DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63296#0028
EARLY CHINESE JADES
specks of chromite or chrome-iron-ore gradually give off the chromium
oxide by weathering, and so permeate and stain the surrounding white
jadeite* The sombre green and blue colour of some jadeites is, however,
due to iron*
The old indigenous jade had no real translucency, but the workers
sometimes tried to get an artificial translucency by cutting the material
into very thin slices. This was specially the case with some pi, probably
those used in the direct worship of Heaven* In the case of ts'ung it did
not seem to matter whether the objects were translucent or not, and many
of the early ts'ung are entirely deficient in this quality as, indeed, are the
early ritual vessels*
It is disficult to form any idea of what these native jades were like when
first quarried* Most of those we know have been buried for a long period,
and though jade is hard it is subject to change from underground water
and other causes* It sometimes becomes transformed into silicate of
magnesium (talc) and into calcium carbonate through excess of carbonic
acid in the water in which it may have lain for centuries* And sometimes,
through the action of sesqui-oxide of iron, it is transformed in colour to
yellow ochre and dark brown*
Without resorting to the ugly explanation of coloration by corpse blood
we may safely say that a prolonged sojourn in the yellow loess of China
would colour or discolour any object*
Jade is usually found in company with serpentine,1 and it is worth
noting that some of the stone objects of the Chou ritual, such as the
Libation Pot illustrated on plate 41, are made of serpentine*
It is disficult to state at all accurately when the supply of indigenous
jade gave out in China, but probably in late Chou days travellers from
the West may have brought jade stones [yii shih) to China* Remusat,
quoting a Chinese author of 200 b*c*, alludes to a piece of jade coming
from the Ch'ung mountain* He says they baked it three times in a
furnace for twenty-four hours and it did not suffer in colour or sheen,
which seems to show that Khotan was supplying jade to China in the
3rd century b*c* In any case, Khotan was open to Chinese trade in the
reign of the Emperor Wu Ti (140-87 B*c*), for it is recorded in the Annals
of the Former Hans that the first embassy from Yii then was received by
this ruler who conferred tokens of investiture upon the King of Khotan*
It was not, however, until the days of the Later Hans, in the 1st century
a*d*, that Yii then became of such great importance to the Chinese that
1 Ein Edelstein der Vorzeit, K. Forster.
4
specks of chromite or chrome-iron-ore gradually give off the chromium
oxide by weathering, and so permeate and stain the surrounding white
jadeite* The sombre green and blue colour of some jadeites is, however,
due to iron*
The old indigenous jade had no real translucency, but the workers
sometimes tried to get an artificial translucency by cutting the material
into very thin slices. This was specially the case with some pi, probably
those used in the direct worship of Heaven* In the case of ts'ung it did
not seem to matter whether the objects were translucent or not, and many
of the early ts'ung are entirely deficient in this quality as, indeed, are the
early ritual vessels*
It is disficult to form any idea of what these native jades were like when
first quarried* Most of those we know have been buried for a long period,
and though jade is hard it is subject to change from underground water
and other causes* It sometimes becomes transformed into silicate of
magnesium (talc) and into calcium carbonate through excess of carbonic
acid in the water in which it may have lain for centuries* And sometimes,
through the action of sesqui-oxide of iron, it is transformed in colour to
yellow ochre and dark brown*
Without resorting to the ugly explanation of coloration by corpse blood
we may safely say that a prolonged sojourn in the yellow loess of China
would colour or discolour any object*
Jade is usually found in company with serpentine,1 and it is worth
noting that some of the stone objects of the Chou ritual, such as the
Libation Pot illustrated on plate 41, are made of serpentine*
It is disficult to state at all accurately when the supply of indigenous
jade gave out in China, but probably in late Chou days travellers from
the West may have brought jade stones [yii shih) to China* Remusat,
quoting a Chinese author of 200 b*c*, alludes to a piece of jade coming
from the Ch'ung mountain* He says they baked it three times in a
furnace for twenty-four hours and it did not suffer in colour or sheen,
which seems to show that Khotan was supplying jade to China in the
3rd century b*c* In any case, Khotan was open to Chinese trade in the
reign of the Emperor Wu Ti (140-87 B*c*), for it is recorded in the Annals
of the Former Hans that the first embassy from Yii then was received by
this ruler who conferred tokens of investiture upon the King of Khotan*
It was not, however, until the days of the Later Hans, in the 1st century
a*d*, that Yii then became of such great importance to the Chinese that
1 Ein Edelstein der Vorzeit, K. Forster.
4