This paper studies the evolutionary senation and meaning of the jade hook-and-cloud shaped implements-one of the diagnostic artifacts of Hongshan Culture-with the analytical methods of art study, the stratigraphic and typological methods of archaeology. It argues that the jade hook-and-cloud shaped implements can be divided into two classes according to their morphology: the rectangular and the narrow rectangUlar types. Their outer swirling leaves show similar twisting patterns, thus indicating that they evolved from the same" mother motif". its predecessor was the well-known jade hooked dragon recoverd from Sanxingtala. Its body evolved into the body of the whorl pattern, and its whiskers evolved into the whorl leaf of the outer circle due to artistic transformation. The dispersal of Hongshan Culture, and the burial objects uncovered from Hongshan Culture and Yinxu support this argument.
