Looking back at China's long history, jade has always played an important role in the ever-changing times. "Five generations of prosperity, my hometown recognizes the old family. The Wuwa horse is of good quality, and the He's Jade is flawless." The most famous jade is the He's Jade. During the hundreds of years it has been passed down, it has been regarded as a "priceless treasure" and "a treasure passed down by the world". It is also called He's Jade, Jingyu, Jinghong, Jingbi, Hebi, and Hepu. According to legend, the Heshi Bi was made into an imperial seal by Qin Shihuang, which was lost after the Tang Dynasty. The Empress Dowager Cixi, who ruled the country in the late Qing Dynasty, was fond of luxury. The number of jade ornaments and jade playthings she used was enough to fill 3,000 sandalwood boxes. It can be seen that jade was deeply loved by the power centers in ancient China. Following the example of their superiors, all the common people and aristocrats in ancient China were in love with jade and jadeite. Literati and poets wrote poems and lyrics about them, and beautiful women and talented men vied with each other to wear them. To this day, Chinese people still cherish jade very much.

▲Warring States Jade Bi

Ancient literati gave jade many beautiful meanings. There are metaphors for beautiful faces, such as "Under the mud at the foot of Mawei Slope, there is no trace of the jade face's death" and "The jade face is lonely with tears on the sills, a branch of pear blossoms is wet with spring rain"; there are also jade to describe beautiful things, "The sound of the strings is mixed, and pearls big and small fall on the jade plate" and "The jasper is made up into a tall tree, with thousands of green silk ribbons hanging down"; there are those who use jade to express their aspirations and to show their noble and flawless qualities, "If friends and relatives in Luoyang ask about me, I have a heart as pure as ice in a jade pot" and "The jade body endures the cold and heat, and people look up to the jade and the jade disc". Great scholars also used jade as an example to teach future generations: "The stain on Bogui can be polished away, but the stain on these words cannot be done", teaching gentlemen to be as upright as jade and to be careful in what they say and do. Countless poems prove that in ancient times, the public aesthetic had already regarded jade as the highest praise.

▲Muna-style floating flower jadeite

[Why did our ancestors love jade so much and revere it so highly? Combining historical records, poems and articles, I want to explore the reasons why the ancients loved jade. My understanding is as follows:

1. Jade is the sustenance of love

▲Nuwa's "divine stone" repairs the sky

In A Dream of Red Mansions, Baoyu's predecessor was the stone left by Nuwa when she repaired the sky. Because he was greedy for the worldly world, he was brought down to the mortal world by a monk and a Taoist priest, and later became Jia Baoyu who was born from jade. The love and hate entanglement between them was born because of jade and ended because of jade. In "The Purple Hairpin" by Tang Xianzu, a famous Ming Dynasty playwright, Li Yi, a talented man from Longxi, travels to Chang'an to study. He meets Huo Xiaoyu, a young lady from Prince Huo's mansion, by chance during the Lantern Festival. Xiaoyu accidentally loses her purple hairpin, which is picked up by Li Yi. The two fell in love with each other and got married. The subsequent twists and turns in the story all revolved around the purple jade hairpin. It can be seen that the love and longing of the vast majority of people at that time were all related to jade.

2. Jade is a manifestation of power

▲Imperial seal of the Qing Dynasty

It is recorded in "The Rites of Zhou: Da Zongbo": "Use jade to make six instruments to worship heaven, earth and the four directions." Rite is not a literal ritual system, but a strict hierarchy. Jade is a sacred ritual instrument used by the king to worship heaven and earth. During the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, jade was used exclusively by royal nobles and was also a symbol of imperial power. In Shuowen Jiezi, jade is an accessory worn around the king's waist, representing governing the country with virtue and pacifying the people, and it has an extremely high status.

3. Jade is a symbol of wealth

▲“Shell Currency”

Before Qin Shihuang unified the currency, shell coins were the currency in circulation on the market. Later, due to the shortage of natural shell coins, coins in the shape of jade shells were created. During the Shang Dynasty, ministers were proud to receive jade shell coins from the emperor. In later historical development, jade became the best currency. As the "Guan Zi" said: "The ancient kings used pearls and jade as the best currency, gold as the middle currency, and knives and cloth as the worst currency." "Lu Shi Qian Ji 1" mentions the ancient myth of Pangu creating the world: "his teeth and bones turned into gold and stone, his essence turned into pearls and jade, his sweat turned into rain, and the insects in his body were moved by the wind and turned into common people. Gold, jade and pearls are the essence of heaven and earth. Taking them can make one become one with heaven and earth." Jade is the creation of the father god of nature. It condenses the brilliance of the sun and the moon and gathers the aura of all things. In ancient times when the emperor claimed to be the son of heaven, the respect for jade and nature was also long-standing.

4. Jade represents beauty

In Chinese culture, jade is synonymous with beauty. When our ancestors described beautiful things, they liked to add the word "jade", such as jade girl, jade hands, jade face, and jade food. Jade possesses all the beautiful qualities that humans yearn for: purity, reserve, gentleness, tranquility, steadfastness and righteousness. The Chinese, who regard jade as the soul of their nation, naturally fall in love with jade at first sight. “The sound of jade is precious and clear, and the color of jade is pure.” The beauty of jade is like a lake that condenses the splendid time. It is bottomless, but tranquil and clear, implicit and profound, warm and lustrous. It contains thousands of mysteries and is full of spirituality. You will be immersed in it at first sight. Just like the character of this nation, they like auspiciousness and harmony, are introverted, and pursue an aesthetic tendency of tranquility, far-reachingness, subtlety and elegance.

5. Jade is a product of morality

“A gentleman never takes off jade without a reason.” This is why the ancients required gentlemen to wear jade at all times and to hold themselves to the standards of jade, thus using the virtue of jade to represent morality and forming a clear ideological system. "Shuowen Jiezi" proposes that jade has five virtues. "The Five Virtues refer to: "To be moist with warmth is the way of benevolence; to understand the principles from the outside so as to know the inside is the way of righteousness; to have a melodious voice and to be respected so as to be heard from afar is the way of wisdom; to be unyielding and unyielding is the way of courage; to be sharp and honest without being skillful is the way of cleanliness. The great Confucian scholar Confucius also believed that jade has eleven virtues. In ancient times when Confucianism was highly respected, jade held an important place in the Chinese nation's psyche.

6. Jade is the guardian of the soul

▲Pixiu can ward off evil and ensure safety

Jade has its own magnetic field that can calm the wearer's emotions and promote sleep. Meng Kang's "Book of Han. The Western Regions" notes: "Those with one horn may be celestial deer, and those with two horns may be evil spirits." It refers to the jade evil spirits from the Northern and Southern Dynasties, which are white with yellow color and have cracks. A round sculpture in a squatting shape. With its head held high and its horns hanging backward, the carving is simple and delicate, the image is vivid and majestic, and can serve as a guardian of the house. The Chinese people have always believed that jade, the most precious stone in the world, is spiritual and can protect themselves. This is a belief that has existed since ancient times.

7. Jade is a guardian of health

▲The Imperial Concubine Offering a Cup of Wine

“Climbing Kunlun and eating jade, you can live as long as heaven and earth, and shine as brightly as the sun and the moon.” In ancient times, there was a popular saying that if you eat jade, you can live as long as heaven and earth. According to unofficial historical records, Yang Guifei of the Tang Dynasty was plump and afraid of heat, so she held a jade fish in her mouth to produce saliva and relieve the heat, and she also ground jade into powder and applied it on her face, which gave her skin that was as smooth as a baby's. The Song Dynasty medical document "Dui Ji Lu" records: "Scars on the face and body will disappear by themselves if they are rubbed with real jade every day." In Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica•Jade Dust": "Jade can moisten the heart and lungs, help the voice and throat, and nourish hair." Modern science has also confirmed that natural jade contains a variety of trace elements that are beneficial to the human body, such as zinc, magnesium, iron, cobalt, chromium, manganese, etc. Holding jade in the mouth can quench thirst, promote salivation, eliminate evil heat, and relieve positive energy through the interaction between the protease and lysozyme in saliva. Applying jade powder on the face can remove scars, promote hair growth, and play a role in beautifying the skin.

▲Ice-type floating flower Ruyi jadeite: It means everything goes well.

The Chinese nation has always had a strong love for jade. People place deep emotions on jade, and they reverence for the power of nature and admiration for the wisdom of their ancestors. The Chinese nation is also the only nation in the world with its own unique jade culture. The Chinese people's obsession with jade was born from their own beautiful character and steadfast integrity, and later evolved into a unique traditional aesthetics, forming its own system that has continued to develop to this day.

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