(Continued from the previous issue)
Knowing yesterday's text may cause controversy among some personnel, because the identification of jade has been controversial, because the history of jade is more than bronze and porcelain, especially the material of jade is more complex, affected by factors such as the integrity and scarcity of utensils, you can not use thermal light or carbon fourteen isotope extraction substances for further analysis, so in the authenticity identification of jade, processing traces are a very important factor, which is beyond doubt, but we need to objectively understand this problem. Do not exaggerate and one-sidedly generalize, let alone use this as a means of profit, this is the focus of the text.
Jade fish from the Western Zhou Dynasty
Jade identification methods have done a lot of text introduction before, the most authoritative institutions and personnel in modern times are also following the five basic elements of "material, work, type, pattern, Qin", the result of comprehensive judgment, here we need to know a premise, as long as it is a conclusion made by human factors, it is impossible to guarantee 100% accuracy; even if an era really has only one production process, but like a pyramid, all of us can see its final completion of the mold, but can not know the construction process, In the same way, jade will also go through different process steps before the finished product is completed, and if the researcher has not participated in the work of the predecessors, it is difficult to know all the processes and production tips.
And there is a very important link here, that is, the later process will always destroy the production traces of the previous step, making it difficult for the viewer to clearly distinguish the different trace characteristics, not to mention that the jade is finally polished and polished to be completed, this process will consume most of the production traces, researchers may be able to identify a number of unspoiled remnants of the traces, but how to really determine which step the traces are from?
Han Dynasty jade cicada
Self-proclaimed collectors on the Internet send videos with their own satisfactory collections, and some also use these theories as a basis for falsification?
Now in the network society, I am not qualified to allow others to speak, but we can share the topics and ideas we understand, so that everyone can think more and have more discriminating reason, which is not a bad thing.
The camp of domestic ancient jade research generally has several major factions, on the one hand, archaeology professional, they are exposed to a large number of excavated jade, the lower limit of the age of the artifact can put forward a very accurate time, and for different kinds of materials and ornaments can be like a number of treasures, the advantages of this work are unmatched; the other is the collector's school, with experience to determine the collection, to determine the authenticity of personal feelings, there are many masters in existence; they are all baptized by the market after thousands of hammers, and they all have their own collections and methods. There is also a category that belongs to the jianghu faction, the identity of the traders is different, the statements and cognition are not the same, there are those who say a lot of theories with fakes, there are also those who take the real goods everywhere to post treasures, which group you approach, you will be affected by which group, there is no survival of the fittest, there is no high or low, each has its own market and fun, each has its own research views and theories.
Han Dynasty Jade Pei
But we have contacted a large number of collectors, but found that the biggest problem that determines the level of a person's collection is the lack of the most basic cultural knowledge, which will cause a lot of cognitive bias, and the more ignorant or the lower the cognition of the people, the more stubborn, this is the most favorite group of counterfeiters, only like to listen to good, a sentence does not cater to the hair, so the reason why I am not willing to do the identification now is also that I can't afford to be angry, can't afford those people, you have fun, I concentrate on the dissemination of jade cultural knowledge, If you can improve your understanding of jade culture from the perspective of cultural knowledge, then it will take fewer detours to understand the artifacts of the ancients from the aspects of craftsmanship and materials, ornaments, etc.
Understanding these backgrounds, you will know that the identification of jade must be the result of comprehensive analysis, do not take partial generalization, can not take the processing traces of an artifact as a standard, it can only be used as a reference.
As already introduced, because we lack the micro-trace data of this jade self-cutting and even detailed grinding, it is theoretically and practically difficult for each researcher to summarize the production characteristics of different eras with this limited data, and to judge the age of other inherited jades based on this deduction.
Han Dynasty jade sword grid
Some people may suggest that semi-finished products from different processes be collected first, and then establish a database of production traces of different steps, then the above problems will be solved naturally.
However, as mentioned above, the premise of this theory is that the tools used in different eras and the traces of production left behind are self-contained and incompatible, but it is confirmed that this is not necessarily the case for the above practical work.
For example, compare the previous article
If the traces of the stoneware are compared with the traces of the production of another artifact
Compared only by the microscopic photographs of the two, we may judge that both are traces of the same era, but actually
The stone bearings in the picture above are from the Han Dynasty jade holding pig
The marks of the stoneware are used from the early and middle Western Zhou Dynasty
Moreover, due to the morphological characteristics of the work itself, it is known that it is the animal face from the cemetery of the late Western Zhou Dynasty
And the phoenix pattern pendant of the Western Han Dynasty
Comparing the two, if we look at the detailed production traces, can we really judge the era gap of more than a thousand years between the two from the micro-trace characteristics?
The answer is clearly no. The material of the animal face is not even jade, but the production traces are similar to each other.
It can be seen from this that if the purpose of the research is to distinguish the age of the creation of the jade, it seems that it is not possible to use pure production traces as a research method.
3. Modeling research
The function of Han Dynasty jade is similar to that of the Warring States, mainly the ornaments on the body, so it is mostly designed as a symmetrical shape of left and right. In addition to the traditional shapes, the Han Dynasty appeared more jade containers, human shapes, and animal round carvings.
In addition, the most characteristic jade utensils of the Han Dynasty should be the burial tools for high-ranking nobles, especially the jade boxes that cover the whole body.
Although it can be seen from the previous discussion that the effect of using the production trace as a tool to distinguish the age is quite limited, if the modeling characteristics are used as the standard, its effectiveness will be greatly improved.
Just like the pottery of the Shang and Western Zhou Dynasties, there is actually no difference in the techniques of kneading, drawing, kneading and so on, but the shaping characteristics under the standardization process are quite different.
Shang Dynasty pottery mane
For example, the biggest difference between Shang and Western Zhou pottery is that the Shang Dynasty is a crotch bristle, the Western Zhou is a crotch bristle, the main reason for the difference in the shape of the two is the difference in the process, one is to shape the bag foot separately and then glue the synthetic shape, one is to cut the ceramic billet after pulling the blank and then kneading, and the one is formed to complete the three-legged.
Western Zhou pottery mane
4. Skeletonization process
The shape-making characteristics of early western Han jades obviously have their own unique style, and the most important standard technique that sets off this style is "artistic hollowing". The standard process of "artistic hollowing" is to first punch holes with small-diameter pipes, and then wear metal wires to cut out the curve of the curved arc
Compared with the Warring States, the purpose of the skeletonization at that time was to highlight the shape, so it was called "shape hollowing"
The purpose of the artistic skeleton is to match the ornament to echo the shape, itself is an indispensable part of the art, even if the hollowing has been completed and no ornaments cooperate with each other, the viewer is still difficult to identify the body parts of the motif, so it is called the artistic skeleton.
It can be seen that if you want to judge the jade of the Warring States and han dynasties, as long as the ornaments are temporarily erased in your mind, if the characteristics of the motif can be identified by the hollow, you can also distinguish whether it is the dragon is a phoenix, and take this as a work of the Warring States period, and if you cannot judge what motif it is, or the parts of the body are vaguely difficult to distinguish, then this must be a work of the Han Dynasty.
Han Dynasty Dragon FengPei
From the above analysis, it can be seen that the judgment of the age does not rely on intuition, but can be analyzed by the style theory, and the hollow is the style characteristic that can be judged under the standardization process.
Although the theory of style will only be covered in the next text, it is now known that style refers to characteristics that can be chronological.