Inheritance and Development of Chinese Jade Culture
The 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization in China runs through jade culture, which is also the most important part of Chinese civilization. Among ancient jade, Liangzhu jade and later Warring States jade left us a precious legacy with their incredible exquisite skills, and also provided convincing evidence for studying the history of Chinese civilization.
In the history of the development of ancient jade articles in China, the Warring States, Han Dynasty and Qing Dynasty reached their peak, and their craftsmanship reached its peak. The first reason is that jade and jade culture were integrated into politics, culture, ethics and life at that time, and there was a worship of jade from the rulers of dynasties to the people of Li, and the jade virtue of jade was integrated into social morality. The second is political stability, social stability, rich material and developed culture. In the long history of jade culture in China, the Qing Dynasty had the greatest influence on modern jade culture. It was not only a glorious period of Chinese jade culture, but also a period that left a lot of artistic treasures for future generations. The palace jade works in this period and the complete jade culture concept of the royal aristocrats also had a far-reaching impact on later generations. However, the development of jade culture in Qing Dynasty was also unbalanced. Shunzhi established political power to Kangxi period (1644-1722), which was a period when the Qing dynasty just established political power, its foundation was unstable and its economy was in recovery. Coupled with the promotion of thrift, jade and other luxury goods are basically not found in court jade works. According to the collection statistics of the Palace Museum, there are no works from Shunzhi to Kangxi. Yongzheng's period from Qianlong to Jiaqing (1723- 1820) was the middle of Qing dynasty. Under the rule of Kangxi, the great monarch in China's history, a unified multi-ethnic country was established, with social stability and economic prosperity. In addition, Qianlong loved China culture, so China jade culture also entered a period of vigorous development, especially from the 24th year of Qianlong to the early years of Jiaqing, about 40 years later. From Daoguang to Xuan Tong (1821-1911) in the late Qing Dynasty, social unrest, economic recession, weak national strength, invasion of foreign powers, decline of jade culture and decline of jade carving skills. The peak of jade culture in Qing dynasty was in the late Qianlong period. Yang Boda, a famous jade expert, divided the prosperous period of Qianlong into two different periods, taking the 25th year of Qianlong (1760) as the boundary. In the early stage, the development of palace jade was slow, and some antique jade was mainly cut and processed. Twenty-five years after Qianlong, jade production entered a prosperous period. During this period, Huibu paid 4000 kilograms of jade articles to the court twice a year, and the number of jade articles increased continuously, which promoted the development of the court jade industry. Rich businessmen and ordinary people are buying all kinds of jade articles, which has expanded the supply of jade articles, but at the same time, there have been many problems, which prompted Qianlong to put forward a set of jade articles management concepts: rectifying the secular, advocating learning from the past, advocating painting and popularizing trace jade articles.
The so-called "vulgar style" means that under the situation that the demand for jade is in short supply, a large number of commodities with vulgar styles and rough workmanship are produced without considering the quality of jade. At the same time, the wind of "Xiao Hua" prevailed, and some jade articles with light patterns appeared, which Qianlong called "Yu 'er". In order to reverse the situation of "vulgar style" and show his longing for the past, Qianlong put forward "advocating ancient law", which produced a large number of antique Yi jade articles and promoted the development of jade culture in the right direction. Under the guidance of this idea, a large number of jades in the late Qianlong period imitated bronzes from Shang and Zhou Dynasties to Qin and Han Dynasties, which objectively promoted the development of jade culture. At the same time, he also advocated the artistic principles of "excellent materials without carving" and "simplicity". Advocating artistic conception is also an important measure to promote jade culture. Jade is not only a rare material, but also a cultural carrier, and its expression content and techniques are similar to those of pictures. So Qianlong advocates artistic conception. When he made jade landscape paintings, he combined the essence of China landscape paintings with realism and freehand brushwork, just as painters pursued the interest of pen and ink. For example, "Travel in the Mountains and Water" and "Dayu Harnessing Water" are all about painting and sculpture. "Popularizing Trace Jade" is the abbreviation of Trace Dustan Jade, which is the work of Mughal Dynasty in India. Traced jade has a distinctive Arabic style, and its shape and pattern are full of exotic atmosphere. Workmanship is "as thin as paper, as thin as hair, and the surface is round and smooth, leaving no hand to touch." Because of Qianlong's admiration and love for carved jade, the wind of imitation carved jade spread to Yangzhou, Jiangning, Beijing and other places, and the wind of imitation carved jade once prevailed. Folk jade shops refer to the carved jade of Kyoto altar as "Fanzuo" and the "imitation carved jade" as "Fanzuo", which has been passed down to this day, so the jade altar with the decorative characteristics of "Fanzuo" has had a far-reaching influence since18th century.
Sui and Tang Dynasties
With prosperous economy, developed culture and close foreign exchanges, Chang 'an has become an international city. At this time, handicrafts are extremely prosperous, and handicrafts are also important commodities in foreign trade. However, few jade articles were unearthed in this period, and only several kinds of jade cups, jade ornaments, jade buckles, jade belts, jade girls and jade carvings are known. The styles of jade articles and utensils in Tang Dynasty are different from those in Han Dynasty, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. There are a lot of flowers and birds and figures, and the utensils are rich in life. The increase of cups and bowls with practical value indicates the emergence of new ornaments and jade belt ornaments of official rank.
Northern and Southern Song, Liao, Xixia, Jin and Yuan Dynasties
Jade at this time was developed on the basis of the Tang Dynasty. Since the Song Dynasty, practical jade and decorative jade have occupied an important position in society and spread widely. Compared with ritual artifacts, they are called "playthings" and their polishing level is also very high. Due to the influence of the north-south regime and different national cultures, jade articles reflect national and local characteristics. Jade in Song Dynasty, with dragon and phoenix as auspicious patterns, was influenced by meticulous painting and attached great importance to expression. In Song Dynasty, not only industry and commerce flourished, Taoism prevailed and Neo-Confucianism flooded, but also jade carvings were influenced. Jade carvings with the theme of tortoise, crane and dragon and phoenix are the reflection of these social thoughts at that time. The jade articles of Xixia, Liao, Jin and Yuan dynasties are mainly decorated with flowers and birds, tigers, deer and fish, and there are many ornaments and inserts. Practical products include cups, washing products, plates and so on. The number of handicrafts with birds, fish and animals has increased, and grinding jade has integrated into the national survival consciousness and local feelings.
tomorrow
In the Ming Dynasty, the productive forces developed greatly, the urban handicraft industry and commerce flourished, and the jade manufacturing industry was also quite developed. At this time, the trend of jade carving is further secularization. Neo-Confucianism flooded in the Ming Dynasty, and Taoism and folk beliefs were deeply rooted in people's hearts. People demand social stability and pray for God's blessing in order to achieve the prosperity of this world. This social requirement is reflected in the technical field, that is, auspicious patterns are very popular. The auspicious patterns of jade articles in the Ming Dynasty include immortals such as the Eight Immortals and Samsung, figures such as longevity and happiness, animals and plants such as peaches, ganoderma lucidum, plums, bamboos, orchids, deer, cranes and mandarin ducks, and birds and animals such as dragons, phoenixes, tigers and horns. Auspicious patterns sometimes become theme patterns and sometimes are decorated, showing the extensiveness and depth of auspicious patterns. In the Ming Dynasty, due to the prevalence of drinking tea, jade pot cups appeared and increased day by day. This kind of jade carving is the most modern. At the same time, following the Song Dynasty, the wind of antique art in Ming Dynasty gradually formed, which affected the prosperity of antique jade in jade production. Antique jade originated in Song Dynasty and prevailed in Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is mainly transformed from bronzes and ancient jade.
Calligraphy and painting in Ming Dynasty further influenced the development and improvement of arts and crafts. At this time, the jade craft was more or less influenced by literati painting, grinding freehand brushwork landscapes and poems. This kind of jade, which embodies the literati's interest, was not available in the previous generation. The relationship between jade and social and cultural life is getting closer and closer. Scholars often use jade stationery or jade as decoration when painting and writing in their study. In order to consolidate its feudal rule, the Ming rulers followed the old system and used jade to mark the aristocratic rank. Different from the previous generation, the number of jade belts tied to official uniforms increased, and the leather belts of emperors, princes, princes, Xu horses and yipin Wenwu Baiguan were all decorated with jade plates.
Jade carving in Ming dynasty has the style of the times, rough and powerful knife work, and very fine carving "three-layer through carving method" Beijing, Suzhou and Yangzhou were the three centers of jade carving at that time. Song Dynasty's "Heavenly Creations" said: "Although good workers gather in the capital, they skillfully push Su County." Suzhou jade carving technology was pushed to the top of the country at that time, which made a historic contribution to the development and improvement of jade carving technology in Ming Dynasty. After the mid-Ming Dynasty, jade carving techniques developed rapidly, and many jade carving masters appeared, among which Lu Zigang was the most famous, and the jade he carved was called "Zigang Jade". However, in the last polishing and fine grinding process of Yu Zhuo in Ming Dynasty, there was a phenomenon of "seeking shape without effort".
Today, in jade shops, people will buy a piece of jade to hang on their bodies. Some are out of decorative preference, some are to symbolize auspiciousness, and some people wear jade to ward off disasters and evil spirits.
In the jade cultural tradition, the concept of driving away disasters and evil spirits is very strange, and its origin comes from a unique jade fashion of ancestors in Han Dynasty.
Different from western culture, the jade civilization in ancient China has never stopped, and with the passage of time, the connotation of jade culture has become richer and deeper.
Li Bosheng believes that jade, as our nation, is regarded as a relic of the earth. When the Buddhist temple gets the Buddha's finger relic, the temple will have a nucleus, and the temple will stop and start burning. Because it has that relic, jade should be regarded as a relic of the earth, a fine stone of the earth and a fine skeleton of the earth.
Many scholars try to explain this cultural difference between China and the West, but in the end they can't find a satisfactory answer. It seems that this cultural phenomenon can only be frozen into a historical unsolved case.
Looking back and thinking about this period of history, scholars believe that when a nation is in the historical evolution, from origin to integration to civilization, the inheritance of civilization will never be interrupted, and an ancient tradition accompanying history will inevitably form cultural accumulation with the passage of time, and they will quietly and deeply integrate into the historical blood of a nation.