What was jade palm used for in ancient times?
The jade cong is a jade vessel with a round inside and a square tube outside. It is a ritual vessel used by ancient people to worship gods, dating back about 5100 years. In ancient China, there was a ritual system of offering sacrifices to heaven with jade bis and offering sacrifices to earth with jade congs. Jade Cong, Jade Bi, Jade Gui, Jade Zhang, Jade Huang and Jade Hu are called the Six Weapons. It is one of the important ritual vessels in ancient my country. According to "Zhou Rites", the jade cong is used to worship the heaven and the yellow cong is used to worship the earth. The jade cong has become a ritual vessel for the ruling class to worship the vast earth, and it is also a magic weapon for wizards to communicate with the gods. That is to say, the cong is used to worship the earth gods in ceremonial activities. Most scholars believe that the cong is a magical instrument that communicates between heaven and earth. The large inner circle at the top symbolizes heaven, and the small and outer circle at the bottom symbolizes earth. The shape of the jade cong is round (hole) on the inside and square on the outside, which seems to confirm the principle that the round jade resembles the sky and the square cong resembles the earth.
When jade congs are unearthed from tombs, they have the following characteristics: the tombs are of high standard, large scale, and rich in burial objects; the owners of the tombs are mostly men; the congs are found with the walls, and some tombs contain the phenomenon of sacrificial victims. . Various phenomena indicate that the jade cong is closely related to primitive religion and sacrificial rituals. Its owner must be a tribal chief, high priest, wizard or upper-level figure. It can be seen from the excavation site that the more prominent the tomb owner is, the more cong and bi will be among the burial objects. The more graves there are, the more they appear to show everything that happened during the lifetime. Being buried with them just illustrates the original identity of the tomb owner and the extent to which he enjoyed wealth and power among various tribes. It also represents a burial system during the Liangzhu Culture period.
Extended information:
There were not many jade congs in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Judging from the actual objects unearthed, the shapes of congs in this period were generally short, plain and without lines. The jade cong is cut regularly, with a larger central hole, and the body is slightly thinner than that of the Neolithic. Two decorated jade congs were unearthed from Fuhao's tomb in Yinxu. One of them is decorated with a set of string patterns on the top and bottom, with convex edges on the four corners and vertical string patterns on the side. This shape is rare. The shape of jade congs during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were similar to those of the Western Zhou Dynasty, with smaller shapes. Some jade congs during the Warring States Period were engraved with detailed animal face patterns, hooked cloud patterns and other patterns.
The shape of ancient coins inherited the concept of the jade cong, a ritual instrument, with round square holes. It contains the ancient Chinese cosmology and philosophical thoughts of a round sky and a square earth, and is a concrete embodiment of the ancient Yin-Yang Bagua theory. This philosophical idea of "circle on the outside and square on the inside" and "harmony between man and nature" is an important element of ancient Chinese culture. It has a profound influence on the principles and behavioral norms of ancient Chinese people, as well as ancient Chinese architectural structures and Feng Shui customs. Influence.
Baidu Encyclopedia——Jade Cong