Nature and Human in Unison, the Smart Carvings of Jade and Beautiful Stones, Taiwan National Palace Museum

Pursuing optimal equilibrium and harmony between human and nature has always been a key concept in Chinese aesthetics. When it is embodied in the art of jade carving, fitting the design to the material and its inherent property is the guiding principle.

In short, the principle means that the natural hues or forms of the material in use induce the theme and designs of the work to be rendered. The artisan fully contemplates the substance and characteristics of the material at hand, which seems to restrict yet actually challenges him and ultimately inspires his creativity. The results are often surprisingly original, but at the same time so aptly natural that works like these are considered very “smart” and called “smart carvings”.

The earliest specimen of jade “smart” carving known to us is a three-thousand-year-old jade turtle, unearthed from the archeological site of YinXu, at Anyang. The cute little white body contrasts with its black shell, pleasingly lively, so very approachable, far from the typical alienating, esoteric impression an ancient artifact would strike on us, testifying to that “smartness” does transcend time and space. The National Palace Museum boasts in its collections such treasured smart carvings, mostly made during the 18th and 19th centuries, including ones made of “genuine” jade (nephrite and jadeite), as well as those of agate, chalcedony, or others. Many are ingeniously fashioned using a special design technique called “cute use of tints”, which takes advantage of naturally-formed color spots or areas preexisting on the material in use and transforms them into fitting parts of the intended subject. The motifs of such carvings take on a great intriguing variety, from auspicious signs, figures or animals, to flowers and birds, sometimes even featuring vegetables and meat. Among all smart carving curios, the jadeite cabbage of Qing dynasty reigns as the most popular and impressive one, beloved of many visitors to the Museum. It embodies a perfect three-in-one union of intrinsic nature, human creativity, and symbolic significance, indeed a paramount beauty illustrating the Oneness of Nature and Human.

Jadeite Cabbage
Jadeite Cabbage, in a cloisonné flowerpot
Qing dynasty (1644~1911)
Length: 5.07, Width: 9.1cm, Height: 18.7cm
This jadeite, part green and part white, which is now a wonderful Chinese cabbage, would be considered mere second-rate material full of impurities if it was to be made into usual vases, jars, or ornaments, because of the cracks and blemishes that came with it. However, the artisan ingeniously transformed the rock into a lifelike vegetable of leafy green and white stems, with all unappealing rifts now hidden invisible amid the veins. And the discolored spots take on the marks of snow and frost. So with a stroke of genius, defects turn perfect. Beauty is in the detail and creativity works wonder.

The cabbage used to be a curio item displayed in Eternal Harmony Palace, the residence quarter of Emperor Guangxu’s Lady Jin. For this reason, the piece is thought to have belonged to her. Hence the inference that the “white” cabbage signifies purity or chastity of the bride, and the two insects alighting at the tips of leaves symbolize fertility: bringing a long line of imperial children to the royal family.

In addition, there is a pleasant surprise in this exhibit for our visitors: the original setup of the cabbage while it adorned the Qing palace is now reenacted through a video image. It shows that the cabbage was previously “planted” in a cloisonné flowerpot as a potted landscape, quite a fancy and interesting way of display.

Selected Jade Carvings and Beautiful Stones in the National Palace Museum’s collection
Jade possesses both the solid hardness of stone and the glistening moistness of water. It is as if the quintessence of all finest spirits, nurtured by the grandest mountains and most graceful rivers of all lands, has all bestowed upon and crystallized into jade, and jade alone. The beauty of jade is a unique eight-thousand-year aesthetic experience shared by all Chinese. In the family of jade, either jadeite or nephrite exists in a variety of hues. Nephrite jade, aside from white, also comes in green-blue, gray, black, brown, yellow, green, etc. And the various colors of jadeite include pure white, emerald green, titian red, and mauve. The “cute use of tints” makes precisely the best of color variations and distribution in a given piece of jade the medium, adapting the shape and composition accordingly, so as to deliver an integrated visual message in the final work of art. Two items exhibited in this gallery, “Boy and Bear”, “Squirrels and Grapes”, are both fine examples.

Jade-like agate and jasper from the quartz family also feature varied textures and pigments, so they too are often carved with the “cute use of tints”. The famous meat-shaped stone of Qing dynasty in the collections of the Museum is a quartz curio of jasper chalcedony. The bands of layered textures formed by the infinity of Nature are further processed by the ingenuity of Human: tight tiny holes pose as pores and also serve to prime the grain for easier dyeing. The brownish red dye “marinates” the rind in soy sauce, adding a finishing touch in the transformation of a hard, cold stone into this piece of tender, juicy, melting-right-in-mouth Dongpo pork. What a humorous pact and collaborative act between Nature and Human, a wonderfully smart carving it is.

Meat-shaped Stone,
on a metal stand
Qing dynasty (1644~1911)
Length: 5.3, Width: 6.6cm, Height: 5.7cm

Jadeite Squirrels and Grapes,
on a wood stand
Qing dynasty (1644~1911)
Length: 7.2, Width: 5.1cm

Jade Boy and Bear
Qing dynasty (1644~1911)
Height: 6.0cm

Agate Tobacco Powder snuff Bottle with a ferrying scene
Qing dynasty (1644~1911)
Width: 5.1, Height: 5.9cm

Agate Tobacco Powder snuff Bottle with a scene of triumph
Qing dynasty (1644~1911)
Width: 5.3, Height: 6.7cm

Taiwan National Palace Museum
The National Palace Museum houses one of the largest collections of Chinese art in the world. With nearly 700,000 precious artifacts, the museum’s extensive collection spans thousands of years and consists of magnificent treasures from the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing imperial collections.

In recent years, the National Palace Museum has dedicated itself to melding culture and technology, hoping to make its national treasures and remarkable cultural inheritance more accessible to people around the world.