Jade
Properties
Material Characteristics
Jade has an oily luster when fully processed. It can come in pale green or ivory white.
Physical & Chemical Properties
There are two different minerals that are classified as jade. To go indepth on them would be more suited to a lecture on geology.
Geology & Geography
This material was commonly found in the deserts of Western China.
The Southern New World regions had small deposits of jade as well.
History & Usage
Discovery
It was probably discovered by the very ancient Chinese shortly after Nuwa created people.
During the prehistoric ages, people began using jade to make large decorative versions of tools as displays of wealth and power. Only later when carving technology improve did they use it to make smaller wearable decoratives.
In the Han dynasty, some nobles commissioned burial armor made of jade scales in order to preserve their bodies forever.
After Buddhism became widespread, jade began to be used to depict statues of the enlightened.
Cultural Significance and Usage
In Chinese culture and by extension the Tangguo, ivory white jade is preferred despite the lack of such deposits due to associations with purity.
Jade was often referred to as the heavenly stone due to being mined from mountains, and mountains being the pillars that held up the sky.
Because of jade's sacredness, the Mandarin word for it became a popular choice for young women's names. Jade is also associated with the saponification of miraculous women's sariras due to its oily luster and belief that it is aligned to femininity.
Refinement
To mine out jade, some miners use extreme heat to force the stone to crack apart. This often caused the jade to shatter instead.
Due to the failure of fire, miners then resorted to searching for smaller boulders that they could cart away.
Since jade is an extremely hard mineral, abrasion is the only method to reliably shape it. Quartz was used until the Song Dynasty, where a material known as "red sand" was used to polish it.
By the Industrial Revolution, jade carvers were using an array of harder stones and "filing sand," the latter being an improved derivative of the Song-era red sand.
Manufacturing & Products
Often made into religious jewelry or art statues.
Sometimes made into decorative hair clips or earrings without any religious significance.
Due to the difficulty of processing jade and its rarity, many jade masons prefer not to drastically change the stones' shapes. Even scraps from larger works are reused in some form.
Distribution
Trade & Market
Considered a luxury good these days.
Storage
Jade items should be stored away from strong heat in order to prevent them shattering.
Type
Stone
Rarity
Uncommon
Odor
Odorless
Taste
Tasteless
Color
Usually pale green
Common State
Solid
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