An Extraordinary Imperial Green Jadeite Archer’s Ring with a White Jade Stand
In ancient times, rings of this type were called “she” in Chinese. They were worn on the right thumb to protect it from the bow string when the archer discharged the arrow.
Manchus, as a martial nation, wear archer’s ring to protect their fingers when they draw bows and shoot arrows on the battlefield. The earliest archer’s ring is made from the bones of deer. Wearing it on the right thumb can prevent fast arrows from scratching the fingers when shooting arrows.
When there was no fighting later, there were archer’s rings made of precious materials such as jade, gold and silver to symbolize power and status, and it also reflected the spirit of Manchu nobility. In the later period, the archer’s ring became an ornament only. The emperor sometimes used it to reward the soldiers but official ministers didn’t wear it.
Jadeite has become popular since the middle of the Qing Dynasty. Because Emperor Qianlong used military forces on ancient Burma, he made it surrender to the Qing Dynasty and became a foreign vassal. Since then, jadeite has entered China in large quantities. This can be verified by historical documents and unearthed cultural relics. There were many types of jade in the Qing Dynasty, the most representative of which is the jadeite archer’s ring. Some researchers have verified that in the seventeenth year of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Qianlong saw a tribute jadeite archer’s ring and was immediately attracted by its fine texture and exquisite craftsmanship, so he wrote a poem “Yong Yu She” in Chinese for it. This poem not only explains the origin and purpose of the archer’s ring very clearly, but also explains the instruction for use of the ancient jadeite archer’s ring. On this basis, he combined the Confucian relationship between jade and benevolence, righteousness, rituals, faith, and virtue to personify the jadeite archer’s ring, so that the whole poem was full of romanticism while promoting the feudal ritual system. This is also the first poem about jadeite archer’s ring written by Qianlong. Since then, he wrote as many as fifty such poems. It is said that from that time on, the best gift for doing business in the palace was a set of jadeite archer’s rings. Later, jadeite gradually became a symbol of identity and fashion amongst the imperial family and nobles. In ancient times, only the emperor could wear the imperial green jadeite archer’s ring. Nowadays, no archer’s ring of similar or better quality has been ever found or exhibited, not even in the Palace Museum in Beijing.
ILIA was very honored to purchase this imperial green jadeite archer’s ring from a senior jadeite collector. It is understood that this archer’s ring has been handed down since the Republic of China. This jadeite archer’s ring can also be worn separately or decorated with a white jade stand, and that is definitely a collector’s treasure.
During the period of the Republic of China, the mining technology of Burmese jadeite mines has been progressively advanced compared with that of the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, the high-quality jadeite in the early period of the Republic of China has reached the color of pure green and fine texture.
This old mine jadeite archer’s ring of intense imperial green colour, fine texture and high translucency is extremely rare and important. Jadeite measuring approximately 29 x 30 x 4 mm.
上圖為 平定西域紫光閣次五十功臣像，看到手上佩戴的扳指