As has been shown, the Great Mother created jade for the benefit of mankind, and “the spirit of jade is like a beautiful woman”.81 Jade was also “the essence of the purity of the male principle”.82

Apparently the god who was husband and son of the Great Mother was connected with jade. The Mother was the life-giver, and the son, as Osiris, was “the imperishable principle of life wherever found”.83 If men died, the seed of life in the body was preserved by jade amulets; the plants might shed their leaves, but the life of the plants was perpetuated by the spirit of jade. “In the second month”, says The Illustrated Mirror of Jade, “the plants in the mountains receive a brighter lustre. When their leaves fall, they change into jade.”84 The mountain plants in question appear to be the curative herbs that contained, like jade, the elixir of life, and the chief of these plants was the ginseng (mandrake), an avatar of the Great Mother. The plant, or ground jade, or food or moisture from the jade vessel renewed youth and prolonged life. All the elixirs were concentrated in jade; the vital principle in human beings and plants was derived from and preserved by jade.

It is of special interest to find that the Chinese Nu Kwa who caused the flood to retreat was the creator of the jade which protected mankind and ensured longevity by preserving the seed or shen of life, being impregnated with Yang, the male principle. In Babylonia, the seed of [245]mankind was preserved during the flood by the nig-gil-ma.

In the Sumerian version of the Creation legend, the three great gods Anu, Enlil, and Enki, assisted by the Great Mother goddess Ninkharasagga, first created mankind, then the nig-gil-ma, and lastly the four-legged animals of the field. The mysterious nig-gil-ma is referred to in the story of the Deluge as “Preserver of the seed of mankind”, while the ship or ark is “Preserver of Life”, literally “She that preserves life”. A later magical text refers to the creation after that of mankind and animals of “two small creatures, one white and one black”. Man and animals were saved from the flood and the nig-gil-ma played its or their part “in ensuring their survival”.

Leonard W. King, who has gathered together the surviving evidence regarding the mysterious nig-gil-ma85 points out that the name is sometimes preceded by “the determinative for ‘pot’, ‘jar’, or ‘bowl’ ”, and is identical with the Semitic word mashkhalu. In the Tell-el-Amarna letters there are references to a mashkhalu of silver and a mashkhalu of stone (a silver vessel and a stone vessel). The nig-gil-ma may be simply a “jar” or “bowl”. “But”, says Mr. L. King, “the accompanying references to the ground, to its production from the ground, and to its springing up … suggest rather some kind of plant; and this, from its employment in magical rites, may also have given its name to a bowl or vessel which held it. A very similar plant was that found and lost by Gilgamesh, after his sojourn with Ut-napishtim86; it too had potent magical power, and bore a title descriptive of its peculiar virtue of transforming old age to youth.” The nig-gil-ma may [246]therefore be a plant, a ship, a stone bowl or jar, or a vessel of silver (the moon metal). If we regard it as a symbol or avatar of the mother-goddess it was any of these things and all of these things—the Mother Pot, the inexhaustible womb of Nature, the Plant of Life containing “soul substance”, the red clay, the moon-silver, or, as in China, the jade of which the sacred vessel was made. The Great Mother’s herb-avatar was the ginseng (mandrake), as in the Egyptian Deluge story it was the red earth didi from Elephantine placed in the beer prepared for the slaughtering goddess Hathor-Sekhet as a surrogate of blood and a soporific drink; the mixture was “the giver of life”, the red aqua vitae, like the red wine and the juice of red berries in different areas.87 The mandrake was the didi of southern Europe and of China. Dr. Rendel Harris shows that the early Greek magicians and doctors referred to the male mandrake, which was white, and the female mandrake, which was black. The black mandrake was personified as the Black Aphrodite.88

The Babylonian reference in a magical text to the nig-gil-ma as “two small creatures, one white and one black” is therefore highly significant. Apparently, like jade, the nig-gil-ma symbolized “the male principle”, and “the spirit” of “a beautiful woman”. Thus mandrake (ginseng), the Plant of Life, red earth, jade, the pearl and the pot or jar or bowl, and the Deluge ship, and the ship of the sun-god, were forms, avatars, or manifestations of the Great Mother who preserved the seed of mankind and the elixir of life—in the Pot it grew the Plant of Life, and from it could be drunk the dew of life, the water of life, plant and water being impregnated with the “spirit” of jade. Jade-lore is of highly complex character [247]because, as has been indicated, the early instructors of the Chinese attached to the mineral the Egypto-Babylonian doctrines regarding the Great Mother and her shells, pearls, precious stones, gold, silver and copper, herbs, trees, cereals, red earth, &c. The Babylonian evidence regarding the nig-gil-ma as a herb, and as a silver or stone jar, pot, or cup, in which was preserved the seed of mankind (“soul substance”) may explain why in the Chinese Deluge myth there is no ark or ship. The goddess provided jade instead of a boat and she created dragons to control the rain-supply, so that the world might not again suffer from the effects of a flood.

The virtues of jade were shared to a certain degree by rhinoceros horn, which, as we have seen, was reputed to shine by night.

Laufer has gathered together sufficient evidence to prove that the rhinoceros was one of the wild animals known in ancient China.89 A hero of the Chou Dynasty, who subdued rebels and established peace throughout the Empire, “drove away also the tigers, leopards, rhinoceroses and elephants—and all the people were greatly delighted”.90 A native writer says: “To travel by water and not avoid sea-serpents and dragons—this is the courage of a fisherman. To travel by land and not avoid the rhinoceros and the tiger—this is the courage of hunters.” In ancient times certain of the lords attending on the emperor had a tiger symbol on each chariot wheel, while other lords had on their wheels crouching rhinoceroses.91 Laufer expresses the view that “the strong desire prevailing in the epoch of the Chou for the horn of the animal (rhinoceros) which was carved into ornamental cups, and for its valuable skin, [248]which was worked up into armour, had … contributed to its final destruction.”92 The rhinoceros-horn cups were used, like jade cups, chiefly for religious purposes. Rice-wine was drunk from them when vows were made, and from them were poured libations to ancestors. The animal’s skin was used not only for armour, because of its toughness and durability, but because the rhinoceros was a longevity animal, and a form of the god of longevity (shou-sing). It was used, too, for the coffin of the “Son of Heaven” (the Emperor). “The innermost coffin was formed by hide of water buffalo and rhinoceros.” This case was enclosed in white poplar timber and the two outer cases were of catalpa wood.93 The jade coffin was similarly a protecting life-giver.

As there were black and white nig-gil-ma, and black and white deities, so were there black and white rhinoceroses and black and white elephants. Gautama Buddha entered his mother’s right side “in the form of a superb white elephant”.94

The water-rhinoceros had “pearl-like armour” (a significant comparison when it is remembered that pearl-lore and jade-lore are so similar), but not the mountain rhinoceros. It was the horn of the male animal that had special virtues. The markings on it included a red line, which was a result of his habit of gazing at the moon; the spots were stars. As the animal was connected with the “material sky”, the horn was impregnated with the Yang principle. A horn that “communicated with the sky” was of the “first quality”. Laufer quotes the statement: “If the horn of the rhinoceros ‘communicating with the sky’ emits light, so that it can be seen by night, [249]it is called ‘horn shining at night’ (ye ming si): hence it can communicate with the spirits and open a way through the water”. A man who carried in his mouth a piece of rhinoceros horn found, it was alleged, on diving into the sea, that the water gave way so as to allow a space for breathing.95 The pearl-fishers may therefore have used the magic horn, believing that it protected and assisted them.

It is recorded of a horn presented to an emperor of the Tʼang Dynasty that “at night it emitted light so that a space of a hundred paces was illuminated. Manifold silk wrappers laid around it could not hide its luminous power. The emperor ordered it to be cut into slices and worked up into a girdle; and whenever he went out on a hunting expedition, he saved candle light at night.” With the aid of the horn it was possible “to see supernatural monsters in water”.96

There was warm rhinoceros horn and cold rhinoceros horn, as there was warm jade and cold jade. A Chinese work of the eighth century mentions “cold-dispelling rhinoceros horn (pi han si), whose colour is golden.97… During the winter months it spreads warmth which imparts a genial feeling to man.” Another work speaks of “heat-dispelling rhinoceros horn (pi shu si).… During the summer months it can cool off the hot temperature.” Girdles of “wrath-dispelling” horn caused men “to abandon their anger”; hair-pins, combs, &c., were made from “dust dispelling” horn. Rhinoceros horn had, like jade, healing properties. A fourth-century Chinese writer tells that “the horn can neutralize poison because the animal devours all sorts of vegetable poisons with its food”. Chinese drug stores still stock shavings of the horn to [250]cure fever, smallpox, ophthalmia, &c.98 According to S. W. Williams99 “a decoction of the horn shavings is given to women just before parturition and also to frighten children”. A medicine is prepared from rhinoceros skin, too. Laufer states that “the skin, as well as the horn, the blood, and the teeth, were medicinally employed in Cambodja, notably against heart diseases.… In Japan rhinoceros horn is powdered and used as a specific in fever cases of all kind.” Dragon bones were used in like manner in China. It is of importance to note that the rhinoceros horn derived its healing qualities because the animal fed on plants and trees provided with thorns.100 Like the dragon, the rhinoceros had an intimate connection with certain plants; like the ginseng-devouring goat, it carried in its blood the virtue of the plants and herbs it devoured. In Tibet and China the rhinoceros became confused with the stag, antelope, and goat with one horn. It was the prototype of the unicorn. In India and Iran it was confused with the horse. There is in Chinese lore a “spiritual rhinoceros (ling si)” with the body of an ox, the hump of a zebu, cloven feet, the snout of a pig, and a horn in front.101 It may be that in ancient times the lore connected with the hippopotamus was transferred by the searchers for pearls, precious stones, and metals to the Chinese “water-rhinoceros”. Like the composite wonder-beast in the Osirian hall of judgment, which tore the unworthy soul to pieces, the rhinoceros had its place in judicial proceedings in China. In its goat form it solved a difficult case when Kas Yas administered justice by butting the guilty party and sparing the innocent.102 [251]

The importance attached to jade in prehistoric Europe raises an interesting problem. Jade artifacts have been found associated with the Swiss lake-dwellings, and at “Neolithic sites” in Brittany and Ireland, as well as in Malta and Sicily, and other parts of Europe. Schliemann found votive axes of green and white jade (nephrite) in the stratum of the first city of Troy. It was believed at the time that the European jade artifacts had been imported from the borders of China, and Professor Fischer expressed the wish “that before the end of his life the fortune might be allotted to him of finding out what people brought them to Europe”.103 Professor Max Muller believed that the Aryans were the carriers of jade. “If”, he wrote, “the Aryan settlers could carry with them into Europe so ponderous a tool as their language, without chipping a single facet, there is nothing so very surprising in their having carried along and carefully preserved from generation to generation so handy and so valuable an instrument as a scraper or a knife, made of a substance which is Aere perennuis”.104

After a prolonged search, European scientists have located nephrite (jade proper) or jadeite in situ in Silesia, Austria, North Germany, Italy, and among the Alps. “A sort of nephrite workshop was discovered in the vicinity of Maurach (Switzerland), where hatchets chiselled from the mineral and one hundred and fifty-four pieces of cuttings were found.”105

Laufer writes in this connection: “If we consider how many years, and what strenuous efforts it required for European scientists to discover the actual sites of jade in Central Europe, which is geographically so well explored, we may realize that it could not have been quite such an [252]easy task for primitive man to hunt up these hidden places”. Laufer thinks that in undertaking to overcome the difficulties experienced in discovering jade in Europe, early man “must have been prompted by a motive pre-existing and acting in his mind; the impetus of searching for jade he must have received somehow from somewhere.… Nothing”, he says, “could induce me to believe that primitive man of Central Europe incidentally and spontaneously embarked on the laborious task of quarrying and working jade. The psychological motive for this act must be supplied.… From the standpoint of the general development of culture in the Old World there is absolutely no vestige of originality in the prehistoric cultures of Europe which appear as an appendix to Asia.”106

Apparently the “psychological motive” for searching for jade in China and Europe came from the Khotan area in Chinese Turkestan, whence jade was carried to Babylonia during the Sumerian period. It is probable that bronze was first manufactured in the jade-bearing area of Asia, and that the people who carried “the knowledge of bronze-making into Europe”, as Professor Elliot Smith suggests, “also introduced the appreciation of jade”. Laufer comments in this connection: “Originality is certainly the rarest thing in the world, and in the history of mankind the original thoughts are appallingly sparse. There is, in the light of historical facts and experience, no reason to credit the prehistoric and early populations of Europe with any spontaneous ideas relative to jade.” After receiving jade and adopting the beliefs attached to it, they set out to search for it, and found it in Europe.

The polished axe pendants of jade found in Malta were evidently charms. Among the Greeks jade was [253]“the kidney stone”; it cured diseases of the kidneys. The Spaniards brought jade or jadeite from Mexico, and called it “the loin stone” (piedra de hijada). Sir Walter Raleigh introduced it into England, and used the Spanish name from which “jade” is derived.

Red, green, blue, white, grey, and black jade were used, by reason of their colours, for various deities in China, and to indicate the rank of officials. “White jade, considered the most precious, was the privileged ornament of the emperor; jade green like the mountains was reserved for the princes of the first and second ranks; water-blue jade was for the great prefects; the heir apparent had a special kind of jade.”107 Mottled jades—some resembling granite—were likewise favoured for a variety of purposes.

Jade played an important part in Chinese rain-getting ceremonies. Dragon jade symbols, decorated with fish-scales, were placed on the altar as offerings and for the purpose of invoking the rain-controlling “composite wonder beast” and god. Sometimes bronze and silver dragon symbols were used. According to Laufer, “the jade image of the dragon remained restricted to the Han period, and was substituted at later ages by prayers inscribed on jade or metal tablets. A survival of the ancient custom”, he adds, “may be seen in the large paper or papier mâché figures of dragons carried around in the streets by festival processions in times of drought to ensure the benefit of rain.”108 In front of these dragons are carried the red ball, which symbolizes the moon, the source of fertilizing moisture—of dew, of rain, and therefore of the streams and rivers that flow to the sea.

Jade links with pearls in the ocean surrounding the world, in which lies a gigantic oyster that gapes after rain [254]falls, and sends forth the gleaming rainbow. The Greek historian, Isidorus of Charace (c. 300 B.C.), referring to the pearl-fishing in the Persian Gulf, relates a story about the breeding of pearls being influenced by thunder-storms.109 The jade ceremonial object, which roused the dragon, had thus indirectly a share in pearl production. Pearls were, as we have seen, likewise produced by dragons, who spat them out during storms. As certain pearls were supposed to be formed by dew that dropped from the moon, it may be that the Chinese gigantic oyster was, when it gaped to send forth the rainbow, receiving the substance of a gigantic pearl from the celestial regions. The life-prolonging and youth-renewing “Red Cloud herb” came into existence during a thunder- and rain-storm.

As we have seen, jade contains, according to Far Eastern belief, the essence of heat as well as of moisture. It contains, too, the essence of cold—not the cold of winter but the coolness desired in hot weather.110 In the Tu yang tsa pien, a Chinese work of the ninth century, it is recorded that the Emperor of China received from Japan “an engraved gobang board of warm jade, on which the game could be played in winter without getting cold, and that it was most highly prized”. It is told in this connection that “thirty thousand li (leagues) east of Japan is the island of Tsi-mo, and upon this island the Ninghia Terrace, on which terrace is the Gobang Player’s Lake. This lake produces the chess-men which need no carving, and are naturally divided into black and white. They are warm in winter, cool in summer, and known as cool and warm jade. It also produces the catalpa-jade, in structure like the wood of the catalpa tree, which [255]is carved into chess-boards, shining and brilliant as mirrors.”111

Jade is, in short, a “luck stone”: the giver of children, health, immortality, wisdom, power, victory, growth, food, clothing, &c. It is “the jewel that grants all desires” in this world and the next, and is therefore connected with all religious beliefs, while it also plays its part as a symbol in the social organization, being the medium through which the mysterious forces of nature exercise their influence in every sphere of human thought and activity. [256]