QUESTION:
In some countries its rubies, others diamonds,
but in China jade is the most precious of
gems.
Jade is loosely understood in China as the
collective name for most precious stones,
and jade carving in this sense constitutes
an important part of Chinese arts and crafts.
Crude jade tools have been found among the
archaeological discovery dating back to the
New Stone Age. There is, however, no evidence
to indicate that neolithic people attached
a great value to jade ware; they chose jade
only because it was hard and good for making
tools and fighting weapons.
As time went on, people came gradually to
appreciate the beauty of the stone, which
after carving and polishing might be turned
into things not only useful but also nice
to look at.
"There is a price for gold but no price
for jade", says a Chinese proverb. Jade
ware is often described as "worth a string
of towns". An ancient story tells how
King Zhao of Qin once offered 15 towns in
exchange for the another's round jade.
What are the two characteristics that make
jade so valuable?
A. Beauty and coldness;
B. Re-sale value and color;
C. Scarcity and hardness;
D. Transformability and opacity
ANSWERS:
If you answered C you should
consider becoming a gem dealer! Jade is prized
for its scarcity and hardness.
Jade is very difficult to extract from nature,
especially green and white jade. Ancient people
on a treasure hunt had to trek on the back
of yaks in mountainous regions to get at the
rocks containing the gems, exposed or half
exposed, by the stamping of the animal's hoofs.
Precious stones are divided by their hardness
into two major groups: jadeites and nephrites.
Jadeites are the ones with a solid texture
and a hardness of degree 6 or above (on the
basis of 10 for diamond). The more valuable
varieties, such as green jade, may be as hard
as degree 8 or 9. Jadeites are invulnerable
to steel cutting tools made of carbonrundum
or diamond power. Objects made of this hard
jade are smooth, lustrous, glittering and
translucent, and their grains are no longer
visible to the naked eye.
