Jade censer

Jade censer appeared in Tang dynasty, and was quite popular in Ming and Qing dynasty. This jade censer embodied royal richness and elegance. The animal on the top is called Suanni. As we know, dragon has nine sons, and Suanni is one of them. Suanni likes smoke and prefer quiet environment. So it is quite popular to have Suanni on censer.  

The cover and the cage are the main parts of this collection. On the cover we can see four elements were carved on the concrete part: lotus, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum, and they stand for four seasons; other parts of the cover were curved lines. Curved lines were very popular in Tang dynasty. Even nowadays, it is still commonly used for art design. The craft for these 10 rings is very difficult. They are not individual rings combined with the censer, actually they are a part of the jade, the crafts man need to cut and dig and takes long time to make it a ring shape.

There is dragon on each side, and we call this part er. In ancient times, er indicate the social status of its owner. Dragon is the symbol of emperor; therefore, this art work belongs to royal. Dragon ear is one of the most difficult craft for censer. Two big rings on each side to keep the balance of whole art work. Meanwhile, rings on this art work are a special design that can enlarge the art work visually, so it saves jade material.

Ancient Chinese liked symmetry, and symmetry has been considered as a standard for beauty. For this art work, we can see that every part is symmetric horizontally. Symmetry also stands for self-discipline. For gentleman, everything has a limit and he should act under certain principle. This censer is just like a gentleman, it stands there steady, and its shape and lines are stick to symmetric principle. So this censer is not only a practical vessel, it also has a function as displaying. It reminds everyone the importance of self-discipline. There are ten rings in total; ten in China stand for perfect. The round bottle part in the middle symbolize happy ending. 

Qixi Festival – Chinese Valentine’s Day

Another traditional Chinese festival is around the corner – the Qixi festival, also called Qiqiao festival. It is on July 7th of lunar calendar, and should be August 17th in this year. In China, Qixi festival is known as Chinese Valentine ’s Day. This is a day to celebrate love.

Tale about Qixi festival

This festival was originated from one of the Four Tales in China, the love story between cowboy and weaver. It is said that long time ago, an honest and tolerant man lived in Niujiazhuang in the city of Nanyang. He was from a poor family and his parents had left him forever, so he lived with his brother and sister in law. His sister in law was quite a mean lady, and abused him very often. One day, his sister-in-law asked him to take care of all the cows with a total number of nine, but ordered him to come back with ten cows. When the cows were eating in the prairie, he was very sad there alone, as he couldn’t get an extra cow, then how could he come back home? An old man came to him, and told him that he can find a wounded cow in another mountain, where is hundreds of miles away. This cowboy walked hundreds of miles and finally found the wounded cow. He took very care of the wounded cow. One month later the cow recovered and came back home with the cowboy. Also the cowboy got to know that actually this cow was an immortal creature from heaven, and was punished to human being’s world due to some mistakes he made.

After the cowboy went back home, his sister-in-law continued to abuse him, and even kick him out. So the poor cowboy moved out with his best friend, the old cow.

One day, fairy ladies including weaver came to human being’s world and took bath in the river. With the help of old cow, cowboy met the weaver, and they fall in love with each other. The cowboy and the weaver got married and had happy life. Three years later, they had one daughter and one son. It is said that one year in human being’s world is one day in the heaven. After weaver lived three years in human being’s world, which was three days in the heaven, the empress of heaven found out what she did, and was furious. The empress came to the world and brought back weaver by force. The cowboy was very sad to see his wife been taken away. At this time, the old cow told the cowboy that he is going to die, after his death the cowboy can use his skin as a vehicle to fly and chase the weaver. Then the old cow died. The cowboy took his skin and chased after the weaver. After a while, the cowboy found the empress and the weaver, when he was nearly catch them, the empress plucked her hairpin and scribed a Milky Way between the cowboy and weaver. The cowboy cannot across the Milky Way, and this couple had to look at each other on each side of the Milky Way. The sparrows were moved by their love, they flied above the Milky Way and formed a bridge so that this couple can accross the bridge and get reunion. Cannot stop the love, finally the empress agreed that this couple can meet once on 7th July every year. Therefore, every 7th July of lunar calendar, people would like to look up to the sky to find the Cowboy star and Weaver star, and pray for true love. This is the story about Qixi festival, the Chinese Valentine ’s Day.

Wish everyone find true love, and have good time on Qixi festival.

Jade in Chinese Culture

Jade witnessed the development of Chinese civilization starting from around 6000 thousand years ago; it played an important role in Chinese culture. But what is jade, why Chinese fancy jade so much, and what kind of role did jade play in Chinese culture?

What is jade?

Definition of jade from Shuowen dictionary explained that, jade is a stone that is beautiful. The dictionary also noted that jade has five virtues: There is warmth in its luster and brilliance; this is its quality of kindness. Its soft interior may be viewed from the outside; this is its quality of rectitude. Its tone is tranquil and high and carries far and wide; this is its quality of wisdom. It may be broken but cannot be twisted; this is its quality of bravery. Its sharp edges are not intended for violence, this is its quality of purity.  

 

Jade’s role in Chinese culture

The role of jade can be divided into three stages in the history. At the earliest stage around 5000-6000 years ago, jade was a ritual tool used to connect human being with god during the sacrificial ceremony. For instance, the C- shape dragon unearthed from the north of Chinese belongs to Hongshan Culture of around 5500 years ago. The priest used C – shape jade dragon to pray. So jade was a holy item that can connect human being with heaven and earth.

Gradually, the priest became the head of tribe; the whole society was controlled by few people. Jade’s function developed to stand for power and social status, and was used by emperor and royals only. During Shang dynasty around 3600 years ago, jade was commonly used for the royals according to the founding of empress Fuhao’s tomb unearthed from Anyang, China. Jade was used to stand power, social status and strict hierarchy.  

Tang dynasty was an inclusive period and Chinese culture was influence by foreign countries during that time. Since late Tang dynasty, jade started to appear among citizens, rather than royals only. Jade was valuable decoration and ornament, with good meanings carved on it. For the Olympic Games held in Beijing in 2008, three different colors jade was inlaid in the medal, which stand for Chinese unique characteristic. 

Jade in Chinese language

Jade （玉yu） is the one of the earliest word in Chinese language. At the earliest stage, jade was used to communicate with god from heaven and earth, and this can be found from its Chinese character 玉, the above part stands for heaven, while the middle part stand for human being, and the lower part stand for ground, the vertical line connected the heaven, human being and earth. In the Chinese history, emperor is the most powerful man in the entire country, and the character jade 玉 is nearly same as character emperor 王. In order to differ two characters, people add one more dot for character jade玉，this dot stand for an emperor’s precious belonging. So here is the new character jade 玉。

Meanwhile, jade 玉represents the power belongs to emperor. From the character 国 which means country, we can find that this character is a jade inside of brick wall. So for each emperor in each dynasty, the emperor had a jade stamp which stand for his power, and the emperor will give this jade stamp to the next emperor when he retires.

One interesting thing about Chinese language, we know that in Chinese language two characters can form a new one. The character jade is the only character that when it is part of the character, then this new character represents something wonderful and beautiful. For example, 珍珠 which means pearl, and 瑞 which means auspicious.

Jade related story

Nv wa bu tian

It is said that there was a hole on the sky, and human being suffered from natural disaster due to the hole on the sky. In order to help people from the suffering, Nv Wa made a special stone and fixed the hole with it. After that, everything was fine and human being didn’t suffer from natural disaster any more. The stone she used to fix the hole was jade.

Zi han ci yu

This story happened in Song dynasty. It is said that one person got a precious jade, and gave it to Prime Minister Zihan. This person said to Prime Minister, “professionals have already checked the jade, and it proved to be very precious, so I would like to give it to you.” The Prime Minister answered, “For you, this is something precious; however I consider incorruptness as something precious. If I took this jade, then you will lose your precious item, so will I.” Therefore, Prime Minister Zihan refused to accept this jade. This story indicates that noble virtue is the most precious thing in the world that everyone should treasure.  

Reference: www.shenyumuseum.com