What is Jade?

What is Jade? Jadeite or Nephrite?

"Jade”, or “Yu” (玉), as it is called in Mandarin, is strictly speaking a generic term for two different gems, Nephrite and Jadeite (翡翠 Fei Cui).

The name “Jade” is derived from the Spanish “piedra de ijada”, loin-stone, jade having been recognized by the Amerindians as a remedy for kidney ailments. Because of its beneficial effect on the kidneys, the stone was also known as “lapis nephriticus”. That, indeed, is where the term 'nephrite' came from.

Jadeite and Nephrite are both regarded in China as “zhen yu”, “genuine jade” (真玉). It was not until the beginning of the 19th century that mineralogists and gemmologists started to differentiate between them, since they bear a considerable resemblance to each other in terms of their appearance, their hardness and the properties they exhibit when being processed.

In almost all dictionaries, the Chinese character “Yu” (玉) is translated into English as “jade”. However, this frequently leads to misunderstanding: Chinese, Koreans, and Westerners alike generally fail to appreciate that the cultural concept of “jade” is considerably broader in China and Korea than in the West. A more accurate translation for this character on its own would be “precious/ornamental rock”. It is seldom, if ever, used on its own to denote genuine jade in Mandarin Chinese; for example, one would normally refer to “ying yu” (硬玉 “hard jade”) for Jadeite, or “ruan yu” (軟玉 “soft jade”) for Nephrite.

The Chinese names for many other ornamental non-jade rocks also incorporate the character “Yu”, and it is widely understood by native speakers that such stones are not, in fact, true precious nephrite or jadeite. Even so, for commercial reasons, the names of such stones may well still be translated into English as “jade”, and this practice continues to confuse the unwary.

Jadeite and Nephrite are both tough, since they consist of dense, close-grained, matted aggregates, but they differ from one another in their chemical composition and colours.

Nephrite ranges mainly from mid to dark green or grey-green, but it can also be white, yellowish or reddish.

In most case, Jadeite displays hues and its colors are more vivid and include green, white, russet, black, and delicate lavender. Some saying said that: the red or yellow ones are named “fei”, the green ones are named “cui” which concludes the name of the collection: Fei Cui (翡翠).

In both minerals, the way the colour is distributed varies a great deal. Only in the very finest jade is the colour evenly distributed. Both nephrite and jadeite often have veins, blemishes and streaks running through them, though these may not always be regarded as flaws. On the contrary, some of these patterns are considered particularly valuable.

At the moment, due to the comparatively higher reorganization and higher value, we are selling only Jadeite which is coming from Burma and is carved in China Canton.