Administration by rites and ceremonies was a core part of consolidating, legitimising and asserting power under the Shang dynasty's political system. Ritual jades including jade gui ceremonial blades or tablets, qi notched axes and ge halberd blades emerged in addition to the traditional bi and cong, and became important objects in life and death. Gui tablets were held by kings, dukes and princes on ceremonial occasions. Large quantities of jade ritual wares were excavated from the Yin ruins at Anyang, most notably in Fuhao's tomb which included hundreds of different kinds of jade implements including gui tablets. |The present gui is notable for the unusual inclusion of cicada-formed notches. During this period, jade figures of cicadas were sometimes found in the mouths of the dead and cicada motifs were often included in the decoration of ritual bronzes. The insect was used as a symbol of rebirth in the afterlife, as cicadas spend years underground before emerging.|Compare a jade gui of Longshan culture with similarly incised human-mask on one side, currently in the Shandong Provincial Museum; see also another Neolithic period jade gui excavated from an archaeological site of the Zhou dynasty, in Houma City, Shanxi Province, where the similarly incised bird motif was found but believed to be added during the Eastern Zhou period, both illustrated by Gu Fang, The Pictorial Handbook of Ancient Chinese Jades, Beijing, 2007, pp.63 and 223.|玉圭為不透明牙黃色。器身片狀長方形，一端略寬，有刃，另一端鑽有三孔。器兩面陰刻獸面紋，獸面上方飾成組的凸線，兩面獸面紋飾不同。玉質溫潤，刀法細膩，實為佳品，且保存至今，極為不易。|圭是禮儀用玉，象徵王權，新石器至時代的玉錛及商代時期的玉鏟皆與圭類似，至春秋戰國時期圭的使用更為廣泛，在墓葬中常被放置在頭部、胸部、腹部和腳部附近以及棺槨之間，可見圭的用途遠比記載的要複雜得多。|此件玉圭較為特殊，其下部方角以禪紋雕飾尤為少見，玉圭上的獸面紋飾與龍山文化中的玉錛類似，見山東省博物館藏一件龍山文化玉錛，著錄於古方，《中國古玉器圖典》，北京，2007年，頁63。在舊玉沿用的改形玉器中亦有類似玉圭出土，見山西省侯馬市春秋時期祭祀坑出土的一件新石器時代玉圭，圭一面陰刻類似的鷹鳥紋飾，其下部同樣刻有兩組六道橫線，見同著錄，頁223。