Why is the legendary Kunlun jade so magical?

"The world is turbid and I don't know anything about it. Our side ignored it and drove Bai Chi. I traveled with Chonghua to the nursery of Xi Yao, and climbed Kunlun to eat Yuying. Live with the heavens and the earth, and live with the sun and the moon in Qi Guang. "

Two thousand years ago, Qu Yuan dreamed of visiting Kunlun with his feet on Xiangyun. One morning more than two thousand years later, we sat on a jeep in Beijing and embarked on a journey to find the magical Kunlun jade with the ancient myth of Kunlun Mountain in our mind.

It originates from Kunlun Mountain in Pamirs, and runs across central Asia. It is like a python, and is known as the "Asian spine". Kunlun Mountain enters Qinghai and Sichuan from Xinjiang and Tibet. It is more than 3, kilometers long in Xinjiang and Qinghai, with an average elevation of about 5,6 meters.

Kun means high, while Lun has the appearance of buckling and knotting. Kunlun is the most mysterious place among all the famous mountains and rivers. In the extraordinary imagination of the ancients, it is a huge uplift on the earth. In ancient books, Kunlun was either called a market or a hill. It was the "ancestor of thousands of mountains" and "the ancestor of Long Mai", so there would naturally be gods living in this magical place. The earliest legend is that a god with a face and a tiger body and a long tail guarded there, and later she became a beautiful woman-the Queen Mother of the West. According to legend, she is the fairy Lord of Kunlun Mountain. The "Yaochi" recorded in many ancient books is the Black Sea at the source of the Kunlun River, which is 4,3 meters above sea level and is the birthplace of the Kunlun Sect of Taoism.

As the first mountain in China, Kunlun Mountain has left countless beautiful legends and mysteries for thousands of years.

*** Gong flew the dragon in the air and slammed into Kunlun Mountain (not Zhoushan Mountain). There was a deafening noise, and Kunlun Mountain broke in the middle, and the mountain collapsed. Great changes have taken place in heaven and earth, mountains and rivers have moved, rivers have changed, and the earth has collapsed to the southeast. The sky fell to the northwest, and the sun, the moon and the stars changed their positions?

Ancient myths may have come true in Himalayan orogeny hundreds of millions of years ago.

from the Archaean stratum composed of gneiss, slate and gneiss granite appeared on the earth about 4.5 billion years ago to the Cenozoic stratum formed by Himalayan movement that caused folding, metamorphism and fracture in Asia, the earth has experienced many generations of crustal changes and produced various types of rocks. According to contemporary scientific investigation, the intensity of geological plate activity of Himalayan orogeny is unique in the world. The intersection of Kunlun Mountain and Himalayan Mountain is also the intersection of two geological plates. With the continuous movement and collision, a magical mineral structure is formed under the combined action of the huge extrusion force between plates and the underground magma, that is, the magical and unique Kunlun jade.

Jade-picking Kunlun

Beijing Jeep is speeding all the way, aiming at the wild cow ditch and Andromeda Peak of Baoyu buried in the depths of Kunlun Mountain at an altitude of nearly 5, meters. From Golmud to Nachitai Qingquan, the altitude rose from 28 meters to nearly 4 meters. Kunlun Spring, located between Shasongwu Mountain and Boka Requeta Geer, is said to be the spring water used by the Queen Mother of the West to brew nectar and jade liquid. I think these springs from the depths of Kunlun must also come from the place of Kunlun jade and touch the icy jade body.

After drinking the bitter Kunlun Spring, we will cross the Kunlun River and go deep into the famous Yeniugou Kunlun jade mine.

It belongs to the part of Kunlun Mountain that enters Qinghai in the east, and it is more than 3 kilometers away from Ruoqiang County in Xinjiang in the west, which is closely related to the geological structure background along the east Kunlun Mountain, especially Ruoqiang and Qiemo.

as soon as we entered the Kunlun valley, as far as the eye could see, the vast Kunlun was covered with silver and the peaks stood tall. The sacred Kunlun Mountain used to fascinate me so much, but when the off-road vehicle passed through the endless desert Gobi in the Kunlun Mountain for a long time, it left me with the impression that it was endless and desolate everywhere, and it felt like being away from the world in another desolate planet, and it was even harder to imagine that the crystal clear and moist Baoyu would be produced here. Perhaps this is the true nature of Kunlun's vast atmosphere, majestic depth and endless changes.

The car had just turned a river valley when a strong wind suddenly blew on the wasteland, and the sandstorm got into the car everywhere. Soon, we were all covered in dust. Outside the jumping car window, a group of Tibetan antelopes showed frightened eyes in the dust. This is an uninhabited area.

The primary jade mine in Yeniugou is located at a peak of Yeniugou, with an altitude of more than 4,5 meters. For jade pickers in Kunlun, this is a place full of fatal temptations and unknowns. The white jade, clear white jade and sapphire produced in Yeniugou are fine in texture, rich in variety and large in size, which are the first-class materials, basically the same as Hetian jade, and many of them have reached the standard of suet white jade. In particular, its emerald green, ash and grayish purple varieties are extremely rare in Hetian jade. There was once a Zhejiang man who mined here for jade and became a billionaire overnight. Attractive news floats over the plateau, and the Wild Cow Gully is like a huge magnetic field, attracting countless dream seekers.

when we climbed up the mining point along the winding mountain road, we were already panting. The perennial snow on the mountain and the white profile of the huge mountain make it difficult for us to open our eyes in the strong sunlight. Stone-like jade shines like a mountain. Legend has it that jade is buried in stone, which is difficult for people to know, but the warm jade gas will rise in the air in the warm sunshine. The magical white in front of us creates a beautiful and confusing illusion, which makes people's thoughts suddenly disappear, as if they have incarnated themselves.

On the working face as high as 1 meters, those jade miners are in great contrast with the mountain they dug. From a distance, they are like tiny sesame seeds scattered among rocks. Looking at those dark and moving figures, I suddenly feel that human beings are not only small compared with nature, but also have endless sighs in the face of the huge projects they have created: creation has become a part of nature, and what remains in the end is often only loneliness, smallness and loss.

The Book of Songs Xiaoya "Stones from other mountains can attack jade." Mining mountain stone was called "attacking jade" in ancient times, which also means mining mountain jade, that is, mining primary jade ore, but it takes great risks. Since ancient times, countless people have lost their money and lost their lives. Most people who collect jade in Yeniugou of Kunlun Mountain are Hui people, who come from poor villages in Qinghai, Gansu and Ningxia. Xiao Han is one of them. He led me all the way down to the mine tens of meters deep. #p# Page Title #e#

The height and width of this mine are only a little more than 1 meter, so we can only crawl into it inch by inch. Before entering the cave, I imagined that the jade mine must be connected together, and the cave must be surrounded by jade, which can be used as a mirror. But we climbed all the way to the bottom of the cave and didn't see any trace of Yidianyu. Climbing out of the cave, I want to ask Xiao Han to show me how to take a photo of the primary jade vein. Looking at the mining face as high as 1 meters, Han provided his left hand, which was "gnawed" by the stone, silently shook his head. He said that he has been mining here for more than a year, and even he has not seen a decent vein yet.

before I came to the jade mine, I imagined that jade mining might be like marble mining, and only then did I know how ignorant and ridiculous imagination was. First of all, unlike other minerals, the jade mine is hidden in the rock core intermittently, and the veins are really like clouds, smoke and fog in ancient poems. Occasionally exposed veins are wrapped in thick rock layers, so every time you take a piece of jade, you must remove a lot of hard rocks wrapped outside the jade. This determines that jade pickers not only have to work very hard, but also have a pair of discerning eyes to recognize the difference between jade and stone. The rock connected with jade is called jade root. It looks like jade but it is stone, which is the most difficult to distinguish. If you don't get it well, the jade will be broken, and all your previous efforts will be wasted.

It is said that the immortals of Kunlun Mountain planted Kunlun jade in the nursery, and they can secrete a drop of jade paste after caring for it for a thousand years. However, jade is very difficult to grow, and often it is suddenly destroyed when it is about to become paste, and hundreds of years of hard work are instantly wiped out. In my opinion, the jade pickers in Kunlun Mountain are more difficult than those immortals who grow jade. Gold and jade are priceless. Only when I saw those huge working faces, extremely hard working environment and their almost zero return so far, did I know how difficult and arduous it was to get a piece of Baoyu. In Yeniugou, a mine site, Han provided dozens of people have been mining around the clock for more than a year, with a total investment of tens of millions of yuan, and the lives of several jade miners have stayed here forever, but so far no jade material has been mined. Is there really a supernatural power in charge of fate? Seeing Han provided helpless eyes and dark mine, I finally understood the cruelty and soul-stirring of "gambling on jade".

The famous Yeniugou didn't let us have a look at the original state of Kunlun jade, and didn't even give me a chance to take an excellent photo. Like those jade diggers on the mountain, this time we returned in vain.

Magic Kunyu

In the history of China for thousands of years, the definition of jade has been vague and idealistic.

in p>1863, a French geologist, Demo, made a chemical examination based on a large number of Qianlong jades of Qing Dynasty that were plundered from China by the British and French allied forces and spread to Europe, and found that there were mainly two kinds of jade materials in China: amphibole and pyroxene. Hornblende mainly comes from Kunlun Mountain jade, and the other pyroxene is Burmese jade, mainly Burmese jade.

Compared with Mohs relative hardness, Kunlun jade is slightly lower in hardness than jadeite, so it is called "nephrite", while jadeite is called "jadeite". Since then, the unclear definition of jade in China for thousands of years has been defined in terms of geological meaning: nephrite minerals distributed in Kunlun Mountains and Altun Mountains of China, which are formed by contact metasomatism between magnesium marble and intermediate-acid magma, have nothing to do with ultrabasic rocks, and their genesis is not regional metamorphism, but typical contact metasomatism.

amphibole minerals can be divided into two subgroups: amphibole and monoclinic amphibole according to their different crystal systems. Monocline amphibole belongs to monoclinic crystal system, mainly including tremolite, actinolite and ordinary amphibole. When the main component of jade is tremolite, it is called tremolite jade. The study shows that the mineral composition of Kunlun jade is mainly tremolite, and the content is generally above 95%. This is very unique among nephrite found in the world.

In May p>25, according to Xinhua News Agency, a piece of Kunlun jade weighing nearly 9 tons was found in the mining area of Kunlun Baoyu Co., Ltd., Golmud City, Qinghai Province, which is the largest recorded Kunlun jade boulder and can be called "the king of Kunlun jade in China". According to experts, the famous Kunlun jade and Hetian jade are located in the same metallogenic belt. The east of Kunlun Mountain is called Kunlun jade, and the north of the mountain is called Hetian jade. The distance between them is only 3 kilometers, so Kunlun jade and Hetian jade are basically the same in material combination, occurrence and structural characteristics, which can be described as twin brothers in nature. Some top-grade Kunlun jade, which is crystal clear, pure, flawless, crack-free and impurity-free, can even surpass Hetian jade.

Qinghai Kunlun jade is fine, elegant and refreshing, with good oiliness and high transparency. It can be divided into white jade, gray jade, sapphire, leucorrhea with green, white wrapped in sugar and so on. By means of X-ray powder diffraction and electron probe, the mineral, chemical composition analysis and microstructure of Kunlun jade in Qinghai Province were observed. It was found that the main structural types were felt-like structure, microfiber-cryptocrystalline texture, microfiber structure, microfiber-cryptocrystalline texture, microfiber-like structure and radial fiber structure. In particular, the Kunlun jade "Bai Jia Cui" is a unique and peculiar variety. White with green jade color, delicate and unique texture, beautiful and rich color, people feel refreshed and beautiful.

Qinghai jade is produced near the legendary Yaochi, the Queen Mother of the West. Legend has it that Kunlun jade also has the extraordinary effect of supernatural power to eliminate disasters and avoid disasters.

Although these legends have a certain color of idealism and superstition, through scientific detection, Kunlun jade contains many trace elements such as selenium, zinc, copper, cobalt and manganese. Wearing jade for a long time, trace elements that are very beneficial to people's health are gradually absorbed by the human body, maintaining the balance of various elements in the body, and can really play the role of getting rid of diseases and keeping fit.

The research by the Department of Bioengineering of Southeast University shows that the human body will produce temperature field, magnetic field and electric field, thus forming a "biological information field". The biological waves generated by this "biological information field" and jade have a peculiar photoelectric effect, which can make people "remove moderate heat, relieve annoyance, moisten the heart and lungs, help the voice and throat, nourish the hair, nourish the five internal organs, calm the soul, dredge blood vessels and clear the eyes and ears".

Zhao ruzhen's "ancient jade discrimination" "I don't know that this is the result of mental concentration, not irrational words. The ancient people of Gai regarded jade as extremely important, and Pei Wan moved with his ancestors. He must be very careful in his every move. Look before you act, think before you act. If so, there will be less trouble and less accidents. That is, if you are accidentally caught, you will be lucky if you have reliable protection of your mind. Therefore, it is said that old jade can protect itself. " That is to say, those who wear jade attach great importance to jade, so their spirit is extremely focused. Even if they are accidentally caught, they may be lucky because of their concentrated mind. Jade keeps peace. Considering from the spiritual level, as a kind of belief, it reflects the common desire of human beings to pursue beauty. It does make sense to scientifically analyze it if the superstitious elements are eliminated.

The production of nephrite in Qinghai can be said to be a great event in China jade market since 199. With the passage of time, the origin of Qinghai jade and Xinjiang jade has been diluted, because the boundary between Qinghai and Xinjiang is only administrative division. From the gemological point of view, the quality of nephrite in Qinghai has completely reached the recognized standard of Hetian jade classification, and it can be included in the category of Hetian jade like Xinjiang jade produced in Ruoqiang, Qiemo and Kashi. Since 1999, the high-quality old pit materials of nephrite white jade and blue white jade in Qinghai have been generally recognized in the market. Coupled with the increasingly scarce resources, the price of high-quality Qinghai white jade raw materials has soared from 5 yuan in 1992 to several thousand yuan or even ten thousand yuan per kilogram at present. In this regard, many people regret that they did not know Qinghai nephrite as early as possible and missed business opportunities when its price was low. At present, Qinghai nephrite is far from being as brilliant as Hetian jade because of the differences in cultural and geographical background, but in the near future, with the increasingly scarce resources, Qinghai nephrite will have a higher status and value.