1. Huang Xuanpei, Liangzhu Jades in the Shanghai Museum, in: Chinese Jade, Selected Articles from Orientations 1983 -1996, Hong Kong, p. 93
2. Huang Xuanpei, op. cit. p. 90
3. Rawson, J. Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, British Museum Press, London 1995, no. 6:4, p. 148