Taxonomy of meanings for 璧:　　

Additional information about 璧

說文解字:

Criteria
• RING
  

  1. Huán 環 refers to the jade ring; according to SHUOWEN, radius of the hole in its centre is the same as the breadth of the ring. From Western Zhou to Han times, it was used mainly like a pendant hanged from the belt downward. It was very precious artefact, and could be given as a gift. Later, the term also refers to the circular adornments made of any material; from the Han, there is textual evidence for golden or silver huán 環, and from the same period are known finds of metal fingerrings.

  2. Bì 璧 refers to the jade ring which is similar to huán 環, but its breadth is according to SHUOWEN greater than the radius of its central hole. It was used mainly like a pendant in the same way like huán 環. It was also very precious artefact and could be given like a gift. Moreover, and other jade pendants expressed status of its holder in the official hierarchy; but it is highly doubtful whether there was such strict system of sumptuary rules regulating the use of jades as is described in LIJI (according to this text, to each rank in the hierarchy belonged special type of jade). According to LIJI, bì 璧 was also one of the six ritual jades, and was used to worship Heaven; but this is probably only late Warring States or Han speculation. In the end, it should be noted that the circle jade objects with a hole in their centre the were widely used over a huge territory of China already since the 4the and 3rd millenium B.C. till the Han period. Their functions and meanings obviously changed in the course of time, and it is very problematic to divide them into the categories defined mainly in the late Eastern Zhou and Han texts, and interpreted the functions and the meaning of the artefacts on the basis of these texts.

  3. Yuàn 瑗 is another kind of a circular jade pendant used in the same way like preceding two. According to SHUOWEN, its breadth should be smaller than the radius of the central hole.

  4. Jué 玦 refers to the unclosed jade ring. Artefacts of this type are known already since the Neolithic and their finds cover large territory. These objects could be used in different ways (in many areas probably like earrings, but they were used mainly like pendants cloth pendants by aristocrats in Central China from the Western Zhou till Han times.

  5. Chuàn 釧 refers to the armring made usually of metal. It was known already in Han times; there are metal armrings known already from the Han period.

  6. Zhuó 鐲 refers to the armband made usually of metal. It was known already in Han times.

  [7. Tiàn (written like 玉 and 真 ) refers to the jade ear ornament, or more precisely, to the piece of jade which was worn by the aristocrats of the Zhou period in the level of ears hanged down on the string from the hat. [WANG 1993: 261; HUANG 1995: 708 - 709; XIANG 1997: 643; ill.: probably some found in the graves besides the head of the deceased were used in this way: HUANG 1995: 777]

  8. Ěr 珥 refers to the ear ornament which was worn by women in Han times. It was hanged down either from the hairpin till the level of the ear, or from dāng 璫 fixed in the ear (see below). [HUANG 1995: 709 - 710; ZGYI 1996: 412; ill.: ZGYI 1996: pp. 411; SUN 1991: pp. 61-13]

  9. Dāng 璫 refers to the earring worn by women since Han times. It was made of jade, glass, or fayence, and was fixed in the earlobe. [WANG 1993: 262; HUANG 1995: 709 - 710; ZGYI 1996: 411 - 412; SUN 1991: 247; ill.: SUN 1991: 61-9 - 61-12, 61-26] [JM]

• JADE
  

  XUN 27:8, Knoblock 3:209

  聘人以珪， Men on official visits use the gu• (which is square at the bottom and round on top),

  問士以璧， freemen asking advice use the b“ (ring-jade);

  召人以瑗， someone summoning other will use the yuàn;

  絕人以玦， someone breaking off relations with someone will use the jué;

  反絕以環。 someone who is making good again broken-off relations will use the huán.