Jade is not thoughtful, not a tool
Name implies:
Each piece of jade must be carefully carved,
to become one
Exquisite craftsmanship or plain-faced artwork.
The earliest ancient jade workmanship classic is the Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji, which involves not many jade-making techniques. In the Ming Dynasty Song Yingxing's "Tiangong Kaiwu", the outline of the ancient people's jade making is roughly depicted. Li Chengfu's "Ancient Jade Illustrations" of the Qing Dynasty comprehensively recorded the whole process of jade making: that is, pounding sand, studying sand, opening jade, zhayu, punching, grinding, pounding, flowering, drilling, penetrating flowers, punching eyes, wooden pots and leather pots. In the later period, thallium, pull strips and so on appeared one after another.
Ancient jade-making techniques originated from the making of stone tools.
Cutting, wrestling, polishing and grinding are the process procedures used in jade ware.
Cutting, that is, decomposing, dissolving jade with toothless saws to dissolve jade sand, separating the jade;
It is repaired with a circular saw dipped in mortar;
Qiu, is the use of drills, cones and other tools to carve patterns, drill holes;
Grinding is the last process, with fine wood chips gourd skin, cowhide dipped in pearl mortar, polished, jade will produce a gelatinous luster.
This set of jade-making techniques was already mastered by craftsmen in the Shang Dynasty. Today's jade carving techniques generally still use four methods: cutting, exchanging, pondering and grinding. In the early Qin Dynasty, it was called Qiu Yu, the Song people called it Mill Jade, and now it is called Mill Jade.
| Neolithic |
Neolithic age, because the production tools used are made of stone tools, the workmanship of the utensils is limited, most of the utensils are uneven in thickness and thinness, often thick on one side and thin on the other, and even the traces of misalignment when opening the piece, and the shape is irregular, such as round utensils are not round enough.
▲ Neolithic jade - jade carving god man
The blade of the artifact is not sharp enough. For example, the blades of jade knives, jade axes, and jade shovels are thick and blunt, and the drill holes often appear in the upper part and the lower part is small conical, and the edge of the side view hole wall is often left with a rotation pattern.
▲Red Mountain Culture C-shaped jade dragon
Hongshan culture jade, carving the pursuit of charm, the body surface is smooth, the edge transition is natural, the grinding technology is exquisite, the edge of the flake utensils is thin, it seems to have a blade, the surface has no glass light, but the luster is delicate, and the surface of individual utensils has spots, small and deep, dense.
▲Liangzhu culture Yu chun
Liangzhu culture jade, straight lines are composed of straight yin lines, thin curves are short and thin lines staggered and connected. The coexistence of two different workmanship lines on the same artifact is the basis for identifying its authenticity.
| Shang Dynasty jade |
Due to the further polishing and trimming of stone tools in the Shang Dynasty, these tools were sharper and more applicable, especially the use of bronze tools, so that the technology of pondering jade was further improved, and relatively uniform and thin jade pieces could be prescribed.
▲ Shang Dynasty tiger-shaped jade pendant
The jade carving style lies in the perforation and the lines of the carving, and the grain of jade carving is mostly straight, smooth and neat, with more yin and less yang.
▲ Shang Dynasty dragon head shaped jade
Jade carving perforation is also very distinctive, most of them are two-sided, large and small, similar to the shape of trumpet flowers. This phenomenon of large outer eyes and small inner eyes is commonly known as "horseshoe eyes".
▲ Shang Dynasty dragon pattern jade ornament
In terms of ornamentation, the Shang Dynasty was three more and three less, that is, there were more straight lines and fewer curved lines; more thick lines and fewer thin lines; more short lines and fewer long lines.
▲ Shang Dynasty pictographic jade pendant
The exquisite utensils of the Shang Dynasty use the workmanship of the double hook to imitate the yang line, that is, the use of double lines juxtaposed yin line on the utensils to form a yang line, commonly known as the double hook line or double hook yang line.
| Western Zhou jade |
The workmanship of Western Zhou jade is very different from that of the Shang Dynasty in terms of the style of carving jade, for example, the lines of carving are mostly curved, but the overall carving process is exquisite, and the technique and shape of jade are constantly changing.
▲ Western Zhou humanoid jade juan
Pay attention to the layout of the ornamentation, the lines are becoming more and more complex, mainly with slightly curved lines, and more long arcs are used.
▲ Western Zhou Dynasty Dragon Pattern Huang
Especially in the structure and carving method of the mid-to-late Western Zhou Dynasty ornamentation, the yin pattern ornament began to appear interconnected, and the yin carved line was ground into a slope on one side, with traces of oblique knives, commonly known as "one side slope yin line". The "slope yin line on one side" is a typical workmanship of Western Zhou jade.
| Spring and Autumn Jade |
Jade developed into the Spring and Autumn Warring States, the carving process is more mature, the carved pattern layers are staggered, very exquisite, and jade sand began to be used, the technique is more exquisite than the Shang and Zhou periods.
▲Spring and Autumn jade dragon shape pendant
In the Spring and Autumn Period, the workmanship of jade was compared with that of the previous dynasty, and there were new advances, and more attention was paid to grinding. On the basis of the interconnection between the Spring and Autumn ornaments in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, curled and connected ornaments appeared, and the layout was full and dense, leaving no blank space.
▲Spring and Autumn Dragon Shaped Jue
In the late Spring and Autumn Period, dense relief patterns appear with hidden embossings, and there are flat shallow yin carved wide stripes. The opening of the utensils is thin and uniform, with few thick lines and many thin lines, and the lines have hairs (immediate patterns, lines leave many knife marks on the edges of the lines).
| Warring States Jade |
The Warring States jade knife is finely crafted, the edges of the utensils are vertically sharp, the sharpening is excellent, and the surface of the utensils, especially the yin line, has a strong luster.
▲Warring States dragon pattern jade bi
The inner walls of the holes are well-proportioned and smooth, and there are few traces of production due to poor tools. Mainly due to the emergence and widespread use of iron tools, the jade craft has advanced by leaps and bounds.
▲Warring States cloud pattern jade ring
Semi-relief and through carving of Warring States jade are prevalent, and the depiction of animal images is aimed at the detailed features of eyes, teeth, claws, etc., and the spectacle is seen in the subtleties, and the essential characteristics of animals are vigorously carved.
| Han Dynasty jade |
The workmanship characteristics of Han Dynasty jade artifacts, good at using yin carved lines, lines are bold, there is no Warring States era fine, the edges and corners of the utensils are smooth, the carving of large utensils is thicker, the carving of small utensils is more refined, and the carving of thin lines has traces of hair and jumping knives, and the lines are not very coherent.
▲ Han Dynasty dragon and phoenix pattern jade
The inner wall of the hole in the perforated object is often not smooth enough, and there are often drawing marks. The burial jade of the Han Dynasty used the "Han Eight Knives" to work.
▲ Han Dynasty jade dancer
The workmanship of "Han Eight Knives" does not represent the workmanship of the entire Han Dynasty jade, but only refers to the workmanship of the Han Dynasty "burial jade".
▲ Han Dynasty jade holding pig
The "Han Eight Knives" of the Han Dynasty refers to the use of concise lines for carving, the use of pushing and grinding carving techniques, the knife method is rough and powerful, the knife is sharp, strong and straight, and the lines do not have the slightest crack and traces of knife marks. Representative works are Jade Pig, Jade Cicada, Jade Weng Zhong.
| Tang Dynasty jade |
In the Tang Dynasty, the social atmosphere was open, foreign trade was frequent, and the status of women in the era was greatly improved, so jade carving was more aesthetic, and there were flowers, birds and animals and figures flying in the sky, especially the carving of lions and beasts was very delicate.
▲ Tang Dynasty gold-encrusted jade hair comb
Tang Dynasty jade carving is fine, with many thin lines. Especially in the Tang Dynasty, the figures on the belt plate are decorated with short and dense yin lines.
▲ Tang Dynasty riding like a figure jade ornament
In the feet and tails of animals, a lot of thin lines are also carved, and the subtraction method is adopted on the strip plate, that is, the pool surface is hidden from the workmanship, and the carved lines are painterly.
▲ Tang Dynasty bird-shaped jade pendant
| Song Yuan Jade |
In the Song and Yuan dynasties, jade, due to the influence of different ethnic cultures, also reflected ethnic and local characteristics in jade.
▲Song Dynasty Yunshan double crane pattern jade ornament
The jade of this period is very delicate, the shape of the carved instrument is generally more small pieces, and the large jade is relatively small, because the calligraphy and painting of the era are particularly prosperous, so the jade carving carving style pays more attention to the shape and the fit of the demeanor.
▲Song Dynasty flower and bird pattern jade pendant
The southern engraving is delicate and neat, and the northern engraving is strong and powerful. But overall, the lines of the carving are always weak.
▲Song Dynasty cloud dragon pattern jade ornament
The body of the animal is generally pierced by upper and lower pairs, and the holes are mostly square, the facial features of the face of the character are often in the same plane, and the "figure eight eyebrow" clothing has a shallow and thin "meter shape" carving.
| Yuan Dynasty jade |
In the Yuan Dynasty, the engraving was generally rough and powerful, and the surface of the instrument often left drill marks and thallium marks, and there was a dangerous knife phenomenon, and the polishing was not very exquisite.
▲ Yuan Dynasty Jade Lying Horse
| Ming Dynasty jade |
The Ming Dynasty jade has made a new leap forward, with Yangzhou and Suzhou as the center, and the jade industry has begun to develop greatly.
▲Ming Dynasty children's pattern lock-shaped jade pendant
The knife work is thick, thick and powerful, vivid and lively, with a strong sense of sketching, and there are reliefs, hollow workmanship, and double-layer or even three-layer carvings.
▲Ming Dynasty chrysanthemum pattern jade belt buckle
The surface of the utensils has a strong glass luster, and the surfaces of large objects often leave drill marks and thallium marks.
| Qing Dynasty jade |
The jade of the Qing Dynasty, especially during the Qianlong period, the rapid development of jade craftsmanship was an unprecedented period of prosperity in the history of jade control in China.
▲White jade double ant ear wash
During this period, jade was exquisitely carved, the image was realistic, a large number of ingenious works came out, the carved lines were fine, the polishing was smooth, the three-dimensional sense was strong, and the branches and leaves of the flowers and fruits were carved obviously and vividly.
▲Qingbai jade carved Songhe Yannian
Three kinds of carving methods of hollowing, semi-relief and relief are prevalent. Among them, semi-reliefs and reliefs are the mainstay. After Jiaqing, the carving of jade slowly tended to be rough and distorted and sluggish.
▲ Qingqing white jade carved eight immortals across the sea
The ancients carved jade without the assistance of modern tools, carving a beautiful jade is extremely difficult, it is these difficult processes that reflect the importance of jade culture, an important carrier of Chinese jade culture inheritance.