Jade is one of the most ancient and mysterious gems. For people with a rich imagination, shadows on thin, dimly translucent sections seem especially mysterious.
There is a belief that jade reflects the essence of its owner; it can fade if the person to whom it belongs has chosen the wrong path.
This stone is surrounded by countless myths, legends and traditions.
It was known to the Maya and Aztecs for more than three thousand years. The natives of America used it in rituals and in everyday life, for a long time this stone was valued above gold. According to the legend of the Indian leader, Montezuma was surprised by the indifference of white people to jade. Cortez told the Aztec leader that the Spaniards were interested in gold and silver.
In South America, the Indians made a kind of piercing from jade, fixing jewelry from the mineral on the lips. The presence of this jewelry in a person indicated that he was ready to serve the spirits.
Jade pendants could also speak of what place a person occupies in the local hierarchy, the more jade, the higher the position of its owner.
For a very long time this stone was called "jade". From "jade" - jade. The name "jade" has survived to our time, but now it is called a rare and valuable jadeite stone, which has a slight resemblance to jade.
Jade was called the Maori stone, for whom it was a family stone on which the names of the heads of families were immortalized. But more often it was called a Chinese stone, since in China, jade from ancient times to the present day is considered a sacred and national stone.
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An ancient hieroglyph of four crossed straight lines of well-being and a small curl - in Chinese writing means - yu, yu or simply yu - jade.
In China, it is called the "stone of life." In the Celestial Empire, it is also considered the stone of the Earth and Heaven, the stone of Wisdom and Eternity. According to legend, the Heavenly Throne of Buddha is made of jade.
In China, there is a 6 meters high Buddha statue made from a single piece of milky jade.
Jade brings the benevolent protection of the Heavenly Jade Dragon and other ancient Chinese deities to the one who possesses it.
In ancient China, jade was valued above gold and silver, because, according to legend, it brought prosperity and good luck to its owner. An old Chinese proverb says: "Gold has a price, but jade is priceless."
In ancient China, a treatise on jade was written, consisting of one hundred volumes. Plaques made of jade were equated with coins, and weights from it served as a measure of weight when weighing gold. The credentials of the ambassadors were presented on a jade plate.
Some of the best jade carvers lived in ancient China. Vases, bowls, caskets, carved figures of animals and people, balls, which are located in each other, which have survived to our time, are of great value. The lithophone has also survived - a musical instrument made of jade, on which Confucius played beautifully.
By the way, Confucius spoke about a good person: "His morality is as pure as jade." There is also a proverb in China: "Unpolished jade does not sparkle."
Chinese philosophers believed that jade has five basic qualities that correspond to the six mental qualities of a person. The soft shine of jade, in their opinion, personified mercy, the hardness of the stone - moderation and justice, translucency symbolized honesty, purity embodied wisdom, and its changeability - courage.
In Turkey, jade was the talisman of warriors. They wore a ring with jade and decorated the handles of weapons with this stone. Even after the invention of steel, rulers and generals continued to believe in the magical durability of jade weapons.
But jade was known to people almost at the very dawn of mankind. Even in the Neolithic, judging by the finds of archaeologists, jade was used to make durable weapons, as hammers and axes, and tools. In Buryatia and the Chita region, scientists have discovered tools made of jade dating back to the Bronze and Stone Ages. The ancient craftsmen not only made durable weapons, but also made them very beautiful.
Time cannot harm a jade tool, so the jade knives of the Neolithic hunters that have lain in the ground for hundreds of centuries have remained so sharp that they can even now cut the carcass of an animal, and ancient axes can easily cut down a tree.
Jade possesses colossal, simply incredible strength due to the fact that its dense monomineral structure is made up of uniquely located long entangled molecular filaments, which give it enormous viscosity.
Jade is twice as strong as steel and five times stronger than granite. Believe it or not, a jade slab is superior in strength to a tank armor slab of exactly the same thickness. In order to convince those of little faith, an experiment was carried out - a lump of black jade was laid under an industrial mechanical hammer. So the jade stone withstood the blow, and the steel anvil underneath cracked.
The modern name for jade comes from the ancient Greek word nephros - kidney. It was even called a kidney stone. It is believed that the stone was named so because its pebbles, rolled by river waves to shine, look like buds.
Jade has a wide range of colors and shades. It can also be spotted or striped, with streaks, rays. Although solid stones are valued higher.
The color of a stone depends on the chemical elements contained in its structure, for example, iron oxides, impurities of manganese, nickel, vanadium, chromium and others. Jade of green shades are beautiful - herbaceous, emerald, aqua, greenish-gray, greenish-brown. swampy, yellowish green and almost black. The most valuable of them is considered to be emerald green jade. Blue and red jades are considered rare. There are brown, white, gray and black jade.
In an ancient Chinese manuscript written on a narrow roll of silk, the colors of jade are described as follows: “It has five colors: White as cream, but the most expensive is its gray tint; Yellow as chestnuts boiled in boiling will; Black as soot or the sheath of a mighty warrior's sword; Red, like a rooster's comb or women's lipstick for calling lips; Know that Green is the most varied, like grass in the imperial garden or bamboo leaves, from young to old."
Magma-induced nephrite is formed when molten magma penetrates magnesium-rich sedimentary rock during a volcanic eruption. Jade acquires even greater strength when exposed to water. Such a stone is mined from placers of rivers, streams, in quarries.
In general, until recently, jade deposits were considered a rarity. For example, jade was imported to Russia from China until the middle of the 19th century. A well-known factory in Peterhof bought dark green jade for a thousand rubles per pood.
In China, the most famous jade deposits are located in the Pamirs and the Kuen-Lun ridge.
The stones mined in New Zealand are of high quality and are well translucent. And since jade played an important role in the culture of the indigenous population of this country - the Maori, all New Zealand jade deposits (Maori Pounamu) in 1997 were transferred to Maori management.
Nowadays, there are known deposits of jade located in Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Italy, India, Burma, Switzerland, Poland, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, the United States in the states of Montana and Alaska.
In our country, jade deposits have also been discovered, they are located mainly in the South Urals, where greenish-gray jade is mined. There are deposits in the Sayan Mountains and Tuva.
Author: Natalia N Antonova