Originated in the Kunlun Mountain on the Pamirs, it runs through Central Asia and looks like a giant python. It is known as the "backbone of Asia". Kunlun Mountain enters Qinghai and Sichuan from Xinjiang and Tibet. It is more than 3,000 kilometers long in Xinjiang and Qinghai, with an average elevation of about 5,600 meters.
Kun means high, and Lun has the appearance of buckling and knotting.
Kunlun Mountain is the most mysterious place among all the famous mountains and rivers, and it is a sacred mountain in ancient China mythology, which Taoism regards as a fairy mountain where immortals live. In the extraordinary imagination of the ancients, it was a huge uplift on the earth. In ancient books, Kunlun was either called a market or a hill. It is the "ancestor of Wanshan" and "ancestor of Long Mai", so naturally there will be gods living in this magical place. The earliest legend is that a god with a tiger face and a long tail guarded there, and later became a beautiful woman-the Queen Mother of the West. According to legend, she is the fairy Lord of Kunlun Mountain. The "Yaochi" recorded in many ancient books is the Black Sea at the head of the Kunlun River, with an altitude of 4,300 meters, which is the birthplace of the Kunlun Sect of Taoism.
As the first mountain in China, Kunlun Mountain has left countless beautiful legends and mysteries for thousands of years. * * * Gong's dragonfly flew into the air and crashed into Kunlun Mountain. There was a loud bang, and Kunlun Mountain broke in the middle and the mountain collapsed. Heaven and earth have changed greatly, mountains and rivers have moved, and the earth has collapsed to the southeast. The sky fell to the northwest, and the sun, moon and stars all changed their positions. ...
The Himalayan orogeny hundreds of millions of years ago may have realized ancient myths.
From the Archaean strata composed of gneiss, slate and gneiss granite that appeared on the earth about 4.5 billion years ago to the Cenozoic strata formed by folds, metamorphism and faults caused by Himalayan movement in Asia, the earth has experienced many generations of crustal changes and produced various types of rocks. According to contemporary scientific investigation, the intensity of geological plate activity of Himalayan orogeny is unique in the world. The intersection of Kunlun Mountain and Himalayan Mountain is also the intersection of two geological plates. With the continuous movement and collision, under the joint action of the huge extrusion pressure between plates and underground magma, the magical mineral structure, that is, the magical and unique Kunlun jade, was formed.
Legend has it that the immortals of Kunlun Mountain planted Kunlun jade in the nursery, and after caring for 1000 years, they could secrete a drop of jade paste. However, jade is difficult to grow, and it is often suddenly destroyed when it is about to become paste, and hundreds of years of hard work are instantly wiped out.
In the history of thousands of years in China, the definition of jade has always been vague and idealistic.
During the period of 1863, the French geologist Demo made a chemical examination based on a large number of Qing Dynasty Qianlong jades plundered by British and French allied forces from China, and found that there are two main jade materials in China: amphibole and pyroxene. Hornblende mainly comes from Kunlun mountain jade, and another pyroxene is Burmese jade, mainly Burmese jade.
Compared with Mohs relative hardness, Kunlun jade is slightly lower than jadeite, so it is called "nephrite" and jadeite is called "jadeite". Since then, China's unclear definition of jade for thousands of years has been made clear in geological sense: nephrite minerals distributed in Kunlun Mountain and Altun Mountain in China were formed by contact metasomatism between magnesium marble and intermediate-acid magma, which has nothing to do with ultrabasic rocks, and its origin is not regional metamorphism, but typical contact metasomatism.
According to the different crystal systems, amphibole minerals can be divided into two subcategories: amphibole and monoclinic amphibole. Monocline amphibole belongs to monoclinic crystal system, which mainly includes tremolite, actinolite and ordinary amphibole. When the main component of jade is tremolite, it is called tremolite jade. The research shows that the mineral composition of Kunlun jade is mainly tremolite, and the content is generally above 95%. This is very unique among nephrite found in the world.
In May 2005, according to Xinhua News Agency, a piece of Kunlun jade weighing nearly 9 tons was found in the mining area of Kunlun Baoyu Co., Ltd., Golmud City, Qinghai Province, which is the largest Kunlun jade boulder ever recorded and can be called "the king of Kunlun jade in China". According to experts, the famous Kunlun jade and Hetian jade are located in the same metallogenic belt. The east of Kunlun Mountain is called Kunlun Jade, and the north of the mountain is called Hetian Jade. The distance between them is only 300 kilometers, so Kunlun jade and Hetian jade are basically the same in material combination, occurrence and structural characteristics, which can be described as twin brothers in nature. Some top Kunlun jade, crystal clear, pure and flawless, without cracks and impurities, can even surpass Hetian jade.
Qinghai Kunlun jade is exquisite in texture, elegant and refreshing, good in oiliness and high in transparency, and can be divided into white jade, gray jade, sapphire, leucorrhea with green, leucorrhea with sugar and so on. The mineral, chemical composition and microstructure of Kunlun jade in Qinghai province were analyzed by X-ray powder diffraction and electron probe. It is found that the main structural types are felt structure, microfiber cryptocrystalline texture, microfiber structure, microfiber cryptocrystalline texture, microfiber structure and radial fiber structure. In particular, Kunlun jade "Bai Cuijia" is a unique and peculiar variety. Jade color with green in white, delicate and unique texture, gorgeous and rich color, makes people feel refreshed and beautiful.
The origin of Qinghai jade is near Yaochi, the legendary Queen Mother of the West. Legend has it that Kunlun jade also has the extraordinary effect of eliminating disasters and avoiding disasters.
Although these legends are idealistic and superstitious, through scientific detection, Kunlun jade contains many trace elements such as selenium, zinc, copper, cobalt and manganese. Wearing jade for a long time, trace elements that are very beneficial to human health are gradually absorbed by the human body, maintaining the balance of various elements in the body, and can really play a role in getting rid of diseases and strengthening the body.
The research of modern technology in bioengineering department of Southeast University shows that human body will produce temperature field, magnetic field and electric field, thus forming "biological information field". This "biological information field" and the biological wave generated by jade have peculiar photoelectric effect, which can make people "remove moderate heat, relieve annoyance, moisten heart and lungs, help voice and throat, nourish hair, nourish five internal organs, soothe the nerves, dredge blood vessels and clear eyes and ears".
Jo Yeo-jeong's "Gu Yu Bian" "I'm afraid this is the result of concentration, not irrational words. The ancient Gai people regarded jade as extremely important, and Pei Wan moved with his ancestors. He must be very careful in his every move. Look before you leap, look before you leap. If so, there will be fewer troubles and fewer accidents. In other words, if you are caught accidentally, you are lucky if you have reliable spiritual protection. Therefore, Lao Yu can protect himself. " In other words, people who wear jade articles attach great importance to jade articles, so their spirit is extremely focused. Even if you are accidentally caught, you may be lucky because you are focused. Jade keeps you safe. Considering from the spiritual level, as a belief, it reflects the common desire of human beings to pursue beauty. If superstition is excluded, scientific analysis does make sense.
1. Introduction of origin? Qinghai nephrite is produced in the plateau and hilly area along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway in the southwest of Golmud City, Qinghai Province. So far, there are about three mining sites. Although the local altitude is high, the relative height difference is not large and the transportation is convenient. The jade materials produced in this area are mainly mined mountain materials, with a small amount of landscape (Gobi) materials and no secondary materials. The origin belongs to the part of Kunlun Mountain that enters Qinghai Province on the eastern edge, and it is about 300 kilometers away from Ruoqiang in Xinjiang in the west, which is closely related to Hetian jade produced by Qiemo and Ruoqiang. ?
Second, the main commercial varieties and appearance characteristics? In the early stage of nephrite production in Qinghai, there were some nonstandard names such as Kunlun white jade, Kunlun jade, Golmud jade and Qinghai jade (emerald variety). According to the naming principles and terminology of the national standard "Jewelry and Jade Name", combined with the convention of classification and naming of nephrite, Qinghai nephrite is divided into white jade, blue white jade, sapphire and other varieties according to its color characteristics. Commercial products are basically the same as Hetian jade, but the color characteristics are richer. For example, the emerald green and gray purple varieties in Qinghai nephrite are rare or unknown in traditional Hetian jade products. The varieties and characteristics are described as follows:
White jade: the main variety of nephrite in Qinghai, which is also the largest variety, is sometimes customarily called "Qinghai white" in the industry. It is grayish white-waxy white, translucent, and its transparency is obviously better than that of Hetian jade. The texture is fine and moist, and the yield is large, and a small amount reaches the quality of "sheep fat white jade". According to their different appearance characteristics, people in the industry vividly describe them as: milky white jade, transparent white jade, pear white, rice soup white and other varieties. Qinghai white jade is fine, moist and even in texture, with a large block size, which belongs to the first-class good material, but it has high transparency and insufficient dignified texture, especially when it is thin. ?
Blue white jade: light gray blue gray, light yellow gray, etc. , elegant and refreshing color, translucent, delicate and even texture. The transparency is obviously greater than that of Hetian jade, with sufficient water head and good uniformity, which is very popular among people in the industry. It is often vividly called: transparent white green, light blue white, duck egg green and so on. ? Sapphire: celadon-dark gray-green, dull and translucent, superior in texture to Hotan sapphire, and good in head and foot, suitable for making large and medium-sized ornaments and utensils. After thinning, the color tone turns sunny, solemn and elegant, and the voice is sonorous and full of charm. It is a high-quality sapphire. ?
Smoke sapphire: light to medium gray purple to smoke gray, with a slight gray tone in smoke gray. Translucent, delicate and moist, some people call it violet, lotus root jade, sapphire and so on. It is rare in traditional hetian jade varieties. Because of its remarkable color characteristics, it can be said that it is a symbolic variety of nephrite in Qinghai. This variety is produced by independent thin layer, and there are also white jade materials with black edges and black leather materials with local characteristics. It is more appropriate to classify it as sapphire, which can be called smoky sapphire and purple jade can be called purple sapphire. Smoke sapphire enriches the pretty varieties of nephrite, such as "green shrimp", pigeon (gray raindrop), black and white double happiness (badger) and so on. ?
Emerald: light emerald green, with green characteristics similar to tender green jade, which is obviously different from the green of sapphire and jasper. This kind of green nephrite is rarely produced alone, but adheres to one side of white jade and aquamarine raw materials or forms a sandwich. The distribution of lumps is often related to sandy and mottled stones. Some of its finished products are all green, and some form beautiful colors on white jade and blue-and-white jade carvings, which is rare in Hetian jade products in the past. All green and beautiful products have become hot spots in jade collection for a period of time. According to its color characteristics, the name emerald is more in line with the naming standard. ?
Tang Yu: There are also varieties of sugar-colored jade in Qinghai nephrite, mainly light yellow-brown uniform sugar-colored disseminated and spotted dark brown-yellow-brown sugar-colored. Its sugar color is either concentrated to form dark brown spots, or its color is too light, which makes little contribution to pretty color, destroys a lot of jade and has low utilization value.
Summary and discussion? ：
Qinghai nephrite production is an important event in jade market since 1990s. Among them, Qinghai white jade has shaken the market of Hetian jade with its huge output and excellent texture. Based on the above research results:?
(1) Qinghai nephrite and Hetian jade are basically the same in material combination, occurrence and structural characteristics. It is slightly different from nephrite produced in the field only in some aspects such as output characteristics, structure and physical properties. ?
(2) Qinghai nephrite has the remarkable characteristics formed by its origin:
(1) Good transparency;
(2) The characteristic varieties of grayish white, waxy and yellowish gray white jade, turquoise and smoky gray jade;
(3) Contrast characteristics of inclusions such as stone flowers, flocs, "waterline" and spots;
(4) The raw materials are mainly mountain materials, with no distribution, and the shape and skin color of raw materials related to the geographical environment of the place of origin. ?
(3) Qinghai nephrite, especially white jade, has been rising all the way in the adversity of the downturn in the jewelry market in recent years, with an increase of 300% to 500% in the past four years, which has high investment and collection value. ?
(4) nephrite produced in Qinghai completely conforms to the meaning of Hetian jade naming.
After Kunlun jade was selected by the Olympic Games, the price soared. In 2006, the best Kunlun white jade was 1000 yuan a kilogram, but now it has risen to 1000 yuan a kilogram, an increase of 10 times!