The Power of Jade

In China, during the time of the warring states--the third to fifth century B.C.--the King of Zhao owned a Bi, a circular jade with a hole in it, thought to symbolize heaven. The King of Qin--father of the great emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, famed for his tomb in Xian guarded by thousands of terra cotta warriors--wanted the Bi. The King of Zhao let him borrow it. After some time, the King sent his ambassador to retrieve the Bi. The King of Qin said no, he could not give up the Bi. If you do not give it back, I will smash the jade into a thousand pieces, said the ambassador. The King of Qin returned the Bi.

"That story shows how much Chinese people value the jade," says Terese Tse Bartholomew, curator of Indian, Himalayan and Chinese decorative art at The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. "We really don't know the meaning of these old pieces. That is part of the mystery of jade."

Marco Polo wrote about it. Shah Jahan inlaid it in the Taj Mahal. Peter Carl Faberge built the stone bases for some of his famous jeweled Easter eggs from it.

"The mystery and the allure of jade is in the culture," says Marilu Klar, who says she spent a lifetime--35 years--buying jade for Gump's, the San Francisco specialty store. Many museum pieces, like those in the Avery Brundage Collection at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, got their start at Gump's.

For Chinese people, buying and owning a piece of jade is a serious business. "They do believe it will keep the evil spirits away and bring good luck to them, and good health," says David Lin, owner of T. S. Lins & Sons, Inc., one of the largest exporters of Burmese jade into the United States.

"Jade is very personal. Every one has their own story and their own beliefs about it," says Klar, who has worked with Lin for many years.

"My friend's mother, she was run over by a huge truck in Taiwan," says Lin, a tall well-groomed man whose salt and pepper hair frames a youthful looking face. "She never got hurt. Only the jade bangle was broken," says Lin rubbing the apple color jade ring on his middle finger. Lin says he realized he was wearing this ring every time he did very well on a sales trip. "I have better rings than this, but it brings me luck."

But jade can also bring bad luck. "We know this story in Hong Kong," says Lin telling the tale of some very old jade dealers there. They purchased an old, beautiful, green carving of the Goddess of Mercy in the United States in the early 80's and brought it back to Hong Kong. "Instead of selling it as a carved piece, they decided they could make more money by cutting it up," says Lin. Within one year after it was cut up, "the whole family--everybody died--from sickness or accident" Lin says eerily. "So whether it has something to do with the stone or the statue, nobody knows."

Klar, a petite woman of mixed Chinese descent, says she understands the Chinese belief in jade. "However, I'm too practical and too American to really believe everything the Chinese believe," Klar says as the five or six multi-colored jade bangles jingle on her wrist. Klar recounted the tale of a customer who swore her jade bracelet changed color. "As you wear a piece of jade and it brings you good luck, the Chinese feel very strongly that the color deepens on the stone," says Klar, who saw the piece and sent it to the Gem Institute of America, where they said it couldn't physically change.

But, says Klar, "I do feel that there are a lot of things for which there are no explanation."

There are two types of jade, jadeite and nephrite. The former is harder, rarer and comes in more colors. Looking like a square rainbow of color, the jewelry case at Gump's glows with the soft hews of yellow, red, lavender, white, green and blue jade, the rarest of the colors, but not the most expensive. According to Lin, an imperial green jade choker was auctioned at Christie's in New York last year for $4.5 million. "Within one week this same strand was sold in Hong Kong for 20 percent more," Lin says.

About 90 percent of the world's finest jade is mined in Northern Burma. Forty-five percent is useable, but of that only 8 to l0

percent is "fine, fine quality jade," says Lin, who risks his life

four times a year to travel by horseback into the jungle to buy jade. "This no man's land," says Lin, is a border area called the Golden Triangle between Burma, Thailand and China. "I always feel there is a danger there," says Lin, his eyes widening. "Because life means nothing in the jungle or on the border there."

So why go? Jade buying is like gambling, and the same thrill that lures people to casinos lures Lin to the Golden Triangle. Only a small slit in the rough pebble of uncut jade gives a glimpse to the buyer of what is to come. According to Lin the only guarantees that you have are experience and luck. "If the luck is with you, when you cut into the stone, the veins will go your way." If the luck is against you, one bad jade deal can put you out of business. "My father's old manager, he practically bankrupted us," says Lin, shaking his head.

"When you cut the stone the excitement is unbelievable," Lin says, the gleam in his eyes burning so intensely you can feel it.

Jade is given as a gift for a new baby, it is handed down from a mother-in-law to a new daughter, it is placed in the mouth or the hand of the dead before burial. "When my father passed away, we did that too," says Lin, "to protect him." Dating from the Han dynasty, the custom of using "mouth jades" or "tomb jades" to secure immortality, is still common today in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan according to Lin.

My and Anne Nguyen work in Hong Tian's shop, Four Seasons Nails, nestled in the busy Union Street shopping area of San Francisco. Their jade necklaces dangle as they shape, file and color the nails of their customers. "I had a baby boy," says My Nguyen crediting her jade green buddha pendant for her luck. Hong Tian smiles and says her jade pendant keeps her healthy. "You can buy a piece of jade for $250 or $300 in Chinatown," says Anne Nguyen who bought her circular jade Bi in Hong Kong for about the same price. Why would you buy a more expensive jade, better luck? "No," says My Nguyen, "only the color is better."

In the jade business, only one thing is certain, you cannot put a price on luck.

[ Prism Online November 1995 Homepage ]

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