Niudaokou jade blade at the southern limit

玉匕

Source term: 玉匕; 玉匕形器; 玉匕形饰; 匕形玉坠; 玉玦 combination

玉匕 (yù bǐ): 'jade bi' — the bi-shaped (spoon-shaped) blade

At Niudaokou in Tianjin's Baodi district, the bi-shaped jade blade reached its documented southern limit: a strip of jade 5.7 centimetres long, 1.4 wide and half a centimetre thick, pierced at the upper end, found with a slit jade jue earring — the same pairing of blade and earring that defines the Xinglongwa jade kit a thousand kilometres north. Guo Dashun's dispersal studies make the site the southernmost node on the route by which the West Liao jade tradition moved down toward the Bohai coast. Exhibited by the Tianjin Museum in 2023 and held by the Baodi District Cultural Center, it shows the blade-plus-jue package travelling as a package — form and association together.

Particulars

Object

A small jade bi-shaped blade, 5.7 × 1.4 × 0.5 cm, pierced by a single hole at its upper end.

Function

Published as a Neolithic jade bi-shaped ornament (玉匕形饰), found with a jue earring — the Xinglongwa pairing at its southernmost documented point, fixing the southern range of the Chinese blade series.