韘、韘式佩与扳指

A Study of 'She','She-styled Pei','Ban Zhi'

韘是套于右手拇指上用于钩弦护指的工具。其名称的出现最早见于《诗经》,佩韘是成人的标志之一。古韘材质多样,就玉韘而言,其出现可早到晚商。春秋、战国时期的玉韘由筒形而出现侧扳,并初现由实用向装饰转变的趋势,玉韘在西汉完成了实用性向装饰性的彻底转变,当时玉韘已经完全演变成装饰性的玉韘式佩。玉韘式佩历东汉、魏晋南北朝依然流行。宋人对韘已有隔膜,当时的韘式佩被看作古玉器,称蟠螭佩。据此推测自北宋开始,对韘与韘式佩的渊源已不甚了了。元人视韘式佩为古玉,称雕玉蟠螭或璩,认为是环一类的东西。韘式佩于明、清依然盛行,称螭玦、鸡心玦,晚清称鸡心佩。玉韘自汉以后甚为罕见,在清代发展为扳指,除用作男性装饰外,还被乾隆赋予丰富的内涵。17世纪,建立波斯萨菲王朝和莫卧儿王朝的蒙古贵族后裔亦流行佩韘,韘的形式与明晚期沐睿墓出土的玉韘几乎完全相同。

The Chinese character of 'She' used to name a kind of protective device working as a thumb ring worn by an archer to protect his thumb from being hurt while drawing a bow to shot an arrow was first read in The Book of Songs(Shi Jing).A person with a 'She' around his thumb indicated he had grown into a man in ancient times.'She' was made from different materials,for instance,the jade one could be dated as early as the later Shang period.With the new design of 'Ce Ban'(a ring with the design of one-side sticking out) coming after the original tube-shaped ones,jade 'She' was becoming more ornamental than functional in Spring-Autumn and Warring States periods,developed completely decorative by the Western Han dynasty,during which the jade 'Shestyled Pei'(She-styled pendant,or pendants in thumb ring shape) with various shapes and patterns surpassed any other dynasties.The jade 'She-styled Pei' kept great popularity over the Eastern Han,the Wei,Jin,and Southern and Northern Dynasties,but it was treated just as an ancient jade article called 'Pan Chi Pei(a pendant with dragon design) or 'Qu' or something like a ring by the people of the Northern Song and Yuan dynasties due to their ignorance of its origin.By the Ming and Qing times the 'She-styled Pei' remained in fashion,but was named 'Chi Jue','Ji Xin Jue',or 'Ji Xin Pei' in the later Qing dynasty.On the contrary,the jade 'She' lost its trace after the Han dynasty.The only survival from a later-Ming dynasty tomb in Nanjing of Jiangsu province is very close in design with those of Moghul India and Safavid Iran of the 17th century.Different in shape yet of the same supposed function,'She' was called 'Ban Zhi' popular among the male as a kind of accessories in the Qing dynasty,which owns a lot to Emperor Qianlong.