This is the definitive guide to Chinese jades from the Ming dynasty through the early twentieth century

Confucius (551-479 BC) praised jade as 'the embodiment of virtue'. Excavations in China since the 1970s have shed much light on the use and production of jade in neolithic and early dynastic periods. Excavated jade artefacts dating from the seventh to seventeenth centuries are rare, so it is particularly valuable that a number of specimens have been unearthed from tombs and pagoda foundations during the past two decades, thus allowing heirloom jades to be compared with these excavated examples and correctly dated. This book is a timely reassessment of what is known about Chinese jade, which has been a central element of Chinese material culture for an uninterrupted span of seven thousand years, and will appeal to collectors and newcomers to the subject alike.

Chinese jade.

From personal ornamentation to funerary practice, from palace decoration to private devotion, jade has played a major role in Chinese social, cultural, and political life for millennia. Exploring the history of this revered stone through the esteemed Grenville L. Winthrop Collection at the Harvard Art Museums--which includes some of the finest examples of ancient and archaizing jades outside China--this volume explains how and why jade developed its special significance. In-depth entries on over one hundred objects present recent archaeological discoveries and new information garnered from conservation analysis, while Jenny So's broad and engaging narrative not only elucidates the layered meanings of the objects and their iconography but also delves into the unique qualities of the material and the craftsmanship involved in quarrying and working jade. Distributed for the Harvard Art Museums