Guangning Jade Carving

Guangning Jade Carving

Nominating Unit: Guangning County, City of Zhaoqing

Guangning Jade Carving is mainly distributed in Muge Township and Nanjie Township of Guangning County, and in the neighboring areas. As early as the Qing Dynasty, the villagers of Shitai, Fudong, etc. had already made their living by making signets with locally produced green jade. During the time of the Republic of China, more than 300 people from this township were doing signet business, which was an important prerequisite for the transmission of Guangning Jade Carving.

The reason for the success of Guangning Jade Carving is the use of locally produced green jade. The jade produced from Yuntai mountain of Muge Township is called Guangdong Province Green, and has been listed as one of the five famous types of jade stones in China. The green jade is famous for its rich colors, such as white, grey, light green, dark green, yellow with red, green with golden, etc. Among these types, the bull horn jade has a translucent texture and looks very much like jelly, so it is called “Guangning Jelly”. The verdure jade, yellow jade with golden spots, and white or yellow jade with green color are especially rare. In ancient Japanese records, Guangdong Province Green and Guangning Jelly had already received very high claims. In another ancient book about rocks and jade with illustrations, “Tian Huang”, “Ji Xue Shi”, and “Guangdong Province Green” were ranked together as the top of rare stones. Guangning Jade Carving is mostly famous due to the rare material it uses and the signets, jade wares were already presented to the emperors in the Ming and the Qing Dynasties.(https://www.daowen.com)

Besides traditional signets, Guangning Jade Carving also includes styled carving, such as dragon, phoenix, lion, horse, monkey, and eagle. Its representative works include “grape vase”, “dual dragon fight the pearl”, “running stallion”, “flying fish”, “serial bell”, etc. It features the great combination of style and the natural beauty of the jade. Since the 80s of the 20th century, Guangning Jade Carving has produced more than 180 types, and has been sold in many countries in Europe, America, Southeast Asia and different regions such as Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan.

Now the production of green jade in Guangning is diminishing, so are the workers. Urgent countermeasures are called for from authorities to protect Guangning Jade Carving from jeopardy.