Tracing Jade Culture

Jade has a very special identity. As a high-end jewelry that represents the East, it has an extraordinary status in the modern jewelry industry and jewelry collections, but it is also not well known because it always exudes mystery.

There are many theories about how jadeite got its name. One theory is that it comes from a bird. The male bird has red feathers and is called the jadeite bird, and the female bird has green feathers and is called the kingfisher. Together they are called jadeite, so there is a saying in the industry that jadeite is male and jadeite is female. Another theory is that in ancient times "Cui" specifically referred to the Hotan jasper produced in Hotan, Xinjiang. After jadeite was introduced into China, in order to distinguish it from the Hotan jasper, it was called "fei cui", and later gradually evolved into "jadeite".

Tracing Jade Culture

There is a saying from ancient times to the present: "Wearing gold shows wealth and wearing jade ensures safety", which shows the good wishes people have given to this gem. Transform this wish into a form. That is sculpture. The art of jade carving is a rare treasure of Chinese culture. Craftsmen have created a variety of artistic shapes using materials including humanities, landscapes, animals and plants, zodiac signs, etc. The content expressed includes praying for good fortune, longevity, smooth sailing, safety, many children and grandchildren, etc.

In ancient times, jade was a national treasure, and there were strict regulations on the use and carving of jade bi, jade cong, gui, zhang, hu and huang. From the Qin Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, emperors used jade to make seals because they believed that jade seals were symbols of the country and royal power. Among the Han Dynasty jade pendants there are three treasures for warding off evil spirits, namely the jade Gangmao, jade Si Nan pendant and Wang Weng Zhong, which appear in many handed-down items. During the Tang and Song dynasties, the art of jade carving gradually became popular among the people, especially the appearance of a large number of children, flowers and birds patterns, which laid the foundation for the popularity of auspicious jade carvings in the future.

Various jade carvings with turtle and lotus themes unearthed in various places during the Liao, Jin and Yuan dynasties include novel shapes such as turtles carved on lotus leaves. In the Ming Dynasty, especially in the mid-Ming Dynasty and the late Ming Dynasty, an invisible rule was often adopted in jade carving: "the picture must have meaning, and the meaning must be auspicious." The auspicious patterns on jadeite in the Qing Dynasty include various figures and landscapes. Some are also engraved with words such as double happiness, fortune, longevity, etc. The large-scale appearance and popularity of auspicious patterns in jadeite in the Qing Dynasty are as mentioned above. In fact, people place their good wishes on this priceless gem, reflecting people's yearning for beauty.

"When I was young, ginseng, coral and lapis lazuli were not expensive. Today, Yunnan jade was not considered jade at that time, but was just dried yellow jade from Lantian, which was forcibly called jade. Now it is a treasure, and its price is far higher than that of real jade..." Ji Xiaolan, who was a Hanlin Academy student during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, said in his "Yuewei Thatched Cottage Notes". The article records that jade was not actually a rare item in the early Qing Dynasty, but it is a major luxury item today. The important factors that caused this huge change are the depletion of mineral mining and the massive consumption of people. The period of mass consumption of jade can be traced back to the mid-Qing Dynasty. Scarcity makes things valuable. There were not many good jades at that time, and most of them were presented as tribute to the king or consumed by the nobles. These dignitaries customized jadeite into hat crowns, plume tubes, belt buckles, and rings. As the Qing Dynasty promoted the trend of luxury, the performance of the jadeite industry also rose step by step. Good jadeite had many uses at that time. Not only could it allow the buyer to show off in public, it could also be presented to the imperial court without suspicion, making bribery popular at the time.

In the late Qing Dynasty, the mining and consumption of jade entered its heyday. Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty had an even more ardent love for jadeite. According to ancestral rules, the East Palace could wear rubies, while the West Palace could only wear green gems. As the Empress Dowager of the West Palace, Cixi loved jadeite because of its preciousness and uniqueness. This can be fully illustrated by the burial objects in her Eastern Mausoleum, where a large number of jadeite products were buried with her. All kinds of old jadeite circulating today also mostly come from this period.

Classification of Jade Varieties

In addition to the yearning for peace and good fortune, when it comes to collection, one cannot just look at the carving and meaning. The most important thing is the quality of the stone. The grading of jade in terms of color, type, water and pit is quite clear. Among the grades of jade, glass type is the most valuable, its texture is as transparent and delicate as glass. Even the colorless glass type may be much more expensive than other colored types. Close to glass type is high ice type, which is better than ice type, but not as transparent as glass type. The next rankings are ice type, ice glutinous type, glutinous type, flower green type, bean green type, oily green type, etc. The worse the quality, the lower its transparency, the more chaotic it is, and the more cotton wool it contains.

Of course, the species is only one aspect, and the "water head" is also a more important consideration. Jade without water is drier, looks heavier in stone, and has less “spirituality”. Of course, the room for appreciation is also relatively small. Therefore, based on my personal experience, I would recommend that consumers pay attention to the quality of jade when choosing jade, rather than whether it has green or color. For example, the medium-grade jadeite: Tielongsheng, is full green and spicy, but it lacks water quality, which makes it not lively enough.

Large pieces of medium-to-low-grade Tielongsheng jadeite look more like "green marble" and are heavier in texture. Talking about color. There are also many colors: such as the common green, purple, yellow, red, colorless or white. And there is a more rigorous classification within the color types: for example, green jadeite is divided into apple green, imperial green, blue-green, olive green, and sunny green. Purple jade is divided into eggplant purple, pink purple, etc. To sum up: consumers should give priority to the quality of jade when purchasing jade. Of course, color is also very important. Good quality of jade combined with bright green or pink purple, etc., will have greater room for price increase.

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