The Allure of Jade: T-sectioned Bangles and Yazhang in Ancient China and Mainland Southeast Asia (ca.2300-500 BC)

Abstract

This thesis aims to explore the inter-regional exchange networks that moved jade prestige goods within China, and between China and Mainland Southeast Asia, between 2300 and 500 BC, focusing predominantly on T-sectioned bangles and yazhang.

Available data suggest that T-sectioned bangles in China and mainland Southeast Asia (especially in Vietnam) followed their own local trajectories of development within broad inter-regional exchange networks. However, the T-sectioned bangles were never dominant as prestige goods in circulation between China and mainland Southeast Asia. On the other hand, yazhang were apparently the most valuable prestige items to circulate within the elite exchange network that linked northern Vietnam and the Sichuan Basin between 1500 and 1300 BC.

Regional contacts became more intensive in the Late Shang world within China (ca. 1300-1000 BC). Five possible exchange mechanisms involving T-sectioned bangles have been proposed for this period, including (a) elite control of distribution within Yinxu; (b) movement with migrants or refugees from Henan to Hunan; (c) circulation as gifts or commodities among elites in Henan and Jiangxi; (d) long-distance exchange between Hunan and the Sichuan Basin, and between the Sichuan Basin and Lingnan; and (e) movement of itinerant craftsmen.

This research further attempts to appreciate the technical and artistic choices involved in producing T-sectioned bangles through experimental archaeology. It seeks to develop an in-depth understanding of how T-sectioned bangles, and yazhang, were perceived and symbolized by their makers and eventual users. Variations in their production and usage might reflect different regional interaction patterns, involving various social and cultural contexts.