Measurements: Height 8.8 cm, width 2 cm
Period: Western Zhou ( 1046--771 BCE)
Provenance: Unearthed from the Ying state cemetery, Pingdingshan, Henan, 1986
   
The pendent, made of white jade, features a waxy sheen with some brown speckles, carved with the identical patterns of a seated figure on both sides. The figures were meticulously carved with an exaggerated proportion.
   
In the ancient China, the jade articles played a state significance, and were used for communicating the Heaven and the Earth, worshiping the deities, as well as serving as an emblem of social status for distinguishing the nobles from the commoners, an embodiment of the ideal virtues of the gentlemen. Based on the Shang culture, the jade articles gained a new development in the Western Zhou dynasty. To maintain the social order and consolidate the governance, the ruling class strengthened the patriarchal clan and ritual systems, had the jade articles bear the hierarchical and ritual significance, which was characteristic of the jade culture of the Western Zhou dynasty.