Dongzhu is produced in the northeast of China Songhua River, Heilongjiang, Ussuri River, Yalu River and other river basins of wild pearls, in Manchu for "Tana", although the Eastern Pearl did not appear in the Qing Dynasty, but in the Qing Dynasty, the Qing court as a special jewelry for the royal family, the Qianlong Emperor also issued a sigh: "It is difficult to get a rare treasure."
First of all, the earliest history of Dongzhu, as early as the Han Dynasty period began to distinguish the color pearl area, to the northeast of the Mudanjiang, Chaotong River, Jingpo Lake and other places of freshwater beads as representative, the history called The North Pearl, can also be called the East Pearl; and to the Guangdong Hepu region of the Beibu Bay sea produced in the sea as a representative, the history is called the South Pearl.
In history, there are not many incidents caused by Dongzhu, according to historical records, at the end of the Liao Dynasty, The Tianzuo Emperor Yelü Yanxi lived in luxury, endlessly demanding Dongzhu and Haidongqing from the Jurchen tribes, and when hunting in winter and spring, ordered the Jurchens to brave the cold weather, chisel the ice, and salvage the Dongzhu out of the water, thus killing many Jurchens.
Later, the leader of the Jurchen Completed Yan Clan, Wanyan Ah Bone, rebelled and rebelled against the Liao, and the Liao Dynasty ended, and at the end of the Jin Dynasty, in order to negotiate peace with the Mongols, the Jin Dynasty dedicated all the rare Eastern Pearls it had treasured to Genghis Khan.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Taizu Nurhaci offered Dongzhu in order to paralyze the Ming court. After the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Qing army entered the customs and established the Qing Dynasty, and since then the status of Dongzhu has been extraordinary, and in the seventh year of Shunzhi (1650), the emperor ordered that the clan should stop sending people to Ula (the name of the ancient city) to collect Dongzhu.
In the fourteenth year of Shunzhi (1657), the Qing court specially set up the "Buteháura Governor", which was a full-time institution dedicated to the Qing court to collect dongzhu, sable, ginseng and other products. And the harvesting of eastern pearls, and more specially, set up a "pearl Xuan", that is, a pearl diving organization.
According to their affiliation, the tributes of all pearl-diving organizations in the Three Banners shall be handed over to the court and shall be assessed and rewarded and punished by the Capital YuSi of the Ministry of Internal Affairs; and the tributes of the Pearls of the Five Banners shall be entrusted to the kings, Belles, Beizi, and the provinces, and shall be administered by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
During the Kangxi Dynasty, the Kangxi Emperor ordered that the Ural people living in Ningguta be forbidden to collect pearls, and by the Qianlong period, in order to prevent the Flow of Dongzhu into the people, a checkpoint was also set up at Shanhaiguan, and once it was found that there was Dongzhu hidden privately, it would be punished accordingly.
One of the capital crimes of Hezhen was to hide a Dongzhu privately, which was equivalent to committing treason and treason. Because it is something that the emperor can only have, the courtiers keep it privately, the meaning is self-evident, in addition, the Eastern Pearl Is the highest level of all the Imperial Pearls, only the Emperor, the Empress Dowager and the Empress can wear it, and if others wear it, it is a transgression.
Why is Dongzhu so precious? One is that the harvesting of the east pearl is extremely difficult, to jump into the river in April when it is warm and cold, the pearl mussel is even more difficult to obtain, and it is possible to obtain one of the hundreds of bead mussels, and the east pearl is naturally formed, without the cultivation process such as planting core.
What is difficult to obtain is always extremely precious, not to mention that the East Pearl itself is crystal clear in color, so the emperors have regarded it as a superior product.
The second is that because Dongzhu is produced in the northeast region, which is the birthplace of the Manchus, it attaches more importance to Dongzhu and also expresses respect for the ancestors.
However, due to the indiscriminate fishing, the resources of the East Pearl rapidly shrunk, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, China experienced war, the Japanese army occupied the three northeastern provinces after the crazy plunder, the surviving East Pearl has not been much, there are only 5 remaining in the world, treasured in the Palace Museum.
How precious are the Eastern Pearls of the Qing Dynasty? There were only 5 left in the world, and one of the death penalties of Washu was to hide one privately