In ancient times, jade was a bird that lived in the south. Its coat color is very beautiful, usually blue, green, red and brown. Generally, the male of this bird is red and called "Fei", and the female is green and called "Cui". "Tengyue Local Records" written by Inch Kaitai records: "Tengyue was collected by jade workers, made into utensils and sold in Yunnan and Chongqing provinces. Top grade jadeite is mostly sent to eastern Guangdong, Shanghai, Fujian, Zhejiang and Kyoto. By the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, there were more than 100 jade workshops and more than 3,000 jade carving craftsmen in Tengchong alone. "Utensils" are sold to various provinces in Yunnan, most of which are sent to Meng Gong and Myitkyina, Myanmar. The jade-producing place is in Tengyue Local Records Inch Kaitai in eastern Guangdong, Shanghai, Fujian, Zhejiang and Kyoto, only150km away from the border of Yunnan, China. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, this place was once under the jurisdiction of Yongchang Prefecture (now Baoshan City, Yunnan Province). Due to historical reasons, jadeite, known as the "Oriental Treasure", has been imported into China through border cities such as Tengchong and Ruili for four or five hundred years.
cause
Jadeite is a dense mixture of countless fine fibrous mineral crystallites, mainly jadeite.
Bulk aggregate. There are four main views on the formation of jadeite in nature:
The first view is that it is the desilication product of residual granite slurry that magma intruded into ultrabasic rocks under high pressure.
The second view is that primary albite is decomposed into jadeite during regional metamorphism; Or that albite first formed glaucophane schist with low metamorphic degree and then further metamorphic jadeite under the action of compressive and torsional stress and low temperature caused by plate collision.
The third view holds that granite veins and light gabbro veins were formed by metasomatism under the pressure of 12 ~ 14 kPa under the action of hot water solution with high sodium chemical potential.
According to the discovery of water-methane-jadeite three-phase inclusions in jadeite rocks, the fourth view is that jadeite is crystallized from the silicate melt of jadeite, which comes from the alkali-containing pyroxene layer widely existing in the mantle of 300 ~ 400 km.
major constituent
The characteristic parameters of jadeite are as follows:
1. chemical composition: sodium aluminum silicate-aina [si2o6], which often contains trace elements such as calcium, chromium, nickel, manganese, magnesium and iron.
CASNo.: 1344-00-9
2. Mineral composition: jadeite.
There are mainly omphacite, sodalite, aegirine, amphibole and albite.
3. Crystallization characteristics: monoclinic system, usually columnar, fibrous and felt-like dense aggregate, with massive raw materials and gravel-like secondary raw materials.
4. Hardness: 6.5-7.5
5. Cleavage: fine aggregate has no cleavage; Glittering "fly wings" can be seen on the section of coarse particles.
6. Gloss: grease luster to glass luster, and high-end products are all glass luster.
7. Transparency: translucent to opaque
8. Relative density: 3.30-3.36, generally 3.33 grams per cubic centimeter.
9. Refractive index: 1.65—— 1.67 (point measurement method), and there is a fuzzy shadow boundary near 1.66 on the refractometer.
10. color: colorful, among which green is the top grade, which can be divided into three types according to color; ① Leather color
; Refers to the color of the outermost epidermis of jadeite, and its formation is related to the later weathering. This color is red, yellow and gray with different shades, and it is characterized by being nearly concentric near the skin of raw materials. Red is often called fee; ② Ground color: also called "ground color", refers to the background color, and refers to other colors other than green, such as different shades of white, oil paint, lotus root starch, gray, etc. 3 green; Refers to the true color of jadeite, which shows various shades of green. Sometimes green contains black. Green is usually called emerald.
1 1. luminosity: light-colored jadeite emits dim white fluorescence under long-wave ultraviolet light, but has no response under short-wave ultraviolet light.
The origin of the name
There are several explanations for the origin of the jade name. A name from a bird. This bird has very bright feathers. The male feathers are red, the female feathers are green, and the famous kingfisher (also known as the green feathered bird) is collectively called jade. So there is a saying in the industry that Fei is a man and Cui is a woman. In the Ming Dynasty, Burmese jade was named "Jade" after it was introduced to China. On the other hand, ancient "Cui" refers to emeralds produced in Hotan, Xinjiang. After the emerald was introduced into China, it was called "Fei Cui" to distinguish it from Hetian jade, and then it gradually evolved into "Emerald".
In ancient China, Jade was a bird that lived in the south. Its coat color is very beautiful, usually blue, green, red and brown. Generally, the male of this bird is red and called "Fei", and the female is green and called "Cui". This word can be found in Xu Shen's earliest dictionary "Shuo Wen Jie Zi" in the Eastern Han Dynasty: "Flying, red-feathered finch; Green, green-feathered finch "refers to a kind of bird in Lingnan area. Chen Ziang, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote in his poem "Feeling": "The emerald nest is in the South China Sea, the male and female pearl forests ... beautiful jewels, gorgeous and decadent tapestries. " [3]?
Emerald has a long history. Ouyang Xiu's Record of Returning to the Field in the Northern Song Dynasty contains two volumes: "There is a jade poppy in (Ouyang Xiu), which is very ancient and beautifully shaped. Only May Yu Sheng thought it was Jasper. I tasted it for my family when I was in Yingzhou. Deng Baoji was ruled by military forces. He is really a veteran of the dynasty and knows this. He said, this baby is also called jade. All the treasures in the cloud forbidden are hidden in the vault of the holy one, and there is a jade lamp in the vault, so I know. " It can be seen that "jade" refers to green jade for a long time, and it was regarded as a treasure at the latest in the Northern Song Dynasty. Perhaps the ancient "jade" and today's "jade" are heterogeneous with the same name, so Ji Xiaolan said that when he was young, people "didn't regard jade as it". (Note: Ouyang Xiu's record of returning to the field is contained in the Complete Works of Ouyang Wenzhong, volumes 126 and 127).
Emerald belongs to pyroxene, monoclinic system and two groups of perfect cleavage. The main component is sodium aluminosilicate NaAl9(Si2O6), and a gem is regarded as jadeite only if it contains more than 50% sodium aluminosilicate. It occurs in metamorphic rocks generated at low temperature and high pressure. It often coexists with glaucophane, muscovite, andalusite (anorthite dihydrate), aragonite and Yingshi. Mohs hardness is 6.5-7, specific gravity is 3.25-3.35, and melting point is 900- 1000℃
Early jadeite was not expensive and of low value, so it was not valued by the world. Ji Xiaolan (1724- 1805) wrote in Yuewei Caotang Notes: "The weight of the building depends on the fashion at that time. When I was a child, ginseng, coral and lapis lazuli were not expensive. Today. According to Shiya, at the beginning of this century, about 45 kilograms of jadeite original stone was worth 1 1 pound. There are many essences in the original jadeite stone, and the price was also very expensive at that time, but compared with the super jadeite with a kilogram of 700,000 to 800,000 dollars in the early 20th century, it is simply a drop in the bucket. (Press: According to Ouyang Xiu's "Returning to the Field", at the latest in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, jadeite has become the name of sapphire, which is forbidden. Ji Xiaolan may be talking about another kind of jadeite. )
The mining, transportation, processing and sales of jadeite have always been done by Yunnan people. In an ancient Chinese temple in Amolubo, the ancient capital city of Myanmar, the names of 5,000 jade merchants in China are engraved on the inscription, which is also introduced in jade margin and jewelry. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, senior eunuchs stationed in Tengchong, Baoshan, specializing in purchasing jewelry. At that time, the route from Yongchang Tengyue to Myitkyina, Myanmar, had been called "Jade Road" and "Baojing Road". At the peak of the trade route from Tengchong to Myanmar, more than 20,000 mules and horses pass through here every day, and Tengchong's jewelry trade accounts for almost 90% of the world's jade trade. .
History and culture
In the long years, our ancestors created many patterns that yearn for a better life and pursue good luck.
Shuanglongpei Emerald in Qing Dynasty
These auspicious patterns combine the appreciation habits of working people and reflect people's kind and healthy thoughts and feelings, so they are widely circulated in society and deeply loved by people. Auspicious patterns have been widely used in jadeite in past dynasties. "Dai Jin is rich, Dai Yu is safe." The auspicious patterns carved on jade are vivid and diverse. These materials include people, utensils, animals, plants and so on. The content of the performance includes praying for good luck, peace, happiness, having many children, and promoting to a higher position and making a fortune. Jade is a treasure in the hands of China people, and it is also the soul in their hearts. Gold and silver are valuable, and jade has a life. The categories of jadeite carving are Jade Buddha, Ruyi, Ping 'ankou, Bamboo Knot, Longevity Lock, Fudou, Brave and so on. Rich in meaning, such as a hundred years of harmony, good luck, long life, first place, third place, good luck and good luck.