After the jade workers got a piece of jade, they did not carve it casually, but were very particular about it. First of all, they believe that jade is a spiritual material, and whether it can be carved depends on whether there is a fate with the jade. Therefore, they must study this piece of jade carefully and carefully to see what it is suitable for carving and whether it is suitable for carving by themselves... Secondly, after they decided what to carve and who would carve it, they also had to hold some ceremonies such as choosing a date, holding a ceremony, and worshiping. Then, he began to "cut", "examine", "cut" and "grind" the jade... and finally completed a work.

"Cut" means to cut the jade, which means to use soft hemp rope, animal skin or hard sandstone or flint flakes to directly process the jade in one direction or reciprocating, two directions or multiple angles, or dip it into the jade. These jade sands are used to cut and process jade indirectly; "exquisition" means repairing, which means shaping the cut jade material with tools such as quartz, obsidian, flint flakes or stone cores; "cutting" means decoration, that is, Use relatively hard stone or wood chips mixed with sand to grind and decorate the jade, or drill the jade in one or two directions; "grinding" means trimming and polishing, which means using hard stone chips, wood, bamboo chips and other tools to grind and decorate the jade. Apply emery, perform one-way or same-direction reciprocating processing on the jade, and smooth and finely grind the rough surface, which can be divided into coarse grinding, medium grinding, and fine grinding. Then use animal skin, bark, linen, or silk to polish the surface of the jade directly, or dip it in polishing powder to polish the jade indirectly to make the surface of the jade shiny.

It often takes several years... decades... or even a lifetime... for jade craftsmen to complete the above processes and produce a decent jade article using such primitive tools. They dipped stone flakes in sand to polish jade. If they wanted to grind out a pattern on jade, it would take a lot of stone flakes and a lot of time. It was in the refinement of such primitive tools that our ancestors produced one masterpiece after another and created the splendid Chinese jade culture.

In the 1990s, thousands of exquisite jade articles were unearthed from the Guoguo Cemetery in Shangcunling, Sanmenxia. One of them, a high-crested parrot from the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, is even more exquisitely carved (picture). In a space of less than two centimeters on the parrot's high crown, more than two hundred hair strands are densely arranged, and the strands are not messy. It is simply impossible for people to imagine what tools the jade workers at that time used to carve such fine hair. After extensive analysis and research by experts, there is no conclusion. A foreign scholar speculated based on the carvings of indigenous South American stone tools that the hair on this jade may have been carved with the teeth of a species of shark in the ocean, because bronze and iron tools could not carve jade at all, so it was polished with sand. No method can grind such fine hair. Only the teeth of this kind of shark can carve jade, and can carve it out in one stroke. However, so far our archaeologists have not found shark teeth in the tombs or ruins at that time. It seems that the answer to this mystery still needs to be revealed by new archaeological discoveries in the future.

The jade craftsmen in ancient my country may spend their whole lives sharpening a piece of jade. If they cannot finish polishing it, their sons will continue to polish it... Since the craftsmanship takes a long time, the carved jade embodies the jade workers' lifelong efforts and creative inspiration. This is why ancient Chinese jade is beautiful, delicate and full of spirituality.