Pincui starts from its long cultural history. Do you know when jade was introduced to China?

The word "jade" was used in the early days to refer to a beautiful bird. This bird called "jade" had beautiful feathers.

People often use kingfisher feathers to inlay jewelry, which is called "fine jadeite". Most of the "pearl and jadeite" jewelry we often talk about are also like this.

China did not originally produce jade.

Jade was introduced to China from Myanmar along with the exchange and collision of ancient Sino-foreign economies and cultures of the two countries.

When was jade introduced to China?

When did jadeite begin to be introduced to China? Everyone has different opinions.

In his book "Science and Civilization in China", British historian Joseph Needham believed that jadeite was introduced to China in the 18th century. He wrote in the book: "Before the 18th century, the Chinese did not know about jadeite. Later, jadeite was imported into China from its origin in Myanmar via Yunnan."

Some people also believe that more than 1,700 years ago, during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, China had begun importing this jade from Myanmar and processing it into various ornaments.

In fact, the word "jade" has appeared many times in ancient Chinese classics.

Xu Ling of the Northern and Southern Dynasties wrote in the Preface to Yutai Xinyong: "I carry the glass inkstone box with me all day long; I never put down the jadeite pen bed." The "pen bed" refers to a special container for placing brushes, a kind of stationery made of jadeite.

The most explicit record of jadeite should be in Guitianlu, a work by Ouyang Xiu of the Song Dynasty, which tells about a jadeite "Cui Ping" in his home.

In ancient times, "喪" was a storage container that could be used to draw and store water, as well as to store grain. Ouyang Xiu's family and friends all thought it was jasper. By chance, he met an old eunuch from the previous dynasty, so he took out the "Cui Ping" and showed it to him. Unexpectedly, the old eunuch knew jadeite and said that this was not jasper, but made of jadeite. Because the old eunuch had seen a jadeite cup in the inner storehouse of the previous dynasty's imperial palace, and jade of this material could be shavings of gold.

"Gold crumbs" refers to small pieces of gold, which shows that the texture of jade is very hard and can grind gold into fine powder, which is in line with the properties of jade. In that era, only the old eunuchs of the previous dynasty had seen jadeite, and no one else had seen it. This shows that in the Song Dynasty, jadeite was only available in the palace.

The more popular view is that jade was introduced to China in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.

The name "jade" has three meanings and seven categories in different historical periods in my country. At present, the main disagreement is when the name "jadeite" began to truly refer specifically to modern "Burmese jade" or jadeite.

According to the current research results, "jadeite" or "Cui" before the Northern Song Dynasty did not refer to today's "Burmese jade". The "Cui Shengshi" described by Xu Xiake in the Ming Dynasty may be a more accurate word similar to modern jadeite.

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