It is distributed in Hotan-Khotan shache-Tashkurgan, Qiemo County, Xinjiang, and on the northern slope of Kunlun Mountain, stretching for 1500 km. * * * There are nine producing areas. Hetian jade is mainly composed of tremolite-actinolite, and contains a small amount of tremolite, serpentine, graphite, magnets and other minerals, forming different colors such as white, turquoise, black and yellow. Most of them are monochromatic jade, and a few have variegated colors. Jade is translucent, greasy and shiny after polishing, and its hardness is 5.5 to 6.4 degrees. Hetian jade is sandwiched between rocks at an altitude of 3500 meters to 5000 meters. After a long period of differentiation and peeling, it is broken into pieces of different sizes, collapsed on the hillside, and then washed by rain and flowed into the river. When the river dries up in autumn, the jade pieces collected in the river bed are called seed jade, and those mined in the rock layer are called mountain materials. The earliest Hetian jade has been found from Fu Hao's tomb in Yin Ruins. After the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Hetian jade gradually became the main jade talents, all collecting materials, and it was not until the Qing Dynasty that the mining of mountain materials began. Dayu, made in Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty, was used to control the water in Yushan Mountain. The sapphire weighed more than 10,700 Jin, which was collected from Maitreya Mountain.
Yellow river Tianyu
The economic value of Hetian jade is evaluated according to the purity of color and texture, and its main varieties are:
① White jade: It contains tremolite more than 95%, is white in color, pure in texture, delicate and shiny, and is an excellent variety of Hetian jade. During the prosperous period of jade-making in Han, Song and Qing dynasties, great attention was paid to the selection of materials, and high-quality white jade was often carved into "heavy objects".
(2) Sheep fat white jade: the top grade of white jade, pure and delicate in texture, containing 99% tremolite, white in color, with a kind of implicit luster like coagulate fat, and its economic value is several times that of white jade, just like jade with the same weight. Han Dynasty, Song Dynasty and Qing Dynasty all admired sheep fat white jade.
③ Qingtian jade: There is no obvious difference from white jade in texture, but the jade is white with a faint turquoise color. It is the third-class jade in Hetian jade, and its economic value is slightly lower than that of white jade.
④ Sapphire: Light blue, turquoise and gray are all called sapphires, with uniform color and fine texture, 89% tremolite and 6% actinolite, with oily luster and abundant reserves. It is the main variety of jade collected or mined in past dynasties.
⑤ Topaz: It is basically white jade, which has been infiltrated by iron oxide in surface water for a long time, forming a yellow tone in cracks. According to the color change, it is named as: dense wax yellow, chestnut color, okra yellow, yellow flower yellow, egg yolk, etc. The wax yellow and chestnut yellow with strong colors are extremely rare, and their value can be comparable to that of sheep fat white jade. In the Qing dynasty, topaz was homophonic with "yellow", which was extremely rare, and its economic value once exceeded that of white jade with sheep fat.
⑥ Sugar jade: Iron oxide permeates tremolite or red leather shell with different shades, with deep red as "sugar jade" and "tiger skin jade" and white with pink as "powder jade". Sugar jade is often called bi-color jade in white jade or plain jade, which can be used to make "pretty jade". Snuff bottles made of sugar jade leather carving seeds can also proliferate, which is called "gold and silver wrapping".
⑦ Ink jade: The components of graphite and magnets in tremolite are black, and ink jade is mostly gray or gray with black stripes, which is called "dark clouds, light ink, golden sable whiskers, beauty temples, etc." . Pure lacquer ink with dense black spots is more valuable than other jet varieties. Jet has waxy luster and uneven color, which is not suitable for carving patterns. It is mostly used to make utensils inlaid with gold and silver thread.
⑧ Jasper: produced in Junggar jade mine, also known as Tianshan Jasper. It is grayish green, dark green and dark green, with pure dark green as the top grade. There are black spots, black spots or jade tendons, and the quality is one grade worse. Jasper contains tremolite more than 85%, which is delicate, translucent and oily, and belongs to mid-range jade.
"dushan jade"
Dushan jade is produced in Dushan, Nanyang, Henan Province, also known as "Nanyang Jade" or "Henan Jade".
As early as 6,000 years ago, the ancients had mined dushan jade, and there were many dushan jade products in the jade unearthed from Muhao's tomb in Yinxu, Anyang. Dushan was called "Yushan" in the Western Han Dynasty.
Xiuyan jade, named after being produced in Xiuyan Manchu Autonomous County, Anshan City, Liaoning Province, is one of the four famous jade in the history of China. Broadly speaking, it can be divided into two kinds, one is old jade (also called yellow and white old jade), and the seed material in old jade is called Hemo jade, which belongs to tremolite jade. Its texture is simple and dignified, and its color is yellowish and white. This is a precious original stone. The other is Xiuyan Jasper (also called Wagou Echo), which belongs to serpentine mineral. Its texture is solid and moist, delicate and round, mostly green to lake green, among which dark green, transparent and few defects are treasures.
& lt/SPAN>。 turquoise
Turquoise, also known as "turquoise", is a kind of blue jade. It is a kind of jade that people in the southwestern United States and Muslims all over the world especially like. Turquoise symbolizes victory and success, and is designated as the birthstone of 65438+February in world customs.
The crystal of turquoise is small, waxy and opaque. Most of them are sky blue, dark blue, green blue and green white, and white stripes, spots or dark brown iron wires are often distributed on the blocks with uniform colors.
High-quality turquoise is mainly used for making rings, earrings, chest pendants or carving Buddha statues, fairies, landscapes, flowers and other works.
"Other jade materials"
In addition to the above-mentioned "four famous jade", there are many other jade materials in China, but most of them belong to middle and low grade jade materials.
agate
The word agate comes from Buddhist scriptures and is named after its color "color like agate". Agate is widely distributed in China, almost all provinces and regions. The main producing areas are Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Hubei, Xinjiang and Jiangsu. Fuxin, Liaoning has the reputation of "the hometown of agate".
Pure agate is white because it often contains pigment ions or other impurities, but it has red, gray, brown, blue and green colors. Red and white are more common and dazzling, and the ribbon is extremely beautiful. Agate generally has a banded pattern. If there is no banded pattern, it is called chalcedony, and the bar is lower than agate.
Agate and chalcedony mainly have the following varieties:
A) Onyx: It has fine linear parallel stripes, and red onyx is the most precious variety.
B) water bile agate: Natural agate is hollow and contains "water gall", which is called "water bile agate". The number of water gall can be divided into "one gall" and "two gall", which is a bold and transparent precious jade material.
C) Agate: It is called "agate" because it flashes red luster in the girdle.
D) East red agate: Japanese red agate.
E) Chrysotile asbestos: pink green, no stripes.
F) Chalcedony: red, without stripes.
G) Tourmaline: it is red, yellowish brown and grayish green, and it is impure chalcedony, which can be divided into "red tourmaline" and "green tourmaline" according to color.
plum blossom jade
Produced in Ruyang County, Henan Province, also known as "Ruzhou Jade". After polishing, it presents beautiful plum blossom patterns or other patterns, hence the name. Jade is dense, with three colors: black, brown-red and gray-green. Black is the best, and colorful plum-blossom jade with red, green and white patterns on the black background is the best.
Qinghai jade
Produced in Qinghai, hence the name. Beautiful appearance, the color is white or light gray with green stripes, and the jade is delicate and translucent. Because its appearance is similar to jade, some unscrupulous businessmen regard it as jade.
Lapis lazuli/lapis lazuli
Celestite is an aluminosilicate mineral containing sodium and calcium. The color is dark blue, sky blue or purple blue, and the jade is opaque, with glass luster and hardness of 5-6. Lapis lazuli is often made into Buddha statues, beads, snuff bottles, bottle protectors and ornaments on clocks and watches because of its solemn color, and the good colors are also used as ring faces. Lapis lazuli is the top grade, with bright color and pure quality, containing a small amount of pyrite and Venus.
Ross Shi Ying
Hibiscus stone, also known as "Rose in Time", "Rose in Time" and "Southern Hunan Jade", is a pink translucent to transparent timely block with glass luster or greasy luster and hardness of 7. China's hibiscus stone is produced in Xinjiang, Yunnan, Inner Mongolia and other places, and high-quality hibiscus stone is produced in Brazil. Hibiscus stone is mainly used to carve necklaces, chicken hearts and trinkets. The color of hibiscus stone is better, and the darker the peach color, the better. For example, the light peach color close to white has low value.
Ma Laiyu
Produced in Malaysia, it is a kind of quartzite dyed with green dye, with glass luster and hardness of 7. The appearance is green and the transparency is high. Malaysia is rich in raw materials and low in value, which is suitable for making some low-grade ornaments.
Donglingshi
Produced in India, it is a green chromite quartzite, slightly transparent-translucent. Emerald is very beautiful, and the green scales are scattered like stars. It is a high-quality variety of quartzite jade, which is mainly used to make beaded necklaces and other accessories.
Miyu
Produced in Mixian County, Henan Province, hence the name. Also known as Henan jade. Translucent in color, with green in white, used as jade materials mostly for dyeing, mainly apple green and orange red, with green stunning as the best, mostly used for making jewelry or ornaments, belonging to low-grade jade materials.
Guicui
Produced in Guizhou, hence the name. Also known as Guizhou jade. The color is light green, with glass luster, but it is not pure and contains many impurities. It looks like inferior jade, belonging to low-grade jade.
Jingbaiyu
Produced in the suburbs of Beijing, hence the name. Fine texture, even pure white, smooth and shiny, and the jade carving made of it is crystal clear, which is a popular jade species.
Mubianshi
It is named because it looks like wood. Jade is dense and hard. Hardness 7. There are yellow, tan, brownish purple, blue, blue-green, blue-gray and so on. Among them, yellow with cat's eye effect is called eagle eye stone, brown and blue are called zebra tiger eye stone, and eagle eye stone has the highest value.
High-quality eagle eye stone, beautiful blue, mainly used to make bracelets, rings and so on. Tiger eye stone with cat's eye effect is mainly used to make bracelet beads and necklace beads, and there are also egg-shaped torus made of big raw materials, but because the cat's eye is relatively rigid, its value is not high.
lantian jade
Produced in Lantian, hence the name. Lantian jade is one of the main famous jade in ancient times. Lantian jade has fine texture, hardness of about 4, and good processability. Its colors are mainly beige and apple green. Widely used in making jade pillows, fitness balls, tea sets, wine sets, etc. It is a popular low-grade jade material.
Lingbi jade
Produced in Lingbi County, Anhui Province, hence the name. It is one of the traditional famous jade in the history of China. There are many varieties, the most famous of which are Honganhui snail, Huianhui snail and Biyun stone. The hardness is 3-4, and the hardness is relatively low. After polishing, it is smooth and suitable for making handicrafts such as flowers, figures and animals.
Baiyunyu
Produced in Baiyun Obo, Inner Mongolia, hence the name; Also known as Baiyun Oboyu, also known as Baiyun Oboyu. Fine texture and good processability. High-quality Baiyun jade shows gorgeous "golden thread" or "golden star" effect in gray-green lining, which is suitable for making stationery and other handicrafts such as inkstone and pen container.
Baiheyu
Produced in Hefeng County, Hubei Province, also known as "Wuhuashi". Fine texture, beautiful patterns after processing, clear patterns, such as round, conical, long and so on. The colors are fruit green, milky white, rose red, etc. And made into handicrafts with high artistic value.
malachite
It is named because it looks like the emerald green of peacock's tail feathers. Glass luster, slightly transparent. It is a low-grade jade material with high quality, which can be used to make necklaces, ring faces, chicken hearts and other ornaments. But there are also a few with bright colors and strange structures, which are expensive and quite expensive.
Wulanchui
Produced in Wulan County, Qinghai Province, it is named after its green color. Colors are grayish green, dark green and emerald green. Wulanchui with thick white background and green spots has higher value. Hardness 6-7, oily luster, slightly transparent to translucent. It is often used to process jade bracelets, rings, cabbages and other small ornaments. Because of its poor luster and poor processability, it belongs to low-grade jade material. & lt/p & gt； Obsidian is a kind of natural colored glass, which is formed by the rapid cooling of volcanic lava. Obsidian is an amorphous gem, and it is a silica semi-colloidal ore body. Obsidian usually appears on the periphery of lava flows because it cools fastest. Obsidian is usually black, but brown, gray and a small amount of red, blue and even green substances can also be seen. Among obsidian, rainbow obsidian with rainbow effect has better quality! The inclusion of this obsidian gives obsidian a metallic luster, while the bubbles or crystals inside it produce a "snowflake" effect (that is, snowflake obsidian). This iridescent "snowflake" is regarded as a flashing rainbow. Some objects in rainbow obsidian are oval, forming so-called monocular obsidian or binocular obsidian. However, from the price point of view, rainbow monocular obsidian and rainbow binocular obsidian are the most expensive, because in addition to the relatively scarce output, the appearance is also quite beautiful. In addition, there is a kind of ice obsidian, which comes from Haikela volcano in Iceland and is a sacred object bred by volcanic eruption during the Ice Age. Age is the oldest kind of obsidian! The characteristic of ice obsidian is that the surface is pure black, and it is brown after strong light irradiation! Black tourmaline is actually black tourmaline rich in iron, which is a compound borate and a crystal! Black tourmaline is generally less used to make jewelry. The physical properties of black tourmaline are the same as those of other colors, but the color is dark and opaque! The market value of black tourmaline is not too high, so it is rare to see other black gems posing as black tourmaline. The difference between obsidian and black tourmaline is mainly based on the color, luster and rainbow effect observed by naked eyes, which can be distinguished by density. Although the color of obsidian is black, as a gem, obsidian usually has the effect of rainbow or ice obsidian, so its color is changing, not uniform black, but black tourmaline is pure black. Moreover, the luster of obsidian is metallic luster, and the black tourmaline is glass luster. Obsidian and black tourmaline can be easily distinguished by hardness: the hardness of obsidian is 5-5.5, and that of black tourmaline is 7.5-8. We can compare it by scraping the glass. Obsidian is relatively difficult to scratch the glass and even hurt each other, but black tourmaline can easily scratch the glass and is intact.