A pale celadon jade three-arc disc, bi, Neolithic period - early Shang dynasty | 新石器時代至商早期 青玉聯璜玉璧

Ku Ngar Antique Limited, Hong Kong, January 1995

古雅閣，香港，1995年1月

In his commentary to The Rites of Zhou, the Han-dynasty scholar Zheng Xuan noted that the term huang was used to call a half of a bi disc. However, the huang pendants discovered in the Neolithic and later sites were mostly found in the set of three. The majority of these excavated huang pendant sets are either carved out of one piece of jade material, or divided from a cracked bi disc and reconnected by the drilled holes. This presentation of a jade bi disc with three huang pendants is especially common in the Qijia Culture found in the northwest region. Compare a few sets of three huang pendants published in Gu Fang, The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China, Beijing, 2005, vol. 15, pp. 23, 24,138, and 139. 

See two further comparable examples in the British Museum, one dated to the Neolithic - Shang period, the other from the Shang - Western Zhou dynasty, illustrated in Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, p. 159, fig. 1, and p. 158, pl. 7:9. 

The production of such set of three huang pendants forming a bi disc continued throughout the Shang dynasty. A set unearthed from the tomb of Fu Hao forms a yuan disc with a bigger central aperture is illustrated in Tomb of Lady Hao at Yinxu in Anyang, Beijing, 1980, pl. 96, fig. 2.

青玉質，三璜聯為一璧，璜兩端穿孔，打磨光素。

《周禮》中鄭玄標註說「半璧曰璜」，即雙璜聯璧。新石器時期以來考古所見多為三璜，且多為同料所製，又或是完整一璧裂後，鑽孔重新連綴而成，西北地區齊家文化尤為廣見。可參考數件齊家文化三聯璧，見古方，《中國出土玉器全集》，北京，2005年，卷15，頁23、24、138及139。

大英博物館藏有兩件聯璜璧，可資參考，一件為新石器時期或商，為一料三剖，一件為商至西周，見Jessica Rawson著，《Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing》，倫敦，1995，頁159，圖1，及頁158，圖版7:9。此類三聯璧延續整個商代，參考婦好墓出土一件，孔徑略大已近瑗，見《殷墟婦好墓》，北京，1980年，圖版96，圖2。