After reading these four stories, perhaps you will understand the joys and sorrows of jade people!

Mao Yingde, the legendary overseas Chinese in Burma

In the late Qing Dynasty, Mao Yingde, a native of Maojia Village, Tengyue, went to Myanmar with his father when he was young. He ran a shop in Wacheng and privately recruited talents to carry out anti-Qing activities. Because he was eager to do good and had many friends, he had dozens of guests every day, which eventually led to bankruptcy. But Mao was not discouraged. As the saying goes, "When you are poor, you have to go to the jade field in a hurry." Mao borrowed some money from someone and went to the jade field with great difficulty.

At that time, Xinshan jade had just been mined. The mine had a large output and good stone quality, but the selling price was not high. With his keen insight, Mao determined that the cave had a bright future, so he showed the cave owner some small favors. The cave owner was greedy for a small profit, so he sold the caves with the largest output to Mao.

After several years of mining, the cave produced large quantities of high-quality jade, which were sold to Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, often making a ten-fold profit. He accumulated a lot of wealth and became a well-known jade tycoon. After the British occupied the jade mine, since there was no such difficult "magic cube" in Western culture and the British were not good at management, the losses were increasing day by day. They wanted to ask Mao Yingde to come out and take charge of it. However, Mao was determined not to associate with the British and insisted on contracting and managing the mine independently.

The British had no choice but to give in and gave all the management and tax rights of the jade mine to Mao. When Mao died, the British admired his national integrity, flew their flags at half-mast in Myanmar to express their condolences, and sent a large ship with dozens of guards, music and drums, to solemnly escort Mao's body to Bhamo. Mao thus became a legendary figure among overseas Chinese in Burma.

"Jade King" Li Benren

Li Benren, a native of Qiluo, Tengyue, dug out a huge jadeite weighing about 8,000 kilograms from the cave he and Liu Baochen had dug in the spring of the fourth year of the Republic of China. The jadeite was called "elephant jade", but it was difficult to guess its contents because of its sandy and yellow surface. At that time, a Cantonese man was willing to pay 6,000 oceans to buy this stone. As the price of large jade was extremely difficult to increase, his colleagues all advised him to sell it as soon as possible.

Relying on his many years of experience in jade appraisal, Li insisted on doing it himself despite the opposition of others. After the dissection, the jade was found to be crystal clear, with a uniform texture and beautiful colors, a rare treasure in the world. The stone was later transported to Beijing, where the famous jade sculptor Li Hanchen led a team of more than 100 craftsmen, who spent ten years carving it into a 1.2-meter-high jade pagoda and a 49.2-centimeter-high jade archway according to its shape and color.

These two pieces of art are without any deviation or tilt, majestic and magnificent, and are magnificent works in the history of jade carving. It was once exhibited at the Paris World Expo, where it caused a sensation and brought glory to the motherland. Li Benren became famous because of this and was hailed as the "Jade King".

“Understand but don’t sell”

This is a story that happened in Ruili a few years ago. One day, a father carried his skinny child to the hospital for medical treatment. As he did not have enough money for the medicine, he had to beg on the street. He talked about the savior of the world, great grace, and long life thousands of times, but all he got was scolding and contempt.

This scene was seen by a girl selling cold drinks. Out of pity, she gave her only a few dozen yuan to the father. He took the money and without even saying thank you, he hurried to treat the child. A few months passed and the girl had long forgotten the incident. However, one day, the father came to her stall with his child, kowtowed and worshipped her. Then, he took out a small piece of jade, handed it to the girl, and reminded her to "understand it, don't sell it".

The girl took the stone to consult an expert, but he could not figure it out. In desperation, she took it to the Jade Explanation Office for dissection. After it was taken down, the inside was bright green and the water color was excellent. It was sold for more than 100,000 yuan in one go. From then on, the faces of the people at the cold drink stand changed, and the little girl was never seen again. It is said that she used the money to do big business.

"Ma Lao Ba's money has changed"

In the late Qing Dynasty, there was a man named Ma from Xishan Village, Shidian, who was called Ma Laoba because he was the eighth child. He did business in Myitkyina, Myanmar all his life. His family was wealthy and he accumulated countless wealth. When he was old and frail and was ready to retire and return home, a fellow villager came to his house and talked about someone who had dug up a jadeite that was completely green in a jade mine. He hid the jade from the cave owner and brought it to Myitkyina to sell.

Ma Laoba had mined jade in the area when he was young, so he knew a thing or two about jadeite. He also often heard people say that this kind of jade from illegal sources was often profitable. So he asked the owner to bring the stone to see. After the goods arrived, he loved them more and more, and thought: If I bring such beautiful jade to Tengyue, I will definitely make a lot of money, and it will also save me the trouble of carrying money and other belongings on the way back home. So he spent all his money to buy the stone.

After it was brought to Tengyue, many experts came to appreciate the jade, and it was unanimously praised. Its value tripled day by day, causing a sensation. Ma Laoba was ecstatic and could not sleep at night. He decided to keep the wealth within the family and take a gamble himself. He prepared cannons and red silk and invited a troupe of actors, waiting for the price to go up, and then he would happily become a jade boss. However, he didn't know that "there are unexpected changes in the weather and jade can change for no reason", and when the price was cut, it turned out to be a piece of "running green".

He bought it with thousands of silver taels, but could only sell it for a fraction of the price. Seeing his life's hard work going down the drain, Ma Laoba roared a few times, blood gushed out, and he died instantly. After Ma Laoba died, the onlookers immediately dispersed. From then on, the saying "Ma Laoba's money has changed" became popular.

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