Milestones of Millennia: Role of Jade in China History Explored

Liu Bin (center), director of the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, speaks to the media about a major highlight of the ongoing exhibition at the Palace Museum, a 5,300-year jade article from Liangzhu Culture, called the "king of cong". [Jiang Dong/China Daily]

A new exhibition at the Palace Museum provides a panoramic view of the role played by jade in 5,000 years of Chinese culture, Wang Kaihao reports.

In 1748, the 37-year-old Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) wrote an ode extolling the exquisite beauty of a fan-shaped jade artifact he owned, huang, after it was presented to him at the royal palace, the Forbidden City.

In his poem, the emperor attributed the antique to the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), but its exact age remained a mystery to him. In the following decades, many similar jade pieces were presented to him, and the emperor was so fond of holding them that they developed their own unique patina. He even added gold and enamel to the pieces for embellishment.

Nevertheless, the question of age kept bothering him. In 1778, he wrote another poem suggesting that these "Han objects" might belong to an earlier time.

But, as we know today, these objects are far older than the emperor could have realized.

The Qing ruler may not have been able to imagine that he was having a dialogue with an object dating back 5,000 years. However, modern-day visitors to the Forbidden City in Beijing, which is also known as the Palace Museum, can experience a panoramic view of the brilliant jade civilization of Liangzhu Culture, which was based in what is today's Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

On July 6, the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City in Hangzhou were inscribed onto the UNESCO World Heritage list, which recognizes the significance of the site as an indicator of the early stages of Chinese civilization. The city was inhabited for a millennium from 3300 to 2300 BC, according to archaeological research.

Just 10 days later, the exhibition Ancient China: A 5,000-year Civilization Demonstrated by Jade opened at the Palace Museum, just in time to feed public curiosity and unveil the charm of this realm of deities and kings. Nearly 260 objects, including Emperor Qianlong's precious jade collection, gathered from 17 museums and research institutes nationwide, have gone on display at the Hall of Martial Valor at the Palace Museum for this major occasion. The exhibition will run through Oct 20.

"Almost accidentally, Qianlong was probably the first researcher into Liangzhu jades," says Gao Menghe, chief curator of the exhibition and an archaeology professor at Shanghai's Fudan University, half-jokingly.

"As Liangzhu was one of the earliest known palatial cities in China, and the Forbidden City is the last royal palace of Chinese imperial times, we can feel an interesting chemistry running through time in this space," he says.

Jade huang, a thread of tubes.[Jiang Dong/China Daily]

Systematic use

Liangzhu Culture was first noticed by archaeologists in 1936, when some examples of Neolithic black pottery were unearthed in Liangzhu, a town in Hangzhou. Its highly-developed systematic use of jade was discovered over the following decades.

More than 1,000 sites related to Liangzhu Culture have been unearthed in Zhejiang, Jiangsu provinces, and in Shanghai around Taihu Lake, according to Liu Bin, director of the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology.

The remains of ancient Liangzhu city is the largest complex of all these sites. Its inner section covers 2.8 square kilometers, roughly five times the area of the Forbidden City. Its outer section is spread across 6.3 sq km. The sophisticated burial grounds and a complex water-conservancy system also suggest that the city was a capital of an ancient regional state, Liu says.

The emblem, a human-shaped deity riding on an animal, is a ubiquitous motif on the jade pieces made during the Liangzhu era.

"Worship of this deity never stopped in its 1,000-year history," Liu says. "The supreme ruler of Liangzhu was no longer a tribal leader. He was the king and honored as the incarnation of god."

Cong, a jade item that forms a tube with a circular inner section and a square outer section, is the most typical among items of Liangzhu Culture. Its unconventional shape made Emperor Qianlong think it was used as a decoration on poles carrying palanquins.

While contemporary archaeologists generally believe cong were used for religious rituals, their specific use remains a mystery. One theory suggests it was used during sacrifice rituals, while another explanation might indicate it was merely a burial object.

A bracelet with a dragon-shaped totem.[Jiang Dong/China Daily]

"They were only discovered in the graves of the highest echelons of Liangzhu society," Liu says. "That is to say only nobles, who were also religious chiefs, had the right to own cong. So, these items may have been used by the tomb occupants during their lifetime.

"Perhaps they once wore cong like people wear Christian crosses or Buddhist beads today," he adds.

However, the biggest cong ever found, a 6.5-kg article commonly referred to as the "king of cong" due to its size, is probably too heavy to be worn. This highlight of the ongoing exhibition was unearthed by Liu in 1986 in Fanshan cemetery among the ruins of Liangzhu. More than 1,000 jade articles were found in the cemetery.

Gao explains that while previous exhibitions of Liangzhu jade mainly focused on the most important items, the intention of this show is to present a panorama.

"We selected whole sets of jade found in cemeteries and put them on display at the same time," he says. "That way, people can gain a more complete view of the ritual systems back then."

Axe-shaped artifacts called yue-common symbols of power-were found in Liangzhu. When the "king of yue", the largest item of its kind is put on display, it attracts a great deal of attention not just due to its size, but for its solemn character. A tiny relief of a Liangzhu motif on one corner of the axe looks like the earliest example of a "logo" marked on a Chinese product.

In the graves of female nobles, disc-shaped jades called bi are commonly praised for their elegance. Threads of tubular jade pieces, beads and bracelets at the exhibition also show the splendor and intricacy of the jewelry at the time.

"This uniform ceremonial system using jade shows a united belief and strong cohesion in society," Liu says. "Compared with previous times, jade from the Liangzhu period had made a huge leap in terms of number, size and quality. This boom accompanied the rise in kingship."

A jade bi article inscribed with a handwritten poem by Emperor Qianlong.[Jiang Dong/China Daily]

Abundant legacies

The reasons why the Liangzhu state faded into obscurity are still unknown. Although speculation suggests that flooding might have played a part, Li Boqian, an archaeology professor at Peking University, thinks that the jade itself might have been one reason for its downfall.

"So much wealth and so many resources were put into jade production," he says. "Once they were exhausted, the stability of society (could have) collapsed."

Nevertheless, Gao adds that Liangzhu Culture did not "die".

"We would rather describe it as having blended into other cultures," he says.

Gao explains that jade from the Liangzhu Culture was once widely found across half of what is now modern-day China, reaching as far as Shaanxi, Sichuan and Guangdong provinces, as archaeological discoveries demonstrate.

"We still need further research to say whether it spread due to trade or as simply as trophies of war," he says. "However, their popularity reflects the huge influence that Liangzhu Culture had at that time.

"Jade is the main contribution made by Liangzhu Culture on Chinese civilization," Gao says. "Its legacy lasted throughout Chinese history until the Qing Dynasty."

A Liangzhu Culture cong unearthed from the Sidun site in Changzhou, Jiangsu province.[Jiang Dong/China Daily]

Original examples of Liangzhu jade like cong continued to be made in later historical periods. Cong articles were made and used for ceremonial occasions up until the Han Dynasty. People from the Song Dynasty (960-1279) also made porcelain replicas of cong as art pieces, according to Xu Lin, a researcher at the Palace Museum. Some of these Song replicas are also on display at the exhibition.

As traces of cong gradually became obscured by history, people after the Song Dynasty mainly learned about them from historical documents, due to a lack of physical objects as reference. However, answers can now be found in Qianlong's legacy.

Of the 56 jade articles of Liangzhu Culture currently housed in the Palace Museum, 43 were collected by Qing emperors, Xu says.

"The mindset of Chinese people, their sense of aesthetics and lifestyle are largely determined by their taste for jade," Gao says. "By learning more about Liangzhu, people will also gain a better understanding of the Chinese spirit."