Maoshan jade is produced in Maoshan, jurong city, Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province (Yangzhou in ancient times). The rock is dolomite, cold white, and has jade properties similar to those of Hetian, Xinjiang. The best one, commonly known as water stone, has a Mohs hardness of 7-7.7 and a relative density of 3.0-3.3.
Professor Yang Boda, an archaeologist, said the following to Kun Yuan:
Textual Research on Maoshan Jade as "Kun"
Yaokun is a beautiful jade in the southeast, and Maoshan stone is worthy of "Kun", which is almost equal to "the beauty of stone" and "the beauty of jade has five virtues ..." in Shuowen. It can be seen that people in Ming and Qing dynasties loved Maoshan stone. Gao Lian, a health expert and connoisseur in the late Ming Dynasty, wrote Eight Notes on Respect for Life, in which the Notes on Appreciation of Ancient Jade Yan Xianqing divided water stone and Maoshan stone into two unrelated jade. After explaining that a large piece of jade was recently split, he proposed that "there is a kind of water stone, beauty can win jade, and there are thoughts in it, so it can be confused." If we compare the description of Maoshan Stone in Gegu Yaolun, it is not difficult to find that Gao Lian described Maoshan Shi Shui as "a Shi Shui of unknown origin", which contains some thoughts of rice bran and can be "confused". The evaluation of it has improved. Then he said, "For example, Baoding stone, Maoshan stone and Jizhou stone can all be mixed with jade, but they are moist and lack of water", reminding collectors to "divide them in detail", and it is possible to collect them with a little negligence, indicating that Maoshan stone is very similar to Hetian jade, but "moist and lack of water". Whether Gao Lian separated Shi Shui from Maoshan Stone was because he failed to find the source or the copied version was wrong remains to be discussed later. However, the fact that Shi Shui and Maoshan Stone were still circulating in Hangzhou and Zhejiang as Hetian jade in the late Ming Dynasty is very important and cannot be ignored. During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, people called Maoshan Stone "Two Jade" and "Strong Moisturity" at least in Maoshan and later extended to Jiangsu coastal areas, and its value upgraded from stone to jade, which was not only firm and moist, but also moist. This also shows that Jiangsu people have already liked to use Maoshan Shi Shui instead of Hetian jade.
In 1950s, the ancient origin of Maoshan jade sank to the bottom of the lake, and its jade vein was also classified as a stone mine, so its jade was precious. Fortunately, some rescued jade materials and processed handicrafts are in the hands of Jurong researcher Sharla Cheung.