A brief analysis of the history of “Jade”: has it been called this name from ancient times to the present?

Jade has been popular in my country for four or five hundred years, but there are two theories about the origin of the word "jade" in history.

One theory is that the word "jade" was originally the name of a bird. The bird has brightly colored feathers, usually in colors such as blue, green, red, and brown. The male birds are mostly red, called "fei", and the female birds are mostly green, called "cui", collectively known as the "emerald bird".

The Tang Dynasty poet Chen Ziang once wrote in "Ganyu" that "Emeralds nest in the South China Sea, and male and female pearls grow in the woods." The poem affirms the beauty of the kingfisher and proves that the kingfisher existed in history and its feathers can be worn as ornaments. There is a similar species to the modern Kingfisher, namely the Hummingbird. The feathers on the forehead, nape, shoulders and back of the hummingbird are mainly emerald and dark green, and are brightly colored. They mostly live near water and feed on small fish and shrimps, which are not much different from the "Emerald Bird" recorded in historical records.

During the Qing Dynasty, nobles in various palaces used the feathers of the "jade bird" to make jewelry, especially the emerald feathers which were the most popular. Therefore, the names of jewelry made from the feathers of the "jade bird" mostly contain the word "Cui", such as Zhucui, Diancui, etc.

At that time, "jadeite" was not called "jadeite", but "Burmese jade". After it gradually became popular and was introduced into the palace, people gradually began to call "Burmese jade" "jadeite" because its color was similar to that of the kingfisher's feathers, both of which were mostly red and green. The name of the jade, "Jadeite", which has the same name as the bird, spread among the people.

Another theory claims that the word "jadeite" has been recorded in my country for a long time. The earliest record can be found in Volume 2 of Ouyang Xiu's "Guitianlu" in the Northern Song Dynasty. At that time, "jadeite" referred to green jade, and it was already regarded as a treasure in the Northern Song Dynasty.

But perhaps the "jade" in ancient times and the "jade" today are not the same jade materials. According to records, it was not until the Ming and Qing Dynasties that "jade" in the modern sense was widely collected and cherished by people. Ji Xiaolan also said that when he was a child people did not regard jadeite as "jade", which shows that before "jadeite" became popular, it was not valuable and was not valued by people. This also proves that the "jadeite" in ancient times and the "jadeite" in modern times may just be the same name, and their texture is different.

fcgc66

fcpf18