Miniature Cong-shape Bead

 Combining my love for ancient beads and ancient jade is this miniature cong-form jade bead

Cong-form jade Bead

This mottled ivory color piece was purchased in Ningbo  some years back. Ningbo  is one of the heritage sites of Liangzhu Culture  3300-2300 BC and many liangzhu  artifacts including cong-shape beads have been recovered from the site . I know this is a slim connection but the  cong Bead really looks Good 😎.

Square on the outside and round inside measures
2,5cm x 2cm

It is in the form of a miniature squared hollow cylinder and measures 2.5cm x 2cm. All four side of this  bead is divided with line grooves into 4 plain squares with no decorations. The grooves display toolmarks which  maybe a sign of age. Unlike large Liangzhu congs this one does not have the trademark Liangzhu eye decorations, perhaps due to its smaller size.

However one special feature of this cong bead is its strange perforation which is hollowed out from top to bottom and meets in the center displaying a neat triangle shaped wedge.

Peering down the unusual perforation

I have not seen such a perf in a bead before and find it a bit perplexing. Also not sure whether such a perf is a plus or minus factor in its being authentic Liangzhu period.

Cong form Liangzhu bead with strange perforation

A set of Small Jade Ornaments from the Liangzhu Culture 3300-2300BC

A set of ancient jade ornaments  comprising 10 tubular jade beads strung with turquoise beads, a small slit ring (jue), a small disc (bi)and a small huang. All purchased in Hangzhou and purportedly from the Liangzhu Culture (3300-2300 BC) The stone, patina, and shape of the items do resemble Liangzhu artefacts so there is a good chance that these are of the period. Also Hangzhou is the site of Liangzhu culture makes the possibility more likely.

Set of ancient jade ornaments

The ten tubular beads are interspersed with turquoise beads which may not be from the same timeline.

Ten tubular beads with turquoise beads

According to research the slit ring or jue (2.3cm)  on left is an ear ornament and are often strung with the bi disc (2cm) on right and huang below

Slit ring (jue) and small bi (disc)

The small arch shaped huang measures 5cm and must have been part of a longer necklace. Each end of the huang is drilled with a hole and a groove.

Jade huang with hole and groove at both ends

The hole and groove at both ends may represent they eyes and mouths of a dragon. Later versions of  jade huangs have dragon carvings at both ends so this may be an early version. This is entirely my own conjecture.

Looks like an eye and a mouth

Unlike large ceremonial ritualistic objects  of the Neolithic period, these ornaments are small and minimalist but have a life of their own  If these beads and ornaments were exhibited in a museum, would they be arranged as below ?

Museum display

I don't have enough beads and ornaments to string into an elaborate strand but still managed to make quite a decent one. :)😊

Strung as a strand

Cicadas are Immortal......

......or have been immortalized by Chinese cultures from Neolithic times to the 21st century. Chinese man  have been intrigued by these strange  creatures who emerge from the ground after years of hibernation to sing their haunting songs. I think it is this sequence of burial and birth that gives rise to the image of cicadas as a symbol of rebirth and  immortality.

Cicadas feature in many forms of Chinese art including poetry, jade carvings, paintings and calligraphy. Here is a poem  by Tang poetess Xue Tao celebrating  the songs of cicadas :

 Hearing Cicadas  by Xue Tao

 Washed clean by dew, cicada songs go far

 and like windblown leaves piling up 

 each cicada's cry blends into the next.

 Yet each lives on its own branch. 

And here is an old picture taken of a mural from a Tang royal tomb depicting a scene of ladies watching birds catch cicadas.

Catching Cicadas Mural at Prince Zhang Huai tomb



But it is cicadas celebrated in jade that I find  the most enduring. Being a city dweller,  I have never seen or heard the sounds of a real cicada yet I too have been beguiled into  romancing and collecting the creature. I have quite a few jade cicadas in my collection which I will show. The first few  cicadas I show are at the pupa stage rather than the full grown insect.



Possibly a  Hongshan cicada pupa

The first  pupa  is a Hongshan (around 3500-2500BC)  hopeful. It  has a  thick, somewhat cylindrical  body with flattish eyes at one end and a series of three wide, shallow grooves at the other.  The remainder of the body is plain and tapers slightly towards the  end. The large perforation near the head is funnel shaped, drilled from both sides with tool marks  in it.  It measures 3.5 cm. with rust seepage over the green jade surface. There are many  examples in museums, reputable auctions and books of this pupa shape, form and color which have been attributed to Hongshan Culture.



Probably Hongshan cicada pupa

Here are 2 more pictures showing frontal view  and  flat base of this pupa.

front view

flat base

The next creature shown below is rather mysterious and raises many  questions and doubts. It is made from jixue (chicken blood) stone. Although carved and shaped as an archaic  piece there are some points that do not jell. The shape of the body, eyes, and grooves on its back resemble Hongshan style. However the  6 holes, 3 on each side of the body, presumably representing the 6 legs of a cicada and ending in a sort of base,  is  unusual for a Hongshan pupa. The chicken blood stone is also seldom seen on Hongshan  artifacts. Could this be a later copy ?

Is this a cicada pupa made from attractive chicken blood stone?

And  unusual too,  is the horizontal slit from the belly to the legs ending in the base, as shown below

Tool marks can be seen in the slit

To add another query, is the tiny quartz stone peeping out of  the extreme right hole may have been left behind in the drilling process and which may be taken as a sign of  antiquity or a sign of conmanship.

Quartz stone for drilling seen in hole on right

So taking all the pros and cons into consideration,  is this a very rare ancient early culture pupa or a modern day invention? Whatever the answer to me it is an enjoyable piece.

Next is this slightly arched and  subtly sculpted cicada pupa. It measures 2.5cm and the most distinctive feature is  the  prominient eyes. The stone looks like chicken bone (ji gu) white  jade  showing reddish stains. The Chinese like to relate their jade stone with the chicken hence ji gu (chicken bone) and ji xue (chicken blood) What is it about jade that gets it  mixed with chicken  from chicken blood to chicken bone ? I hear there is also ji you (chicken oil) but unfortunately I don't have an example of such a stone to show.

Slightly arched with 2 prominient eyes

 It has an ox nosed perforation, the hole leads from top of head and exits through the face see picture below.



Ox nosed perforation

The color of this incredibly smooth stone with its red stains is reminiscent of Liangzhu ( 3500– 2500 BC) artifacts

Liangzhu color beautiful piece



By the time of the Han dynasty (206BC-220AD) cicadas were used as tongue amulets as well as ornaments. There is a Chinese saying which goes like this

In life use as pei (ornament)

In death use as han (tongue amulet)

The 3 cicadas shown below  have wings and are no longer pupas. These cicadas are flat and  stylised rather than lifelike. For the left and right cicadas the wings and heads section are indicated by 3 sharp cuts and the eyes and mouths by 3 slits. The centre piece has only one dividing centre line. Wonder whether this is the Han badao or 8 cut style. All the surfaces show patina and weathering.



Han yu

A Chinese seller  did tell me that cicadas carved in this "simple" fashion are likely to be  recarved pieces. He's got a point there but there is  something solemn and amuletish about them and perhaps they may be genuine tongue amulets from the Han dynasty.

Besides jade used as Han yu, glass was also sometimes used in the Han dynasty. The next cicada I show is a  corroded specimen of a glass cicada.

glass cicada



And the side view

side view



The base is plain.

the base



2 more small  jade cicada beads shown below are beads pierced from head to tail end. These look like Shang - Xi-Zhou period (16thcentury-221BC) but hard to determine so I just enjoy them.

A pair of cicada beads



Another full grown and life like cicada from late Qing (19th - early 20th century) is shown below. It measures 4.2 x 2.2cm. The wings and body are decorated with line carvings and it is pierced at the nose for attachment as pei or girdle ornament.

Late Qing green jade cicada



To add variety, here are a couple of cicada snuff bottles from Heng's collection.



Snuff bottles carved as cicadas

The obverse side



Finally  a very large crystal bead decorated with 3 cicada carvings on the surface. The age is indeterminate but it was the fashion  from early dynasties to use cicadas as decoration on ornamental objects such as bis, plaques, congs, etc.

Large crystal bead with cicada decoration



It measures 3.5cm x 7 cm and is decorated with three cicadas

A side view showing 2 of the three cicadas



Continuing the love for cicadas into the 21st century are these three modern day cicadas. They are pierced at the head and can be worn as pendants or used as toggles for handphones or handbags.

Recently carved cicadas in green and white jade



   Cicadas Are Forever



Eyes of Infinite Reverie...

 

 I dont know whether this strand of beads with eyes, masks, and also a mouth carved on them should be called eye beads, mask beads or maybe  face beads ?

 

 

Not Roman, Phoenician, Stratified or Warring States



They aren't like the regular eye beads and face beads such as Phoenician eye beads, Warring States eye beads, Stratified eye beads, Roman face beads  to name a few of these well known  beads which are so covetd by bead collectors

They have an identity of their own



Very unique beads with eyes or masks carving

 Perhaps they should be called LIANGZHU face beads because they bear strong resemblance to the eye and mask motifs carved on Liangzhu jade congs,  plaques, and pendants which are well documented in books and  museums. The Liangzhu Culture was a late Neolithic culture which existed from 3300-2250BC and the culture excelled in jade especially the large congs, plaques etc.

 

Strong resemblance to Liangzhu eye and mask motifs



 

 Liangzhu culture eye decorations have been described from haunting to demonic, from divine to bizarre, from god like to bird like, taotie masks to monster design from greedy monsters to benevolent deities . I wonder if my beads qualify for any of these wildly divergent descriptions.

God-like or bird-like ?



 Although the eye motif which also looks like a mask was common among the important and large jade items of the Liangzhu culture there is a scarcity of research material on beads such as mine so I cannot vouch for their correct vintage. Perhaps they belong to another era and culture altogether.  However the  likeness  to Liangzhu artifacts is uncanny with their  haunting mask design, a bar-shaped mouth, raised oval eyes, sunken round pupils, etc

 

Uncanny resemblance





 The beads are about 2.3cm for the largest bead and 1.9 for the smallest. Spherical in shape the beads are inordinately heavy and I am not sure whether the stone is jade, serpentine or jasper. Not all have identical carving or the same amount of corrosion and iridescence . Of the 11 beads only a  pair have spiral like incisions carved around the oval shaped eyes or masks shown below

 

 

spiral shaped incisions carved around the eyes

 

 The rest of the beads on the strand  have unadorned masked eyes, and a carved outline that ends in a mouth. I will call them  Mask Eye Beads !

 

 

Mask eyebeads



 

 The title of this post, Eyes of Infinite Reverie is a phrase I got from a Chinese source writing on Liangzhu eyes/masks motif which had me wondering. Did the writer mean  the eyes are eternally enthralled in thoughts or is it the beholder who becomes eternally bemused by these eyes?  Interesting riddle :-))

 

Here is another profound response from an internet source  about these mask eyes

 

perfect frontal view and symmetry (of these masks) define a fixed visual center which demands the viewer's concentration. The art historian Upensky has contended that such a frontal image embodies an " internal observer" who is "looking out" from an imaginary world. The same logic can be described from the viewers point : in viewing the mask he finds himself in direct confrontation with a "mirror image", which however distorts realty.

Rather cheem, this observation, but still somewhat apt  :-))

I am not saying my beads are the real McCoy yet I am kind of  fascinated by their enigmatic expression.

Like La Belle, these eyes hath thee in thrall !