Jade was considered in ancient China as the most precious and valuable of all stones. It also represented the values and the spirit of their traditional culture. The admiration for jade was so great that it became a symbol; from this, there is an old Chinese proverb that says: “You can put a price on gold; but jade is priceless.”
Its thinker Confucius, who lived in ancient China around the year 551BC., said that jades were soft, smooth and shiny as benevolence; compact, beautiful and strong as intelligence; with sharp edges, without cutting others, such as justice; solid and dense as wisdom; clear inside out, representing honesty.
Also in ancient China they saw jade as the “essence of heaven and earth”; and for millions of years, it was an intrinsic part in their culture; so they said: “The living people wear jade as a symbol of their moral integrity; and jade accompanies the dead to comfort their souls”, as burying jade objects with the dead was a very common and traditional practice in ancient China. They based their beliefs on the idea that jade possessed the qualities of nobility, perfection, constancy and immortality to prevent the decomposition of the physical body.
Also during the Shang-Yin Dynasty, BC, jades were used at funerals in several ways; thus they came to be used to cover the holes of the dead as they believed that this prevented the putrefaction of the body.
This civilization attributes to jade certain characteristics when polished and carved into different objects; they consider that if it is not polished and cut with due skill, it will never express the beauty and potential the stone deserves. Hence there is a famous Chinese saying: “If jade is not properly cut, it cannot be made into a useful utensil”; therefore one of the most important process to manufacture jade objects is the exact cut made on the stone.
Moreover, the ancient craftsmen in ancient China carved true artistic treasures; in which infinite patience and dedication was engaged in making wonderful jade pieces. It is said that there were pieces in the imperial palace that took more than seventy years to be made; and some more than a hundred years. Testimonies indicate that it required expert goldsmiths to develop prestigious pieces, which are in some museums.
Even today, for the splendid Chinese civilization, jade has become an indispensable part in their lives. The infinity number of properties that was conferred to this stone spread throughout the world; and though time passes, it will continue representing perfection, wisdom and all the beauty in only one stone. Keywords: Life Jewel, jade, ancient, China, stone, civilization, Confucius, symbol, traditional, cultural.
ALFA