It used to be invincible, until it met sand, this is how to overcome rigidity with softness!
The editor who likes to watch costume dramas has always been fond of studying the jade worn by the ancients. These jades look crystal clear and very delicate.
Jade is also often used to represent a person's dignified character and gentle personality. For example, in some martial arts novels, we often see a description of a person as a modest gentleman, as gentle as jade.
But the piece of jade we are going to talk about today (pictured below) is called Jue, it is not ordinary jade, let me tell you slowly.
Transparent appearance, hard heart
Jue is a very unique jade, which has a special meaning in ancient times. As the saying goes, "Hire people with Gui, ask scholars with Bi, call people with Yuan, reject people with Jue, and reject with Huan". The Jue is a piece of Bi, which means "the two have broken up", so the meaning of Jue in jade is Not good, even a bit murderous.
"Historical Records" once had a very expressive sentence when describing the Hongmen Banquet: "Fan Zeng counted King Xiang, and he held up the jade ring he wore to show three, but King Xiang silently refused" (Fan Zeng gave Xiang Yu a wink, and repeatedly raised the jade ring to signal him, Xiang Yu was silent and did not respond). Fan Zeng raised the jade ring to show Xiang Yu what? It's simple: kill him (Liu Bang)! ——It was so easy for him to trick him. If you don’t do anything, what are you waiting for?
In fact, the reason why the editor wants to talk about Jue alone is not because of this legendary story, nor the profound jade culture represented by Yu Jue, nor because it is exquisite and beautiful—after all, it was made four or five thousand years ago. Things, after so many years of wind and frost, are probably not very refined.
On the contrary, the simple shape and the surface of "no makeup" reveal a little immaturity and primitiveness like "naturally carved"-what I really feel is the part of the ancients revealed by this jade Persistence and persistence.
It can be seen that this jade is a tremolite jade. The classification of jade by the Chinese is very complicated, the most famous of which are the "four famous jades": Xiuyan jade in Liaoning, Dushan jade in Henan, Lantian jade in Shaanxi and Hetian jade in Xinjiang (there is also a saying that green jade in Hubei Turquoise instead of Lantian jade, it is said that the famous "Heshibi" is turquoise).
This is actually divided according to the place of origin - the Chinese seem to like to divide jade species according to the place of origin, so there are "Hetian material", "Qinghai material" and "Russian material" in white tremolite jade.
However, this division is unreliable after all. The similar appearance and a distant origin can easily make people feel tall, so there is the so-called "Afghan jade" to fill the number (good Afghan jade is also very expensive, but Its composition is calcium carbonate, and its chemical composition is completely different from that of white jade).
Therefore, classification by mineralogy is relatively more reliable.
Mineralogically speaking, China's jade can be roughly divided into three types: talc jade, serpentine jade and tremolite jade (as for the well-known jade, although it is an important jade in China, because the origin of jade is Burma, it was discovered in the Ming Dynasty. It was introduced into China, so its stone materials are not included in these three types).
In terms of Mohs hardness (the higher the value, the greater the hardness), the three are harder than the other: talc is 1, serpentine is not greater than 4, and tremolite is between 5.5 and 6.5.
In this way, you may not feel it yet. In fact, the subtext of this passage is to say: the ancients 4000 years ago could hardly find tools to deal with this kind of jade!
At that time, the common materials that people could use to make tools were wood, limestone and bronze. Needless to say, wood, the hardness of limestone is around 3, while the hardness of bronze is between 5 and 6.5-that is to say, nothing can "bite" the small tremolite seen above!
The Encounter of Flint and Jue—Jade and Stone Burn Together
Of course, it is not to say that there is absolutely no such thing. The ancients discovered a kind of stone, which is extremely hard, and that is flint.
Flint is generally used as a flint. However, because its main component is silicate ore mainly composed of silica, its hardness can reach 7, which is higher than that of common stainless steel! The famous obsidian has the same chemical composition and crystal structure as flint.
The weapon "Maquahuitl" (Maquahuitl) used by the warriors of the Aztec Empire (Aztec) established by the Indians in Central America is a large wooden stick with many sharpened flint pieces inlaid in the middle as blades (because Aztec Turks don't know how to smelt metal).
It was with this fierce weapon that Aztec warriors fought north and south and established a huge empire spanning Central and North America.
How good is Markwawitt? It is said that the Spanish colonists once removed the flint pieces and used them instead of blades to shave!
But flint has a fatal problem: cracking. In fact, most stones have this problem. The harder the stone is, the more brittle it is, and it is easy to break when it is hit by an external force.
Therefore, Makwawit has no problem cutting people. It is a piece of cake to deal with cotton cloth, leather and rattan armor, but if you use it to chop stones, the edge may collapse.
Therefore, flint and most of the stones cannot be used to cut jade - and even if the flint can withstand it, who can guarantee that the jade will not be shattered because of excessive force?
Break the ring with sand, overcome rigidity with softness
Could it be that he can't deal with this piece of jade?
of course not! Otherwise, where did these ancient jade objects come from? As the saying goes, "When you order tofu in brine, one thing will drop one thing." In the long-term production and life, the ancients finally discovered that there is something that can deal with this kind of jade. What is it? Sand! That's right, it's fine sand.
The mineralogy name of this sand is called "corundum" and its chemical composition is aluminum oxide. Just by the name, you know it's not easy to deal with! In fact, with a Mohs hardness of 9, second only to diamonds (10) in nature, cutting jade with it is like cutting a piece of leather!
Moreover, since it is in the shape of sand, there is no need to worry about cracking the jade due to excessive force.
The ancients called this kind of sand that can cut jade materials "jade sand", also called Jieyu sand (the word "jie" is the same as "cut") and grinding jade sand, because most of them come from Xingtai City, Hebei Province. Therefore, it is also called "Xingsha" (according to Zhang Hongzhao's "Shiya", Xingsha also contains a large proportion of garnet) - interesting, the hardest enemy has to rely on the smallest things to deal with !
But there is still a problem: how to use sand to cut jade? You can't grab a handful and rub it on the jade, can you? Even the sand can't be grasped!
Of course not! According to textual research, the ancients invented a unique method called "line cutting method" to cut jade.
Specifically, the jade worker first draws a line on the place where the jade material needs to be cut, then soaks the jade sand in water, and rubs the jade material back and forth along the drawn line with a hemp rope.
At the same time, sprinkle the moist jade sand on the hemp rope as evenly as possible while rubbing. The sand particles will eventually be drawn into the rope body due to moisture and hemp rope fibers. With the rope rubbing against the jade material, scratches are gradually drawn, and finally the jade material is cut.
It is said that an experienced jade craftsman does not need to cut completely at once. He will look for the inherent cracks in the jade material in advance, and then design them skillfully. In this way, when it is cut to a certain extent, the jade material will split open with a "snap", and the crack is extremely smooth and does not need to be polished at all.
Sounds like a good idea, but here's the question: who is most likely to wear down during the entire cutting process? Is it jade? wrong! Don't forget that there is another role here: the twine.
The hardness and wear resistance of hemp rope are far inferior to jade sand and jade materials, so it is not difficult to imagine that the rope will gradually break after a few grindings.
So what to do? What else can I do, change to another one! Some people may say, how troublesome it is, you have to change a rope after a few grindings, and you have to start all over again! Do you think the ancients did not know this? But what can I do? For people 4,000 years ago, many of our current accusations are no different from "why not eat minced meat"-style reproaches!
The ancients often did not have modern high technology, and did not even understand the "artisan spirit". All they can rely on is forbearance and persistence, only perseverance, and only sincere devotion to God and what they do.
However, it is precisely with such vigor that our ancients have stumbled all the way to today and created a flourishing and splendid modern civilization.
This is probably "sincerity is what makes gold and stone open"!
The article comes from Baijiahao Beijing Science Center