In the West gold was long the supreme symbol of value. In China, for millennia, that role belonged to jade. The character that denotes it, yu, appears in words linked to beauty, purity and nobility, and an ancient proverb says that gold has a price while jade is priceless. Understanding jade means entering the heart of the Chinese sensibility towards nature, power and virtue.
What is meant by jade
The name "jade" actually refers to two different minerals: nephrite and jadeite. In ancient China nephrite was worked almost exclusively. It is an extremely tough stone, hard to break, that cannot be carved easily but is slowly worn away with abrasives such as sand. Jadeite, coming mainly from Burma, became popular in China much later, in the modern era.
Working nephrite required patience: it was not "sculpted" but ground down over a very long time. This technical quality deeply influenced the symbol. Jade becomes the image of something shaped through constant work, like human character refined by discipline.
The bi discs and the cong tubes
As early as the Neolithic, in the Liangzhu culture of the lower Yangtze region, two forms of jade appear that were destined for a long history:
- the bi, a flat disc with a hole in the centre;
- the cong, a tube that is square on the outside and circular on the inside.
Their original meaning is not documented by contemporary texts, but later tradition interpreted them as images of the cosmos. The round disc was associated with heaven and the cong, square outside and round inside, with earth, according to the Chinese conception of a circular heaven above a square earth. In the Rites of Zhou, a later ritual text, the bi and the cong appear among the jades used to pay homage to heaven and earth.
Jade and the virtue of the gentleman
With Confucius and his school, jade entered moral language. The Book of Rites relates that Confucius, asked why the gentleman valued jade more than other stones, answered by comparing its qualities to the virtues: its lustre is like benevolence, its compactness like wisdom, its edges that do not cut like justice, the clear sound it gives when struck like music.
Later the dictionary Shuowen jiezi listed five virtues of jade, once again linking the physical properties of the stone to moral qualities:
| Quality of the stone | Corresponding virtue |
|---|---|
| warm, soft lustre | benevolence |
| translucency that reveals the interior | rectitude |
| clear sound that carries | wisdom |
| toughness, it breaks but does not bend | courage |
| sharp edges that do not wound | purity |
The Confucian gentleman wore jade pendants at his belt, and it was said that their tinkling regulated his gait: anyone who walked in a disorderly way made the stones sound out of order. Jade thus became an instrument of self-control, an audible reminder of measure.
Jade and immortality
In ancient China jade was also tied to the desire to preserve body and soul beyond death. The tombs of princes of the Han dynasty have yielded the famous jade suits, made of thousands of small plaques sewn with gold, silver or copper thread according to the rank of the deceased. The best known are those of Prince Liu Sheng and his consort Dou Wan, discovered at Mancheng. It was believed that jade could protect the body from decay, but excavation showed that the bodies inside had dissolved all the same.
Jade amulets in the shape of cicadas were also placed in the mouth of the deceased. The cicada, which lives underground before emerging and transforming, was an image of rebirth.
A lasting symbol
Over the centuries jade has accompanied every aspect of Chinese culture: imperial seals, objects for the scholar's desk, wedding jewellery, Taoist and Buddhist figurines. The saying "better to be a shattered jade than an unbroken tile" expresses the choice to perish with dignity rather than live without honour.
The deepest message of jade, in symbolic terms, concerns the shaping of the self. It is not a stone that dazzles: its light is warm and restrained, like that of a person who has no need to show off. Its value emerges with time, through patient polishing.
In short
- In ancient China nephrite was worked, a very tough stone ground down with long patience.
- The bi disc and the cong tube, already present in the Liangzhu culture, have been read as images of heaven and earth.
- Confucius and later tradition compared the qualities of jade to the virtues of the gentleman.
- The Han jade suits express the desire to preserve the body beyond death.
