The ancients had a special love for mercury qin on jade, believing that those who had "mercury qin" in jade could cause gold and "silver" to fill the house, and "water" to the canal.
Whether ancient jade is blackened by Qin is related to mercury is still controversial, but some ancient jade does have mercury after being tested by modern scientific and technological means.
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The forms of mercury Qin in ancient jade generally have four types: blocky, spotted, dot-like and filamentous. Blocky refers to the whole or nearly the whole of the jade is black, spotted refers to the jade part is black, the dot-like commonly known as "sesame dot", the filamentous commonly known as "cow hair pattern". According to its respective forms and color performances, mercury Qin has been given vivid and vivid terms by posterity: Chen Mo Black, Pure Lacquer Ancient, Golden Sable Whiskers, Black Lacquer Ancient, etc.
There is also a kind of "plaster fat", which is thick black around the Qinmen, and gradually fades into a filament along the jade and spreads out to the surrounding areas, as if the minerals are caused by external invasion. There are many names for mercury Qin, which are precious to those who are seriously affected.
Common mercury Qin is small flakes or tree roots and whiskers, and the erosion is heavy, accompanied by mercury Qin often appears in the sunken Qin, black will reveal ochre red, under the light can be seen silver star flickering. Because mercury contains mercury, it will produce erosion and decay on the texture of the jade, resulting in a rusty pothole on the surface of the jade, and the texture structure of the jade after the mercury is introduced is no longer a growth pattern, like a protective cover, and other impurities are difficult to enter.
The genesis of different forms of mercury is related to the burial environment, the year of burial, and the material of the jade itself. Generally speaking, the age of the block and spot is relatively old, from the Hongshan culture in the late Neolithic era to the Song Dynasty, there are mercury Qin on the jade, which is darker in color, cut into the jade, and the surface is very bright. "Plaster Fat" and "Sesame Dot" were produced in the Tang and Qing dynasties.
The "sesame dots" are darker in color, and they resemble dots scattered in jade. The color of the "plaster fat" is lighter in the surrounding areas except for the darker parts at the Qin gate. Generally speaking, the mercury in the soil can not be half black or full black jade, mercury within a thousand years is generally not too black, mercury within 2000 years is not bright, mercury over 2000 years old is black, thick and bright.
Regarding the form and authenticity of mercury Qin, the ancients described it as "mercury Qin is dried and knotted, and its luminous points are round, white as beads, shining dazzlingly; or containing green dots and transparent, brilliant as jade beads"; "black paint is ancient and green... See the soil bites the remaining inches, like insects and moths." These two sentences tell us very vividly that black lacquer and pure black paint are generally deep black, but there are color changes in the local area. "White as a bead" or "containing green dots", are "glowing" or "transparent", and there is a Qin gate of "soil bites the inch, such as insect moths", indicating that the jade is affected by the external environment during burial, so that the elements that can blacken inside the jade have changed.
This influence was achieved through the channel of Qinmen. If mercury is black and shiny and has not changed in the slightest, it is often done by hand. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, some jade workers often painted a layer of black paint on the green jade when imitating high ancient jade to fill the ink jade. Such an artificial "black as pure lacquer" of "black lacquer" is impossible to have the effect of "multi-round luminous dots" and "transparent with green dots".
Mercury Qin after artificial disk play is a change, in the process of long-term disk play, the heat of the human body, friction heat energy and sweat in the salt, grease conducted to the jade, the mercury Qin's morphological changes play a subtle role, so that the jade "daily kale and delicious".
The ancients also said that the identification of authentic mercury Qin is still very useful. "Mercury is true, and the black-and-white boundary is as clear as a knife cut." Physical observation can be seen that mercury Qin is indeed black and white on the white jade, such as a watershed; but the black is not pitch black, but there are yellow dots jumping out; the white is not snow white, the jade color is blue; the texture of the jade has a relatively sparse distribution of cow hair filamentous black Qin.