Ritual implement (cong),

Located in the lower reach of the Yangtze River, the Liangzhu culture had an advanced jade industry. The discoveries of rich carvings from its cemeteries and ritual sites prove that jade played an important role in Liangzhu society. Its people used quartz sand and other abrasives to cut, grind, and engrave jade into various shapes for ceremonial and personal use. Despite the technological difficulty of this time-consuming process, jade art reached new heights in Liangzhu and profoundly affected the Neolithic cultures of neighboring regions.
Among the jade disks, beads, plaques, and tubes unearthed from Liangzhu, the two most popular shapes are the cong (square blocks with cylindrical inner tubes) and the bi (perforated disks). According to the ancient ritual text Rites of Zhou, a brown cong symbolized the square earth while a green bi represented the spherical heaven.2 This short cong with a polished surface is decorated with monster-like masks with round eyes. Some cong have additional tiers and more schematic surface decoration, showcasing the skillful craftsmanship of jade carving in prehistoric China. This object type later spread to other regions in China, possibly because of its enigmatic form of religious significance.
The irresistible qualities of jade continued to fascinate in the millennia that followed the Liangzhu. Worshiping the magical power of jade, Chinese people frequently used jade articles as personal tokens, household ornaments, and even burial goods. Jade also became the favorite stone of the perfect gentleman, and Confucian scholars believed it embodied the five human virtues— benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, and integrity.