Culture

Hetian Jade

Just as its name implies, Hetian Jade is produced locally and its origin is very important. Each piece of jade produced in the middle and lower reaches of the river has the distinctive shape of a cobble-stone and this is generally referred to as 'Seed Jade'. These pieces are produced from the jade seams in the mountain-sides and are washed out by natural weathering before they are carried down into the river by the fast-flowing outwash from the headwaters and glaciers. After many years of constant washing by the river water and repeated tumbling amongst the stones on the riverbed, the edges and corners of the jade rock are ground smooth and rounded. Weaker pieces are gradually broken up by the battering among stones and the debris slowly flows further down the river. What remains are those strong and solid lumps of top-grade material. Hetian Seed Jade is especially fine and smooth, fluid-looking yet tough. It is considered to be of the highest quality among the collections of numerous connoisseurs.

The jade form the 'hanliushui' family is like a double-edged sword being tempered, yet not quite reaching perfection. While the edges are ground to the requisite rounded shape and it is smooth, it can be relatively weak structurally for it has not been exposed to the hardships of nature.

Mountain material refers to those jades which have been mined directly form the mountainside; the raw blocks exhibit a variety of sizes and they have distinctive edges and corners. Due to the fact that they have not been subjected to the cruel natural selection processes of nature, the quality varies considerably. Most of them are not as fine and smooth as Seed Jade or Shanliushui jade.

In addition to the above three different kinds of Hetian Jade, there is another type, produced in the Gobi, referred to as Gobi Jade. This kind of Hetian Jade has gone through years of exposure to the elements. The surface becomes rough and uneven, yet it still exhibits a shiny, smooth and relatively hard quality.

Regarding Hetian Jade, most people are probably more familiar with Suet Jade, which is, in fact, the top-quality white seed jade. In recent year, due to over-mining of Hetian Jade, the reserves are becoming depleted. It had become increasingly difficult to find Suet Jade and it is no longer easy to find large pieces of high-grade white seed jade.