jade, nephrite, China, Xinjiang, Khotan, gems

Sinkankas: Compiled by imperial order in 1176, this work has been condemned as a false book. In spite of that, “the significance … lies in its content on gem-mounted vessels, and it is very useful for the study of such vessels.” G.M. Born, 18; Yang 906. Born: Ku yü t’u p’u (Illustrated Descriptions of Ancient Jades) is sometimes referred to as the Song Catalogue. It is reportedly based on the collection of Gaozong (r. 1127–1162 CE), the first emperor of the Southern Song dynasty, and was planned under the Board of Rites supervised by the sycophant Long Dayuan, President of the Board of Rites, who wrote the preface in 1176. Illustrations were provided in the same year by Ma Yuan, Xia Gui, Liu Songnian, and Li Tang. Stephen W. Bushell, the translator, lists the table of contents as follows: state treasurer’s insignia of rank, sacrificial symbols, imperial seals, Daoist amulets, talismans, charms, official costume pendants, ink palettes, brush handles and receptacles, wine ewers, libation cups, incense censers, musical instruments, and furniture in the form of jade pillows, screens, and pictures. The work was alleged to have remained in manuscript form for 600 years until its publication in 1779. It was originally written at the order of Xiaozong of the Song dynasty. Much controversy surrounds the work. After the original manuscript was lost, a commission of eighteen experts had to render the entire catalogue into eighteenth-century script. During the reign of the Qianlong emperor, a second preface was written by Jiang Chun, dated 1779. Long Dayuan’s preface was translated for the Bishop Collection catalogue, Investigations and Studies in Jade. Berthold Laufer, who was skeptical about the authenticity of the work, believed that many of the inscriptions in the catalogue were invented, but cautiously ascribed importance to it. Pope-Hennessy was slow to assign any significance to the work, considering the possibility that it might indeed be a forgery. S. Howard Hansford branded the work an impudent fraud, as did the commission that founded the imperial library for the Qianlong emperor. An earlier edition of Ku yü t’u p’u (1712) was unknown to Bushell, who devoted six pages to the 1779 edition.