Jade carving

Chinese all over the world love jade.

The ancient history of China tells us that jade had been a symbol of power, authority and ceremonial tool for praying to heaven. The leader of a tribe wore jade bangle to distinguished himself from the rest of the tribe. He used a c-shape jade carving when he prayed to heaven for rains and protection.

 Few thousand year old C-shaped jade dragon unearthed

He thought that jade was the medium by which he (an earthly being) could communicate with gods of the heaven. The ancient people even had broken lade pieces joined together with thread through holes drilled in the broken jade pieces. As jade was scarce, they had to make use of even some small pieces of jade discovered. Excavations had uncovered all these jade items which were buried thousand of years ago. Imagine jade is a hard material and ancient people were able to carve out the jade items using primitive tools. They were even able to drill holes on them to join broken pieces together. Although the tools they used were very primitive, but the jade artifacts they made were by no means sub-standard and inferior in design. This showed that ancient people were talented and artistic. Of course today jade carving is made easier with the use of advanced diamond tools and electrical equipment.

In the early years the Chinese were mainly dealing with the white jade which was mined in Xinjiang. They were fascinated by its intense white colour and fell in love with this precious material. The green jadeite (from Burma) was only introduced to China during the 19th century. It became popular only when Empress Dowager of the Qing dynasty loved this green jade so much that she amassed a lot of items made from this material. The most famous of her collection of jadeite carving was the water melon which showed the greenish skin and the red stuff inside. This water melon jade carving was reported lost after the empire collapsed.

Jade carvers often go to the jade market to look for raw jade boulders. Some jade boulders may look very ordinary to others, but the jade carvers can turn these stones into masterpieces which often fetched high prices in auction houses. Jade carving is a big industry in China with tens of thousands of workers dealing in the trading and carving business.


A Jade boulder

Here is a 2-part video on how jade carving master turn ordinary jade into a masterpiece.