Jadeite, Qianlong made it "turn from stone into jade", and Cixi made it expensive to this day

There is an old Chinese saying, "A gentleman will never leave his jade without a reason." Jade is the symbol of a gentleman. The Chinese people have had the habit of wearing jade since the Shang and Zhou dynasties, leaving behind jade cultures such as the Liangzhu culture and the Hongshan culture, as well as the four famous jades: Xinjiang Hetian jade, Liaoning Xiuyan jade, Henan Dushan jade and Shaanxi Lantian jade.

(A jadeite round-carved dragon-turtle vase from the Qing Dynasty, collected by the Palace Museum)

During the Qianlong reign, Britain sent an envoy named Macartney to visit Emperor Qianlong with gifts from the British Empire. Emperor Qianlong was very pleased and rewarded him with a finely carved white jade ruyi. Magal could never understand why a tickling toy made of white stone was regarded as a treasure by the royal family. Many years later, when a foreigner presented a diamond to Cixi, Cixi simply glanced at it coldly and snorted, "Go away."

In the thousands of years of jade culture history of China, nephrite (Hetian jade) has always occupied a dominant position. The saying "Stones from other mountains can be used to carve jade" seems to be of no use to the rulers of the Qing Dynasty, with only one exception - jadeite.

Red Jadeite Green

Jadeite originates from the mountainous area of ​​Myanmar in South Asia. For a long time in ancient times, it was not used by our ancestors as a traditional raw material for making tools. There has always been a saying in Chinese history that "jade comes from Tengyue". The jasper here is actually jadeite. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the jade-producing area in Myanmar was actually under the jurisdiction of Tengyue in Yunnan, my country.

(The Palace Museum, Qing Dynasty Fortune Falling from Heaven Ornament)

Before the Qing Dynasty, Chinese nobles had little interest in jadeite. Jadeite artifacts were rarely found in tombs of the Ming Dynasty in my country, and jadeite did not appear among the tens of thousands of unearthed artifacts from the Western Han Dynasty to the Song Dynasty.

In his travel notes, Xu Xiake of the Ming Dynasty recorded that a friend in Yongchang once gave him two pieces of jadeite, which were made into two seals and two cups. The carving price was 1.5 taels. Xu Xiake called them "emerald stones."

"There is a stone with more white and some emerald, and the emerald is brighter than ordinary stones. Everyone discarded it because it was too emerald, and occasionally asked the superior to take it back, but no one used it. I liked the emerald that was visible despite its whiteness, so I took it. Pan said that this stone was useless, and took another piece of pure emerald and gave it to me, thinking it was a wonderful product. "

It can be seen from Xu Xiake's records that there were already a lot of jadeite raw stones in Tengchong, Yunnan at that time. People thought that jadeite was mostly white and less green, and did not think it was rare. Xu Xiake's friends also thought that this kind of stone was useless, so they picked up a piece of pure green and gave it to Xu Xiake. Xu Xiake was a well-informed person and his love for jadeite was simply a liking for it, regardless of its value.

So where does the name of jadeite come from?

Jadeite comes from the name of an ancient bird that lives in the south and has bright feathers. The male bird is red and is called "fei" and the female bird is green and is called "cui". The ancients often used jadeite to refer to bright colors, namely jade red and emerald green. In the Qing Dynasty court, the feathers of the kingfisher were tributed to the palace as raw materials for jewelry. At the same time, a large amount of Burmese jadeite also entered the palace. The concubines loved it very much. Because this jade is mostly red and green, people called it jadeite, and the name gradually spread to the people.

(Qing Dynasty, Gold Filigree Bracelet Inlaid with Jadeite)

In the history of the spread of jade in China, Xu Xiake can only be regarded as one of the noble men, but his writings did not bring much added value to jade. It was Emperor Qianlong and Empress Dowager Cixi who brought jade from the common people to the palace and made it popular after royal packaging.

Jade Culture in the Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty, especially the reign of Emperor Qianlong, was the heyday of the development of ancient jade wares and jade carving art. It was during this period that jadeite turned around and went from being an ordinary jade to becoming a palace treasure.

Ji Xiaolan recorded in his "Youwei Thatched Cottage Notes" that when he was young, jadeite was just a novel and beautiful stone, and people did not regard it as jade at all. But in the middle and late Qianlong period, people regarded it as a treasure, "its price was far higher than that of real jade."

The Qianlong period was a critical period for jadeite. Emperor Qianlong's love for jadeite directly increased its value by a hundred times, and it went from being an inconspicuous beautiful stone to a jade fine product that everyone rushed to buy.

(Jadeite of Ming and Qing Dynasties, Palace Museum)

The popularity of jadeite is closely related to the war in Xinjiang. Because the tribute route of Hetian jade was interrupted, jadeite had the opportunity to take its place. In the middle and late period of Qianlong's reign, under the leadership of Qianlong, the descendants of the Eight Banners were greedy for pleasure and competed with each other for wealth. Jade became a favorite decoration among the royal family and nobles at that time because of its rich colors and festive appearance.

In the late Qing Dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi was even more obsessed with luxurious jewelry and jade. She pursued jadeite, which led to its unprecedented development. Compared with other colors, Empress Dowager Cixi particularly liked the delicate and luxurious green, and she constantly conveyed this to the weaving, salt administration and customs in various places, demanding tribute. During this period, precious jadeite was also continuously sent to Cixi's palace. Most of the jadeite in the Qing Palace collection are old-type jadeite. The jadeite with full water content and glassy body that we modern people like is rare, which is closely related to Cixi's personal preference.

In the Qing Dynasty, the jewelry worn by court ladies had strict seasonality. There was a saying that "wear gold in winter and emerald in summer". When the weather turns warmer in spring, the concubines in the palace have already prepared their jade jewelry. The American painter Carl once painted an oil portrait of Cixi. It was the end of spring and the beginning of summer. Cixi was wearing gorgeous clothes. In addition to the oriental pearl jewelry that symbolized imperial power, she also wore jade jewelry.

In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, Yunnan and Guizhou would pay tribute to the imperial court with several tons or even dozens of tons of raw jadeite with skin every year. The sculptors in the palace's Imperial Household Department would select the best ones to carve jewelry for the concubines in the harem.

At present, most of the Qing Dynasty jadeite utensils collected by the Palace Museum or in the hands of private collectors are still the hairpins, jade hairpins, earrings, rings or bracelets used by Cixi. This shows that during the reign of Empress Dowager Cixi, jadeite had become a new noble jade that dominated the palace, and it was Empress Dowager Cixi who achieved success in jadeite culture in the Qing Dynasty.

(Tourmaline and jadeite hairpin from the Qing Dynasty, collected by the Palace Museum)

The jade cabbage cherished by Cixi is now treasured in the National Palace Museum in Taipei and has become the museum's treasure. According to the "Aiyuexuan Notes" written by Li Lianying, the eunuch who was close to Cixi, Cixi's favorite was a pair of jade watermelons. This treasure was worth 5 million taels of silver at the time. Cixi locked them in a cupboard and sent people to guard them. After her death, she took them into the Eastern Tombs. However, Sun Dianying later robbed Cixi's tomb, and the pair of jade watermelons disappeared.

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