​​​​

...

The Chinese term for jade (玉 yu) appears as a written character from the very earliest development of systematic Chinese writing during the Shang dynasty (c. 1600-c. 1050 BCE). It seems to have been used to refer to any hard, beautiful stone, and was not restricted to nephrite and jadeite in its usage until well into the first millennia CE. The Chinese term yu can include not only the two “true jades” (真玉 zhenyu) of nephrite and jadeite (翡翠 feicui or 硬玉 yingyu) but also minerals that when highly polished closely resemble jade in appearance such as agate, turquoise, quartz, serpentine, bowenite, soapstone, marble and even glass or crystal, though the Chinese later termed these “false jades” or “pseudojades”. These latter can all be scratched or incised with steel, while nephrite cannot. Steel, which typically lies between 5 and 6.5 on Moh’s Scale is comparable in hardness to nephrite and so is insufficiently hard to effectively work the stone. The form of jade being discussed and described here is nephrite, as jadeite, which is found in Myanmar, was almost unknown in China before the eighteenth century.

​

...

​

Jades produced during the middle and late Warring States period reveal a significant shift away from jades produced for ritual purposes towards personal ornamentation. This is seen not only in the numbers of jades for personal use, but also in the greater emphasis on innovations in style and design seen in jades worn for personal ornamentation. These included pendants, garment hooks, rings and thumb rings, and the weapon fittings for daggers and swords, and their scabbards. Dragon pendants with graceful and reflexively sinuous S-shaped outlines and projecting scrolling fins became widespread during the fourth century BCE, as did small flat planar carvings of individual human and animal figures. The late Eastern Zhou and Warring States period seem in fact to have experienced an explosion in the production of jade objects. Toward the end of the Eastern Zhou there also appears to have been a revival of certain types of ritual jades which had been less common in the earlier Eastern Zhou or the preceding Western Zhou. The bi disc for example, which was the preeminent jade status symbol of pre-Han China, seems to have been reintroduced rather suddenly during the early Warring States period and produced in large numbers through the remainder of the Warring States and into the Han. With the decline of the Zhou ruling house, and the growth in military and political power of local lords, the Eastern Zhou entered into the prolonged period economic instability, military conflict, and political strife which characterised the Warring States period. This gave rise to questioning and debate about human nature, the principles of correct government, and social relationships. By the early Warring States this gave rise to the development of several influential schools of thought, among them Daoism (道家 Daojia) and Confucianism (儒家 Rujia). It is also during this period that jade comes to be explicitly imbued with specific moral associations and attributes and to offer a number of metaphors for virtue, specifically in relation to the concept of the ‘superior man’ (君子 junzi). In a well-known quote from the Book of Rites (禮記 Liji), Confucius (c. 551-479 BCE), describes the qualities of the superior man using the natural metaphor of jade:

​

溫潤而澤，仁也

Soft, smooth, and glossy, like benevolence;

​

縝密以栗，智也

Fine, compact, and strong, like intelligence;

​

廉而不劌，義也

Angular, but not sharp and cutting, like righteousness;

​

垂之如墜，禮也

His pendants hanging low to the ground, like humility;

​

叩之，其聲清越而長，其終則絀然，樂矣

When struck, its sound clear, elevated and expansive, like music;

​

瑕不掩瑜，瑜不掩瑕，忠也

Its flaws not concealing its beauty, nor its beauty concealing its flaws, like loyalty;

​

孚尹旁達，信也

With an internal radiance issuing from it on every side, like good faith;

​

氣如白虹，天也

The aura of a pure rainbow, like the heavens;

​

精神見于山川，地也

The spirit of the hills and streams, like the earth;

​

珪璋特達，德也

Standing out as symbols of rank, like virtue;

​

天下莫不貴者，道也

Esteemed by all under heaven, like truth and duty.

 

The corollary between jade and the ideal of the superior man gave a moral dimension to the wearing of jades during the Eastern Zhou. But by the end of the Warring States period and with the advent of the Han, jades had shifted away from ritual use to personal ornament and away from geometric patterns of decoration toward more naturalistic styles of representation.

...

​

Dr. Kevin McLoughlin

2026