Jade Carving in China
Art of Chinese Hardstone Carving in Nephrite,
Jadeite.
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Jade Carving in China
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Jade Carving in China (c.4900 BCE onwards)
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What is Jade? Characteristics and Composition In Chinese art, "jade" (known by the Chinese character "yu") is an ornamental stone used in a wide variety of jewellery art, figure carving and other types of sculpture - in statue-form and relief sculpture. Jade carving has been an important material in goldsmithing since the age of prehistoric art, and still accounts for most of China's hardstone carving. One important reason why carved-jade objects were (and are) so highly prized, is because the Chinese believe that jade represents purity, beauty, longevity, even immortality. In addition, jade carvers valued the stone for its glitter, translucent colours and shades. (For more about the cultural principles of ancient China, please see: Characteristics of Traditional Chinese Art.) Since the time of the Majiabang, Liangzhu and Hongshan cultures (4700-2900 BCE), most jade carvings have been made from either nephrite or jadeite, although until the late 18th century Chinese jade objects were almost always carved out of nephrite. Jadeite has a similar hardness to quartz, while nephrite is a little softer, but since both varieties are as hard as steel, they cannot be cut or carved with metal tools. Indeed, the traditional method of carving jade was to wear it away with carborundum sand and a soft tool: a technique since replaced by rotary tools with diamond bits. Historically, due to its rarity and technical difficulties of manufacture, the wearing and use of jade was restricted to tribal leaders, then Emperors and noblemen, and was most commonly used in the carving of ritual vessels, ceremonial utensils and other totemic objects, representing status and power. See also: Asian Art (from 38,000 BCE onwards). |
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The Chinese character "yu" is always translated into English as "jade". However, this translation masks an important difference between Chinese and Western culture, since in Chinese or Korean art the meaning of jade is considerably wider than the Western meaning. A more correct translation of "yu" might be "hard ornamental stone", since Chinese craftsmen usually employ the term "yu" to cover several related jadelike stones, including bowenite (a form of serpentine), as well as jadeite and nephrite. Although jade is popularly thought of in the West as a greenish material, in China, it has always been white jade that has traditionally been more highly prized than green. Since the era of ancient art, traditional Chinese jade carvings were made from nephrite, a crystalline calcium magnesium silicate, which in its pure natural state is creamy white, although the presence of iron impurities may turn it green, yellow, brown, grey, or even black. Measuring between 6.0 and 6.5 Mohs in hardness, Nephrite is slightly softer than jadeite, with a greasy lustre, and was sourced chiefly from Yarkand and Hotan in the Xinjiang autonomous region of northwestern China. Since about 1800, Chinese jade carvers have also used jadeite, another (harder) type of jade, imported from northern Myanmar (Burma). A granular sodium-aluminum silicate, measuring between 6.0 and 7.0 Mohs in hardness, jadeite (also known as "feicui") is a translucent stone, typically brilliant green in colour, that often has a glassy appearance. Rarer colours include pink, lavender, orange or brown. China was, and is, one of the world's top sources of jade stones. The most popular varities include: Hetian jade, Dushan jade, Xiuyan jade and turquoise. Lesser stones include agate, malachite, aventurine, and mixian county jade. Hetian Jade Dushan Jade Xiuyan Jade Turquoise
Initially, jade carvings were limited to Neolithic and Bronze Age tools, including axes, arrowheads, chisels, and the like. The ancient Chinese considered the sky to be round and the earth to be square, so they made round and square shaped objects out of jade, in order to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth. Popular animal shapes included the dragon and phoenix - both divine animals revered in ancient China. Jade was also used for tomb objects carved to honour ancestors, exorcise evil, and protect against disasters, while personal jade items were worn in order to purify one's soul. Later, Jade became a favourite material of the Chinese scholar class, especially for personal objects, like holders for calligraphy brushes, and even mouthpieces for opium pipes, due to the popular notion that they would bestow longevity on the smoker. Other categories of jade objects included: (1) Ritualistic objects, such as the bi, the cong, the huang, the hu, the gui and the zhang. (2) Ceremonial weaponry - jade daggers and swords - and associated fittings. (3) Personal items of jewellery or adornment, including rings, pendants, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, hairpins, clasps, buckles, belt decorations, and so on. (4) Domestic items for decorating houses. (5) Small figurative carvings of animals, and people.
The history of art in China reflects the huge significance attached to the jade stone, which is considerably greater than the West's love of diamonds and gold. Ever since the era of Xia culture (1700-1600 BCE), the most precious objects crafted for the Emperor and his court were made of jade.
The earliest examples of jade discovered in the area of the middle and lower Yangtze River have been dated to the era of Neolithic art, in particular the Majiabang culture (c.4000-2000 BCE) as well as the later Songze and Qingliangang cultures of northeastern China. (See: Chinese Neolithic Art.) Particularly sophisticated jade items have been found in Liangzhu culture settlements (c.2500 BCE) in southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang provinces (c.3400–2200 BCE). Believed to be largely ceremonial objects, they include the earliest known examples of the "cong" - cylindrical tubes encased in rectangular blocks, symbolizing yin [square, earth, female] and yang [circular, heaven, male] and associated with Neolithic shamanism - as well as the "bi", the flat, perforated disk which was later adopted as the symbol of heaven. Archeologists have also found numerous ceremonial gui and zhang blades, adze heads, axes and knives, plus a wide variety of ornamental circular and arc-shaped jade pendants, bracelets and necklaces, together with a number of masks. Shang Dynasty (c.1600–1050 BCE) During the era of Shang dynasty art, notably at Anyang, a new range of jade objects began to be carved, such as ceremonial weapons and their fittings, as well as ritual jades (the cong, the bi), personal jewellery, and dress ornaments. In addition, a range of small figurative sculpture appeared, such as birds and animals carved in the round, including the earliest examples of "mingqi" - jade figures representing individual servants which were buried in the tombs of wealthy aristocrats, in order to serve the deceased. During the era of Zhou Dynasty art, production of jade cong, bi and other ritual forms was maintained, while a new series of sceptres was produced to denote the differing ranks of the nobility, and to act as ceremonial batons. Also, jade plugs and plaques were used to seal the seven orifices of the deceased's body before burial. To begin with, Zhou jade craftsmen imitated the designs of their Shang predecessors, but during the middle period of the dynasty, they started to introduce less-systematic designs, featuring zoomorphic motifs which later gave way to more abstract patterns. Other developments included the use of iron tools and harder abrasives, which gave carvers more sculptural options. More intricate jade relief sculpture appeared, including designs for ornamental scabbard and dress fittings and plaques, some of which were made from incredibly thin sheets of jade. Han Dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE) By the time of Qin Dynasty art (221-206 BCE) and its successor - Han Dynasty art - jade objects were becoming increasingly embellished with animal and other decorative designs, while Zhou carvers became highly skilled in the creation of detailed relief work on items like belt-hooks, clasps and plaques that were part of the typical aristocrat's wardrobe. The most extraordinary jade artworks of the Han Dynasty were the "jade suits" made for deceased nobles to ward off evil spirits in the afterlife. These amazing ensembles, include those for Prince Liu Shen and his wife Princess Dou Wan, made from over 2,000 jade plaques sewn together with as much as almost threequarters of a kilo of gold thread. Another jade suit, fashioned from more than 4,000 plaques, was discovered in the royal tomb of Zhao Mo. Other jade carvers borrowed motifs from Chinese painting and from bronze sacrificial vessels, as a means of showcasing their technical flair. See: Tang Dynasty art (618-906). For a long time thereafter, jade remained the exclusive preserve of the royal imperial families, and since the time of Song Dynasty art (960-1279), jade carving has been seen as a major art form, reaching its peak during the era of Ming Dynasty art (1368-1644), when another world renowned artform - blue and white Chinese porcelain - was also achieving its apogee. Until the era of Qing Dynasty art, Chinese jade objects were made of nephrite (or bowenite), known as white jade, or Khotan. Then, around 1800, merchants began importing a vivid green variety of jadeite from Burma, known as Feicui, or Kingfisher Feathers Jade. This new stone quickly became the favourite of the Manchu court, although scholars and old-style aristocrats maintained a preference for the milky white jades made from nephrite. During the Qing period the production of jade utensils came to a peak, featuring items like jade cups, bowls, drinking vessels, and bottles, used mainly by royal and noble families. Further Resources For more about traditional arts and crafts in China, see the following: - Chinese
Pottery (from c.10,000 BCE) |
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• For more about hardstone carving in China, see: Visual Arts Encyclopedia.
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