Without the knowledge of jade, there can be no real understanding of Chinese civilization. The key to solving the riddle of world cultural development is khotan.
The gentleman without reason, jade does not go to the body.
In 1863, the French geological mineralogist tributaries, according to the Chinese qing dynasty emperor qianlong dynasty jade, spread to Europe for physical chemistry experiment, the results show that there are two kinds of YuCai, namely amphibole and pyroxene.
Amphibole is also known as soft jade, with a hardness of 6 to 6.5 degrees, and a proportion of 2.55-2.65. Its main component is the fibrous mineral of calcium silicate, which belongs to amphibolite. The color of amphibole is more closely related to the lipid of oil, pure color white, commonly known as mutton fat jade, delicate and warm, very valuable, the economic value is extremely high. Also because amphibolite contains a small amount of oxide metal ions and appears green, green, black, yellow and other colors or mixed colors. The pyroxene is also known as jadeite, because it is the best quality for the emerald green, and in China there are also jade.
The hardness is 6.75-7 degrees, and the ratio is 3.2-3.3. Pyroxene is mainly composed of sodium silicate and aluminum silicate, with a dimly crystalline structure, hard texture and high density, with glass luster and crystal clear crystal. Emerald green, apple green, Snow White, delicate lavender, all are the typical color of the pyroxene. Pyroxene (jadeite, such as jade) was widely adopted by Chinese artisans in the 18th century.
Therefore, the vast majority of ancient Chinese jade articles are amphibolite (soft jade, such as khotan jade) products. The mineral composition of hetian jade is composed of diophanite, which is mainly composed of the actinolite, and contains the minerals such as serpentine, graphite, and magnet, and forms white, turquoise, black yellow and other different colors. Most of them are monochrome jade, a few have mixed colors. The jade is semi-transparent and has a lipid sheen after polishing. The hardness is 5.5 to 6.4 degrees. This is the mineralogical jade.
Chinese cultural jade, the connotation is wider. Han dynasty xu shen in "said wen jie zi", said, jade, stone beauty and five virtues. The so-called "five virtues" refers to the five characteristics of jade. It is believed to be jade, which has a strong texture, brilliant luster, brilliant color, dense and transparent tissue, and the beautiful stone of zhiyang zhizhi's voice. According to this standard, the jade in the mind of the ancients not only includes the real jade (amphibole), but also includes serpentine, turquoise, malachite, agate, crystal, amber, red emerald and other colorful stone jade. Therefore, in appreciating ancient jade, we can not only use the modern scientific knowledge to discriminate the good and bad, but also must have the historical perspective.
China is a major producer of jade in the world, not only has a long history, but also has a wide geographical distribution and rich content. According to the mountain and sea scriptures, there are more than 200 places where Chinese jade is produced. After thousands of years of exploitation and utilization, some jade mines have dried up, but some famous jade mines are still being mined in large quantities, providing an endless supply of raw materials for the development of Chinese jade carving art. China's most famous jade land is xinjiang hotan. Hetian jade is the richest, the most colourful, the best quality, the highest price, is an important source of Chinese ancient jade material, the royal family all love to use the hetian jade mill. In addition to hetian jade, jiuquan jade in gansu province, lantian jade in shaanxi province, dushan jade in henan province and jade in the county, xiuyan jade in liaoning, etc., are also commonly used in Chinese jade articles.
There is a famous saying in China, called "the stone of other mountains, you can attack jade", which tells the true meaning of zhuoyu. Wonderful artical excelling nature, in fact, jade, not carved, but using the hardness is higher than the jade of silicon carbide, quartz and dopant of garnet sand "jade", supplemented by water to grinding jade, cut into the design of the finished product. Therefore, in the jargon, making jade is not jade carving, but called zhi yu, or zhuyu, grinding jade, grinding jade. The skill of dressing jade is superb, but the jade tool is simple.
Until recently, the Chinese had been using traditional tools such as circular saws, steel and wrought iron discs, round wheels, drill beds, half-disks and wooden lathes to make jade. In the neolithic and Bronze Age before the invention of iron, most of the tools were even made of wooden bamboo, bone and sandstone. Such a primitive tool, can work out such wonderful jade, is really a miracle.
Lin good jade article, clock divided into four elements: qualitative, modelling, craft, theme, these four elements make jade beyond its "mountain elite" natural attribute, and however the person's spirit: mountains and rivers of the elite, exquisite of humanities. Mountains and rivers of the elite, is material beauty, each piece of jade must figure out it is hornblende jade, or turquoise stones such as jade, agate, serpentine, crystal, further to explore its origin.
The beauty of the humanities refers to the beauty of the jade, the sculpting of beauty and the theme, and the technological and social factors that influence the beauty of the shaping. , due to the different generations YuCai cut jade jade tools and cut techniques, combined with aesthetic taste and the different customs and habits, jade the purpose and the role played by different, jade the modelling of each period and the theme is also each are not identical, and compete to bloom.
Chinese jade has a long history and has a glorious history of seven thousand years.
The ancestors of seven thousand years ago, in the process of selecting the stone maker, consciously made the beautiful stone made into ornaments, dressed themselves and beautified life, which opened the prelude of Chinese jade culture. In the late neolithic period, four or five thousand years ago, the dawn of Chinese jade culture shone brightly. It was separated from the stone industry and became an independent handicraft industry. With the liangzhu culture of the taihu lake and the hongshan culture of liaohe river basin, the jade is the most eye-catching.
Jade is a symbol of royalty and rank, and it is a means of praying for eternal life.
There are many kinds of jade articles in liangzhu culture, such as jade cong, jade, jade axe, trigeminal jade and jade collars. Liangzhu jade to usurp the role of big body, appear dark is rigorous, symmetrical balance has been fully used, especially in bas-relief of adornment gimmick, especially line carving skills up to the later generations also almost dust. The best way to reflect liangzhu is the variety of patterns, the numerous, and the inscrutable jade cong and the animal face feather tattoo.
Compared with the liangzhu jade, the red mountain culture is rare and rigid, but it is characterized by animal jade and round jade. The typical device is jade dragon, jade beast, jade hoop, etc. Cut of hongshan culture jade craft, the biggest characteristic is that the jade artisan can skillfully use YuCai, grasp object modelling characteristics, a few knife, the implements of image depicts lifelike, is very vivid. "Likeness" is the biggest characteristic of hongshan ancient jade. Hongshan ancient jade, do not win by the big, but with the exquisite.
From the liangzhu, hongshan ancient jade from the analysis of large and medium-sized tombs, neolithic jade in addition to worship the 2nd, buried so outside several USES such as resin, and to ward off bad luck, a symbol of power, wealth, and etc. The Chinese jade ware begins with a mysterious color.
The legendary xia dynasty is the first class society in China. With the accumulation of archaeological data, the legend has gradually become a reality, and the xia culture is constantly being revealed. The style of the jade in the xia dynasty should be the transitional form of liangzhu culture, longshan culture and hongshan cultural jade ware to Yin shang jade, which can be seen from the unearthed jade in erlitou site of henan yanshi. The jade knife unearthed in erlitou, the shape source of the new Stone Age of the porous stone knife, and the engraved pattern with the shang dynasty jade double line outline of the origin, should be the xia dynasty jade.
< 2 > shang dynasty was the first slave-owning state with written words in our country. Shang dynasty civilization is not only famous for its solemn bronze wares, but also famous for its many jade wares.
In the early shang dynasty, jade ware was not found much and the cut was rough. In the late shang dynasty, the jade ware was excavated from the tomb of Yin hui of anyang, and the jade ware was unearthed as the representative. In the shang dynasty, the jade craftsman used a lot of hetian jade. In the shang dynasty, there were practical utensils such as jasper GUI (GUI GUI), jade guigu, etc. Animal, character jade is far more than geometrical jade article, jade dragon, jade phoenix, jade parrot, the manner is different, the form god bixiao. The jade person, or stand, or kneel, or sit, the posture is varied; It is the master, or the slave or the captive, that is difficult to discern. The shang dynasty has appeared the earliest jade turtle in our country. Is the most impressive and the most successful, the shang dynasty has begun to have a lot of the round, jade artisan also use double parallel intaglio lines (commonly known as ShuangGou line), consciously will appear a Yang line in the middle of the two Yin line, and line play a role of stiffness and strong at the same time, the music do its magic and change the whole design. Eliminate the monotonous feeling that completely USES Yin line, enhance the stereo feeling of pattern pattern line again.
The western zhou yuer in inheriting Yin shang jade double line to outline the craftsmanship, the original one side of the slope thick line or the fine line carved jade craftsmanship, this is in the bird shape jade knife and animal face jade ornament to shine brilliantly. But on the whole, the jade in the western zhou dynasty is not lively and diverse, but it is a little stiff, too formal. It is also related to the strict patriarchal system and etiquette system in the western zhou dynasty.
The spring and autumn period and the warring states period, the political, hegemony between feudal lords as well as the academic schools of thought contend, the flowers on the culture and art, jade carving art bright, it can be with the Mediterranean basin of Greece, Rome, stone carving art.
In the eastern zhou dynasty,
For their own benefit, jade is the personification of themselves. They wear jade ornaments, to brand themselves as a virtuous man. "The gentleman without reason, jade does not go to the body." Every scholar, from head to toe, has a series of jade ornaments, especially the yupei series under the waist. So she was particularly developed. Can embody the spirit of The Times is a large number of dragon, phoenix, tiger shape, the shape is a dynamic beautiful S shape, with strong Chinese style and national characteristics. The decorative grain has a hidden grain pattern, with a hollowed-out technique, and a single shade line or double check line is placed on the ground, which is saturated and harmonious. The first snake body jade ornament, the parakeet arch jade ornament, reflects the spring and autumn state of zhuo jade level and peyu situation.
A large number of yupei unearthed in the tomb of zeng hou in hubei province, and the large jade juppe unearthed in guwai village in huixian county, henan province, are all made of jade pieces, which are the most difficult in the warring states period. Jade belt hook and jade sword (jade sword) is the new jade that appears at this time.