A brief review of the 8,000-year history of Chinese jade culture

The most beautiful stone is jade

The king of jade is emerald green

Jade and jadeite culture is the charm of the East

Jade Culture

Exclusive to the descendants of the Chinese nation

Rich in heritage and profound in connotation

From the Neolithic Hongshan Culture and Liangzhu Culture

To the peak period of Qingming

Then to the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China

8000 years of development foundation

Jade culture in the field of art

Demonstrated a strong and unprecedented vitality

Then in these 8000 years

What has happened to jadeite?

We have sorted out the

The Jade Culture That Jade Lovers Should Know Most

A brief history and context of the development of nearly 10,000 years of ups and downs

This article is worth a thousand books...

Hongshan and Liangzhu

It represents a sacred artifact, which is a patriarchal ritual used by wizards and tribal leaders to worship and communicate with heaven, and has a very narrow scope of use. The characteristics of this jade carving are the worship of nature and the realistic techniques of symbolism and decoration.

Simplicity, mystery, ethereality, abstraction, and transcendence are the fusion of ancient and new things. It has reached a state of being simple, honest, profound, unfathomable, solemn and sacred.

Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties

Jade represents communication with the gods of heaven and earth, totem worship, and is a symbol of the unsurpassed hierarchy of royal power, status, and wealth.

Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period

Because jade culture was influenced by Confucianism, it advocates self-cultivation.

In pursuit of moral and ethical beauty, carving techniques became free and unrestrained. It is rigid but not irreverent, symmetrical and rigorous, with both spirit and form, relief and round sculpture, a wonderful and exquisite state.

Qin and Han Dynasties

Especially in the Han Dynasty, jade culture experienced a major turning point of abandoning the old and pursuing the new, which was the first peak in the development of Chinese jade culture.

The most typical jade burial custom reached its peak.

Three Kingdoms, Jin Dynasty, Northern and Southern Dynasties

From the Three Kingdoms, Jin Dynasty, Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the development of jade carving underwent a transition that inherited the past and ushered in the future, advocating realism and combining artistic depiction of jade with calligraphy and painting.

The practical fashion mainstream for display and appreciation during this period was characterized by simple decoration and a lively and cheerful style.

Song Dynasty

Jade processing flourished, and the artistry of painting transformed into realism, closer to real life, with a plot background, vivid images, increased interest, and became popular and secularized.

The carving technique is so delicate that it penetrates every pore and finds space, becoming the second peak in the development of Chinese jade culture.

Liao, Jin and Yuan

Inheriting the Song Dynasty, it features a wild and unrestrained style that is a fusion of diversity.

Ming Dynasty

It presents a heyday of comprehensive inheritance and development, when the appreciation of jade prevails, becomes secularized, and the content of carving is related to daily life.

The technique has the characteristics of the times, with mature knife skills, clever and quick weaving, smooth lines, meticulous workmanship, strict composition, rich patterns, and meticulous carving to achieve an artistic effect of decorative beauty.

Qing Dynasty

It is the culmination of 8,000 years of jade culture and also the third peak in the historical development of jade carving.

The beauty of jade, the variety of its jades, the exquisite carving and its wide range of uses have made the custom of viewing and appreciating jade among the people more popular than ever before.

It draws on the influence of painting, sculpture, arts and crafts, and foreign crafts, integrates them and emphasizes the level of realism and perfection. In addition, it pays attention to the selection of exquisite materials, meticulous workmanship, delicate and exquisite polishing, and the clever carving of the skin, with a thin body and light weight, reaching the highest level of ingenuity, exquisiteness, perfection, superb craftsmanship, and unprecedented.

Continuous fault of jade culture

The first fault

During this period, the use of jade articles came down from the altar and out of the special class of the palace. It was combined with etiquette and secularity, flowed into the common people, gradually entered the market, and became a commodity.

During the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, due to frequent wars, natural disasters and man-made calamities, the people were living in poverty and the jade carving industry was greatly neglected and declined. Many jade carving workshops and craftsmen closed down. A small number of craftsmen are struggling to carry on the traditional Chinese jade carving craft.

Continuous fault of jade culture

Second fault

When the People's Republic of China was founded, due to political impact on everything, the jewelry and jade carving industries were regarded as the dregs of emperors, generals, talented scholars and beautiful women, feudalism, capitalism, and revisionism. All jade carving industries were forced to close down and craftsmen became unemployed. Coupled with the impact of various continuous political movements, especially the ten-year catastrophe of the Cultural Revolution, the 8,000-year-old jade culture, the quintessence of the national culture, was neglected and lost all its vitality.

Beijing, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Henan, Guangdong, Yunnan and especially Tengchong, the birthplace of jade carving culture, were not spared, resulting in a gap of nearly 30 years.

Jade culture has only been revived in recent decades, and with the help of the advancement of tools, it has sprung up like a flood. Especially compared with the giant jade carvings that were difficult to achieve in the past due to backward technology and equipment, the best products are constantly coming out, and the tradition and relative inheritance complement each other, making the jade carving technology and craftsmanship more perfect.

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