Zhuo Yi Xuan and Hetian Jade: Which jade carving themes are popular with people?

In China jade carving culture, jade represents sacredness, beauty, gentleness and elegance. There is an old saying that "jade must have work, work must be intentional, and meaning must be auspicious". Hetian jade carving works often use loanwords, homophones and metaphors to express the meaning of the works.

Hetian jade carving themes are divided into five categories, namely figures, flowers and birds, fish and insects, beasts, mountains and rivers and vessels. This is the most common theme, and it is also the favorite and most widely used theme of sculptors.

Characters.

Among the themes of Hetian jade carving, figure carving is the first. However, every figure carving needs a solid carving foundation, especially the handling of the details of the characters' expressions, so it requires not only the sculptor's exquisite carving, but also the toughness of Hetian jade stone itself. In terms of character themes, some of them are particularly popular with jade friends, such as the white jade Guanyin pendant with sheep fat in Hotan and the image of Maitreya Buddha, which plays a very important role in the hearts of Chinese people.

Flowers, birds, fish and insects.

This is the most common decorative pattern in jade carving works, especially in ancient times, not only poems were sung with flowers and trees, but also jade with flowers, birds, fish and insects was worn as a symbol of noble integrity. Anything with aesthetic feeling in nature can be used as a sculpture theme, so flowers, insects and fish have also been given various meanings, such as rich flowers, fish becoming more and more abundant every year, bamboo rising steadily and so on, which are widely welcomed by people.

Beast.

Animal jade carving has the characteristics of the times, strong plasticity and variety. It is a decoration with the characteristics of the times. Many animal-shaped decorations first appeared in the Bronze Age. At that time, people initially used animal-shaped decorations to ward off evil spirits, and later gradually evolved into carved decorations on jade articles.

In the continuous development, the three-dimensional animal gods such as brave and unicorn have begun to take shape. Of course, dragon and phoenix decoration is also one of the decorations of animal modeling, and the appearance of dragon and phoenix together represents auspiciousness and happiness.

Mountain subclass

In other words, we are talking about landscapes or historical scenes. From a historical point of view, this Hetian jade carving is of great collection value and historical significance, and its ornamental value is also high. But now there are fewer and fewer large-scale Hetian jade raw materials, fewer and fewer large-scale landscape pieces, and the value of natural collection is increasing.

Vessels.

Most of this kind of carvings are domineering, and some of them are simple and elegant, which are very exquisite and rare. As a vessel, the consumption of materials will be more serious when carving, and then gold or silver ornaments will be used as decoration. Of course, jade was very simple at first, just simple modeling and polishing.