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Text: Little Fish
Editor|Little Fish
The mountains and the jade sea
《——【·Preface·】——》
A national treasure worth four big cities has been silently filled with pickles for three hundred years in a temple?
This incredible story takes place in the Great Jade Sea of Mountains, which was built by the Emperor Kublai Khan of the Yuan Dynasty himself.
What kind of story is hidden behind this 7,000-pound "famous jade"? Why has its prestige disappeared over the years?
This is how the first jade of the Yuan Dynasty was born
In 1260 A.D., Kublai Khan succeeded to the throne of the Great Khan of the Mongols, just when the spring breeze was proud. In order to show the majesty of the empire, he ordered to collect 7,000 catties of Dushan jade from Nanyang, Henan, and handed it over to the skilled craftsmen of the "Dadu Royal Jade" to carefully build.
For five years, craftsmen worked day and night to carve this rare giant jade.
Every stroke on the jade body is extremely delicate: in the turbulent waves, the dragon is churning, the dolphin jumps over the waves, and more than ten kinds of supernatural animals such as seahorses and sea rhinos are lifelike, implying the majestic momentum of the Yuan Dynasty to dominate the world.
The Dadu Royal Jade Masterpiece brought together the best jade craftsmen from all regions of the Great Yuan Empire, including Han craftsmen who were proficient in the traditional carving techniques of the Central Plains, as well as Mongolian craftsmen who were skilled in the style of steppe nomads.
According to historical records, the person who presided over the carving was Zhao Yunfeng, a jade carving master specially recruited by Kublai Khan from Jiangnan, who had served in the Southern Song Dynasty royal jade for many years and had exquisite skills.
In order to create this unprecedented giant jade, the craftsmen even invented special jade carving tools, using the most advanced water-assisted grinding technology at the time, which was a technological revolution at the time.
An unexpected loss in the change of power in the Ming Dynasty
At the beginning of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the Great Jade Sea was still cherished as a royal weapon. But as Zhu Di launched the "Battle of Jingyan", seized the throne and moved the capital to Beijing, this important weapon of the town and country disappeared in the chaos.
Who would have thought that this rare treasure, which had amazed Marco Polo and recorded in his travelogue, would be quietly hidden in the market.
According to fragments of Ming Dynasty archives, when Emperor Jianwen was forced to flee south, he ordered the treasures in the palace to be secretly transferred to prevent them from falling into the hands of Zhu Di.
Due to its large size, the Great Jade Sea was unable to travel south, so it was temporarily placed in a hidden temple outside Nanjing.
After Zhu Di ascended the throne, he sent people to search for the lost treasures in the palace, but they never found this national treasure handed down from the Yuan Dynasty.
According to the history of Arino, the eunuch in charge of the transfer of the jade sea deliberately smeared mud on the outside of the jade sea to make it look like an ordinary stone jar in order to protect the national treasure.
The disguise was so successful that even Zhu Di's search team failed to see through it, and eventually the priceless jade was sent to Beijing, where it ended up in a little-known Taoist temple.
An unexpected discovery in the Zhenwu Temple: a pickle jar
On an ordinary day in 1702, Gao Shiqi, an important minister of the Kangxi Dynasty, walked to the Zhenwu Temple in Beijing.
While wandering around the temple, he was shocked to find a large vat used by Taoist priests to pickle pickles, which was strikingly similar to the Great Jade Sea in the historical records.
This jade artifact, which weighs 3,500 kilograms, has existed in obscurity here for more than 200 years. Gao Shiqi immediately reported to Emperor Kangxi, but unfortunately failed to pay attention at that time.
As a famous literati and collector, Gao Shiqi has a high ability to appreciate ancient jade.
On that day, he was originally going to visit a Taoist master who was good at medicine in the Zhenwu Temple, and when he passed by the backyard, he happened to catch a glimpse of several small Taoist priests busy around a huge cyan stone jar.
When I got closer, I found that the mottled and detached surface of the stone jar revealed a unique jade quality that was crystal clear, and there were faint traces of exquisite carvings.
He carefully wiped a small area, and unexpectedly saw a lifelike pattern of divine beasts, which was completely consistent with the description of the Great Jade Sea in the "Yuan History" he had read not long ago.
The Taoist priests told him that this "stone jar" had been used in the temple for nearly 300 years, and had been used as an ordinary utensil, and no one had ever recognized its true face.
100,000 taels of silver in exchange for a national treasure
It wasn't until 1745 that Emperor Qianlong, an art connoisseur, was fascinated by this dusty treasure when he visited the Zhenwu Temple. He immediately took out 100,000 taels of silver and put this rare treasure in the palace.
Qianlong not only built a jade urn pavilion for it in the Chengguang Hall of Beihai Tuancheng, but also personally inscribed the "Jade Urn Song" and engraved it on the palace wall to show his cherishment of this national treasure.
Under the admiration of Qianlong, the Great Jade Sea finally regained its rightful status and became an important symbol of the country's cultural heritage.
The Qianlong Emperor was so excited about the discovery that he ordered the jade craftsmen of the court to carefully clean up the dirt and salt stains on the surface of the Jade Sea for years.
The clean-up process lasted a full three months, and every day new beautiful patterns were revealed.
According to court records, when everything was cleaned up, Emperor Qianlong came to watch it for three consecutive days and personally instructed how to arrange the light of the jade urn pavilion so that the jade sea could show its best luster at different times.
He even ordered it to be placed on a special base of golden silk nanmu with pure gold beast heads at the four corners of the base, symbolizing the supreme authority of the empire.
In order to protect this national treasure, Qianlong also set up a special post of "jade urn guard", which was guarded by eunuchs selected by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in turn to ensure its safety and integrity.
The legend of the treasure of the nine towns and countries
As the earliest surviving extra-large jade carving in China, the Great Jade Sea not only shocks the world with its exquisite craftsmanship, but also makes people sigh with its unique destiny experience.
Its value was well documented in Marco Polo's writings and translated into many languages throughout Europe. Today, it is rated as the "Treasure of the Nine Towns and Kingdoms" together with the gold ornaments of the Sun God Bird and the bamboo slips of the Art of War.
The comprehensive restoration of the Great Jade Sea began in the 1950s, when antiquities experts found several traces of Qing Dynasty repairs on the side walls of the Jade Sea.
The international cultural relics community has never stopped researching it, the Louvre Museum in France has sent a team of experts to China to study its carving technology, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the United States has also listed it as the first of the "Top Ten Jade Treasures in the World".
《——【·Conclusion·】——》
The value of cultural relics lies not only in their preciousness, but also in the historical memory they carry.
The twists and turns of the Great Jade Sea from the royal treasure to the temple pickle jar and then to the national treasure are like a mirror, reflecting the ups and downs of the fate of Chinese objects in the long river of history.
This legendary story, spanning hundreds of years, reminds us to rethink the importance of heritage conservation and reminds us to cherish every piece of history around us.
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