Jade Culture in China

There are only two kinds of jade in mineralogical definition, namely jadeite and nephrite. Jadeite, also known as jadeite, is a collection of cryptocrystalline diopside in sodium-aluminum diopside, in which the red one is Fei and the green one is Cui, collectively referred to as jadeite. Its name comes from the name of the red and green bird, so the word jade in the name includes the word "feather". Nephrite is a collection of microcrystalline tremolite, such as Hetian jade series.

Broadly speaking, there are various kinds of jade. Generally, rocks with hard texture, bright luster and pleasant color are called jade, such as Dongling jade (quartzite), Huang Longyu (topaz) and Meihua jade (including almond andesite). There are soft green rocks called jade, such as xiuyan jade (serpentine) and lantian jade (serpentine), which have low hardness but are also called jade. In addition, there are dushan jade (plagioclase) with higher hardness, pyrophyllite altered by acidic volcanic rocks with the lowest hardness, talc and serpentine jade of ultrabasic rocks, such as Qingtian stone, Shoushan stone and Yin Zhangshi.

Up to now, there is no unified definition of jade in China's business circles. For example, Huang Longyu in western Yunnan was put forward at the end of 20th century, and it was heated up at the beginning of 20th century. Some are weathered and dyed, and some are red and yellow with a small amount of iron and manganese, hence the name Huang Longyu. The raw stone of tens of yuan/kg is fried into tens of thousands-hundreds of thousands of yuan/kg. Only 3-5 books written by a few famous artists have produced a group of stone merchants with deep pockets overnight.

Jade occupies a very high position in China culture, so there are idioms such as "faithful as jade", "flawless jade", "broken jade is not as good as all jade", "uncut jade is not a tool" and "uncut jade is not a tool". After the extension, there appeared "jade girl" and "beauty as jade", describing girls as jade, "jade body is exquisite" and "slippery as jade" and so on. The greetings of the younger generation to the elders have also been replaced by "healthy health". In any case, jade belongs to a commendatory term, praising its precious, faithful and lofty qualities.

Yulong?

In the Neolithic Age, there were jade dragons in Hongshan Culture, western Liaoning, and jade cards in Hemudu culture. Yufu, Yuhuan and Yuchong were sacrificial ceremonies in Shang Dynasty. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there was a special decree; During the Han and Tang dynasties, there were gold thread and jade clothes; During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there was jade; There are also jade cabbages and jade watermelons in the Cixi period, which all reveal the importance that China people attach to jade. There are also jade buddhas in famous temples, all carved from white jade.

As far as novels are concerned, the Empress Dowager lived in the "Jade Palace", and the beautiful jade Lantian in the celestial world was born for food, and Jia Baoyu was born with jade. The poems "Three Million Flying Dragons" and "Jade Clarifies the Love in Wan Li" by the Chairman all worship jade.

(2) The main mineral composition of jade

The authentic jade in China should be Hetian jade in Xinjiang, followed by lantian jade, followed by xiuyan jade and dushan jade.

(1) Hetian jade. Also known as nephrite, it belongs to tremolite jade, and its genesis may belong to hydrothermal metasomatism, that is, low-temperature hydrothermal solution is injected into dolomite, which reacts to generate microcrystalline tremolite veins (from TV series). This kind of rock interwoven by tremolite slender microcrystals has certain toughness. Tremolite formed in regional metamorphic low temperature greenschist facies environment generally belongs to magnesium calcium silicate, and nephrite has the same composition as tremolite, but nephrite contains a small amount of iron, so it has red, green and variegated colors. They crystallize into radial and flower-like shapes, and there is no interwoven structure. Therefore, although the Paleoproterozoic Hutuo strata in Shanxi generally contain dolomite sedimentary strata, only tremolite marble can be formed after metamorphism, and tremolite with microcrystalline interwoven structure is not seen.

Commercially, the primary ore produced in Hetian jade in Shan Ye is called "mountain material", but it is eroded by rivers and accumulated in the river bed to form "young jade". People in the jade industry believe that weathering and water erosion will change the appearance and internal structure of rocks, making them more moist and delicate, so the price of jade seed material is higher than that of mountain material.

According to Hotan Jade Forum, China's profound jade knowledge and culture have been recorded since ancient times. In ancient books, there are several statements about Hetian jade. There is a saying in Qian Zi Wen that "Li Jinsheng is rich in water, and jade makes Kungang". Kungang jade refers to Hetian jade. According to Xinjiang Atlas, Hetian jade has several colors, such as purple (red, blue), yellow, blue, blue, mysterious (black) and white. Hetian white jade is well-known at home and abroad, and Dong Fangshuo, a writer in the Western Han Dynasty, once praised it as "the essence of white jade" in Ten Countries at Sea. Most of the Xinjiang jade presented by emperors in past dynasties is the top grade of this Hetian jade. Because this kind of white jade is delicate, white and flawless, and its color is like suet, it is also called suet jade. Sheep fat jade is the best of Hetian jade, and its price is much higher than other varieties. The jade culture left by these ancient books shows that Hetian jade represents nobility.

Hetian jade is not only produced in Hotan County, Xinjiang, but also in Kunlun Mountain, Qinghai. The jade in the gold medal "Goldfish Treasure" of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games was taken from Kunlun jade in Qinghai. At that time, the price of Kunlun jade in Qinghai was much lower than that of Hetian jade. After the Olympic medal is selected, its price is almost the same as that of Hetian jade, and it is also in grams.

(2) lantian jade. Proterozoic Wantao Group dolomite is produced in the south of Lantian County and formed by contact with basic intrusive rocks, belonging to serpentine jade. Emerald is dark green, variegated, with poor transparency, and a few are normal green, translucent and transparent. Ore is priced by tons, and its grade is much lower than that of xiuyan jade. Lantian jade is famous because Lantian County is close to Xi 'an, the capital of Qin, Han and Tang Dynasties. Literati gather here, and the jade produced in Lantian is not popular, although its qualification is not high. In particular, The Legend of the Swordsman of Shushan written by Lord Zhu Huan (whose real name is Li Shanji) was publicized in many places, which made lantian jade famous. Novelists regard stalactite "milk" as immortal drink and jade as food. Lantian jade's high popularity is also related to its proximity to Mount Zhongnan, which is nearly 4,000 meters above sea level, the highest peak in central and eastern China (except the west) and is close to the snow line. Taoism has always lived in simplicity and Taoism is unified. Lantian is adjacent to it, so its reputation has increased greatly.

(3) xiuyan jade. Its mineral composition is serpentine, and the dolomite of Paleoproterozoic Liaohe Group in Liaodong was formed by contact metamorphism with basic intrusive rocks. It is produced in Xiuyan County. Before the reform and opening up, Xiuyan mainly mined translucent jelly-like green serpentine, which was sent to all parts of the country by train at a price of tons and carved by folk artists. At that time, in arts and crafts factories around the country, scraps could be picked up casually, and a few kilograms of serpentine were picked up without anyone asking, and private people could take it out at will. At present, the fine products in this kind of stone are priced at least by the catty. With a little carving, the price is hundreds of thousands, and large pieces are shipped to other places for sale. Nowadays, rocks with green serpentine content of only 20% ~ 30% are sold at the price of jade, and Buddha statues carved from rocks called serpentine marble in geology are also called jade buddhas. Authentic jade Buddha should be made of jade (white), and now the Buddhist community is also making up for it. According to the monks in the temple, the Jade Buddha at the top of Dongtai Mountain in Wutai Mountain is actually made of coarse-grained marble (both in Taihang Mountain and Luliang Mountain).

(4) dushan jade. Also known as Nanyang fish. It is produced in Beishan, Nanyang County, Henan Province, and is composed of plagioclase from zoisite. It occurs in gabbro in veins, and some are massive and unevenly distributed. The hardness can reach 6 ~ 7, and the background color is delicate, mainly green, but also yellow, purple, cyan, white, orange, brown and other colors.

(3) Shanxi also produces jade.

1. Serpentine Jade-xiuyan jade

Authentic nephrite and jadeite have not been reported in Shanxi, and serpentine jade is equivalent to xiuyan jade, but it is quite rich. To the southeast of the main peak of Luliang Mountain, Changshu Mountain Village (under the jurisdiction of Jiaocheng County) is the richest place of serpentine jade in Shanxi. Changshushan Formation of Archaean Hekou Group is widely distributed in this marble stratum, and half of the mountains at an altitude of 2,600 meters are coarse-grained marble. It comes into contact with the mixed granite in Guandi Mountain in the south, and is heated and baked to form serpentine marble and serpentine marble containing asbestos. Among them, a small part of uneven block serpentine marble xiuyan jade is mainly light green, translucent and gelatinous, a small part is reddish brown, and the size of small pieces is only a few centimeters to twenty or thirty centimeters. At present, serpentine asbestos is mainly mined there, which is produced in strips in rocks, and the surrounding rocks are mostly gray-white to light green serpentine marble. The serpentine in this area is difficult to meet the industrial requirements because it is not broken enough and is not produced in layers. As the original stone of craft stone carving, no one cares so far.

2. Ultrabasic rock talc

Ultrabasic rocks are distributed in groups in Wutai Mountain, Taihang Mountain (south mountain of Lingqiu), Luliang Mountain, Zhongtiaoshan and other places, which are likely to belong to Archean ocean crust fragments and become ultrabasic rocks after regional metamorphism. This ultrabasic rock often has a banded structure, with diopside schist in the outer belt and talc increasing towards the center, becoming diopside schist with talc in the center. There are three ultrabasic rock belts in Wutai Mountain area, and the ultrabasic rock belt in Li Fuhai in the east belongs to this type. The ultrabasic rocks in this area are small, usually several meters to tens of meters thick and tens of meters to nearly 100 meters long. The belt extends to the northeast to Nanshan in Fan Shi and to Xiaguan area of Nanshan in Lingqiu. The ultrabasic greenstone belt in the middle of Wutai Mountain consists of dolomite schist in the outer belt, grayish green schist and tremolite schist in the middle and talc serpentine in the middle.

The northern belt of Wutai Mountain is called the Great Muguayan Belt, which starts from Dongshan in Ekou, Daixian County in the west and extends eastward to Nanshan in Lingqiu via Fan Shi Temple. There are not many serpentine rocks in this area, and the rock mass is mostly lentil-shaped, which can reach hundreds to thousands of meters long and the thickness is only 10 to 20 meters. Talc mineral is located in Nanshansizi area, sha he City, Fan Shi.

In the main peak area of Hengshan Mountain, ultrabasic rocks are huge in scale, several kilometers long and hundreds of meters wide. After exploration, serpentine ore 1 piece and rutile ore 1 piece are obtained, but the serpentine content is extremely low after mining, so it is impossible to form serpentine ore. The ultrabasic rocks there are rich in rutile and also contain a small amount of magnetite. Rutile and serpentine are mined locally as magnetite deposits, and some garnet amphiboles are mined as decorative stones.

In a word, up to now, there is no xiuyan jade-type serpentine deposit that meets the industrial requirements, only mineralization.

3. Tremolite-type Hetian jade clues

The Hutuo system in Shanxi is distributed in Wutai Mountain, Taihang Mountain, Zhongtiaoshan Mountain and Luliang Mountain. It is thick dolomite marble, partly diopside marble and partly diopside marble. But its crystal is too big, not Hetian jade. Among them, the tremolite in the southwest section of Zhongtiao Mountain is the best in Nanshan, Jiezhou. The dolomite marble of Yujiashan Formation in Zhongtiaoshan Group is in intrusive contact with Lvliang rock mass, and tremolite is formed by recrystallization. Tremolite forms flower-shaped tremolite with a diameter of 5-20 cm (radially arranged), and small crystals are also "flowers" with a size of 2-3 cm, and no fine-grained microcrystalline tremolite is found.

In the northern part of Luliang Mountain, the tremolite marble of He Lan Group is also produced in the northern part of Kaifu Village in Fangshan and the lower part of Baota shan, and tremolite asbestos is formed. Tremolite asbestos occurs in ultrabasic rocks at the four corners of Nanshan, Lingqiu and Xiaxian in Zhongtiao Mountain. It is called "stabbing the old waist" locally. After asbestos is crushed, tremolite is in the form of fine fiber needle, which is unbearable after it is sprinkled into the neck and pierced into the skin. Used to play tricks on the bride when quarrelling.

There is no detailed petrological study on the existence of fine tremolite in Hutuo marble in these areas. Because the general geological route observation can only be roughly named as marble-type tremolite marble, it is inevitable that there are omissions without careful observation of every outcrop and rock. Only by studying Hetian jade (prospecting) will every outcrop be spared.