An ancient Chinese text entitled The Zhouli (Rituals of Zhou) describes a 'zhang' as a ceremonial object to sacrifice to the direction south. But the text gives no description about the shape of the zhang. In the first few decades of the 20th century a fairly large number of jade blades with a curved end were excavated from neolithic sites, the present example being one of them. Chinese archaeologists believe this type of blades is the zhang mentioned in the Zhouli.