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A dark green jade disk with a circle cut out in the middle. There are two small holes at the top.

The dark green jade disk has a circle cut out in the middle and lays flat on a dark grey background. There are two small holes at the top and some pale yellow discoloration at the top and bottom.

Gallery Text

In Neolithic China, nephrite and other beautiful stones were fashioned into nonfunctional ceremonial blades and ritual implements that were buried in the graves of important people. Many of the same types of jades, such as the diskshaped ritual implement known as a bi, were used during subsequent periods as well.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.50.523
Title
Jade 'Bi' Disk
Other Titles
Alternate Title: pi
Classification
Ritual Implements
Work Type
disk
Date
c. 4000 - c. 2000 BCE
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Neolithic period
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/204799

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1740, Early Chinese Art, Arts of Ancient China from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Translucent, variegated light and dark green nephrite with light brown areas at opposite arcs
Dimensions
Diam. 17.6 x Thickness 0.7 cm (6 15/16 x 1/4 in.)
Weight 311 g

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[A. W. Bahr, March 23, 1929] sold; to Grenville L. Winthrop, New York (1929-1943), bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Published Text

Catalogue
Ancient Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University
Authors
Max Loehr and Louisa G. Fitzgerald Huber
Publisher
Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1975)

Catalogue entry no. 9 by Max Loehr:

9 Pi Disk
Disk fashioned from a rather thin slab of translucent, variegated light and dark green stone with light brown areas at opposite arcs. The circumference is strikingly irregular. The disk shows a radial crack, on each side of which are funnel-shaped drill-holes for a strengthening thong. The hole has a nearly circular, imperfectly polished wall. Neolithic or later(?).

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.50.523
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), no. 002, pp. 4-5
  • Max Loehr and Louisa G. Fitzgerald Huber, Ancient Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, Fogg Art Museum, 1975)., cat. no. 9, p. 39
  • Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), pp. 88-89, cat. 6A

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 1740 Early China I, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu