It is an unavoidable problem for contemporary jade collectors to grasp the uniqueness of contemporary jade culture and learn to collect from the perspective of culture. What is hidden jade? In fact, the pursuit of collection is a cultural realm, which is the core content, the pursuit of the significance of jade culture also lies in this.
In the history of our country, jade culture has a long history, which can be called the symbol culture of Chinese culture which has the longest time of inheritance and runs through the whole civilization history. Today, in the inheritance of the same time, the connotation of jade culture has changed greatly due to different times. How does this change affect collections? How does a collector position himself in the new cultural context? Such a question is of vital importance to the whole jade collection community as well as individual jade collectors.
Flowing jade culture
Now more and more people are willing to speak about jade culture, who hold all kinds of activities related to jade, regardless of the exhibition or sales, will certainly play the banner of promoting jade culture, so, what is the jade culture under the background of contemporary social life? What do you want to promote, and what do you want to promote?
In fact, in the long river of history, jade culture is not an empty concept, nor is it a static and fixed definition. Looking back at our history and carefully studying the time traces left by ancient jade, we can find that jade culture is a dynamic change process, different times, its meaning is not the same, this is doomed to the contemporary jade culture must have the characteristics of the contemporary.
for example, the spring and autumn period and the warring states period of jade culture is the culture of "the ritual", it keep the characteristics of the communication between human and nature on the one hand, on the other hand, with the aid of the physical properties of ideological and moral, jade as "than the gay coat that makes the gentleman in the jade", is the ethics attached to the jade, jade with the physical properties of to establish the thought system, standardize and guide the social with people.
In the qin and han dynasties, the concept of "courtesy" tended to disappear, the symbol of power and political power of jade was highlighted, and the concept of wealth gradually strengthened, and then the cultural track of jade developed towards the symbol of identity and wealth.
By the Ming and qing dynasties, the religious significance of jade has disappeared, jade into the symbol of power -- the royal control of jade mining rights, the use of jade for the royal exclusive...... At this time, jade is the status symbol of the dignitaries, as well as the embodiment of wealth value, but also the carrier of art, with distinct artwork characteristics.
But in the modern age, jade no longer represents power, no longer represents the divine right, no longer represents "rites", even no longer represents wealth... So what exactly is contemporary jade?
In fact, when jade is no longer exclusive to the royal family and enters into the market economy environment, it first has the property of commodity -- jade is a commodity in the contemporary era. Second, jade is different from other commodities. It has its own core characteristics, which are closely related to various social needs. It has both material and spiritual meanings. It can be said that the characteristics of jade artworks are the foothold of contemporary jade culture.
We can see that the rise of jade culture is in China's economic strength gradually enhanced, people in the material level of satisfaction to the spiritual level after the emergence. The consumption of jade gradually enlarges, the audience increases dramatically and the price rises. This phenomenon has become a "cultural hotspot", which is dependent on the influence of art, the philosophy attached to jade itself, and the aesthetic appreciation of art, which is of contemporary significance. When you use the concept of art to look at the jade collection, thinking and value judgment naturally also clear.
Is jade's collection "crazy"
I have heard a saying that what we are seeing now is not crazy at all, at least not the craziest compared to history.
First of all, the ancient people are obsessed with the state of jade, using the communication of heaven and earth, people and nature, contemporary people are not this state; Secondly, we are most familiar with the case is the state of qin used to exchange 15 cities for the bi of heshi - a piece of jade can be equal to 15 cities, that is the real "crazy". Similarly, we can see how jade was used in the qing dynasty: at that time, some big jade was collected from the kunlun mountains in xinjiang, and then all the way back to the capital, plus famous craftsmen... For a piece of jade, its consumption of manpower, material resources and gold and silver is unimaginable today, "crazy" degree staggering. On the other hand, today, the reason why we have a "crazy" feeling of the jade market or our starting point is too low, "crazy" is produced by contrast with the disregard for jade culture and value 30 years ago.
That's an interesting statement, and the question we're going to ask is, what is it about jade that is suddenly developing so strongly in our time?
In essence, the reason why the contemporary nephrite collection shows the trend of explosion is actually the cause of culture, which is caused by the return of culture. As the essence of traditional culture, every Chinese is experiencing traditional culture, including the influence of jade culture intentionally or unintentionally. We left in the language of jade praise, jade idioms too numerous to enumerate, "it is better to be jade broken, not all" is about sentiment, "full of gold and jade" is about wealth, "yan ruyu" is about aesthetic...... Jade is a material full of Oriental cultural characteristics. With the rise of China's economy, Oriental culture is becoming stronger and stronger. Chinese people have innate affinity and yearning for jade, which is expressed when the time is ripe. Therefore, "crazy" shows the yearning, research and learning of the ancient cultural tradition is positive and beneficial.
But on the other hand, at present in the cultural upsurge surging at the same time also exposed the problem, which is due to the expansion of the commodity attribute of jade brought a variety of short-term behavior and utilitarian speculation. For resources, we have seen the drain to catch fish. It is distressing to see the "madness" expressed in such a way.
Conversely, look at how the ancients gathered jade. What is very interesting is that in our ancient time, jade collection is exactly the way that jade culture expresses the harmonious coexistence between man and nature. Because in the past, jade mining was the exclusive use of the royal family, whose basic form was to go to the river to collect jade after the outbreak of mountain torrents. Nature will bring downstream seed materials every year, year after year, people enjoy the gift of nature. We don't have enough seed. We need some more mountain material, that's all. Harmonious coexistence with nature is the attitude of culture, and it is also our due attitude to rare resources.
Collection pursues a cultural realm
Jade culture will eventually fall on the specific raw materials and works of jade, also through the collection of behavior to reflect. After we determine the commodity attributes and art attributes of jade, collection behavior also around this positioning.
Can say, jade collection, must be related to money, but not a simple business, to collect good things is not only rely on money can be solved, and for collection, the process is much more important than money.
Let me give you an example. Because of my work, I have to "show things" to others almost every day.
Some people spent more than 60 million yuan to buy more than 100 pieces of "sub-material", as far as I can see, one third of these so-called "sub-material" is dyed, and there is still a large amount of "abrasive", the real value must be far from 60 million yuan. We look at examples like this and ask, why do we see things like this most often?
I think, from the behavior motive is concerned, when take out a lot of money has been used to buy jade, buyers on is not a cultural value, also have no aesthetic and artistic concept, he, jade, is the most to see the appreciation space, because the profitable investment, but, we have said, jade attribute is a commodity, as well as works of art, for jade, no cultural basis what is investment? In practice, investment often evolves into speculation. Since it is speculation, so "steal chicken not corroding rice" it is a kind of normal result.
Spending money, "corroded rice" will have a painful feeling, but this feeling is different from the real experience of collecting. Collection is a happy and painful staggered process, will also occur, inevitably pay tuition, but this process is a promotion of their own culture, taste and appreciation of the process. Through this process, an ordinary collector grows into a first-class expert in identification, an expert in a certain field, and fully enjoys all kinds of happiness brought by collection -- know, understand, this is the enjoyment of life. On the contrary, the purchase without culture is in essence a process of spending money, and its happiness turns into the happiness of possession, thus deviating from the proper connotation of collection.
So, we can see, what is the hidden jade hidden? In fact, the pursuit of collection is a cultural realm, which is the core content, the pursuit of the significance of jade culture also lies in this.
Jade is not advertising can be widely into the field of consumption, because about jade advertising has actually been done for thousands of years. As more and more people like jade, jade culture will further into our life, making our life more colorful. In this process, there are two points to emphasize again: the first is the mentality, do not pick up, but in the collection of attention, measure growth; The second point is to choose the right path, don't listen to the story, believe that all kinds of vague unclear path can bring unexpected "miracle". The reason why we do the special auction of contemporary jade is to build a normal collection path for collectors.
After all, collecting is a process of hiding in music. For jade, materials, age, craft and creativity all need to be studied and judged by collectors. Among them, there are difficult links, and these difficulties are where the fun lies.