if unaffected by other factors , but usually they are variegated and
multi-coloured , showing a gamut of natural hues, because they are mixed
up with other elements and are under the infection and encroachment of them
In ancient China , there were a good number of places where jade was produced:
they are chiefly Hetian , Xinjiang ; Dushan of Nanyang , Henan Youyan ,
Liaoning , etc.
In ancient China , there was a variety of jade articles for various purposes
, covering many fields of social life. At first , in virtue of its adamant
substance and beautiful hues , it was used as appliances and adornments.
Owing to the rarity of the raw material and difficulty in its manufacturing
, it was exceptionally valued by those who owned it. When the primitive
religion was emerging , people used jade articles as ritual wares to be
dedicated to gods and ghosts . In class society, the rulers offered sacrifices
to heaven and earth and their ancestors with ritual articles which were
all made of jade. Jade was considered "the most precious treasure of
the nation ". Besides, in feudal society, nearly all important things
had something to do with jade: the pageant equipages that exhibited majesty
and sublimity; the ensigns and medals that indicated ranks of nobility and
dignity ; the tokens and tallies that warranted royal edict of other important
decrees ; the writ used in grand ceremonies, such as worshipping the god
of Taishan; the cevenant in grand meetings of sovereigns to form alliances;
the credentials of posthumous conferment of sovereigns to form alliances;
the credentials of posthumous conferment or obituary statement of anemperor
or an empress; utensila in a scholar's reading room for appreciation and
decoration; and other necessaries of daily life, all these things were either
directly made of jade , or partly furnished with it.
Why was jadeware so much valued and lasting of so long a time in the Chinese
history ? Aside from the reasons that it has excellent natural attributes,
such as adamant substance and beautiful colors, the more important reason
is that people extended its natural attributes into the social realm, bestowing
a virtuous attribute to jade. So it was particularly stressed in ancient
China that a gentleman should not part with his jadeware without rhyme or
reason, in order to show how clean and flawless, honest and upright he was.
Additionally, on occasions such as religious consecration, court audience
ceremonies, etc. Jade was both the scepter of the supreme governor, and
the symbol of the various high-ranked officials of the state.
From archaeological excavations we know that there were no jadewares discovered
in the Paleolithic Period. This is because the them productive forces were
rather at a very low level and their technique which was marked with chipped
atone implements, was unable to process and shape the jade material, which
was too hard to be carved without polishing, when human society had stepped
into the Neolithic Period, When people began to lean, through long accumulation
of productive experiences, the art of polishing, rubbing, engraving, boring,
cutting and sawing, especially, the last process in manufacturing a jade
ware, that is, polishing, (probably with the tiny particles of grit, to
make the surface of jadeware look more smooth and clean) and when people's
manufacturing technique got more and more advanced, that the Chinese people
began to deal with the harder and tougher materials like jade , bone and
horn; and after they had learned to use the arenaceous quartz to process
and polish the material , a jadeware was finally shaped . From then on,
an epoch of jade manufacturing was pioneered, This might be called the embryonic
period.
However , in the sites of the Hongshan Culture which scattered in Northeast
and Inner Mongolia of China , the Dawenkou Culture of the Shangdong Area,
and the majiabang Culture , Songze Culture and the Liangzhu Culture along
the southeastern Coast of China , large amounts of jadewares were unearthed,
of which the jade dragon of the Hongshan Culture and the jade "cong"
of the Liangzhu Culture , are the most exquisite , representing the highest
attainment of jadeware manufacturing of the primitive society of China Meanwhile,
We can see evidently from the palpable marks left on the surface of the
two "bi" of the Liangzhu Culture , that the primitive people knew
the application of the rotation wheels and must have used them in the polishing
of jadewares. Obviously, the jade manufacturing had entered a new era, and
began to be separated from stone workmanship at large and became an independent
art.
Since the slave society came into being in China , the jade manufacturing
technique had made a great stride along with the emergence of the bronze
implements . We have found in the stratum of the Xia_dynasty Culture of
the site of Erlitou, Yanshi County, Henan Province, a large number of peculiar
bronze implements: there are, fro example, a jigsaw for cutting , the bit
and the tube of a drill , a rotation wheel for polishing stones, etc. All
these things show clearly that the skilled application of these implements
would have greatly facilitated the manufacture of jadewres and made a progress
in its craftsmanship, with the result that a more regular and precise formation,
a more labour and time-saving polishing and a more smooth-faces and neatly
patterned looks of a jadeware had been achieved. In the meantime, owing
to the increasing need of jadeware be the slave owner , the jade manufacturing
became more and more centralized into the metropolis and important cities
, forming itself gradually into a separate and specialized trade of handicraft
, Thence the jadeware manufacturing had stepped into its burgeoning period.
The jade articles unearthed in the Erlitou cultural site belong to the Xia
and the early Shang Dynasties, They are of a number of types: for example,
there are the jade dagger-axe; the jade knife; the jade battle-axe; the
jade "gui"; the jade tablet; the jade "yuan"(something
like a "bi", but with a larger hole and a narrower rim); the jade
handle. etc. All of them being exquisitely manufactured . The jade articles
of pageant equipages and ritual wares were mostly evolved from weapons and
tools of prodection , The jade dagger-axe, unearthed at the Laoniupo site
of early Shang Dynasty, In the East suburbs of XI'an, could serve as an
example . It was exquisitely polished and regularly shaped. And used only
as a non-practicable pageant equipage, In the tombs of later Shang Dynasty,
Unearthed jadewares are numbered by thousands . In the Tomb of Fuhao alone
of the Yin Dynasty Ruins of Anyang County , there were as many as 755 articles
of jasewares unearthed in 1976, These jade articles fall into six major
kinds they are ritual wares pageant equipages, tools, life necessaries,
decorations and miscellanies. Besides, there are many jade decorations in
the round, liked the jade figurine , the jade dragon, jade tiger, jade elephant,
jade crane, etc. All being artistic rarities exquisitely polished and realistically
engraved. The jade figurine looks a little dull at the first sight, but
when you look at it more carefully, there seems to be a hideous expression
on its face.
Succeeding to the Shang Dynasty's technique, the jadewres of the western
Zhou Dynasty had a similar jadeware workmanship to that of later Shang Dynasty
. But from the middle period onward, they began to form a style of their
own, little by little. In the manufacturing of jadewares, In comparison
with jadewarees of the Shang Dynasty, theirs seen to be more simplified
and more exaggerative, more vivid and lifelike.
Up until the Eastern Zhou Dynasty , the jadewares had undergone a change
in their style: unlike those simple and succinct ones of the Western Zhou
Dynasty, they were decorated with patterns more complicated and variable;
and look more majestic and gorgeous; the detailed parts also changed their
patterns from plane to low relief; and the decorations are mostly in designs
of coiled dragons. Whirls, animal masks, etc. very similar to that on the
bronze wares, All these changes, after all had laid a foundation for the
future evolution of jadewares in the Warring States Period.
During the Springs and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, China
was in a historical era of social transformation, and feudalism was gradually
established in China proper . After the disintegration of the seven Chinese
history , under the Qin regime( Which was soon superseded by the Han regime
) was set up. At this time , because of the widespread application of the
steel and iron implements. The tools used in jade manufacturing were also
improved; especially, because the innovation of wheelsaccelerated the speed
of its rotation, coupled with the adoption of emery which is harder than
jade, in the polishing of jade articles, the technique of jade manufacturing
was given a great impetus and was making advances by leaps and bounds. During
this time, the jadeware manufacturing in China was made more and more perfect
and had stepped into a new period of speedy development.
During the Qin and Han Dynasties, when the state power of the feudal regime
was in its heyday, a new artistic style on the manufacturing of jadewares,
a style of fortitude and magnitude, naturalness and unconstraineding , directly
opposite to the meticulous and delicate style of the preceding period, had
gradually come into being, The manufacturing artis and design of art, extricated
itself from the mysterious and oracular atmosphere of religion ever since
the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and had found a new way of development in
the wide-spread application of the technique of hollow engraving , relief
and openwork, under the impact of the realistic art of painting.
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