Chinese-Aussie Mum

When I was younger, Jade was not my jewellery of choice.

A brilliant apple-green it typically adorned the wrists of elderly relatives who would force a hug on me at Chinese New Year. I viewed the designs as dowdy, and as a teenager I shunned anything that didn’t fit within my concept of “cool”.

In the past couple of years, I’ve proactively sought to find out more about my cultural roots.

Maybe it’s a reckoning that most of us come into as we grow older. Or maybe it’s because I have cross-cultural kids … I feel a sense of duty to teach them about their lineage.

Those who hold the stories of my ancestors and culture are getting older and fewer. And so grows my yearning to better understand those who came before me. This yearning has taken me down the rabbit hole of learning about Jade, and its allure for the Chinese people.

Confucious said there are 11 De (virtues) represented in Jade: benevolence, justice, propriety, truth, credibility, music, loyalty, heaven, earth, morality, and intelligence.

In true Chinese fashion, that’s a lot of expectations for one stone to shoulder!

I’m quoting Confucious here to better understand exactly what he means exactly….

“The wise have likened jade to virtue. For them, its polish and brilliancy represent the whole of purity; its perfect compactness and extreme hardness represent the sureness of intelligence; its angles, which do not cut, although they seem sharp, represent justice; the pure and prolonged sound, which it gives forth when one strikes it, represents music.

“Its color represents loyalty; its interior flaws, always showing themselves through the transparency, call to mind sincerity; its iridescent brightness represents heaven; its admirable substance, born of mountain and of water, represents the earth. Used alone without ornamentation it represents chastity. The price that the entire world attaches to it represents the truth.” Book of Rites

The Chinese saying goes: “gold has a value; jade is invaluable.” 

Where can I buy myself some invaluable Jade (that fits within my budget)?

Find out in my next post as I travel through the Jade market.