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- The numerous independent states and their rivalries may have served as stimuli for this development. With the disappearance of the royal house of Zhou, a power�ful struggle for the supremacy of China developed between the two major states of Chu and Qin. In the final conflict between the two giants, the state of Qin, situ�ated in west China, was the eventual victor and unifier of China in 221 B.C.
Despite the turbulent times, the late Zhou is considered a classical age, espe�cially in the fields of philosophy, literature and art. It also proved to be a golden age for jade carving. There had been little difference between the jades of the Shang and Western Zhou, but the contrast between the jades of the Western Zhou and the late Eastern Zhou is obvious. Exquisitely embellished examples using flawless jade material were produced, showing unprecedented artistic creativity and im�peccable workmanship. The jade surfaces are literally teeming with elaborate and complex decorations setting new standards in beauty. The widespread use of iron tools, the use of finer abrasives, and the possible introduction of implements with corundum or diamond tips to carve jade may explain why the late Eastern Zhou artists were able to undertake more ambitious carvings with intricate and sophisticated decorations, smoother surfaces and higher polish. A number of jade objects made up of decorative openwork and linking pieces from single blocks of jade show the marvellous flowering of the designer�s art.
Another factor which might be responsible for the artistic inventiveness of this period was that instead of jade being reserved mainly for ceremonial worship or for mortuary use, it became increasingly used for personal items of luxury for the living. Large quantities of excellent and elaborate jade pieces for secular usage have been excavated in recent years. These include such things as sword fittings hairpins, pendants, belt hooks, belt rings, etc.
Because of the numerous independent states, regional stylistic variations be�came quite pronounced in the late Zhou. Generally speaking, the main designs on jades of this time started with lively surface decorations, which include dragon heads in profile and various types of raised scrolls, but this was followed by a grad�ual disappearance of the dragon head motif'9 and the emergence of a surface pattern formed by small plastic curls, neatly and evenly arranged in rows that con�form to a regular grid.20 Openwork dragons with various incised designs also occur.
The traditional attributions of the names and the functions to the various types of ancient jade objects were based largely on the book, Zhouli (Rituals of Zhou), one of the Thirteen Confucian Classics. This book, compiled in the fourth or third century B.C., purported to describe the correct ceremonial procedures of the Western Zhou period several centuries earlier. It made its appearance at a time of uncertainty, and was making a desperate effort to re-establish law and order through the noble tradition of state ritual. However, the was one of the books destroyed by order of the First Emperor of the Qin dynasty during the �Burning of the Books incident in 213 B.C. After the fall of the Qin, it was recomposed relying on information passed down from generation to generation, much of which was idealized hearsay or even misinformation. Therefore, the new version of th with its later Han dynasty commentaries, which allotted names and functions to the ancient ceremonial jades is highly unreliable and must be treated with great seep- ticism. H
Considerable use of the Zhouli was made by pioneers in the study of Chinese jade, such as Wu Dacheng, the author of Guyu Tukao (1899), and Berthold L�ufer, the author of Jade: A Study in Chinese Archaeology and Religion (1912). However, modern art historians are much less inclined to accept it as an accurate source of information.21
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