Ancient jade still has magic to enthrall

The Chinese have a special affection for yu, or jade in English, that foreigners cannot match. A jade exhibition at Beijing Art Museum traces this love back to its origin at the beginning of Chinese civilization.

Displaying 79 sets of jade relics borrowed from Liangzhu Culture Museum in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, the exhibition introduces Liangzhu culture, a late Neolithic (or New Stone Age) culture in the Yangtze River Delta, southeast China. The most remarkable aspects of this exhibition are the large number and the high quality of the carved jade that has survived.

Liangzhu artifacts were first excavated from Hangzhou suburbs in 1931, and later at other places in northern Zhejiang province and southern coastal areas of Jiangsu province. The culture, which can be dated to 5,300-4,300 BC, extended throughout the Yangtze River Delta. As there was no system of writing and no records remain, the high number and outstanding quality of jades found in the tombs prompted archaeologists to assume that Liangzhu culture placed great value on the stone.