This is an authentic Chinese old jade bi disc from Northwestern China from the Qing dynasty or older. It comes from our private collection.

It includes our custom display stand plus a “Certificate of Authenticity”.

This is a lovely example and could also make an unusual pendant.

Dimensions: 3.25 inches tall on stand
jade bi only 2.12 inches diameter

This jade is handmade and hand abraded and hand polished using tools including bamboo, stone, water and stone dust.

This jade bi displays a beautiful calcified mineralization on its surface sign of good age.

Provenance:
Our private collection and accompanied by our Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.

We have been dealing in authentic Japanese, Chinese, European, and Asian Fine art, antiquities, garden ornaments, lanterns and water basins for 25 years. Our president personally travels to Japan, Europe and China each year to meet his network partners who assist him in finding best examples. He personally inspects each antique work of art to ensure its old age, authenticity and quality condition.

Jade Bi Origins and Ancient History:

The oldest flat jade discs with a round central hole were among the earliest surviving artifacts of China and considered great ancient art forms- masterpieces of ancient tmes past. Nephrite jade from which discs were fashioned is a prime hard and strong stone, arduous to work by hand using primitive stone tools and abrasives. While all theories presented to date are speculative, we can forward one based upon the warring states text Zhou Li that jade bi are thought to represent symbols of heaven and were used in ancient rituals together with square tubes cong symbolizing the earth. To worship heaven with a bi explains their importance and use. Bi also symbolize status of high social rank and sheds light on why many carved jades have been found in Zhou royal tombs. They were prominently found in varied qualities, quantities and sizes. Their ritual prominence stretches from the most ancient of Chinese history- Hongshan/Liangzhou/Longshan (4700-2190 BCE) Qi Jia cultures and on to the Zhou dynasty (3000-250 BCE) onwards.

For more reading pleasure, please refer to these excellent publications: Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, exhibition catalogue The British Museum, London, 1995, pp 13ff, and Section 4. And also Radiant Stones Archaic Chinese Jades, the Myrna and Samurai Myers collection, 2000 curated by Filippo Salviati, PhD, entry 14, Bi Disc.