Jade: A Symbol of Beauty, Power and Immortality in Chinese Culture

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Definition and types
Jade was defined as beautiful stones by Xu Shen (c. 58-147) in Shuo Wen Jie Zi, the first Chinese dictionary. Jade is usually classified into soft jade (nephrite) and hard jade (jadeite). Since China only had soft jade until jadeite was imported from Burma during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), nephrite traditionally refers to soft jade, so it is also called traditional jade. Jadeite is called Feicui in Chinese. Feicui is now more popular and valuable than soft jade in China.



Historical significance
The history of jade is as long as Chinese civilization. Archaeologists have found jade objects from the early Neolithic (around 5000 BC), represented by the Hemudu culture in Zhejiang Province, and from the middle and late Neolithic, represented by the Hongshan culture along the Liao River, the Longshan culture along the Yellow River, and the Liangzhu uae email list culture (in the Lake Tai region). Jade has been increasingly popular until today.

Cultural significance
The Chinese love jade not only for its beauty, but more importantly for its culture, meaning and humanity, as Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC) said, there are 11 virtues (德) in jade:

“The wise have compared jade to virtue. To them, its polish and luster represent all purity; its perfect compactness and extreme hardness represent the certainty of the intellect; its angles, which do not cut, though they seem sharp, represent justice; the pure and lasting sound it makes when struck represents music. Its color represents fidelity; its internal flaws, always revealed through transparency, remind one of sincerity; its iridescent brightness represents heaven; its delicious substance, born of mountains and water, represents the earth. Used alone without ornament, it represents chastity. The price which the whole world places on it represents truth.” To support these comparisons, the Book of Verses says: “When I think of a wise man, his merits seem to me like jade.”