Jade is a symbol of power: "the son of heaven wears white jade, but it forms a mysterious group;" Qi Huangong and Queen Pei Shan wore mysterious Yu Pei, but Zhu Group was formed. The doctor wears aquamarine, and the prince wears jade, but they are composed; Scholars wear jade, and they are formed by groups. " (The Book of Rites Jade Algae) Etiquette requires people of different status and levels, from emperors to scholars, to wear jade articles of different specifications and levels.
Jade is the embodiment of character: "a gentleman is unreasonable, jade does not go to the body, and a gentleman is not as good as jade." (The Book of Rites Jade Algae) In daily life, for no special reason, people with status should always wear Yu Pei, which not only shows their status, but also restricts their behavior, so there is a saying called "holding the body like jade".
Jade is still the emotional sustenance: "vote for me with Mu Tao and repay me with Qiong Yao." It is always good to report! "(The Book of Songs) Qiong Yao is a beautiful jade, and lovers use jade to express their strong feelings." Jade is harder than cleanliness in spirit. A Dream of Red Mansions is a story of a piece of jade, which records the beautiful love of those boys and girls.
China people love jade and endow it with various virtues. Xu Shen said: "Jade, the beauty of stone, has five virtues. Warm and loving; Knowing from the outside, the righteous side is also; Its voice is comfortable, and when it is far away, the wise side is also: indomitable, and the brave side is also; It is sharp and not expensive, but it is very complicated. " Jade is warm and restrained, representing benevolence; Fine texture, symbolizing righteousness; The voice is crisp, symbolizing wisdom (Confucius has the name of "golden voice and jade vibration"); Hard texture, symbolizing courage; Smooth and mellow, revealing open-minded wisdom; Wait a minute.
From the Book of Songs, Chu Ci, Han Fu, Tang Poetry, Song Ci, Yuan Qu, Ming and Qing novels, to modern literature, drama, movies, television and so on. Jade is a metaphor for people, and jade is a metaphor for countless subjects; Thousands of years of history, countless touching stories of joys and sorrows are staged around jade.
Therefore, when it comes to jade, I'm afraid it is more than an object for people who are familiar with traditional culture: it carries the rich feelings of China people, which is a kind of nostalgia from the depths of history.
Recently, the Forbidden City held an exhibition "Liangzhu and Ancient China-Five Thousand Years of Civilization Shown by Jade" in Wuying Hall, which brought together 260 pieces (groups) of Liangzhu jade treasures collected by cultural and artistic institutions in 9 provinces and cities 17, which was the first appearance after the successful application for the legacy of Liangzhu ancient city site.
Liangzhu and Ancient China
This exhibition with the theme of jade culture can take you back to the origin of this homesickness and the initial point of Chinese civilization.
There are many kinds of jade articles in Liangzhu culture, including face, moon, jade, yellow, bracelet, crown, trident, column, cone, semicircle, card, string, crescent moon, beast, hook, end and handle. And the types of components, perforations and inlays.
1, Yucong
Yu Cong is a symbolic jade of Liangzhu culture. Yan is a sacrificial vessel, which our ancestors used to communicate with God and heaven. Regarding the origin and use of jade cong, Japanese scholar Lin Chennai suggested that cong should come from bracelets and gradually evolve into ritual vessels. This view has been confirmed in archaeological excavations and is generally accepted by academic circles.
1986 jade wangcong unearthed from the anti-mountain cemetery in yuhang county, Zhejiang province, is 8.8 cm high, 17. 1- 17.6 cm in diameter and weighs 6500 grams. It is refined from nephrite and actinolite series.
king
This device is yellow and white with purple spots in the middle. Each side is divided into two by a 4.2 cm wide vertical slot. Taking the corner as the center, eight groups of animal face patterns are outlined by line engraving and bas-relief, and eight groups of animal face patterns are cut in vertical grooves. Its exquisite craftsmanship, meticulous ornamentation and precise and appropriate artistic collocation are amazing.
In addition, there are all kinds of large and small clumps:
Jade cong with different knots
2. Yu Shuo
The graupel developed from the axe, symbolizing military power. The jade house below was unearthed together with the last jade cong in the tomb of the anti-mountain king, and is called the "Jade House King".
The significance of Yue Bingquan was told by later generations. Shangshu Pastoral Oath says: "For the left, and Wang Bing for the right." Explain Yu Shuo's practical use as a military commander in the war.
3. Jade jade
Jade is Yuhuan, and round jade with a radius three times that of vanity is called jade. There are many jades in Liangzhu site, which are mainly used as ritual vessels; Followed by Yu Pei, also known as "Tie Bi"; Finally, as a burial object. The picture below shows the representative jade found in Liangzhu site.
Yubi
4. corona
The crown, named after its shape like a crown hat, looks like a feather crown on the emblem of Liangzhu God. Most jade crowns are plain jade products without grain, and a few jade crowns with patterns have become treasures.
Yuguan
5. Triffault
Trident, named after its three parallel forks, may be used as a headdress for insertion and assembly. About half of the vessels are carved with exquisite facial images of gods, people and animals, and some have slender carvings on both sides.
Emerald trident
Step 6 assemble
Assembly is to assemble different jade pieces, such as rod head, handle, cover and plug, into one object by mortise and tenon.
7, wear pieces
Jewelry is a variety of jade ornaments, such as strings, tubes, beads, pendants and so on. In the form of penetration or suture. Mosaic refers to the decoration of many small jade particles without holes and some jade pieces on objects by bonding.
China has a long history and tradition in developing and utilizing jade resources, especially jade carvings. Needham, a famous British scholar, once said, "Love for jade is one of the characteristics of China culture."
Archaeological excavations have proved that China has developed and utilized jade for more than 8,000 years. During the period of 1992, the Inner Mongolia Archaeological Team unearthed two exquisite jade articles dating back to 8200 years in Xinglongwa Village, Baoguotu Township, Aohan Banner, Chifeng City, which are the earliest jade articles found in China.
1, Development of Neolithic Jade
In the middle and late Neolithic period, the production of jade articles developed greatly. The area where jade articles are used starts from the Liaohe River Basin in the north, the Pearl River Basin in the south and the southeast coast in the east. The most representative jades are Hongshan culture jades in Northeast China, Liangzhu culture jades and Lingjiatan culture jades in East China, and Longshan culture jades in the Yellow River Basin.
Hongshan Culture, located in the Liaohe River Basin, is the representative of Neolithic culture in the northeast of China, generally distributed between 6000 and 4000 years ago. Hongshan culture jades are mostly used as accessories, and their shapes are generally small, but they are carved in large pieces, with general shapes and simplicity. The representative object of Hongshan Culture is the "C"-shaped Jade Dragon.
Hongshan Yulong
Jade articles in Taihu Lake area, from Hemudu culture, Majiabin culture, Songze culture to Liangzhu culture (the latter three are collectively called "Ma Yiliang"), have experienced a process from less to more, from rough production to increasingly fine, from simple decoration to complicated decoration, from small to increasingly large-scale modeling.
Jade articles such as Guan, Zhu, Huang and Zan unearthed from the third and fourth floors of Hemudu Cultural Site in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province about 7,000 years ago are made of jade and fluorite with poor texture, and their production is also very rough and primitive, which is an example of early jade articles in Taihu Lake basin and southeast coastal areas.
2. Liangzhu Jade: the highest peak of jade development in Neolithic Age.
In Songze culture after Liangzhu culture, jade has made great strides in quantity, material, modeling, decoration and production technology. Needless to say, there are many materials, but most of them are tremolite, actinolite nephrite, and some of them are serpentine jade with hardness of 4.
From the perspective of expression, Liangzhu jade is magnificent, symmetrical and balanced, giving people a solemn feeling. It mainly carves intaglio lines, supplemented by bas-reliefs, and there are some difficult techniques, such as round carving, semi-round carving and hollowing out. The pattern adopts the trinity of three-dimensional pattern, ground pattern and pattern, which is called "three-layer flower", that is, the first layer uses intaglio lines to carve moire, straight line and vortex as shading, then uses bas-relief to express the outline, and finally uses intaglio lines to express the details on the convex surface.
From the production technology, the production technology of Liangzhu culture jade has made great progress, and quartz sand has been widely used. Archaeologists have found quartz sand that can cut jade in the tombs of Sidun Liangzhu culture, and the pipe drilling method has been widely used in drilling technology. In the tombs of Liangzhu culture, the residual core of pipeline drilling has been found.
In Liangzhu culture, the technology of jade treatment generally adopts sand dissolution, that is, sand and water are added with jade dissolution tools, and jade materials are cut by friction. After the jade carving is finished, the surface should be polished and smooth, so that people can learn when they see the light.
Liangzhu jade processing map
The jade cutting technology of Liangzhu culture represents the highest level of jade processing technology in Neolithic Age.
Rites, that is, through the use system of utensils and costumes, achieve the purpose of "grading, not noble". Historically, Duke Zhou's ritual system was a major improvement of China's ritual system. But the Duke of Zhou was not created out of thin air, but improved on the basis of inheritance. So, where is the origin of Chinese etiquette? Look at Liangzhu culture:
1, emblem of Liangzhu God: kingship and divine right are integrated, and "worship" and "glory" are integrated.
On the above-mentioned "Congwang", the patterns of gods, people and animals with the nature of "Liangzhu God Emblem" were discovered for the first time. At the top of the emblem is an arched crown, and under the crown is an inverted trapezoidal face with heavy eyes, a garlic nose, a wide mouth and neat teeth. The brim of the "wind"-shaped hat is covered with cloud vortex patterns, and the top decoration of the hat is radial and feathery. The upper arm is raised horizontally and the lower arm is bent inward. The eyes of animals are located between ribs, and the eyebrows, ridges and noses of animals' faces are composed of bas-reliefs with straight lines and cloud vortex lines. The lower part is the mouth of the blood basin, and the exposed part is expressed in bas-relief, while the human face and limbs are outlined with negative lines.
Simply put, it seems to be just a vicious animal face pattern with a stiff face image on its forehead. If we look carefully, the combination of human face and animal heart, to be exact, the combination of human body and animal head is so ingenious that the whole picture is seamless and inseparable: animal ears are also human arms, and human feet are also animal beards. Different viewing angles will lead to two completely different images.
If we regard this as a humanized god, then it is an image of God of War with a radiant crest and a shield in hand, symbolizing secular power.
If we regard it as a deified person, we can get two images. One is the image of a wizard wearing a crown and holding a stone (or jade) to dance and sacrifice to the gods of heaven and earth. This custom is still widespread in some ethnic groups that retain traditional customs. The second is the portrayal of the wizard against the tiger. Zhang Guangzhi, a scholar, thinks that "the composite image of God, man and beast" is actually an image of "protecting the tiger and exorcising the witch" which is directly related to Taoism in China. Both images represent the power of religion.
The great event of the country lies in respecting peace and honor. The emblem of god, man and beast shows that Liangzhu civilization has realized the unity of politics and religion. Through the use of jade articles, kings and dignitaries realized the control of theocracy and completed the monopoly of kingship, military power and financial power.
2, Liangzhu jade system: Ming Zun Bei, not expensive.
From the funerary objects of Liangzhu cultural site, it can be seen that Liangzhu's social hierarchy is strict. The higher the level, the more complex the artifact. There are ivory scepters (pictured below is a replica), jade cards, jade cards, jade cards and so on in the king's tomb. , followed by jade brand and jade brand, less and less.
Liangzhu social stratum
Ritual system is one of the traditional cultures in ancient China to establish social order, maintain national stability and regulate behavior. In Liangzhu cultural sites, we can see that the use of jade plays a hierarchical role, reflecting the nobility of kings and the division of labor between men and women, and "respecting the lower and not respecting the lower" has formed a whole set of jade use system. It can be said that the jade ritual system and the idea of governing the country created by Liangzhu culture are the source of China ritual system in later generations.
1, the geographical spread of Liangzhu jade
Liangzhu culture radiates widely, from Daxi culture in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in the west (6000-5000 years ago) to the culture in the Pearl River basin in the south (5000-4000 years ago). The jade articles such as Yan and Bi found have deep roots with Liangzhu culture jade articles.
Geographical spread of Liangzhu jade articles
2. The historical inheritance of Liangzhu jade.
Liangzhu jade has a far-reaching influence on the northern Yellow River basin. A variety of jades of Shang Dynasty can be found in the jades of Liangzhu culture, especially the animal face pattern and jade inlay technology of Liangzhu culture, which were not only completely absorbed by Shang Dynasty, but also had a certain influence on bronze ware manufacturing in Shang and Zhou Dynasties.
The Jade Jade of Liangzhu inscribed by Qianlong
At present, the academic circles generally believe that the animal face pattern on the jade cong of Liangzhu culture is the embryonic form of the gluttonous pattern of bronze wares in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and the jade embedding technology laid the foundation for the emergence of copper jade embedding after Shang Dynasty.
3. The popularity of jade from top to bottom in the long history.
In primitive times, jade was used as sacrificial vessels and ritual vessels. Jade is a tool for dialogue with heaven, representing mystery and powerful power. The worship of jade can bring them happiness and stability.
During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, jade articles were mainly divided into grades. "Zhou Li" contains: "Regard jade as the six virtues and wait for the country. Wang Zhi Zhengui, Gong Zhihuan Gui, Hou Zhixingui, Zhi Bo Gonggui, the ancient purple, and the door. " Distinguish the position according to the size of the jade and the different patterns on the wall.
In the long historical development, the use of jade articles has gradually spread from top to bottom, from the representation of the divine right and kingship concentrated in the nobility, to the widespread use of literati, and then to daily necessities that everyone can use. This process was not completed until the Tang and Song Dynasties.
The excavation of Liangzhu cultural site first started in 1936. After more than 80 years of archaeological excavation, the site of Liangzhu ancient city finally ushered in its highlight moment: on July 6, 20 19, at the World Heritage Conference held in Baku, Azerbaijan, the site of Liangzhu ancient city in Zhejiang was approved to be included in the World Heritage List, becoming the 55th World Heritage Site in China and the102 World Heritage Site in the world.
Sand table of Liangzhu ancient city
Before Liangzhu successfully applied for the World Heritage, the Chinese civilization with archaeological evidence spanned about 3,700 years. What we often say is "five thousand years up and down" actually exists only in the written records of ancient books for more than 1000 years. It was an era of legends and myths. The archaeological excavation of Liangzhu site has proved this prehistoric history with physical objects.
References:
Liu Bin: The World of Magical Witches: An Overview of Liangzhu Culture
Zhang Guangzhi: The Bronze Age in China
Fang Ze: China Jade