Busacca Gallery

A wonderful large hand-carved stone white Jade Marble 'Bi'-disc. Original neolithic jades from there period are handmade and hand manipulated and hand polished using primitive tools: bamboo, stone, water and stone dust. As laboriously crafted objects, they testify to the concentration of power and resources in the hands of a small elite. Later traditions associate the bi with heaven and the cong with the earth. Bi disks are consistently found with heaven and earth-like imagery, suggesting that the disk's circular shape also bears symbolic significance. The original function and significance of the bi are unknown, as the Neolithic cultures have left no written history. From these earliest times, they were buried with the dead, like a sky symbol, accompanying the dead into the afterworld or "sky", with the cong which connected the body with the earth. They were placed ceremonially on the body in the grave of persons of high social status. Bi are sometimes found near the stomach and chest in Neolithic burials. The notion of a covering sky (gaitian) that revolves around a central axis, the cycle of the Ten Suns, and the use of an early form of the carpenter's square. These objects were handled by shamans who were the religious leaders of Liangzhu society and the transmitters of cosmological knowledge. Today jade bi is emblematic of power, status and privileged classes and offer more complex varied meanings. Flat jade discs with a round central hole “bi” are among the earliest surviving artifacts of China and must be considered among great ancient art forms- masterpieces of the Neolithic period. Nephrite jade from which discs were fashioned is a prime hard and strong stone, arduous to work by hand using Primitive stone tools and abrasives. It’s no wonder then that jade discs bi represent remarkable craftsmanship. While all theories presented to date are speculative, we can forward one Based upon the warring states text Zhou Li that bi is thought to represent symbols of heaven and was used in ancient rituals together with square tubes cong symbolizing the earth. To worship heaven with a bi explains their importance and use. Bi also symbolize the status of high social rank and sheds light on why many carved jades have been found in Zhou royal tombs. They are prominently found in varied qualities, quantities, and sizes. Their ritual prominence stretches from the most ancient of Chinese history- Hongshan/Liangzhou/Longshan (4700-2190 BCE) Qi Jia cultures and on to the Zhou dynasty (3000-250 BCE) onwards.

For thousands of years 'Bi'-discs are of great importance in Chinese culture. They were used in mystic ceremonies, handled only by religious leaders as a symbol of heaven. Jade, like bi disks, has been used throughout Chinese history to indicate an individual of moral quality, and has also served as an important symbol of rank. They were used in worship and ceremony – as ceremonial items they symbolised the ranks of emperor, king, duke, marquis, viscount, and baron with four different Guis and two different bi disks.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi_(jade)

The bi is a type of circular ancient Chinese jade artifact. The earliest bi were produced in the Neolithic period, particularly by the Liangzhu culture (3400–2250 BCE). Later examples date mainly from the Shang, Zhou and Han dynasties. They were also made in glass. A bi is a flat jade disc with a circular hole in the centre. Neolithic bi are undecorated, while those of later periods of China, like the Zhou dynasty, bear increasingly ornate surface carving (particularly in a hexagonal pattern) whose motifs represented deities associated with the sky (four directions) as well as standing for qualities and powers the wearer wanted to invoke or embody.