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 Although
China is known as the land of the dragon, silk and tea, no other basic
material is more closely identified
with Chinese culture than jade.
Jade is not unique to China. Other
early civilizations, such as pre-Columbian,
Meso-America
and the pre-historic Maori
of New Zealand, produced magnificent works in jade. But in
terms of quality, quantity variety and the extent
of continuous production-from neolithic times to the present day-Chinese
jade is probably unrivaled in the world.
Starting
around 6000 BC, people living in what is now central China began to
manufacture ritual objects out of jade. Remarkable about these early
pieces is the difficulty of working on jade, which cannot be cleaved
like other stones, but must be shaped by the process of abrasion.
Strictly speaking, jade cannot be“carved”.
Early pieces of jade were placed
in graves alongside the dead and used as plugs in various bodily orifices,
as jade’s hardness was believed to confer
immortality on the wearer. For the same reason, and for its semi-transparency,
jade has been attributed
the quality of moral virtue, and this is one reason why Chinese people
today still treasure jade and wear it close to their persons. As jade
confers virtue upon the wearer, the wearer also imparts his or her
personal virtue upon the jade. To the Chinese, jade is much more than
a hard, cold stone. In fact, one test of authenticity is that jade
should have a slightly oily touch.
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