Here are a number of Shang dynasty bird pendants that I photographed at the Metropolitan Museum in New York -- first three. I photographed the remaining Shang birds at the Sackler gallery in Washington D.C. We know that the Shang cultivated rice (and domesticated the water buffalo) and agricultural wetlands attract water birds so it is not surprising that some of these beautifully "carved" pendants represent water birds. On the other hand, much of the aesthetic interest of these birds rests in their imaginative stylization. The final two birds are from the Western Zhou.

Of all the dynastic jades, I have come to prefer those from the Shang and Western Zhou periods. (Although I would certainly accept any Warring States, or for that matter many later examples if they were offered to me.)

Terry