Detail View: National Palace English: An archaistic jade cong

Work ID: 
M01C00117
Title: 
An archaistic jade cong
Creation Date: 
Ming Dynasty
Start Year Date: 
A.D.1368
End Year Date: 
A.D.1644
Dynasty: 
45 Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1368~1644)
Creation Place: 
China
Measurements: 
Height: 18.8 cm; Width (top): 9.6 cm; Width (bottom): 9.3~9.5 cm; Diameter: 8.1~8.3 cm
Material: 
Jade
Form: 
Cong (jade cong)
Type: 
Jades and Other Precious Stones
Repository: 
The National Palace Museum, Taipei
Description: 
The surface shows a various tonality of brown, though it retains the original greenish white color of jade in some parts. It is a squared pillar in form with a wider top tapering to the bottom. The middle hole is very large, and there are four small holes on the four sides in the bottom. From the design and the large dimension of the jade, it was originally made between the late Neolithic period to the Xia Dynasty in the western region.Interestingly, this cong became a treasure of the Qianlong emperor in the Qing Dynasty. This antique-enthusiast did not know that it was once an important ritual vessel used in an ancestral temple, and that the surface decoration was added much later. He used it as a flower vase, and commissioned a magnificent zitan wood stand and a copper core to accompany the cong. The copper core is decorated with famille rose on one end, and it is essentially a tube that holds water and fits inside the hollow cong. The emperor also composed a poem entitled "Jade bottle of the Han Dynasty," and ordered artisans to inscribe it in the middle trench of the four sides of the cong.
ImageV ID: 
M01C00117AS004
Rights: 
Lee & Lee Communications