Jade Color
jade color meaning
As is known to all, nephite is a dense block composed of amphibole and actinolite minerals (mainly amphibole) in amphibole family minerals.Nephrite, like jadeite, is fibrous when viewed under a microscope.This fibrous structure composed of tremolite or anthracite is the main reason why nephrite has the fine and firm nature.
Triblende is a kind of calcium magnesium silicate containing water and fluorine, its composition often contains less than 4% iron, when the iron content is more than 4% that is the transition to anthracite.The color of nephrite is determined by the color of its constituent minerals, and the color of nephrite is different with different mineral composition.Such as iron tremolite is light green, does not contain iron tremolite is white or light gray;Yangqi stone is green, yellow-green or brownish-green;Magnetite is black and graphite is grayish-black.
Ancient China attaches great importance to the color of hetian jade, at the same time by the influence of the five elements of academic, so there is a five-color jade said: the east is green, the south is red, the west is white, the north is black, the center is yellow, thus the jade is divided into five colors, the other are intermediate colors.
In addition, Xinjiang region also produces jasper, is also a nephrite, but does not belong to the scope of Hetian jade.There is now a consensus that Hetian jade from Xinjiang can be divided into four categories according to its color: white jade, sapphire, black jade and topaz, and that Hetian jade of other colors can also be classified into these four categories.In addition to the above four types of hetian jade, there are also red jade in ancient books, but so far it has not been seen in Xinjiang.
The first category, white jade.Although the same white jade, but due to the differences in trace elements, and will present a different white, from white to white, a variety of, even produced in the same vein, also not the same name is also a variety of names, such as season white, brown rice white, paraffin white, fish belly white, pear white, moon white and so on, it is difficult to distinguish one by one.White jade should be white and warm, but not the more white the better, if too white and become "dead white" is not good;Wenren is also a very important aspect, white but not embellish, is also dead white ", by no means a first-class white jade.
White jade can still be divided into suet jade and green white jade by color.One is suet jade.Suet jade because of color like suet, extremely warm and run named, the world only Xinjiang has this breed, output is very rare and extremely valuable, called "suet white jade", is the top grade jade.The characteristics of suet white jade is white, transparent, fine, embellish, namely the so-called "white such as cut fat".It itself is white, but through the light with a warm pink.The second is green white jade.Green and white jade quality and white jade no significant difference, with white as the keynote, only light turquoise in white jade, common green onion white, pink green, gray white, belong to the transition variety of white jade and blue jade, more common in hetian jade, slightly inferior to the economic value of white jade.
The second category, topaz.Topaz matrix for white jade, due to long-term by the surface water iron oxide infiltration and the formation of yellow tone in the gap, there are light yellow to deep yellow transition, including beeswax yellow, fruit yellow, okra yellow, yellow, egg yolk, tiger skin yellow, etc.The thick wax yellow, okra yellow in topaz is extremely rare, see only occasionally on the history of exploration of jade of a few countries millennium, its value can reach suet jade.
In the Qing Dynasty, because yellow is the homophonic of "emperor" jade, topaz is extremely rare, and its economic value once exceeded suet white jade. For example, during the reign of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, women cut topaz three sheep bottles, topaz zoom-shaped bottles, topaz Buddha and so on are the top quality of topaz cut.
The third category, black jade.If there are graphite, magnet and other components in the tremolite, the jade color is black color, generally from black to light black, mostly cloud like, strip, etc., according to the shape of the name "dark cloud piece light ink light, golden sable beard, beauty temples".
In the whole material, because of the strength of the ink is different, the distribution of the deep light is uneven, and there are generally all ink, poly ink and dot ink.Poly black refers to the blue jade or white jade in the ink more concentrated, can be used for Qiao color.Dot ink is dispersed into points, affecting the use.Mo jade is mostly small, its black because of the number of fine graphite, black thick and dense called black, value is higher than other types of black jade.Mo jade is waxy luster, because of uneven color and should not be carved ball decoration, more used to make inlaid silver and silver wire utensils.
Fourth category, sapphire.Sapphire Gu even, fine texture, containing blende 89%, Yang from the stone 6%, was oily luster, light green to dark blue, color variety is many, ancient records have shrimp green, blue nose, crab shell green, green bamboo leaves and so on.Modern because of color depth is different, also have light green deep green, green, gray, deep gray green and so on.Hetian jade in the sapphire is the most common large, is the main variety of the collection or mining of the system of jade.