Figure 1 - Map of the region of China where the major first Neolithic Cultures are located.

The discovery of nephrite jade in east central China, near Suzhou, was critical in the evolution of jade culture. The Chinese had already developed exceptional skill in the detailed carving of many materials, such as bone, wood, ivory, and other stones. Those techniques served as a starting point for refining the advanced carving methods used with nephrite.

The Hemudu-Liangzhu cultures (5000-2250 B.C.), inhabiting the lower Yangtze River coastal plain in the area around Suzhou, were the first to develop jade culture. Three of their major cities, Yangzhou, Suzhou, and Hangzhou, were the major centers for jade carving in the later dynasties and remain so today. It is a distinct possibility that the jade carving clans of this region have the oldest family-preserved technology in the world, going back more than 7,000 years.

The Hemudu-Liangzhu were primarily an agricultural people, and in fact are credited with the first cultivation of rice. Like most agricultural societies, an important part of their lives was maintaining a good relationship with the gods, spirits, and ghosts of their ancestors. To stay in their ancestors' good graces, they developed more and more elaborate ceremonies to honor the dead, with specialized ritual tools and images. Tough, rare, and beautiful, jade was an ideal choice for creating those ritual items.

Most of the carvings were of two types. The first were ceremonial and funerary objects evolved from farm implements, tools, and weapons. The second were carvings of animals like pigs, birds, and mythical dragons.

The most common of the ritual objects were called bi, yuan, and huan. These are round disks with a hole of varying widths in the center. The bi, with the smallest hole, later became a Chinese coin.

If the circular object had a slit in one side it was called a jue. Other variations on the round theme were the huang, a crescent-shaped artifact that sometimes had a hole at each end, and the cong, a hollow cylinder with squared corners.

Axe carvings were common, as were tools that evolved from the adz and tilling blades. The dao, gui, and zhang were long, flat, rectangular tools with a cutting edge on one end, while ceremonial knife blades were called xi and gi.

What these implements were used for is not clear. However, because they had no evidence of wear, such as scarring or chipping, scholars theorize that their purpose was for display or ceremony rather than for actual use as a tool.

The animal carvings were of two types, adult and immature forms. Many of the animal carvings found in tombs are in pairs, with the most important funerary carvings being pigs and dragons. Pigs were an important farm animal in the agrarian cultures of this period, and the dragon was already being worshipped as a totem animal in parts of China.

The immature forms were very important funerary carvings in the Late Stone Age. Other carvings used the embryonic, fetal and larval forms of animals and insects, while some combined the characteristics of different animals and insects. Animal carvings used in funerary ceremonies were often broken in half, a practice which began in the Late Stone Age and later became widespread. While the significance of this action is not certain, it is thought that the breaking symbolizes death, while the embryonic forms represent rebirth in the next life.

Recent inventories of archeological sites in the Yangtze River coastal plain - where the jade carving clans lived - indicate a progressive favoring of nephrite jade for the most important ceremonial and funerary practices after 5000 B.C.

The preference for nephrite inspired the search for the stone beyond Suzhou, and there is evidence that Late Stone Age cultures used jade from the far northeastern corner of China, near the Heilongjiang River and Siberia. Traditional bi and yuan jade carvings have been found on an island in Lake Baikal, Russia, dating from between 4000 B.C. and 2000 B.C. Influence and possibly trade extended as far as the region around Hong Kong, over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) to the south, where cong of Liangzhu design have been found.

From the Yangtze River coastal plain, jade culture spread north to the lower Yellow and Huai River valleys with the Dawenkou-Longshan cultures. The Dawenkou-Longshan cultures (ca. 4500 B.C. to 1900 B.C.) were roughly contemporary with the Hemud-Liangzhu. They were much more spread out, however, occupying the coastal plain in modern-day Shandong, Henan, Anhui, and Jiangssu provinces. Better known for their black ceramic ware, the Dawenkou-Longshan most likely imported carving techniques as well as the jade itself from the Hemudu-Liang-zhu jade clans.

Beginning around 2100 B.C., the center of power and culture shifted east with the development of the Erlitou culture and the advent of the Bronze Age. Mineral resources for making bronze are more abundant in the mountains of central China, where the Erlitou lived, and they prospered as a result.

Like jade, bronze was initially valued for its hardness, especially in making weapons. It was later chosen to create ritual versions of everyday objects, and was prized for its appearance. The use of bronze tools also greatly improved the technology of jade carving.

The Erlitou produced jade carvings, but the styles and types were predominantly those of the Liangzhu and Longshan cultures.

The Hemudu-Liangzhu carvings formed the basis for the jade ceremonial and funerary objects used throughout the dynastic history of China. Some of the most important ceremonial carvings used in later eras, until as late as 1911, were likely collected and handed down from these ancient cultures.

But Is It Jade?
Despite what is reported in most contemporary references and museum displays, not all of the beautiful carvings of the Late Stone Age to Early Bronze Age were what we today call jade. Before about 5000 B.C., the local cultures used limited amounts of nephrite, primarily for utilitarian and ornamental purposes. Jade was highly valued because it was much tougher than the materials used before that date.

In northeastern China, the dominant stone was serpentine until after 2000 B.C. In the eastern and central regions some jade carvings have been found, but mostly they used agalmatolite, serpentine, chalcedony, agate, and turquoise. Because at that time the only source of jade was in Suzhou, trade with that region is the only plausible explanation for jade artifacts from central China.

It is likely that the earliest cultures honed their abilities on softer stones like serpentine, and slowly developed the skills and techniques to carve the harder, more durable nephrite. The development of sophisticated abrasion and drilling techniques for carving jade in the Late Neolithic period parallels the growth in technology and a clan structure that handed down the skills from generation to generation. Many of these techniques are the same ones used by the traditional jade artisans today.

It was the early jade carvers who ultimately determined what, of all the stones that were given that title, would be considered true jade.

Some give the credit to scholars like Confucius for first defining jade based on the human qualities of justice, honesty, integrity, and the soft, sensual touch of a beautiful woman's skin. Other say the kings, emperors, and their most trusted advisors determined the standards for the "Stone of Heaven."

Confucius gathered the wisdom and knowledge from all over the Middle Kingdom as a scholar, not as an authority on stone. The emperors and kings appreciated the beauty of jade's subtle colors, delicate rich carving, and its soft, silky feel, but they often confused other stones with jade. It was the carving clans of the lower Yangtze River coastal plain that determined which stones were not too hard, too soft, or too brittle, and which were suitable to be called the "Stone of Heaven."

The carvers could separate nephrite jade from other stones because of its unique properties. Nephrite is neither very hard nor very soft, with a hardness of 6.0 to 6.8 on the Mohs scale, but its unique interlocking fibrous structure makes it the toughest natural stone in the world. Rocks and minerals that are harder than jade tend to be more brittle, and poorly suited for detailed carving. Jade is soft enough to be shaped and polished by abrasion with common silica stones and minerals like quartz. The feel of polished nephrite, often compared to the touch of a woman's skin, is also a unique quality that contributed to the legends and folklore of jade.

Nephrite's toughness, subtle beauty, and sensual feel remained the enduring symbol of the middle way of Chinese culture until the fall of the last dynasty in 1911. Up until recently, civilization in China was believed to have come from early cultures in the upper and middle Yellow River valley. It has been proposed, however, that advanced Stone Age cultures evolved independently in different regions, and Chinese civilization developed from the "mutual contacts and influences" of these cultures.

Other Stone Age groups may have contributed to the development of the Chinese culture that emerged during the dynasties that followed, but the Hemudu-Liangzhu region is likely the cradle of Chinese civilization. Jade culture itself provides the evidence: They must have had relatively advanced technology to produce their jade icons, and the fact that their carvings are the blueprint for most of the jade works that followed shows the influence of their culture. In contrast, very few of the distinctive carving styles of the other cultures continued into the dynasty period of Chinese history.

Jade occupied the heart of artistry and ritual from the beginning of Chinese civilization, and from there its popularity only grew. It would become one of the defining elements of a nation that for thousands of years represented the epitome of Asian culture.