Jadeite Jade Bangles from Burma
~ the REAL Jade Jewelry

Jade ~ Stone of heaven

In humanity's entire recorded history, there has never existed a more intimate relationship between a people and a stone than that between the Chinese and jade. To the people of the Middle Kingdom, jade was not simply hardened earth but, instead, crystallized magic - a tiny piece of heaven bequeathed by the gods to those of us destined to suffer here on earth. It was literally the link between heaven and earth, the bridge that allowed mortals to cross over into immortality.

For people of the Middle Kingdom, the green stone was valued beyond all else. Gold and precious stones might capture interest in the rest of the world, but in China they were simply also-rans. In Chinese athletic competitions ivory was given for third place and gold for second. Jade was reserved solely for the winners including high officials in the imperial court because as the saying went: "Gold has a price--but jade is priceless."

Within jade's verdant interior the Chinese saw all that is good with humanity - virtue, purity, justice, humanity, and more. But while jade itself might be priceless many are willing to extract coin for the honor of holding it in one's hand or wearing the green stone on a finger or ear. In fact the search itself has its price.

When one looks at the meaning of the word "jade" in Chinese then it is here that one can see the beginnings of just how important jade is to the Chinese culture. The word for jade in the Mandarin Chinese language is "Yu". The Chinese character for jade resembles a capital "I" with a line across the middle, the top representing the heavens, the bottom the earth, and the centre section, mankind". In Chinese, the word Yu is used to call something precious  just as in English one may use gold or silver.

So what exactly is jade? In the Orient just about anything translucent and green has been called jade at one time or another. But the Occidental psyche with its propensity to pigeon-hole does not sit well with such indifference to definition. Just how does one classify a piece of heaven? If you are Chinese, you don't even bother trying, which was why it was left for the intruders from the West to finally cross all the t's and dot the i's of this most arcane of gem substances.

In 1863, a French mineralogist, Alexis Damour, analyzed the bright green stones from Burma. Finding them different from ordinary Chinese jade (nephrite) he named the "new" jade, jadeite. Today gemologists apply the term jade only to nephrite and jadeite.

...with thanks to Richard W Hughes
 

Our jade bangles are all made from genuine jadeite jade

Jade Bangles
(Chinese Jade bangle bracelets)

...each one unique from...

24 January 2008