Long treenails were quite difficult to drive, often being damaged in the process, with ends becoming broomed, or worse, split, necessitating the head being trimmed, or far worse, the removal of the treenail.

So he that doth redeem her thence might wear Without corrival all her dignities: But out upon this half-facd fellowship!

What Loehr called the Middle Western Chou is the probable starting point, that is, during the mid-eleventh century B.C.⁵⁸ when a breakdown in the old order of Phase I can be documented. For instance, a yu found at T'un-hsi, Anhui, (Plate 19) is decorated with intertwining birds both on the belly and lid and exemplifies this conversion.

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