G009 Jade Tiger Military Matching Seal

G009 Jade Tiger Military Matching Seal (Han Dynasty,206BC - AD220)

Length: 9.93 cm,Height: 5.55cm     

  Divide a jade tiger in half, and make a bas-relief on the back of the closure: the word "合同", means " matched when combine the two"!

  The left side is a embossed word: the middle is the  embossed word of "同" (match), and the lower embossed word is "右武衛將軍" ("the right martial arts general)";   (The position of the concave and convex characters are match)  The system of the military symbol, the ancient think that the right side is more honorable than the left side. Therefore, the jade tiger matching seal in Qin and Han Dynasties, the right side is stored in the palm of the emperor; the left side is stored in the general.

 However, in the Tang Dynasty, the fish symbol matching seal was changed to "the left is inside, the right is outside."changed to "the left is inside, the right is outside." 

The fish symbol is the system of the Tang Dynasty. The six books of the Tang Dynasty contain the saying "Bronze Fish": "The inside of the emperor's fiefdom, the left three right one; the emperor's fief outside the land, the left five right one. The left enters the inside, the right Outside."

 In the Song Dynasty, the right and left sides were restored, the same as Qin and Han. The tiger character is a regular system with a copper tiger, and the jade tiger character is a special case. Therefore, the number of jade tiger matching seal is very few, extremely rare!