Jade insect-head pendant pair

玉虫首匕形器

Source term: yu chongshou bixingqi (jade insect-head bi-shaped object)

玉虫首匕形器 (yù chóngshǒu bǐxíngqì): “jade insect-head bi-shaped object,” Zhang Pengfei's name for the type, after its insect-like head.

The two jade pieces now held at Chaoyang Museum have the same head, neck, and leaf-body grammar as the Hamin Mangha forms, but are more formally finished: polished pale green stone, lifted brows or shallow grooves at the head, and a precise perforation through the narrowing below it. They reached the museum after a 2015 anti-looting seizure.

亚腰部鼓凸有一对钻孔。

The bulging waist is drilled through from the two sides.

Zhang Pengfei, China Cultural Relics News, 23 April 2024, p. 6.

Particulars

Object

Two complete opaque green-jade objects confiscated in a 2015 anti-looting case. The first is 10.3 cm long and 0.62–0.75 cm thick, with a shallow U-shaped section and a waist perforation c. 0.34 cm; the second is 9 cm long and 0.72–0.83 cm thick, with a c. 0.43 cm waist perforation. Both have a small head-like upper end, narrowed neck, and leaf-shaped lower body.

Function

Published as insect-form pendants, drilled to be strung and worn.