A FINE AND RARE CHINESE WHITE JADE DISC

A FINE AND RARE CHINESE WHITE JADE DISC
18TH CENTURY

The circular disc delicately pierced to the centre with intertwined petals forming an elegant flowerhead, carved to one side in low relief with The Eight Trigrams, Bagua, with the names of The Ten Heavenly Stems, Tiangan, in seal script beneath a continuous band of ruyi-heads to the reverse, the stone of an even white tone, 9.2cm.

Provenance: formerly a western private collection; and then the Lawrence Collection of jades and hardstone carvings, purchased from Roger Keverne Limited on 23rd October 2007. A copy of the invoice is available.

Published: R Keverne, Winter Exhibition 2007, pp.124-125, no.111.

The Eight Trigrams consist of broken and solid lines, which represent yin and yang respectively. They were probably first used by ancient diviners and later developed into a system of philosophy. Each Trigram represents a natural force: heaven, marsh, fire, thunder, wind, water, mountain and earth. They also symbolise movement, emotions and human relationships and have been used in China to predict patterns and cycles in nature and humanity. From the Eight Trigrams developed sixty-four hexagrams that are the foundation of one of the most important Chinese classics, the Yijing or The Book of Changes. Each of the Ten Heavenly Stems is associated with one of the Five Elements (wood, fire, earth, metal and water) and they combine with the Twelve Earthly Branches to form the sexagenary cycle, which is the traditional Chinese calendar based on sixty-day and sixty-year cycles.

Cf. K R Tsiang, Radiance and Virtue: The R Norris Shreve Collection of Chinese Jade and Other Oriental Works of Art, p.19, pl.4 for a disc with spiral decoration made from a material of similarly high quality; Schätze Chinas aus Museen der DDR, p.244, no.139 for a related pendant; see also another closely related example with same motifs in the National Palace Museum, Taipei.

十八世紀 白玉雕天干八卦璧

來源：勞倫斯珍藏玉石，2007年10月23日Roger Keverne古董店（附發票複印件）。

出版：R Keverne, Winter Exhibition 2007, 頁.124-125, 編號.111。