It used to be invincible until it met the sand, and this is the way to overcome rigidity with softness!
The editor who likes to watch costume dramas has always been interested in studying the jades worn by the ancients. These jades look crystal clear and very delicate.
Jade is also often used to represent a person who is dignified and gentle in character. For example, in some martial arts novels, we often see descriptions that describe a person as a modest gentleman, as gentle as jade.
But the jade we are going to talk about today (pictured below) is called Jue, it is not an 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 a person with a gui, ask a scholar to use a bi, call a person with a jue, and a person with a jue, and turn it with a ring." Jue is missing a piece of the bi, which means "the two have broken", so Jue has a meaning in jade. Not good, even a little murderous.
"Historical Records" has a very vivid saying when describing the feast of Hongmen: "Fan Zeng numbered the kings of Xiang, and held up the jade pendant to show them three. King Xiang silently refused" (Fan Zeng winked at Xiang Yu, raised the jade pendant again and again to signal him, Xiang Yu was silent and did not respond). Fan Zeng raised the jade to indicate to Xiang Yu what? Very simple: kill him (Liu Bang)! ——It’s so easy to trick him, don’t do it, 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 Jade Jue, nor because it is exquisite and beautiful—after all, it was four or five thousand years ago. Things, after so many years of wind and frost, are probably not so refined.
On the contrary, the simple shape and the "no powdered" surface reveal a little immature and clumsy like "naturally de-carved" - what the editor really sighs is the part of the ancients revealed by this jade Perseverance 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 Jade": Xiuyan Jade in Liaoning, Dushan Jade in Henan, Lantian Jade in Shaanxi and Hetian Jade in Xinjiang (there is also a saying that the green jade in Hubei is used for jade). Turquoise replaces Lantian jade, and it is said that the famous "He's Bi" is turquoise).
This is actually divided according to the place of origin - the Chinese seem to like to divide the jade species according to the place of origin, so there are "Hetian materials", "Qinghai materials" and "Russian materials" in white tremolite jade.
However, this method of classification is unreliable after all. It is easy to make people feel tall with a similar appearance and a distant origin, so there is a so-called "Afghani jade" to make up for it (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.
From the mineralogical point of view, Chinese jade can be roughly divided into three types: talc jade, serpentine jade and tremolite jade (as for the well-known jadeite, although it is an important jade in China, because the origin of jadeite is Myanmar, it was only produced in the Ming Dynasty. Introduced to China, so its stone is not included in these three).
In terms of Mohs hardness (the higher the value, the greater the hardness), one of the three is harder than the other: talc is 1, serpentine is no more than 4, and tremolite is between 5.5 and 6.5.
You may not feel this way, but in fact the subtext of this sentence is: the ancients 4,000 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, the hardness of wood is around 3, while the hardness of bronze is between 5 and 6.5 - that is to say, nothing can "gnaw" the small tremolite seen above!
The Encounter of Flint and Jue - Jade Burns
Of course, it does not mean that there is absolutely no. 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, the 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" used by the warriors of the Aztec Empire established by the Central American Indians is a large wooden stick inlaid with many sharpened flint pieces as a blade (because Aztec The Turks did not know how to smelt metals).
The Aztec warriors relied on this ferocious weapon to fight the north and south, and established a huge empire across Central and North America.
How good is Marquawitt? It is said that the Spanish colonists once removed the flint flakes and used them to shave instead of blades!
But flint has a fatal problem: cracking. In fact, most stones have this problem. The harder the stone, the more brittle it is, and it will be easily broken when it is hit by an external force.
Therefore, Marquawit has no problem cutting people. It is a piece of cake to deal with cotton, leather and rattan armor, but if it is used to chop stones, the cutting edge may collapse.
Therefore, flint and most stones cannot be used to cut jade materials - and even if flint can withstand it, who can guarantee that jade materials will not be broken by too much force?
Break the Jue with sand, overcome rigidity with softness
Could it be that I can't deal with this jade?
of course not! Otherwise, where do these ancient and clumsy jades come from? As the saying goes, "tofu is made with brine, and one thing falls into another". In the long-term production and life, the ancients finally found that there is a thing that can deal with this kind of jade, what is it? sand! Yes, it's fine sand.
The mineralogical name for this sand is "corundum," and the chemical composition is aluminum oxide. Just by hearing the name, you know it's not easy to deal with! In fact, it has a Mohs hardness of 9, second only to diamond (10) in nature, and cutting jade with it is like cutting a piece of skin!
Moreover, because it is in the shape of sand, there is no need to worry about the problem of jade cracking caused by excessive force.
The ancients called this kind of sand that can cut jade materials as "jade sand", also called Jieyu sand (the word "solve" here is the same as "cut"), grinding jade sand, because it mostly originated in Xingtai City, Hebei Province. Therefore, it is also called "Xing Sha" (according to Zhang Hongzhao's "Shi Ya" textual research, Xing Sha also contains a large proportion of garnets) - interesting, the hardest enemy, but 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, right? The sand can't catch it!
Of course not! According to research, the ancients invented a unique method called "line cutting method" to cut jade.
Specifically, the jade worker first draws a line on the jade material where it 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 wet jade sand on the twine as evenly as possible while rubbing. The sand will eventually be drawn into the rope body due to the wetness and the cohesion of the hemp rope fibers. Along with the rope, the jade material will be rubbed together, gradually making nicks, and finally the jade material will be cut open.
It is said that an experienced jade worker does not need to make a complete cut at all. He will look for the inherent cracks in the jade material in advance, and then design it skillfully. In this way, when the cut reaches a certain level, with a "pop", the jade material will crack by itself, 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 out during the entire cutting process? Is it jade? wrong! Don't forget there's another character here: Hemp Rope.
The hardness and wear resistance of hemp rope are far less than those of jade sand and jade material, so it is not difficult to imagine that the rope will gradually break after a few grindings.
What to do then? What else can I do, get another one! Some people may say, how troublesome this is, you have to change a rope after a few grindings, and everything has to be done all over again! Do you think the ancients didn't know this? But what can be done? For people 4,000 years ago, many of our accusations now are tantamount to "why not eat minced meat"-style anger!
The ancients often didn't have modern high-tech, and they didn't even understand the "craftsman spirit". All they can rely on is forbearance and perseverance, only a little perseverance, and only sincere devotion to God and what they do.
However, it is precisely with such a force that our ancients stumbled and stumbled all the way to today, creating a flourishing and splendid modern civilization.
This is probably "sincere and sincere, gold and stone open"!
The article comes from Baijiahao Beijing Science Center