1. White jade. Also known as Bai Bi. "Book of Rites and Moon Order": "Moon of Meng Qiu": Dress in white and wear white jade. "The Songs of Chu, Nine Songs and Mrs. Xiang": "White jade is a town, and Shi Lan is a fragrance." "Records of Murong De in the Book of Jin": "White jade is obtained when water is blocked, and it looks like a seal." The fourth time in A Dream of Red Mansions: "Jia is not fake, and Bai Yu is a golden horse for Tang Jin." Wang Kaiyun's Epitaph of Caifen Women: "As for the Qingyao window, the bright moon first returns; In front of the white jade house, I saw Yang himself. "
2. Metaphor refers to tofu. Ming Li Xu's "Poems on Tofu for the Old Man in the Jiean": "Huo Huo grinds Kun Wu, and Bai Yu cuts a large piece. Cooking is suitable for my mouth, not afraid of old teeth. "
Introduction editing
The name of white jade mineral-nephrite, also known as "Chinese jade", is mainly produced in Hotan, Xinjiang. The quality and output of white jade in Hotan area have always been typical, so it is also called "Hetian jade". Strictly speaking, Hetian jade is a major mineral of nephrite, which does not represent all white jade. White jade is called nephrite, which is relatively jadeite. As far as jadeite is concerned, white jade is the main variety of nephrite, and the main mineral components are actinolite and tremolite. This mineral composition is fiber-interwoven, with fine and compact texture, good toughness and glassy to oily luster.
White jade is usually divided into seed material and mountain material. The seed material is the original ore that has been moved to the riverbed after weathering or crustal movement for trillions of years, and has been honed, collided and washed for thousands of years, and cast into a pebble-shaped Baoyu. The inorganic organic matter and various mineral elements in the river water participate in the grinding impact, leaving marks in the fine gaps of the white jade skin over time, which is the "face" of the seed material-osmanthus skin and iron rust spots.
Mountain material is primary ore or white jade buried in rock mass, which is generally irregular and angular, and its texture is not as dense and delicate as that of seed material, and there are more cracks than that of seed material. White jade is characterized by its whiteness, and white must be consistent with its own texture to show its natural and carved beauty. The traditional classification methods of whiteness are: suet white, pear white, snowflake white, fishbone white, ivory white, chicken bone white, brown rice white, gray, bluish gray, etc. Among them, the suet white of seed material (texture is like sheep's coagulated fat) is a fine product with skin shell, and the greater the weight of single original stone, the higher the value. There is no doubt that white jade is the best among jade.
Structural editing
1. color: white, off-white, bluish white are common colors of white jade, and sometimes orange-yellow, brown-red, and off-black weathered skins can be seen.
2. Gloss: White jade is interwoven with extremely fine tremolite minerals into a unique felt-like structure, so its surface is delicate and moist, with a characteristic oily luster. This phenomenon has not been found in other jade, and it can be used as a distinguishing sign. The obvious degree of grease luster is related to the microstructure of white jade, that is, it has a certain relationship with the origin. Generally speaking, the oil luster of white jade produced in Xinjiang is strong, that produced in Qinghai is poor, and that produced in Russia is somewhere in between. Compared with other jades, white jade can easily identify the luster of oil.
3. Internal texture
The unique microstructure of white jade is characterized by special internal texture, which is of identification significance. The existence of internal texture can be found by illuminating it from the side with a strong flashlight.
There are several main forms of texture in white jade:
(1) The evenly distributed cloud floc texture is similar to the white clouds in the sky, and it is distributed evenly in fine floc. This kind of texture mainly appears in high-quality samples produced in Xinjiang.
The uneven distribution of cloud floc internal texture is cloud floc, but the distribution is uneven. This kind of texture mainly appears in ordinary materials produced in Xinjiang.
(2) The translucent shape with milk texture is turbid and translucent under the side light irradiation, which is similar to diluted milk, and sometimes there may be small lumps with relatively poor transparency. This phenomenon is common in mountain materials produced in Xinjiang.
(3) Irregular bands with directional distribution are directionally distributed in the translucent substrate with milky texture. This phenomenon mainly appears in the mountain materials produced in Yutian mining area of Xinjiang.
(4) Irregular grains with different transparency are embedded in each other. This phenomenon mainly appears in Russian white jade.
The color is creamy white, slightly pale cyan and milky yellow, with fine and moist texture and good greasiness, and there may be a small amount of impurities such as stone flowers. The finest white jade is produced in Hotan, Xinjiang. Hetian jade has a hardness of 6 to 6.5 degrees. Its texture is dense, its chemical properties are extremely stable, and its toughness and wear resistance are the strongest among jade. Hetian white jade is fine in texture and warm as suet, which is called suet jade. Sheep fat jade belongs to the high-quality variety of white jade. A fine jade, in addition to the moist and delicate jade, has a great influence on the value of a jade.