Jade carvings such as the present lot were part of an extensive range of jade objects which were buried in tombs with the interred body. It was believed that these jade objects were placed for protection of the dead. This practice is connected with the Daoist belief, as stated in the 4th century text Baopuzi by Ge Hong, 'when gold and jade plug the nine orifices, man dies but his body does not decay'. Pairs of jade pigs were placed in the hands of the deceased. |Funerary jade pigs from this period are often carved simply with a few deep calculated cuts, known as the 'Eight Cuts of Han'. Compare similarly carved Han dynasty jade pigs including: two illustrated in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Jade 4, Beijing, 2011, p.130, nos.152-153; and a pair in the Sir Joseph Hotung collection, illustrated by J.Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1996, p.319, no.24:10.|A pair of similarly carved greyish-green jade pigs, from the collection of Robert H. Ellsworth, was sold at Christie's New York, 19 March 2015, lot 588.|玉豬呈青色帶黃褐色沁，圓柱狀。作臥伏狀，以粗陰刻線琢出長吻、雙耳、背脊和四肢，底面較平，造型簡潔，玉質光潤，刀法簡練。此對玉豬雕刻技法為「漢八刀」風格雕法，屬於隨葬玉器，是作為逝者手握之用，因此又稱玉握，盛行於漢代。據東晉時期葛洪所著的《抱撲子》一書中記載「金玉在九竅，則死人不腐」，可見古人認為用玉斂屍可保屍體不腐。玉為珍貴之物，所以玉豬在隨葬品中也顯示出逝者的身份地位和財富。|倫敦大英博物館藏一對何鴻卿爵士舊藏青玉豬，其雕刻與本對玉豬相似，見J.Rawson著，《Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing》，倫敦，1996年，頁319，編號24:10。另對比兩件雕刻類似的青玉豬(11.5及11.3厘米長)，著錄於《故宮博物院藏品大系:玉器編4:漢魏晉南北朝》，北京，2011年，頁130，編號152-153。紐約佳士得曾售出安思遠舊藏一對灰青玉豬亦可資比較，2015年3月19日，編號588。