Basics Identification

1. If you chip the edge of a suspected specimen and it sparkles or glitters, it’s not jade.

2. If you can scratch it with a Steel knife blade, it’s not jade.

3. Jade will be much heavier than a common rock of similar size.

4. Tap the specimen lightly with the point of your pick. If a small moon-shaped fracture shows up, it is agate or jasper, but not jade.

5. If it is jade, it will have a smooth, waxy, almost greasy, look and feel.

Main sources of Chinese Jade Objects Identification & its Significance:

Outside China, very few ancient cultures in the world were successful in producing some of the most stunning craftsmanship on jade, like Central American artists of Olmec, Toltec, and Mayan cultures. Still, no culture can rival China for the breadth, depth, richness, and variety of work in this medium.

Though the actual use and meaning of each ancient chinese jade object is much disputed, there are 2 main sources that deals and describes about the chinese jade objects and their significance. The first one is “Chou-li” (ritual book of the chou) and the other is “Ku-yu” t’u-p’u”. The latter is a catalogue of one hundred books, with seven hundred illustrations of jade artefacts, describing the collection of the first emperor of the southern Sung Dynasty. A manuscript copy of this work, first written in c. 1176, was discovered in 1773 and published in c. 1779. A very laborious archaeological work of the late Ch’ing Dynasty is the “Ku-yu” t’u-kao” by Wu T’ach’eng, was published in 1889.

The importance of jade is visible in its use for ceremonial objects and cosmic symbols, which began in very early in the An-yang period. Most of these chinese jade objects are less subject to changes of major in style over a period of its whole history of more than 5000 years. The significance and original names of the ritual jade artefacts are also to a large extent uncertain, as so far only a few of the emblems named in the literary sources have been successfully identified, and many items found which has no mentioned at all in the sources.

Neolithic jades such as the bi discs and cong tubes are often found in burial sites, suggesting a ritual significance. By the time of the Zhou Dynasty (771-221 BCE), when the Book of Songs was written, the prescribing of jade as an aid to attaining immortality was well established. Deceased royals buried in a Jade Burial suit with Jade Plugs inserted in body openings. The use of jade in burial ritual continued into and beyond the Han Dynasty (100s BCE-100s CE, about the period of Julius Caesar and the Roman Empire), when in addition to body plugs, other jade objects were interred with the deceased. Jade cicadas, for example, representing rebirth, be placed on the deceased person’s tongue.

Early dynastic jades also took the form of belt hooks, archer’s rings, and guards for swords etc. During the earliest chinese dynasties, the Shang and the Zhou, pendants became an increasingly popular adornment. Through the centuries, jade ornamentation had become increasingly codified, so that by the Han Dynasty its use as a means of distinguishing one’s social class was firmly entrenched.

Fewer Jades survive from the centuries from the fall of the Han dynasty in 220 BC through the end of the Tang Dynasty in 906 than from earlier or later dynasties. Changes in Funerary Practices meant that not as many pieces were included in tombs where they were protected from the ravages of time. In addition, these works had not completed the transition from ritual object to cultural artwork and were not collected as they were in later dynasties. The earliest Animal Figures from this time of transition show something of the ritual spirit of the Han dynasty, but they soon evolve into fanciful mythical beasts and playful representations. During these centuries signs of an emerging antiquarian spirit appear in jade imitations of early metallic or ceramic objects. This anticipates an important trend in China from the Song Dynasty (960-1279) onward.

In the modern Dynasties (the Ming, 1368-1644, and the Qing, 1644-1912) jade-work became more self-conscious and referential. Often as with the monkey and peaches sculpture jades alluded to a work of literature or some other aspect of China’s cultural heritage. Or they might involve a sort of witticism known as a rebus. Rebuses are hidden meanings or verbal puns arising from characters that have double meanings; they usually refer to auspicious signs or wishes.

During this period, jade objects for the Scholar’s Studio began to be produced, such as brush rests, paperweights, and personnel seals. In keeping with the referential spirit of the modern period, such objects were sometimes made in imitation of earlier forms in other mediums, such as bronzes and lacquers.

Fortunately, modern technologies are available to make jade artefacts identification as accurate as possible in laboratories, but it cannot attribute to the period. To determine the period there are many other ways to identify jade objects, among them Reference Method is considered to be one of the best Jade identification method which seems to be more appropriate. The Reference Method may be described as follows:

Firstly, select a referral jade artefact with Unearth Report which was designated as a particular period such as Han Dynasty.

Secondly, to list all the referral item’s attributes of antiquity phenomena due to chemical and physical factors (cleaving veins, differential weathering,  diffusive markings, exposed additive crystals, crystal planes, and dissolved pits), the attributes of motifs (for example, the datelines of dragon) of that particular period and the attributes of craftsmanship due to carving method, such as hole drilling (for example, the ChiChia culture jade artefacts are characterised by the one direction drilling) and formation of lines (for example, the lines on the Hongshan Culture artefacts are usually seen around smooth channels.

Thirdly, to repeat the work for the item to be identified. Lastly, to map the attributes of the item to be identified to those of the item referred. If 90% of the attributes matched, then we can conclude that the item to identified has a probability of from the same period of the item referred. Generally speaking, at least 70% is required to be confident that the item to be identified should be from the period of the item referred.

If the period of the jade artefact to be identified has no reference with Unearth Report, then we may search artefacts of different material such as from ancient chinese bronze artefacts to find clues of such inscriptions to make the comparison. For example, for the identification of the Shin Dynasty (AD 8-25) octagon shape jade container with dragon and phoenix motif and inscriptions. For seal, the identification should be based on the scripts on the base and the style of the dragon. The basic criteria is to use the jade carving object and  the workmanship as a basis of jade identification.