There are many kinds of jade in China, which are distributed all over the country. Generally, the "four famous jade" in China refers to Hetian jade produced in Xinjiang, Xiuyan jade produced in Liaoning, dushan jade produced in Nanyang, Henan and turquoise produced in Yunxian, Hubei.
knowledge about jade in China
1. The first-class jade produced in Xinjiang is located in the Kunlun Mountain area in southern Xinjiang, starting from the east and ending in the west to Tashkurgan. There are more than 2 jade occurrences, and the jade belt is more than 1,2 kilometers long. Xinjiang jade distribution centers include shache, Tashkurgan, Hotan and Qiemo; In the middle, there are Manas in Tianshan area and Altun Mountain in northern Xinjiang.
2. The jades produced in Shaanxi include turquoise, green curtain jade, peach blossom jade, lilac purple jade, Shangluo jade, Luo jade, jasper, lantian jade and black jade. Turquoise is produced in Baihe, Ankang and Pingli counties, showing fish white green, green, sky blue and yellow blue. Green curtain jade is transparent or translucent, green, red and reddish brown, and there are often cracks on jade. Peach jade is transparent or translucent, with no streaks, and pure color, with rose as the main color, followed by crimson and pink. Lilac purple jade is produced in Shangnan Mountain. It is lumpy, light red and pink, and translucent. Shangluo Jade is produced in Zhaochuan Cave, Shangnan County. It is green, slightly transparent and fine in texture. There are slight cracks and white impurities in jade. Luocuiyu is produced in Huanghuazhang, Luonan County. It is tender blue, blue-green, slightly transparent, and has many streaks. Jasper is produced in Shuangmiaoling and Daweiyuan in Shangnan County. Blue-gray, slightly transparent or opaque. Lantian jade is produced in Yuchuan Township, Lantian County. It is gray, yellow, green and black, with patterns in it, fine texture, bright and clean. Moyu is produced in Songshugou, Heshangnan County, Fuping County. Jade is dark brown and opaque, and the better varieties are Shuicaocui and Oolong Eye.
3. The jades produced in Henan are dushan jade, Miyu, Meihua Jade, Black Green Jade and Xixia Jade. Dushan jade, also known as Nanyang Jade, is produced in Dushan, the northeast suburb of Nanyang City. It is rich in colors, with purple, black, brown, blue, green, cyan, red and white and mixed colors. It is divided into red hibiscus jade, green jade, green white jade, Tianyu, jade, Qingdushan, Black Dushan and Zidushan. Among them, emerald, green and red are the top grades, and water white jade is the best. The above four colors of jade are commonly known as Nanyang Emerald. Nanyang jade is translucent or transparent, but the rest are opaque. Miyu is produced in the western mountainous area of Mixian County, with fine texture, red meat, green, orange yellow, soot, black brown and other colors. Xixia county also produces a kind of jade called Xixia, which is transparent or opaque, milky white, slightly moist in texture, and there is a yellowish brown reddish stone skin outside the jade.
4. There are three kinds of jade in Liaoning, two of which are famous all over the country. First, the jade in Xiuyan County, which represents the originator of xiuyan jade in China, is called Xiuyu for short; One is the agate jade with rich salary. The other is Haicheng jade produced in Haicheng. Xiuyan jade is turquoise, green, light green, gray, white, black gray, color and yellow, with good transparency. Can be divided into five grades; Pure white, white green, emerald green, dark green and yellowish. Agate is produced in the places of Zhenjiawobu and Meiliban in Laohe, Fuxin. Most of them are red, white, black-green, gray, china white, sauce purple and yellow. Among them, chicken blood agate is the first; Followed by landscapes and agates; Among the Chinese products, there are cypress agate, zygote agate, cut agate (red and white), silk-wrapped agate (red and white variegated as silk), moss agate, jasper agate, coral agate, brocade agate and clam agate. The inferior product is fresh water-colored slurry agate, and the color is like jellyfish-colored ghost stone agate; Haicheng stone is produced in Haicheng, and the jade is slightly transparent and grayish green.
5. Qilian Mountain jade and Yuanyang jade have the highest output in Gansu. Qilian Mountain jade, commonly known as Jiuquan jade or Laoshan jade, is produced in Qilian Mountain, and its colors are: white, green, yellow, blue and variegated. Yuanyang jade is produced in the mountains of yuanyang town, Wushan County. It is yellow, green, dark green and black, and green is the best.
6. The jade produced in Jilin has long white jade. Changbai jade is produced in Panshi County of Jilin Province, Malu Township of Changbai County and Changlingzi of Shuangyang County. It is green and waxy.
7. The jade produced in Tibet includes Renbu jade, Guori 'a jade, Bai Yushi, ivory white jade, amber stone and amethyst. Renbu jade is grayish green, dark green and light green, which are three varieties and slightly transparent. Origin in Renbu County, Tibet, the quality is low-grade jade. Fruit Ri 'a jade is light gray or grayish white and slightly transparent; Ivory white is yellowish with enamel texture.
8. Jade varieties produced in Qinghai include Xiuyu jade, Chaidamu jade, dark green jade and Dulan jade. Jade in Qinghai is produced in Erhala Jade Gully and Jade Terrace in Ledu County, with white, yellow-green, black-gray-green as opaque or slightly transparent and waxy luster. Jade in Qaidam is produced in Mangya and Grey Wolf Gully in Wulan County, including yellow-green jade, gray-white jade, green-striped jade and green-spotted jade, with good stone quality. Qinghai dark green jade is produced in Wutuogou, dulan county, which is slightly transparent, dark green and of good quality. Although Dulan jade belongs to oily jade, it is very similar to dushan jade, Henan Province, with rich color but mostly dull luster.
9. The jades produced in Sichuan include jasper, turtle jade, Xiazhuyu, jet, topaz, Huiliyu, lapis lazuli jade, Xiazhucui, blue jade, peach blossom jade, nephrite and Longxiyu. Longxi jade is produced in Longxi Township, Wenchuan County. The jade is light green and dark green, which is between pro-sapphire and topaz in Xinjiang. Nephrite in western Sichuan is green in color, with yellow stars in between, waxy in luster and good in texture. Peach blossom jade is produced in Yanbian, Dukou, Derong, Mianning and other places. It is pink, blocky and fine-grained with bright colors. Blue jade is produced in Nanjiang and Wangcang, and it is light blue and blue-gray, similar to Brazilian blue jade. Xiazhu Cuiyu is produced in Derong and Ganzi, and its color is green, with white or grayish white spots, like jade. Lapis lazuli jade is produced in Kowloon and Kangding, and its color is fruit green and sky blue. Huili jade is produced in Huili, and its color is leafy green and dark green, with waxy luster. Jatopaz is produced in Xide and Dechang. Light yellow or yellow.
1. Jade in Guizhou includes Venus Jade, Guicui Jade, Purple Firefly Jade, Candle Coal Jade, Jasper Jade, Chrysospermum, Agate and so on. Venus jade is produced in southern Guizhou and western Guizhou. There are beautiful spots of verdigris in the stone, which are fine in texture and slightly transparent. Guicui is produced in southwest Guizhou, which is light green, but there are many sand holes. Candle coal jade, commonly known as black jade, is produced in Shuicheng. It is bright, massive and fine, with no cracks and wrinkles, and its hardness is acceptable. Jasper is produced in the northwest of Guizhou, with gray-green and oily-green color, waxy luster and fine texture. Chrysotile is produced in northern Guizhou and is green.
11. Jade in Yunnan includes jasper, grape jade, Dongling jade, xiuyan jade, chalcedony, soft crystal, turquoise, malachite and various feldspar.
12. Jade produced in Guangxi includes agate and serpentine, which are produced in Du 'an, Luchuan, Bobai and Sanjiang counties respectively.
13. Jade produced in Guangdong includes Xinyi Jade, Guanglv Jade and Peacock.
The development history of jade in China
The so-called five virtues refer to the five characteristics of jade. All beautiful stones with tough texture, crystal luster, gorgeous colors, dense and transparent organization and comfortable and far-reaching voice are considered as jade. According to this standard, jade in ancient people's mind includes not only real jade (amphibole jade) but also colored stone jade such as serpentine, turquoise, malachite, agate, crystal, amber, ruby, etc. Therefore, when appreciating ancient jade, we should not only use modern scientific knowledge to identify the pros and cons, but also have a historical perspective.
China is the main jade-producing country in the world, which not only has a long mining history, but also is widely distributed and abundant. China has a wise saying that "stones from other mountains can attack jade", which shows the true meaning of cutting jade. In fact, it's wonderful to seize or cut jade, grind jade and cut jade. The skill of cutting jade is superb, but the tools for treating jade are really simple. Until modern times, jade articles in China were not carved, but used emery, Shi Ying, garnet, etc. with hardness higher than that of jade, "jade-removing sand", which was paved with water to grind jade and cut into the designed finished products. Therefore, in jargon, making jade is not called carving jade, but treating jade. Traditional tools have been used to make jade, such as wire saws, disks made of steel and wrought iron, round wheels, drilling machines, semi-disks and wooden lathes. In the Neolithic Age and Bronze Age before the invention of ironware, most of the tools were even made of wood and bamboo utensils and backbone sandstone. It's a miracle that such a primitive tool can work out such wonderful jade articles. Jade in China has a long history, with a glorious history of 7, years. In the process of selecting stone tools 7, years ago, the ancestors of Hemudu culture in the south consciously made beautiful stones as decorations, dressed them up and remembered them to beautify their lives, which opened the curtain of Chinese jade culture. In the middle and late Neolithic Age, four or five thousand years ago, the dawn of Chinese jade culture shone everywhere, up and down the Yellow River and north and south of the Yangtze River.
There are many kinds of jade wares in Liangzhu culture, and the typical wares are jade cong, jade bi, jade yue, three-shaped wares and string jade ornaments. Liangzhu jade, which prides itself on its large size, appears profound and rigorous, and its symmetry and balance have been fully applied, especially the decorative techniques of bas-relief, especially the line engraving technique, which has reached the point where it is almost beyond the reach of later generations. At first, the jade carving level in Liangzhu was reflected by the various forms, numerous and inscrutable descriptions of jade cong and animal face feathers. Compared with Liangzhu jadeware, Hongshan Culture is rare in square jadeware, but it is characterized by animal-shaped jadeware and round jadeware. Typical vessels are jade dragon and jade beast ornaments. The biggest feature of Hongshan Culture's jade carving skills, such as jade hoop-shaped utensils, is that the jade craftsman can skillfully use jade materials, grasp the modeling characteristics of objects, and portray the images of utensils vividly with a few knives, which is very vivid. "Spirit likeness" is the biggest feature of Hongshan ancient jade. Hongshan ancient jade, not to win big, but to be exquisite.
According to the analysis that the ancient jade in Liangzhu and Hongshan are mostly from large and medium-sized tombs, the Neolithic jade not only has several uses such as offering sacrifices to heaven and earth, but also can ward off evil spirits, symbolizing rights, wealth and preciousness. From the beginning, jade articles in China were mysterious. The legendary Xia Dynasty was the first society in China. With the continuous accumulation of archaeological data, legends have gradually become a reality, and Xia culture is constantly being revealed. The style of jade in Xia Dynasty should be a transitional form from Liangzhu culture, Longshan culture and Hongshan culture to Yin Shang jade, which can be seen from the jade unearthed from Erlitou site in Yanshi, Henan Province. The seven-hole jade knife unearthed in Erli originated from the porous stone knife in the late Neolithic period, and the carving pattern has the origin of Shang Dynasty jade double-line outline, which should be Xia Dynasty jade.
The Shang Dynasty was the first country in China that had a written slave system. Shang civilization is famous not only for its solemn bronze ware civilization, but also for its numerous jade articles. Not many jades were found in the early Shang dynasty, and the cutting was also called rough. In the late Shang Dynasty, the jade unearthed from the Women's Tomb in Yinxu, Anyang was the representative. At the beginning, there were 755 pieces of jade, which can be divided into six categories: ritual vessels, ceremonial objects, tools, household utensils, decorations and miscellaneous objects. Jade craftsmen in Shang Dynasty began to use Hetian jade, and the quantity was large. In Shang Dynasty, there appeared the jade gui GUI and the jade jade GUI, which imitated the bronze yi (Yi Yi) wares. The jade articles of animals and figures are much more than geometric jade articles, such as jade dragon, jade phoenix and jade parrot, with different expressions and beautiful appearance. Jade people, or standing, or kneeling, or sitting, have various postures; It is difficult to tell whether it is a master, a slave or a prisoner. The earliest pretty jade in China-Jade Turtle appeared in Shang Dynasty. The most amazing and successful thing is that there have been a large number of round carvings in the Shang Dynasty. In addition, the jade craftsman also used the double-line parallel intaglio lines (commonly known as double hook lines) to consciously present a positive text between the two negative lines, so that the yin and yang lines can play a strong role at the same time, and the whole pattern can be changed to the best of its seconds. It not only eliminates the monotonous feeling of completely using the negative lines, but also enhances the three-dimensional sense of the Chinese lines in the music pattern.
While inheriting the double-line sketching technique of Yin-Shang jades, the Western Zhou jades created a jade carving technique with a thick slope line or a thin yinxian line, which shines brilliantly on bird-shaped jade knives and animal-faced jade ornaments. However, on the whole, the jade articles in the Western Zhou Dynasty are not as lively and diverse as those in the Shang Dynasty, but rather a bit rigid and too formal. This is also related to the strict patriarchal clan system and etiquette system in the Western Zhou Dynasty.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, political princes contended for hegemony, academic schools contended, culture and art flourished, and jade carving was brilliant, which was comparable to the Greek and Roman stone carving art in the Mediterranean basin at that time.
Reference: Jade articles in China.