21 Jade

Jade is an ornamental mineral, mostly known for its green varieties, though it appears naturally in other colors as well, notably yellow and white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite, or jadeite.

The bi is a type of circular ancient Chinese jade artifact. The earliest bi were produced in the Neolithic period, particularly by the Liangzhu culture. Later examples date mainly from the Shang, Zhou and Han dynasties. They were also made in glass.

Heber Reginald Bishop was a noted businessman and philanthropist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His collections of art, especially his noted collection of jade, were donated to museums. "An industrialist and entrepreneur, Mr. Bishop was an active patron of the arts and a Trustee of the Metropolitan Museum during its formative years."

Chinese jade refers to the jade mined or carved in China from the Neolithic onward. It is the primary hardstone of Chinese sculpture. Although deep and bright green jadeite is better known in Europe, for most of China's history, jade has come in a variety of colors and white "mutton-fat" nephrite was the most highly praised and prized. Native sources in Henan and along the Yangtze were exploited since prehistoric times and have largely been exhausted; most Chinese jade today is extracted from the northwestern province of Xinjiang.

A cong is a form of ancient Chinese jade artifact. It was later also used in ceramics.

Jadeite is presumed one of the most precious materials of Pre-Columbian Costa Rica. It, along with other similar-looking greenstones were cherished and worked for years. Jadeite was used to decorate the body and was presumably a symbol of power.

The dagger-axe is a type of pole weapon that was in use from the Shang dynasty until the Han dynasty in China. It consists of a dagger-shaped blade, mounted by its tang to a perpendicular wooden shaft. The earliest dagger-axe blades were made of stone. Later versions used bronze. Jade versions were also made for ceremonial use. There is a variant type with a divided two-part head, consisting of the usual straight blade and a scythe-like blade.

Kegel exercise, also known as pelvic-floor exercise, involves repeatedly contracting and relaxing the muscles that form part of the pelvic floor, now sometimes colloquially referred to as the "Kegel muscles". The exercise can be performed multiple times each day, for several minutes at a time, but takes one to three months to begin to have an effect.

A huang (璜) is a Chinese arc-shaped jade artifact that was used as a pendant.

A jade burial suit is a ceremonial suit made of pieces of jade in which royal members in Han dynasty China were buried

Jade City is a "spot on the road" in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, near the Yukon, located on Highway 37, west of Good Hope Lake and close to Cassiar, in the Cassiar Highlands. The region around Jade City is rich with serpentinite, greenstone, and Nephrite jade. The region is home to 92% of the world's nephrite jade. Jade City is by road about 19 hours north of Greater Vancouver, and 1 hour south of the Yukon border. As of 2015, it has a population of about 30 people.

The National Museum in New Delhi, India, has two galleries of decorative arts with a large collection of Mughal jade carvings forming a display for its Jade Collection.

The Jade Terrapin from Allahabad is a large sculpture of a terrapin carved from a single piece of jade. Dating from the early 17th Century when most of India was ruled by the Mughal dynasty, this luxurious and unique artefect was found in Allahabad in the early nineteenth century.

Jadeite is a pyroxene mineral with composition NaAlSi2O6. It is monoclinic. It has a Mohs hardness of about 6.5 to 7.0 depending on the composition. The mineral is dense, with a specific gravity of about 3.4.

The Jadeite Cabbage or Jadeite Cabbage with Insects is a piece of jadeite carved into the shape of a Chinese cabbage head, and with a locust and katydid camouflaged in the leaves. It is part of the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan.

Maw sit sit, also known as jade-albite, is a gemstone found exclusively in northern Burma. It was first identified in 1963 by the late Swiss gemologist Edward Gubelin and was named after the village close to where it was first found in the foothills of the Himalayas.

The use of jade in Mesoamerica for symbolic and ideological ritual was highly influenced by its rarity and value among pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, such as the Olmec, the Maya, and the various groups in the Valley of Mexico. Although jade artifacts have been created and prized by many Mesoamerican peoples, the Motagua River valley in Guatemala was previously thought to be the sole source of jadeite in the region.

The Museum of Jade Art is an art museum about jade art in Zhongshan District, Taipei, Taiwan. It is the first museum in the world dedicated to jade art.

Nephrite is a variety of the calcium, magnesium, and iron-rich amphibole minerals tremolite or actinolite (aggregates of which also make up one form of asbestos). The chemical formula for nephrite is Ca2(Mg, Fe)5Si8O22(OH)2. It is one of two different mineral species called jade. The other mineral species known as jade is jadeite, which is a variety of pyroxene. While nephrite jade possesses mainly grays and greens (and occasionally yellows, browns or whites), jadeite jade, which is rarer, can also contain blacks, reds, pinks and violets. Nephrite jade is an ornamental stone used in carvings, beads, or cabochon cut gemstones. Nephrite is also the official state mineral of Wyoming.

Philippine jade artifacts, made from white and green nephrite and dating as far back as 2000–1500 BC, have been discovered at a number of archeological excavations in the Philippines since the 1930s. The artifacts have been both tools like chisels, and ornaments such as lingling-o earrings, bracelets and beads.

A pig dragon or zhūlóng is a type of jade artifact from the Hongshan culture of neolithic China. Pig dragons are zoomorphic forms with a pig-like head and elongated limbless body coiled around to the head and described as "suggestively fetal". Early pig dragons are thick and stubby, and later examples have more graceful, snakelike bodies.