During the Qianlong and Jiaqing years, it was the heyday of sapphire. At this time, the court jade filled all the halls, and jade shops in major cities were very prosperous. Folk appreciation and appreciation of jade is booming, and jade has a wider range of uses and complete categories. There are many kinds of jade articles in Qing dynasty, among which the furnishings and accessories are the most and the most exquisite. New varieties include mountains and rivers, Yushanzi, embossed jade screen and so on. There are many kinds of jade ornaments.
Jade used in Qing Dynasty was directly controlled and influenced by the art of court painting, and its workmanship was rigorous. Some are carefully polished, and some are polished at the expense of work to show their warm and glittering jade beauty.
Since the introduction of jadeite into China in Qing Dynasty, it has unified the jade world, and is called "Imperial Jade", ranking above all kinds of Baoyu. Jade and cabbage shapes became popular in the Qing Dynasty. The craftsmen in the palace workshops or the jade craftsmen who made jade cabbages used their creativity and intelligence to create immortal jade cabbages in order to conform to the emperor's preferences.
Cabbage is 18.7 cm long, 9. 1 cm wide and 5.07 cm high. This is a rare kind of jade. The special feature of this kind of cabbage is that it is made of a whole piece of jade which is half white and half green, and carved by using the natural color of jade material. Green carved vegetable leaves, white carved vegetable help.
In the thickest green place, there are two kinds of insects, katydids and locusts, which means there are many children. The leaves turn naturally and the ribs are clear. The owl is commonly known as "Weaver Girl" or "Fruit Fruit". This kind of insect is good at singing, has strong reproductive ability, and also has the meaning of wishing others many children.
Cabbage means clear and white; Homophonic "Baifu"; It symbolizes the purity of the bride, while insects symbolize fertility. Pray for the bride to have many children. Natural colors, artificial shapes and symbolic ideas are a rare treasure. The jade producing areas in Qing Dynasty mainly include the Imperial Palace, Suzhou and Yangzhou, showing a three-legged situation with their own characteristics. The establishment of jade works embodies the will of the emperor; Suzhou jade articles, such as Lu Zigang and Guo Zhitong, which are famous for their exquisiteness, all come from a family of jade workers in Zhuxiang, Suzhou, the most famous jade grinding center in the Qing Dynasty.
Suzhou jade is exquisite and charming, and most of the craftsmen of the inner court jade come from here. The jade in each lane is delicate and delicate, and plane carving is a major feature of Zhuzhuan jade, and its thin-walled jade is superior in technology. Suzhou jade carving is good at being small and fine, while Yangzhou wins by being big. Yuruyi and Yushanzi are famous products in Yangzhou jade carving industry. The characteristics of Yushanzi in Yangzhou are obvious. Jade craftsmen are good at combining painting techniques with jade carving techniques, paying attention to the accurate portrayal of images, the description of contents and plots, and the perspective effect of composition.
Yangzhou jade works have developed rapidly and are likely to catch up with others. His jade works are bold and unconstrained, and he is especially good at polishing and cutting extra-large jade articles weighing thousands or even ten thousand kilograms. Yushan, the "Dayu harnessing water", is his masterpiece.
Yushan is an important jade in Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty. It is a jade carving handicraft with the most materials, the longest journey, the longest time, the highest cost, the most exquisite carving, the largest shape and the greatest spirit in China jade treasure house, and it is also one of the largest jade carvings in the world. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, a huge jade weighing more than 6 tons was found in Mileta Mountain in Hotan, Xinjiang. This big jade is green in color, smooth and moist, soft as fat, and it is a strange stone from heaven. The news soon reached the capital, and Emperor Qianlong was overjoyed when he heard about it. He decided to carve this rare treasure into a rare treasure.
Gan Long likes calligraphy and painting. He couldn't put it down even more, but because of the age, the painting had been damaged and faded, and Gan Long, who was over 60 years old, had the idea of comparing himself with Dayu, so he decided to carve this extra-large jade into a map of Dayu's water control. On the one hand, he celebrated Dayu's great achievements in water control, on the other hand, he also expressed his outstanding achievements in imitating his predecessors, so as to make himself famous through the ages.
"Dayu Water Control" Yushan project is huge, time-consuming and labor-intensive. It took more than three years for jade samples to be transported from Xinjiang to Beijing. In the palace, four patterns were drawn according to the front, back, left and right positions of Yushan Mountain, and then made into wax samples, which were sent to Qianlong for reading and approval, and then sent to Yangzhou. Worried about the hot weather in Yangzhou, the wax sample was melted for a long time and carved into wood samples according to the wax sample, which was made by Su Yang craftsmen for six years.
"Dayu Water Control" Jade Mountain is 224 cm high, 96 cm wide, 60 cm high and weighs 5350 kg. This is the largest jade carving in the world. Jade Mountain is placed on a bronze seat inlaid with gold wire and carefully carved with precious blue and white flowers and Hetian jade. The glittering and translucent luster of blue and white jade matches with the antique bronze base, which is more elegant and interesting. The whole jade is carved into a peak shape, just like a mountain standing in the Yellow River. There are many kinds of subjects carved on Yushan Mountain, including peaks, streams, waterfalls and figures. Craftsmen skillfully combine these themes with the original shape of materials, and adopt realistic ground contact and prominent technology. I saw mountains and mountains, towering cliffs, pines and cypresses, and crowds of water control troops gathered between the cliffs. They either cut mountains and chisel stones, or carry earth and stones.
Among the rock diggers, you can see the figure of Dayu, commander-in-chief of the water conservancy army. The works are vivid and vivid, which perfectly reproduces the spectacular scene of Dayu leading the people to open mountains and draw water.
On the top of the mountain, there is also a ghost carved golden god with several thors on it, which seems to explode on the mountain and is full of romance.
When Yushan arrived in Beijing, it was placed in a selected place, engraved and sealed, and it took another two years of hard work to get it done. The front is engraved with the generous seal of "Five Blessingg Five Dynasties Temple Treasure", and the back is engraved with "Bagua Treasure". There are long royal poems and comments below, which shows how proud and cherished Ganlong is of this work and regards it as a summary of his life.
In the Qing Dynasty, there were many large-scale ornamental "Yushan" jade articles, which were designed and made based on landscape paintings and local materials. Its workmanship is rigorous and meticulous. For example, in Lady Tongyin, the author skillfully carved dense trees, rockeries, stone tables and benches by using the white and red colors of jade, which is very poetic in the gardens in the south of the Yangtze River. Yuanmingyuan also has Yushanzi, which is 3 1 cm wide and 26 cm high. It is made of sapphire, and its yellow skin is sandwiched between turquoise. Carved immortals pass through steep cliffs by double hook technique for relief and through carving, holding crutches, taking off coat sleeves, beards with chest length, and elegant spirit. One boy climbed the branch to lead the way, another boy was carrying a small basket, and the fairy followed. The whole device is carved with jade, which is skillfully integrated into the jade carving by borrowing the close-up technique of distant mountains in Chinese painting.
Khundustan jade referred to in Qianlong period is a Mughal jade with Arabic style. In the middle and late period of Qianlong, a large number of people entered the court and were loved by Qianlong. Its style spread to Beijing, Suzhou, Yangzhou and other jade shops.
Xinjiang Uygur jade has distinct local characteristics, which is different from palace jade and Kunduz jade. Although it belongs to Arabic style, it has simple decorative patterns, more light elements and no emphasis on polishing.
Jade products in Qing Dynasty reached a peak in the history of jade products in terms of variety and production technology, and formed jade-making centers of "South Jade" and "North Jade" with different styles and technical characteristics.