What is 'Chinese jade'?

An often neglected definition is the word 'jade' itself. The word 'jade' came from the word piedra hijada or loin stone coined by Spanish explorers in A.D. 1554. These explorers discovered natives in Central America who placed small nephritic pebble stones to ease kidney ailments. Thus the word 'nephrite' (Greek word 'nephros' for kidney) is used to denote a certain type of jade. However, the traditional Western concept of jade does not allow us to fully appreciate the more diverse application of what the Chinese called Yu (the Chinese word for jade). Yu encompasses a wide variety of minerals ranging from soft material such as marble and soapstone to relatively hard mineral such as nephrite and jadeite, subject to aesthetic perspective.

Chicochai, in respect to the culture and diversity of China, adapts the traditional Chinese usage, which, however, has been often omitted and misused by both Western dealers and collectors. The broad concept of Chinese jade has been discussed by numerous jade experts.  The definition is thoroughly explained by Jenny F. So -- Professor of Fine Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and former Curator of Ancient Chinese Art at the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution – in her recent article published by the Seattle Art Museum and Princeton University Press:

‘In discussions of ancient Chinese jades, an important but often neglected topic is the material itself. Chinese usage, often followed by Western writers, applies the world ‘jade’ to almost any finely worked ancient mineral artifacts. This turns it into a blanket term for a wide variety of stones, ranging from relatively hard minerals such as agate and crystal (hardness7 on the Mohs scale), through softer ones such as nephrite and turquoise (hardness 6.5-5), all the way to marble and soapstone (hardness 3-2).’

We take particular care to clarify this issue, because Chicochai believes that the proper definition of Chinese ‘jade’ should be respected as the term has been employed by the Chinese culture for over four thousand years.