Chinese culture is broad and profound, long-standing, all-encompassing, one of the branches, is the "jade culture", the mainland is also known as the "country of jade", the ancients used jade, has been more than 5,000 years of history, the Zhou Dynasty's "Book of Poetry", it was recorded: "Why give it, ring gem jade pendant", in the Spring and Autumn Period, Peiyu became a common practice, with "gentlemen have no reason, jade does not go to the body", "gentlemen have no virtue, so do not wear jade" and other sayings.
Jade is both delicate and hard, jade has nephrite and jadeite, such as mutton fat white jade, Hetian jade and other traditional jade, for nephrite jade, and jadeite belongs to the category of jadeite, ancient and modern, there have been many allusions related to "jade", such as the ancient Nüwa supplementary heaven, the Spring and Autumn Xiao Shi Nongyu, the Warring States of the Complete Bi Gui Zhao, the Qin and Han Dynasty of the National Jade Seal, the Song Dynasty's Zihan Ci Jade and so on.
Of course, there are also many sayings related to jade, such as "It is better to be jade broken than to be complete", "to turn dry into jade", "jade is not snug, not to be a tool", etc., and the saying about "jade" that I want to talk about today has been sung in the street for many years, for -- "People raise jade for three years, jade raises people for a lifetime", what does this saying mean? Does that make sense?
The first half of this saying is not difficult to understand, the so-called "people raise jade", refers to people wearing jade, in the process of wearing, jade will bump, jade will contact with people's skin, the surface of jade will become more delicate, "three" is an approximate number, referring to the jade is worn for many years, it will change.
The point of this saying is how to understand "jade raises people for a lifetime", and how does jade raise people? For this problem, there are two main explanations:
1, in the eyes of people, it is believed that jade has aura, it is believed that it is the essence of heaven and earth, yin and yang two qi born, in ancient times, jade is considered to be the information medium of communication between people and heaven. As early as the Western Han Dynasty, jade was made into various shapes and used to "ward off evil spirits and win victories", so jade was believed to be able to ward off evil spirits, resist evil qi and turbid qi, and was considered to be able to ensure peace and auspiciousness.
In addition, in the ancient books "Compendium of Materia Medica" and "Shennong Materia Medica", there are records about "jade", believing that wearing jade can strengthen the body and prolong life, for example, the role of wearing jade is described in the "Compendium of Materia Medica": "In addition to medium heat, relieve annoyance, help the throat, nourish hair, nourish the five internal organs, requiem, thin blood veins, clear eyes and ears"
2, a thousand kinds of agate and ten thousand kinds of jade, as the saying goes: "gold has a priceless jade", and the core spirit of "jade raising people" is that jade is enriched with noble character, that is, "gentleman is better than jade", people often hear "jade has five virtues", for which five virtues?
Jade has "five virtues", mainly recorded in the ancient books "Shuowen Jiezi" and "Five Classics of General Righteousness", all of which include the three virtues of "benevolence, wisdom and righteousness", both of which are "sharp and harmless, moist and warm", wisdom is "warm and moist, its voice is comfortable, and it is dedicated to distant hearing", and righteousness is "suppressed without indomitability, and reason is from the outside, which can be known in the middle"
The other two virtues are "courage" and "purity" in the Commentaries on the Interpretation of Texts, and "faith" and "rites" in the Five Classics of General Righteousness.