Jade
Jade has long been closely associated with the Chinese culture. “To the Chinese people, it has the power to protect body and spirit for both the living and the deceased.”
Since at least 2950 B.C., jade has been treasured in China as the royal gemstone, yu. The character for jade resembles a capital I with a line across the middle; the top represents the heavens, the bottom the earth, and the center section, mankind. The word yu is used in Chinese to call something precious, as in English we use gold. Jade was thought to preserve the body after death and can be found in emperors’ tombs from thousands of years ago. One tomb contained an entire suit made out of jade, to assure the physical immortality of its owner. For thousands of years, jade was a symbol of love and virtue as well as a status symbol.
Because jade stands for beauty, grace, and purity, it has been used in many Chinese idioms or phrases to denote beautiful things or people, such as a Yu Jie Bing Qing (pure and noble), Ting Ting Yu Li (fair, slim, and graceful) and Yu Nv (beautiful girl). The Chinese character yu is often used in Chinese names.
For the ancient Chinese people, jade was very important to daily life, because they thought they could use the jade to communicate with different spirits that inhibited the earth. “The ancient Chinese carved jade in small flat donut-shaped disks called pi, to use when worshipping the God of Heaven. Today, these are commonly worn as necklaces. Four-sided jade containers known as tsung were employed to appease the God of Earth.”
The Chinese love jade because of not only its beauty, but also more importantly its culture, meaning, and humanity, as Confucius said there are 11 De (virtues) in jade. The following translation:
“The wise have likened jade to virtue. For them, its polish and brilliancy represents the whole of purity; its perfect compactness and extreme hardness represent the sureness of intelligence; its angles, which do not cut, although they seem sharp, represent justice; the pure and prolonged sound, which it gives forth when one strikes it, represents music. Its color represents loyalty; its interior flaws, always showing themselves through the transparency, call to mind sincerity; its iridescent brightness represents heaven; its admirable substance, born of mountain and of water, represents the earth. Used alone without ornamentation it represents chastity. The price that the entire world attaches to it represents the truth. To support these comparisons, the Book of Verse says: ‘When I think of a wise man, his merits appear to belike jade.’”
Basically jade consists of two varieties: nephrite and jadeite. The first, nephrite, which is actually pretty common, is made of soft calcium and magnesium silicate. Interesting to note with nephrite is that usually its value stems largely from the artistry of the particular piece, and not the stone itself. The second variety is jadeite. This usually is the one that commands the high prices more than nephrite because jadeite comes in more vivid green colors and a finer translucency than nephrite jade. Therefore, jadeite is used to make most jewelry, and is composed of a harder aluminum and sodium silicate.
Because of its smooth even texture, jade has long been a preferred material for carving. The Emerald Buddha, the sacred image that is enshrined at Wat Phra Kaeo in Bangkok, Thailand, is actually beautiful green jadeite.
Thus jade is really special in Chinese culture. As the Chinese saying goes, “Gold has a value; jade is invaluable.”