Page 13 - Chinese Archaic Jades From The Yangdetang Collection PART II Christie's.pdf

Chinese jades.

2. Jade Works of the Primitive Era

A succinct picture of jade craftsmanship in the
prehistoric era is still absent. However, the basic processes
of jade carving production such as mining, opening,
shaping, boring, engraving, carving, inlaying, grinding,
and polishing were developed by an early period.

During the Neolithic Age, there were various clans, tribes,
and kingdoms that were scattered across the continent.
These groups each formed its respective insular cultural
circles, limited by their production capability and natural

fig. 8 experimenting cutting jade with rope and wet sand geography. Since China was rich in jade mines, the
圖八 用麻繩蘸溼砂對玉料進行切割的試驗 materials used by the different cultures were mostly
harvested in immediate proximity or within the vicinity.
For example, investigations and testing of raw material
used in the Hongshan culture jades revealed the stone
to be of tremolite from Xiuyan in Northeast China
and mostly from river-worn material. Meanwhile, the
raw material used in the Qijia culture of the Chinese
Northwest was found to be tremolite from the jade
mines of Maxian Mountain, Mazhong Mountain,
and Sanwei Mountain—including both river stones
and mountain material from lower altitudes which
undoubtedly were more convenient to mine. These two
sources of jade are evident in the present Yangdetang
Collection as exemplified by the jade ornament with a
toothed animal-mask pattern of Hongshan culture (fig.
6, lot 2708), and the jade bi disc of Qijia culture (fig. 7,
fig. 9 detail of lot 2714
圖九 拍品 2714 號細部 lot 2710), respectively.
Cutting open rough jade boulders and shaping them
mainly involved splitting the boulder open by string-
塊玉料切剖開來。筆者亦做過此類切割實驗：解玉砂 cutting or slicing. String-cutting involves abrading

用河床裡隨機淘洗的砂子，以麻繩帶動砂子，加水， with sand strings or leather strips which is a classic
手拉，約半小時左右即可將一塊 3 釐米見方的玉料切 method used in overcoming hardness with softness.
Water, jieyusha sand, and a piece of hemp cord are all
開（圖八），切開的玉料剖面，常見凹凸不平的弧形
that is required to cut a jade boulder. The author had
線痕跡，後期如無法打磨平整，則會留在器物表面（圖 previously conducted a similar cutting experiment

九）。片切割技術則是用石刀或石片，加上解玉砂和 where sand from the riverbed - serving as jieyusha -
together with water were added to a hemp cord which
水，對玉料進行切割，所切剖面較為平直。
was pulled back and forth against the jade rough. It
took approximately half an hour to cut open a 3-cubic-
實心鑽和管鑽技術也被廣泛應用。實心鑽所用工具以
millimeter-sized piece of jade rough (fig. 8). Often the
細石器和石鑽頭為主，可以製成簡單的鑽杆式工具（圖 cross-section of an opened jade rough is uneven and
十）。管鑽工具目前還無定論，推測應是骨管、竹管 with striated markings on the surface if the jade is not

12