Subject: Five virtues of jade

Posted By: Super Wed, Jun 26, 2013

https://www.asianart.com/phpforum/index.php?method=detailAll&Id=71165

許慎論玉五德

玉，石之美者，有五德：潤澤以溫，仁之方也；鰓理自外，可以知中，義之方也；其聲舒揚，專以遠聞，智之方也；不撓而
折，勇之方也；銳廉而不忮，洁之方也。
　——《說文解字》
The Shuowenjiezi (Discussions of Writings and Explanations of Character)of Xu Shen defined jade (yu) as follows:

A stone that is beautiful, it has five virtues.

There is warmth in its lustre and brilliance; this is its quality of kindness;
its soft interior may be viewed from the outside revealing [the goodness] within; this is its quality of rectitude;
its tone is tranquil and high and carries far and wide; this is its quality of wisdom;
it may be broken but cannot be twisted; this is its quality of bravery;
its sharp edges are not intended for violence; this is its quality of purity.
(Translation adapted from Zheng Dekun)

Jade contains the five virtues of a gentleman:

(1) Benevolence (kindness)仁 (Luster)

the luster (oily), brilliance and the warmth found on the surface of a beautiful piece of jade such as Hetian jade is
simply breath taking. The soft, oily and warm luster found on the surface of a genuine Hetian jade carving is different than
that of a Siberian white nephrite jade or a piece of jadeite jade carving. You can feel its warmth and silkiness when you
touch its surface. The more you touch the more you can feel its warmth and smoothness. It is like the brightness shone on
a kind person.
(2) Integrity (goodness,honesty,righteousness)義
Translucency, texture.
Just like a person with integrity, his external behavior derives from what he believes inside his heart, therefore on a piece
of good jade, by looking at its outside appearance you can see through its inside which will be exactly the same as its
outside.
Normally, translucency are not necessarily good signs for verifying jade carvings because most soft stones such as
serpentine or hard stones such as agate (quartz) are very translucent. Most nephrite jades are not translucent. Also, some
jadeite are also very translucent. Please understand that jadeite was not considered jade in China until the middle Qing
dynasty. Therefore, only some of the best quality Hetian jade may have this translucency. My friend and I once obtained a
piece of jade carving that looks like it was made of glass, so translucent and clear, only after testing it we confirmed it was
made of Hetian nephrite jade.
(3) Wisdom 智 (sound/tone)
When a wise man speaks, people listen.
Therefore, in ancient China, jade can be used to make musical instruments. If you ever use a metal spoon to hit a
piece of quality nephrite jade, or by hitting two piece of quality jade carvings together, the sound they make are just
beautiful and can be heard from far way, just like the words of a wise person, that can be heard from far away.
The piece of Hetian jade carving my friend and I found made some of the most beautiful sound. Also on some of the
Hongshan style small C dragons I collected, made of nephrite that contains large amount of actinolite (with a lot of iron),
made sound like that of a brass bell. Loud and clear. Simply beautiful. Try it yourself. But be careful not to break anything.
Jade carvings can be broken easily.
(4) Courage (bravery)勇 (Hardness)
Like a courageous and brave person, you can break him but you cannot twist him. Therefore, jade can be broken but not
bend. Therefor there is a Chinese proverb that says, "Rather to be broken jade pieces than remaining a complete piece of
tile." (meaning: rather died as a man of courage than surviving as a coward.)
This symbolizes the hardness of jade. You can break it but you cannot bend it. Therefore, strange enough, a piece of
good jade can actually made of serpentine, lapis, Dushan jade, turquoise, nephrite, jadeite, agate, jasper, but one thing
in common, they cannot be scratched. I have seen some dark green serpentine that look and feel just like nephrite but
cannot be scratched. You can call it bowenite but there is really no such a thing. Even some of the better quality of Lapis
cannot be scratched. That is why so often we use Hardness as the first test to determine if a piece is jade, not necessarily
to determine if it is made of nephrite or jadeite. You have to understand in ancient China, there is really no way for them to
tell if a piece is made of nephrite, but if a piece is so hard that it can not be scratched by metal, that means it is a good
stone.
(5) Purity 廉洁 (purity/clarity)
This virtue is the most difficult to translate and explain, therefore if I do translate it inaccurately, somebody please help me
out.
廉洁 usually mean a person who is at a position with the authority or power to harm others or to benefit himself (money,
favors, etc.) such as a high government official, a powerful person in any organization or firms, but this person remain
pure and honest to himself and does not take advantage of his position. It means when a piece of jade is broken, it edges
can be sharp and can be used to hurt others, but it will not. I like to use it to symbolize the purity of a piece of jade in
indicating that you will not find any impurities inside a piece of good jade.

Therefore, a lot of time when some of the jade collectors posted some of these supposedly Neolithic jade carvings such
as Hongshan jade caving but the jade contains so much impurities inside, there was absolutely no way they can be
authentic because no true jade artists will ever spend his life time in "carving" a piece of inferior stone. In short, if a piece
of jade carving was made of inferior stone, does not contain any of these five virtues, throw it away, do not waste your
time.

I do not know if these will help you or confuse you more. According to the Chinese, there is only one jade material
that will have all FIVE virtues - Hetian nephrite jade.

Now please understand that there are other credible and authentic jade materials used in the making of antique and
archaic Chinese jade carvings such as Xiu Yan jade (mostly serpentine but some really ancient one can be nephrite); Du
Shan jade (a type of Feldspar), turquoise, jasper, lapis, agate,crystal, etc.

Your two pieces look quite translucent and with a lot of impurities, carvings on both pieces look modern. But like you said,
the quality of the pictures makes it very hard for me to really say too much about them. Sorry.

You may want to consider spending some money in just getting a few authentic antique or archaic jade carvings,
preferably made of Hetian jade, from reputable dealer or auction houses, which will help you in your further pursuit of the
studying of jade. To buy a lot of inferior pieces while is good for studying purpose, in the long term, it is just not worth your
effort. I have tested and studied at least 1000 pieces of jade carvings, jade slab, jade rocks but there are still a lot I do not
know. My goal is when I retire I can travel to China and study with a genuine Chinese jade expert on some of their
museum pieces especially that of Hongshan. But this is easier said than done. Also, please consider buying some good
jade books, written by respectable jade experts. Thank you. Super

Subject:Re: Translation of script on disc

Posted By: Super Thu, Jun 20, 2013

You have to understand, whether a jade carving is archaic or as modern as Qing dynasty or early Republic, if the material
of that jade carving is inferior (not translucent, with impurities, etc.), there is really no point to discuss the weathering or
carving skills on them because good jade carvings would never be made of inferior material. Would anybody hire a
famous jewelery designer to design a piece of junk jewelery?

Look at your piece here, the material of it is so bad, it really does not matter whether those scripts (if they are really
scripts) are Tibetan or not, it is not worth the time to speculate on it. Many supposedly archaic jade piece have these
oracle bone scripts on them but made of very inferior material, just one look let you know they are fakes. Now you would
ask how you would know it was made of inferior material, that is why you need to get some good jade books, or going to
museums to look at some genuine archaic or antique jades, or study jade material. After a while, you will learn.

Checking for faked antique jade carvings:

1. Use WD-40 to clean any jade material without damaging the natural patina (if any). If surface colorings wears off, it is
still probably a jade (or not) but was only chemically bleached/painted to look like an ancient jade object.
2. Wipe with cloth with damp oil after using WD-40.