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The Chinese associated multiple qualities to this material, in addition to agree on its beauty. The histories that follow testify to some.

IN the world, maybe gold is considered as the strong international motto par excellence, but in the context of the millennial Chinese culture, jade is infinitely more precious. According to a Chinese byword: "One can estimate gold, but jade is invaluable."

In China has of 8 000 years, jade was seen as the integration of the essences of the Sky and the Earth; therefore it was consecrated. The dominant role of this material made of jade and the jade jewelry of a symbol of civilization in the history and culture complicate. Whereas, according to the archaeological remains exhumed, the western prehistory is composed of the ages of stone, iron and bronze, for its part, the Chinese prehistory is divided in ages of the weapons of stone, jade and bronze. During the dynasties of the Shangs (sixteenth century – I ave J. century – C.) and of the Zhous (770-256 J. ave – C.), the sabers and the halberds made of jade were considered as the ultimate symbols of The power.

Fifteen cities against a piece of jade?

Hey Jade is the most famous of China. The history that one tells its case goes back to the year 700 J. ave – C., whereas a man named Bian Hey, of the state of Chuobserva a phoenix who was going to land on a mountainous crest in what is now the natural reserve of Shennongjia. He was convinced that a treasure hid in the mountain because, according to the Chinese mythology: "The phoenix only lands on stones made of jade." After having raked the summit of the mountain, Bian Hey found a big raw jade piece there; he brought it to the state of Fallen and proudly presented it to king Li But, when this last call a craftsman made of jade to verify the authenticity of the piece, the supposedly practiced declared that this stone did not have any value. One amputated the left foot of Bian Hey then to punish it to have caused this disappointment.

At the time of the accession to the throne of king Wu, Bian Hey offered its treasure again to the new monarch, but with the same result. He must give up its right foot then. When king Wen reached his turn to the power, Bian Hey brought its treasure in the door of the palace and remained there during seven days and seven nights while crying bitterly. King Wen rushed a messenger therefore to inquire about what afflicted Bian so much, because the amputation was considered like a light punishment to this time. Bian answered that he did not cry the loss of its feet, but that it was desperate to note that the precious gift that it had tempted to offer its king had been taken for a simple stone and that he, a faithful topic, had been discerned like an impostor. King Wen ordered therefore that jade was split, and this is how one discovered the pure jade. One called it then "Hey jade", in honor of the fidelity of Bian Hey, this last one respected thus so that the state of Qin him expressed its will to yield fifteen of its cities at the state of Fallen, in return for this fabulous Treasure.

This history reflects the respect that the Chinese jade and feel for the old conception of the fidelity – design for a long time obsolete. One notices the absurd sense of the priorities of Bian indeed Hey according to which the amputation of the two feet represented little thing, in comparison of the quest to which it had submitted to deliver the only treasure that no one was worthy of it, either the Emperor.

The jade Mandate of the Sky

During more of one millennium after the time of Bian Hey, jade remained the symbol of the supreme power in China. Thus, several emperors considered it of the sort, for example: the first emperor of the dynasty of the Qins; emperor Gaozu, of the name of Liu Bang of the dynasty of the Hans,; Emperor Yangdi, of the dynasty of the Am ,; And emperor Taizong, named Li Shimin, of the dynasty of the Tang.

When he unified China, the first emperor of the Qins ordered to the craftsmen to shape a seal made of jade Hey and to engrave it of the eight characters declaring that its owner was titular of the "Mandate of the Sky, as well as of longevity and the eternal prosperity ", in other words, of the absolute imperial power. The belief according to which the seal symbolized the mandate of the Sky and that its owner was the son mandated by the Sky, has been confirmed by the dynasties that followed.

It is toward the end of the dynasty of the Qins (221-206 J. ave – C.) that Liu Bang imposed to Xiang Yu, as one two chiefs of the rebels, the obligation to attack the palace of the Qins and to force Ziying emperor to put back the imperial seal. Thereafter, Liu Bang defeated Xiang Yu and establishes the dynasty of the Hans. He reappointed the imperial seal of the Qins: "Seal of the mandate of the dynasty of the Hans."

The possessor according to the seal was Wang Mang, bound to the imperial family by its maternal parentage. Whereas the emperor of the dynasty of the Hans of the west (206 J. ave – C. -24 AD. J. – C.) had only two years, Wang usurped its throne. When this last required that the empress dowager hands him the imperial seal, she threw it on the floor to express its anger. The light damages that he undergoes then were repaired with gold, and the seal was bequeathed to the dynasties of the emperors of the Tang Am and the thereafter. its last owner was Li Congke of the Tang that undergoes the defeat to the hands of the army of the Kitans. Taking the seal, the defeated emperor ran away in a tower, and in a last attempt to save its honor, he put fire there. Li Congke perished and therefore the seal of the Mandate of the Sky was lost forever.

Jade as accessory of the medium

Since jade was supposed to incorporate the essences of the Sky and the Earth, the shamans used some instrument like to communicate with the gods, a specific type being assigned to every god.

One of the rituals executed by an emperor as he reached the power was the one of the "milling of the tabs of the dragon." In other words, the new leader climbed to the summit of a very known mountain and threw at the bottom of the tabs made of jade engraved to inform the gods of the Mountain of its accession in the throne. When the emperor fell sick, its shaman then went to the mountain and cast tabs made of jade, engraved of prayers, to implore the monarch’s restoration. This ritual has been confirmed, these last years, by the discovery, to the foot of the mount Huashan, of two tabs made of jade, going back to the period of the fighting Kingdoms (475-221 J. ave – C.); prayers for the restoration of the king of the Qins were engraved of every side.

The belief according to which jade was able to hunt the bad minds has been proven by discoveries of cong, it is a square prism of a round pierced and structural opening of the simple descriptions of shamans and their similar. The precious jade was also a main component of the funeral rituals, because one believed that it preserved the cadavers of the putrefaction. The costumes made of jade sewn with the thread of gold are tangible proofs of this belief.

To "be rather a fragment of jade that a" whole clay tile

In the Chinese proverbs, jade is frequently used like metaphor to symbolize the honor and virtue. The proverb: To "be rather a fragment of jade that a" whole clay tile goes back to the year 550, as emperor Xiaojing, of the dynasty of the Weis of the East, has been ousted by its Prime Minister Gao Yang who established the Qis of the dynasty of the North then. The following year, Gao Yang Xiaojing killed emperor and its three sons. However, it arrived that the tenth year that followed the usurpation of the throne by Gao Yang, a solar eclipse occurred, it was of bad omen in the ancient China. Fearing that this celestial phenomenon is the omen of a threat in its throne, Gao Yang decided to slaughter the 700 members of the clan of 44 families of emperor Xiaojing. When news of this atrocity had reached the most remote groups of this former imperial family, all were terrified to the idea to undergo a similar fate. At the time of a meeting held to debate some means to escape the death, a magistrate of Jing’an District named Yuan suggested to adopt the Gao family name, in sign of loyalty to the dynasty of the Qis of the North. Jinghao, the cousin of Jing’an, appeared scornful towards this suggestion and declared: Why abandon our ancestral clan merely to remain living? A real man would prefer to die in fragment of jade rather than to live like a whole clay tile. "The traitorous Jing’an returned the courageous words of its cousin to Gao Yang, and Jinghao was stopped and was executed. After having changed the name of the family of Jing’an in Gao, the emperor granted him a promotion, but Jing ‘ year fell sick and died three months after its cousin. Eighteen years later, the dynasty of the Qis of the North knew its fall. The courageous words of Jinghao "Being rather a fragment of jade that a" whole clay tile cost him life, but they immortalized it nevertheless, because the Chinese and the Chinese exception mention of it since centuries.

The curative virtues of jade

Once, the ornaments and the jewelry made of jade illustrated the rank and the statute. The women of noble birth, celebrated them as the classic poetry, wore jewelry made of jade that swung and rang melodiously when they moved. But jade had more that a merely decorative function. General rule, one believed that an interaction existed between an adornment in jade and the person that carried it. It was based on the following theory: when a person carries jade, the mind that this last emanates melts with the person’s qi, symbiosis that appears in the increased chandelier and the finer texture of jade carried by a person in health. The complexion of this last brightens and then its physical constitution reinforces itself. If this person is in bad health, jade will accelerate its restoration.

The old Chinese jade also carried in sign of moral culture, what appears in the following statement, "A man of virtue does not remove his jade without valid reason." One says that Confucius compared the pleasant sweetness of jade to kindliness, its toughness to the straightforwardness, the diversity of its colors to the mind of initiative and its translucence to the fidelity. In the Chinese metaphors, jade is often associated to the feminine virtues of chastity and purity, and the ideal woman is the one that is "pure as jade and translucent as ice."