The exact origin of the saying "Thousand-year-old jade turns into okra" cannot be verified, but it is familiar to anyone who plays with ancient jade.
There are many versions of this sentence, such as "A thousand-year-old jade becomes an okra", "A thousand-year-old jade becomes an okra", etc.
There are many versions of the interpretation of this sentence, but most of them are based on the analysis of the color change of ancient jade, and the conclusion is limited in persuasiveness.
However, it cannot be denied that this is a phenomenon.
And this phenomenon just shows that even white jade and sapphire can turn into okra-colored topaz.
Okra is an annual herb native to Yinsan. It is grown in my country from Qilu and Beihe to Guangdong Province, Nanhai and other places.
Its petals are pale yellow, the fruit skin and flesh are green, and the seeds are white.
Of course, it is not accurate to use the color of okra to describe the color change of ancient jade.
Among the ancient jades before the War of the Han Dynasty, there are some sapphires and slightly yellow sapphires. The jade is very oily and the color is relatively dark, barely similar to the color of okra.
But that is the original color of the jade material, and it cannot be said that a thousand-year-old jade has turned into okra.
Among the ancient jade before the Tang and Song Dynasties, there were many jade objects made of white jade.
Some colors remain white and do not change significantly, while others are slightly yellow.
But it is far from the color of okra. At most, it can be regarded as close to the color of okra flowers.
But even so, it is difficult to accurately interpret the meaning of "thousand-year-old jade turns into okra".
Among middle and high ancient jade, like the two pieces of jade lion rock unearthed from the tomb of the King of Chu, it is not uncommon for the jade color to appear pale yellow, but it is also not universal.
Moreover, the yellow color of some ancient jade does not change after being buried in the soil, but is the color of the jade itself.
No matter what, it can be proved here that some topaz is not topaz, and it is also related to the characteristics of topaz.
For example, when the Eastern Han Dynasty writer Wang Yi recorded the color of jade in "Jade Theory", he said: "Today, pure ones are always found, black ones are sometimes found, and yellow and red ones are never found."
This means that topaz and ruby are absolutely non-existent!
This makes many people wonder, are the yellow jade they usually see fake topaz?
In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is false.
Because it stands to reason that the true topaz should be the original yellow Hetian jade.
This kind of jade, even today with developed transportation, information, and logistics, almost no one has ever seen it, and it only exists in legends.
Since ancient times, Chinese people have been extremely obsessed with yellow. Yellow is the color of the sun. Yellow looks noble because it has been the color of the emperor since ancient times.
But when talking about topaz, many people will think of it as yellow-mouth material or qin material. In fact, topaz, yellow-mouth material, and huangqin material are three completely different jade materials.
Thousand-year-old jade turns okra color, which is actually a kind of Huangqin.
The real topaz is produced in Xinjiang Province and is a native topaz mine. Huangkou and Huangqin are both formed by the white jade base being dyed by iron elements.
What exactly is the mysterious and scarce topaz? Why is topaz so rare in the market?
Most of what we see in the market are Huangkou materials and Huangqin, while topaz is the ancient jade that we often see at major auctions, almost all of which are topaz from the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
The batch of materials discovered by Chen Wenzhe were obviously left over from this period.
Otherwise, in modern times, there would certainly not be so much topaz material preserved.
So why has Topaz disappeared now?
Topaz is produced in Xinjiang Province, and the output is rare. Most of the topaz produced is gray, bluish-white, and the yellow color is not pure.
The topaz produced during the Ming and Qing Dynasties was of high quality, but in modern times the output has plummeted, and the mine is almost extinct.
Then Huangkou Material and Huang Qin were discovered, which made up for the lack of topaz!
Therefore, what we usually think of as "topaz" is Huangqin, Huangkou or Huangpi.
Although they are all yellow, there are still many differences compared with real topaz.
Let’s talk about Huangqin first. This type of jade includes full Qin, half Qin, Pi Qin, etc.
Many modern people like to regard Huang Qin as topaz, but Huang Qin is not the real topaz.
Because the yellow color of Huangqin is not native, but caused by the intrusion of ferric iron ions in the later period, it is a secondary color, and its color gradually becomes lighter from the outside to the inside.
And according to the different depths of Qin, we generally divide Qin materials into three types: skin Qin, half Qin, and full Qin.
Piqin is a thin layer of skin that becomes Qin color. It is slightly thicker than the skin color, so it belongs to Piqin;
Half Qin means that the Qin color has penetrated into half of the jade meat, and the innermost part is still white. Full Qin means that the entire piece of jade meat has been Qin thoroughly.
And it is worth mentioning that although a good piece of Quanqin is not topaz, after cutting it open, you can see that it is all yellow Qin meat inside. It is really beautiful, and it is probably not much worse than real topaz!
In modern society, from time to time there are things related to topaz that make headlines on WeChat Moments.
Although most of them are ancient jade, no matter what, playing with topaz is a very honorable thing.
So, what is real topaz?
Can just "yellow Hetian jade" be called topaz?
Obviously not. Many people subconsciously think that topaz should be a valuable "high-end material."
The output of Huangkou material is large, and most of it is mountain material, so it is called "topaz" because it is "not qualified".
In addition, it is also because the color of many yellow materials is actually "green and yellow" and not so "yellow completely".
However, in some auctions, or in some books and merchants' mouths, Huangkou is called Topaz.
The yellow color of the yellow mouth belongs to the original color, which is caused by the color caused by metal ions in the mineralization stage, based on white jade and blue-white jade.
The colors include light yellow, medium yellow, greenish yellow and other shades.
Huangkou is not an official scientific name. According to its origin, it is actually a branch of white jade and green white jade.
Scientifically speaking, the original yellow Hetian jade can be considered as topaz, so there is nothing wrong with saying that the yellow mouth material is topaz.
It is generally believed that the best yellow material is Ruoqiang yellow material. Ruoqiang material is mostly light yellow, has superior hardness, and is very oily after being made into finished products.
In addition, in terms of texture, Gobi yellow material is also a high-quality yellow material, and its origin is mainly around Korla.
The material here is greenish-yellow-green in color, and the jade quality is equally tough.
But in terms of color, of course the more positive the better, the more yellow the better, preferably close to "chicken fat yellow".
This is Huangkou. This kind of topaz has a wide range of colors and has many origins.
In auction houses, yellow materials are basically written as topaz.
Although we know that Huangkou is not a real topaz, Huangkou is one of the closest existences to topaz.
Many people choose yellow nuggets because some yellow nuggets with good jade quality can basically replace topaz from the appearance, and also fill the gap of topaz to a certain extent.
However, the color range of Huangkou materials is very wide. Although there are bland yellow millet yellow and relatively yellow chicken fat yellow, there are also green and yellow materials that are not too yellow, and this kind of green and yellow material is especially abundant in Huangkou.
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Chapter 1,371 The Color of an Emperor is free to read.