Cicada on a rectangular plinth with base relief of archer and beast, dark brown in color in the manner of the Han Dynasty.
The ancient Chinese regarded the cicada as a symbol of immortality and resurrection. The cicada passes its first four years of life underground as a larva; then it comes out as a mobile pupa, splits down the back, and emerges as a perfect insect. This rising as though from the grave, appeared to the ancient Chinese, and probably for this reason, in ancient days, a piece of jade, carved in the shape of a cicada, was placed in the mouth of the corpse at burial.