Isles of the Blest in the Eastern Ocean; they were not alone in Asia in believing in a Western Paradise situated among the mountains. The Chinese, as Laufer demonstrates in his Jade, did not pass through in China that culture stage called the Neolithic When they first settled in Shensi, they searched for and found jade, as did the carriers of bronze who first entered Europe. There was obviously an ac quired psychological motive for the search for jade, and the evidence of Chinese jade symbolism demonstrates to the full that it had been acquired from those who had transferred to jade the earlier symbolism of shells, pearls, and precious metals. In the chapter devoted to jade it is shown that this View is confirmed by the evidence afforded by Chinese customs connected with jade, shells, pearls, 8m.