Myths of China and Japan / with illustrations in colour & monochrome after paintings and photographs

Chapter 15: CHAPTER XIII The Symbolism of Jade

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About This Book

The volume collects and retells traditional myths and legends from Chinese and Japanese traditions while providing interpretive commentary. It surveys creation accounts, deities, supernatural beings, and symbolic motifs such as jade and funerary ritual, and considers how art and material culture reflect religious ideas. The author relates mythic themes to archaeological evidence and comparative diffusion, highlights scholarly problems with later textual compilations, and explains how ritual practice and symbolism evolved. Illustrated examples accompany the text to show visual forms of mythic subjects and their role in social and artistic life.

[Contents]

CHAPTER XIII

The Symbolism of Jade

Jade in Early Times—Used to Reanimate and Preserve the Dead—Jade as a Night-shining Jewel—Connection with the Pearl, Coral, Mandrake, Moon, Dragon, Fish, &c.—Jade Beliefs in Japan—Jade Amulets—The Chinese Cicada Amulet and Egyptian Search—Butterfly, Frog, and Bird Amulets—Jade and the Mother-goddess—The Chinese Universe—Great Bear and “World Mill”—Babylonian Astronomy in China—Star Deities—The Fung-shui Doctrine—Jade Symbols of Deities—Tigress as a Mother-goddess—Links with the West—The Two Souls in China and Egypt—Jade as an Elixir—Jade and Herbs—Jade and Babylonian Nig-gil-ma—Jade and Rhinoceros Horn—Jade Beliefs in Prehistoric Europe—Jade and Colour Symbolism—Jade contains Heat and Moisture—Jade as “The Jewel that Grants all Desires”.