The appreciation of jadeite’s value will undergo certain changes as the times progress!

Jade was not particularly common in ancient history. It can be said that it was relatively rare before Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. It was only after Emperor Qianlong harmonized and stabilized Yunnan that it began to appear in large numbers in the palace, and most of them were small pieces. When collecting jadeite, one should mainly look at its texture, which is what people now often refer to as its quality, water content, and color.

Judging from the jade collection in the Forbidden City, every era has its own perspective on appreciating beauty. The collections in the Palace Museum have profound historical and cultural value and are worthy of appreciation, but their texture does not meet the aesthetic demands of modern people. Nowadays, the best quality items are those with good texture, water quality and color.

There are more than 800 pieces of jadeite collection in the Palace Museum, most of which are jade wares specially used by the court from the reign of Emperor Qianlong to Empress Dowager Cixi. They are truly artistic treasures with high cultural relic value!

During the Qianlong period, traditional jade culture was greatly inherited and developed, gradually shifting from a jade culture based on white jade to a jade culture based on jadeite. In terms of carving technology and aesthetic standards, it reached an artistic peak! Afterwards, it gradually spread from the palace to the people, with Empress Dowager Cixi being a huge driving force behind it.

Since the Republic of China, jade is no longer exclusive to the royal family. Jade culture has truly become one of the outstanding cultures of the Chinese nation and has been widely inherited and carried forward.

Since the reform and opening up, as people's living standards have been improving, the demand for jade has also been growing, and the jade market has gradually become prosperous...

Or maybe it can be said that times are progressing. Even if some people have doubts about the craftsmanship and ornamental value of the former Qing Palace collections, their historical and cultural value and scientific research value cannot be measured by money! Perhaps nowadays, no matter how good your craftsmanship or the quality of the jadeite, it is at best a high imitation and its collection value is incomparable.

Also, relative to the era, the materials of the Qing Palace collections are not ideal when measured by today’s aesthetic standards! Most of them are carved from bean-type and glutinous-type jadeite. The quality of the jade is poor, but the green color is the most valuable. The main color tone is the same as today.

Therefore, it can be confirmed to a large extent that due to the limitations of mining conditions in the past, the mines for jadeite mining at that time probably only had rough jadeite of this type of water and color grade. It’s not that I don’t like full green jadeite, or ice or glass jadeite!

Today, the quality and value of jadeite is evaluated from the following six aspects: type, water, color, flaws, workmanship, and overall impression. Due to the limitations of the times, the Qing Palace collections focused on color and did not pay attention to quality of water, but this does not affect people's aesthetic views of jadeite today.

Chinese jade culture is a continuous inheritance and is now carved using CNC machine tools. But no matter what, we cannot favor the present over the past. As the times progress, jade carving culture must also keep pace with the times. Only in this way can we better meet the needs of the majority of jade lovers and make positive contributions to the construction of socialist spiritual civilization!