Chinese Jade: The Spiritual and Cultural Significance of Jade in China

by Fang Gu, Tony Blishen (Translator)

Overview

A comprehensive exploration of jade and its history in China from Neolithic times to the Qing dynasty.

To the Chinese people, jade is a precious stone endowed with magical properties which encapsulated all that mankind aspires to in terms of character, elegance, tranquility, purity, and virtue. The Chinese love jade not merely because of its rarity or its luster but because of a deeper aesthetic value.

Chinese Jade: The Spiritual and Cultural Significance of Jade in China presents a comprehensive view of jade and its history in China from Neolithic times to the Qing dynasty. It illustrated pieces of jade that are on display not only in the Palace Museum in Beijing but in the many provincial and other museums across China. It will help the reader to understand what jade means to the Chinese in China; how it is classified and described and where it is found and worked and displayed. It has a value beyond that of a simple catalogue and places jade in its natural, and central, cultural context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781602201293
Publisher:	Shanghai Press
Publication date:	09/20/2012
Edition description:	Hardcover with Jacket
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 10.30(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Born in 1962, Mr. Gu Fang is a renowned scholar of Chinese jade. He graduated from the Archaeology Department of Peking University in 1986 and from the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in 1989.From 1997 to 2000, he worked as a senior visiting scholar at the Department of Asian Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and did comprehensive study on the jade collections there.

Mr. Li Hongjuan was born in Shaanxi in 1986. She graduated from the School of History and Culture at Shandong University, majoring in Archaeology in 2004. She si now the associate chief of the editorial department of Art Market magazine.

Table of Contents

Translator's Foreword Tony Blishen 9

Preface Gu Fang 12

Chapter 1 Types of Jade 19

1 Hetian 20

2 Xiuyan 21

3 Dushan 23

4 Lantian 25

Chapter 2 The Manufacture and Carving of Jade 27

1 The Process of Manufacture 27

2 The Art of Carving Jade 31

Use of Color (qiaose) 31

Fretwork (loukong) 31

Thin Walled (botai) 32

Pressed Thread Inlay (yasi qianbao) 32

Incised Character (kezi) 33

Gold Outline (miaojin) 33

3 Jade Carving Technique in Suzhou and Yangzhou 34

Chapter 3 An Outline of Historical Chinese Jades 37

1 Neolithic Period 37

2 Xia, Shang and Western Zhou Periods 49

3 Spring and Autumn Annals and the Warring States Periods 57

4 Qin, Han, Wei, Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties 62

5 Sui, Tang, Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan Dynasties 68

6 Ming and Qing Dynasties 76

Chapter 4 The Principal Forms, Uses and Subjects of Jade 85

1 Jade Disc (bi') 85

2 Jade Squared Tube (cong) 91

3 Jade Arc-Shaped Pendant (huang) 94

4 Jade Tablet 98

5 Jade Ritual Blade (zhang) 101

6 Jade Halberd-Shaped Blade (ge) 102

7 Jade Slit Ring (jue) 107

8 Jade Pendant Sets 109

9 Desk Furniture for the Scholar's Studio 111

10 Jades in the Shape of Animals 117

11 The Human Form in Jade 133

12 Jades in Ancient Bronze Style 145

13 Mughal Jade and Jades in Mughal Style 151

Appendices 152

Dates of the Chinese Dynasties 153

Chinese Jade in Museums in China 154

Chinese Jade in Overseas Museums 156

Index 158