Jade disc (bi)

A plain jade bi disc of uneven thickness.  Its circular centre is cut from one side, resulting in a tapering aperture.  The material has largely calcified and the stone displays areas of mottled white and rust-brown markings. In areas where the stone retains it translucency, the original dark green colour is visible. The flat surfaces are smoothly polished.

• In China, a circular jade disc is known as bi.  Although both origin and purpose of the bi disc in early Chinese art remain obscure, eastern Zhou and Han ritual texts describe it as an offering to Heaven, hence it is said to be symbolic of that. Its counterpart, the cong tube, represents Earth. The earliest bi discs appear in burial sites along the east coast of China dating from the late Neolithic period.1  Bi discs from this period are usually plain; it was not until later periods that jade craftsmen began to employ different decorative patterns. A closely comparable example to the present disc is in the Hotung collection at the British Museum.2  A further example is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei.3 

1. Watson, W.  The Arts of China to AD 900, Yale University Press, 1995, p. 52
2. Rawson, J. Chinese Jade – From the Neolithic to the Qing, London 1995, no. 4:6, p. 136
3. A Catalogue of the National Palace Museum’s Special Exhibition of Circular Jade, Taipei, 1995, no. 48, pp. 88-9