Stone of heaven For people of the Middle Kingdom, the greenish rock was valued beyond all else. Gold and precious stones might seize stake in the remainder of the reality, but in China they were merely also-rans. In Chinese gymnastic competitions tusk was given for third spot and gold for second. Jade was reserved exclusively for the winners including higher officials in the royal tribunal because as the saying went: "Gold has a price--but Chinese jade is priceless. "



When one looks at the significance of the language "jade bracelets" in Chinese then it is here that one can view the beginnings of just how significant jade is to the Chinese civilization. The Character for jade in the Mandarin Chinese word is "Yu. The Chinese role for jade resembles a capital "I" with a cable across the intermediate, the side representing the heavens, the side the ground, and the centre part, humankind. In Chinese, the language Yu is used to ask something precious just as in English one may take gold or silver. In 1863, a French mineralogist, Alexis Dam our, analyzed the green stones from Burma. Finding them different from ordinary Chinese jade (nephrite) he named the "new" jade bracelets, jadeite. Today's gemologists only apply the term jade to nephrite and jadeite.