Jade carving is a traditional Chinese art and one of the most ancient carving varieties in China. It has a long history of over 7,000 years of continuous development. Jade carving is the concrete embodiment of Chinese jade culture, the jade carving with different age different, since ancient times throughout into a development, through which we can feel the unique Chinese rich and colorful cultural information.
Since the beginning of civilization, in so far, Chinese jade after all the changes, in countless skillful craftsman carved, developed into contains deep cultural inside information, artistic treasures with distinctive national features. The Chinese people are deeply rooted in their national feelings, and the jade has been deeply integrated in traditional Chinese culture and etiquette. Jade carving art is the most desirable in the traditional Chinese arts and crafts, is also a precious heritage of the cultural treasure of the Chinese nation, Chinese jade carving is unique among world jade technology field, flashing bright ray of light!
Chinese jade has a long history, as early as the paleolithic age, the Chinese nation is a jade ware, but at the time of the original ancestors did not apply to the distinction between ordinary stone, this period is also known as "jade coexist era". In the late neolithic age, the jade ware gradually separated from the stone tools and embarked on the process of independent development in technology and art. During this period, China entered the first peak period of jade production. In hemudu culture, dawenkou culture, liangzhu culture, hongshan culture and longshan culture site, all have exquisite jade unearthed. Among them, the jade ware unearthed from liangzhu culture and hongshan culture is the most eye-catching. It can be said that the foundation of jade culture is gestation and lay in the remote prehistoric times.
Xia was the first slave country in Chinese history. According to ancient documents, the xia dynasty was a country that believed in jade civilization. As China's first dynasty civilization jade, it is a prehistoric jades inheritance history summary on the one hand, on the basis of overall the style of of primitive simplicity is grave for some implements modelling, decoration and style innovation; On the other hand, it laid the foundation for the development of jade ware in the shang dynasty, and ushered in a new era of aesthetic features of jade ware in the new era, which played a role in the future. Currently known as the erlitou cultural jade, it is the representative form of the xia dynasty jade.
Jade carving is one of the important handicraft industry in the shang dynasty. It has been studied from the design and artistic style of the unearthed jade articles, and its achievements are no less than the bronze wares famous for the shang dynasty. The application of bronze tools in the process of making jade has greatly improved the technology of zhuoyu, and the shang dynasty jade wares have been refined in the aspects of modeling, carving and polishing, and many innovative breakthroughs have been made. In the early shang dynasty, there were few jade articles, such as yuge, tomahawk, shoveling, GUI, cong, knife, and jade, etc., with less variety and coarse cut. The late shang dynasty jade ware is represented by the jade ware unearthed from Yin hui of anyang. In the shang dynasty, the social function of jade ware changed greatly. At this time, the jade ware began to be used as a reward, and only the decorative jade was more than half. Most impressive of all, the shang dynasty has already appeared in China's earliest beauty jade, jade turtle, and began to have a large number of round carving works, can be said that the shang dynasty jade carving technology to a new peak.
Zhou dynasty was a powerful slave state after the shang dynasty, and also a patriarchal clan society. Zhou dynasty paid great attention to the establishment of the ritual system, so it deviated from the development track of shang dynasty jade, and developed into the etiquette jade. The wind of the zhou dynasty is extremely strong, and the jade technique is constantly improved to make the objects beautiful. In the aspect of work, in addition to inheriting the shang dynasty double hook line, it also created a rough side of the slope of the jade craftsmanship. Generally speaking, the western zhou dynasty jade not shang dynasty jade lively and varied, most is given priority to with slice shape, round are few, too rules, slightly dull, this is the western zhou dynasty strict patriarchal clan, custom system also.
In the spring and autumn and warring states period, which lasted for more than 500 years, political leaders were vying with each other for academic and cultural fields. Due to the iron instead of bronze tools, greatly promoted the development of the productive forces, jade handicraft industry to the spring and autumn period and the warring states era there have also been tipping point, craft exquisite, bright jade carving art. Hetian jade in the spring and autumn warring states period, a large number of input to the central plains, the Confucian scholars combine hetian jade and ceremony, ceremony ideas are embodied in hetian jade, jade culture the formation and development of China's jade carving art enduring theory basis, is the spiritual pillar of the Chinese people love jade 7000 fashion. The jade of the spring and autumn period is not the western zhou dynasty when the complanation, contracted, to the direction of hidden up, the heavy and complicated evolution, development to the warring states period, jade technology more mature, technique widely used, such as hollow out, anaglyph world-beating unearthed at the tomb of yi serves multiple class longfeng lines, henan huixian solid wai village unearthed large jade huang wei royal family page, etc., have reflected the warring states jade difficult state of the art. The spring and autumn period and the warring states period, the ritual jade, less peja jade, jade cong, common Juan, choi, bracelet, ring, sword, decorations, accessories, among them with jade and dragon accessories, most in addition to various burial jade jade belt hook, decree, and etc. If from the process level theory, the warring states jade ware is the most exquisite time in the Chinese ancient jade craft history.
In 221 BC, qin shi huang unified the six countries and established the first unified feudal state in the history of China. Terracotta army of qin dynasty are praised as the eighth wonders of the world, but unfortunately, the jade unearthed little, nor the jade emperor, the lack of representativeness, the qin dynasty jade carving art also depends on the underground archaeological discoveries.
The Chinese jade ware reached the third peak during the han dynasty. The han dynasty was a golden age in China's history, with social stability and strong national strength. It was also a period of prosperity and development in the history of Chinese jade. Continuation of the spring and autumn period and the warring states period of the western han dynasty shape characteristic, the change is not too big, the eastern han dynasty in the tradition of western han dynasty jade slightly variation, added strong decorative color, and the western han dynasty the forceful energetic work has been difficult to reproduce, at this point, the bases, YanMao carved jade, etc. Han yu variety is rich, the quantity is numerous, the processing craft is exquisite, according to its social function and the use different, can be divided into the gift jade, the burial jade, the adornment jade, the Chen set jade four broad categories. In the han dynasty, the jade was less than the previous one, while the decoration jade and burial jade increased greatly, and the jade appliances also had a great development. Among them, the most representative of the han dynasty jade features and the craft level, is burial jade and furnishings. Famous was known as the burial jade, display jade is more can reflect the technological level of Chinese jade, jade benma, bears, eagles, jade jade jade to ward off bad luck three-dimensional sculpture, condensing the artistic style of han dynasty is thick and vigorous. In the han dynasty jade carving techniques are becoming more and more diverse, and the techniques of concealing and hollowing are very skillful and widespread, and the high relief and the round carving are also widely used. The thick and thin lines are the characteristics of the jade carving in the han dynasty. It is an important symbol of the jade carving in the han dynasty. "Han ba dao" is also famous for its concise carving style, especially with jade weng zhong, jade cicada and jade pig as the representative, which became a feature of jade carving in the han dynasty.