|
Jades |
|||||||||||||
History The art of jade-carving in China had its
beginning early in the Neolithic period. The |
 Since
at least 2950 BC, 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.
Of all materials in the world of
Chinese antiquities, jade best exemplifies the essential aspects of
Chinese culture and aesthetic appreciation. This beautiful stone is
admired for its hardness, translucent colors
and warm brilliance. From these natural properties the ancients found the
embodiment of the cardinal virtues of
a perfect gentleman. Ancient texts
such as Li Ji (Book of Rites)
expounded the importance of jade to a gentleman whose wearing of jade
pendants achieved both moralizing and ornamental purposes. With time jade
came to be identified as a symbol for everything that is good, pure, noble
and sublime.
|
||||||||||||
zoomorphic slit disk of the
Hongshan culture, the axe-shaped tablets and flat scepters of the Dawenkou
and Longshan cultures, and the congs of the Liang zhu culture in the
present exhibition demonstrate that jades had been widely used in all
occasions as ritual objects, ornaments, tools and mortuary items. During
the Bronze Age of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, ritual jades gave way
to pendants sets and ornamental items, with shapes ranging from
zoomorphic dragons, tigers, fish and birds, t
o sophisticated pendant sets
comprising of disks, segments, tubes and plaques. The zoomorphic or
geometric decorations were executed with well developed techniques of
incised single lines, raised thread lines, relief carvings and open works.
The various zoomorphic pendants of the Shang dynasty, the human figure of
the Western Zhou, and the openwork ornaments with interlocking dragons of
the Eastern Zhou period are star pieces of this period. In Qin and Han
dynasties, complex jade pendant sets were gradually dispensed with, and
coincided with the popular belief in after -life, a great many mortuary
jades were unearthed from burials of this period. New shapes appeared
alongside delicate openwork carving. Typical pieces of this period in the
exhibition include disks with openwork inner rings, sword fittings,
cicadas, pigs and the unique winged cup. They represent the realistic and
bold style of the Han dynasty.
