Jade Symbolism
Revered for its hardness and texture, jade symbolizes the cosmos, wealth, political power, security, good health and strength. In China, jade cicadas have been placed on the tongue of the dead to speed resurrection; jade pigs symbolize prosperity, jade disks represent heaven and a piece of jade enclosed within a square signifies the earth.
Confucian scholars compared the 11 virtues of jade as models for human behavior. Confucius himself equated the stone with intelligence, truth, loyalty, justice, purity and humanity, and he used the stone to symbolize the idea of junzi, the noble or superior man. Taoist alchemists mixed up elixirs with powdered jade that they hoped would make them immortal.
The emperors communicated with the gods through jade disks; and Chinese poets called the skin of beautiful woman "fragrant jade" and the part of her body which men love so much to enter, her "jade gate." A jade donut has traditionally been given as a gift to newborns. Jade gifts were commonly given as bribes to corrupt Chinese officials. In athletic events second and third place contestants were given trophies of gold and ivory, while the winners were awarded jade.
Jade is prescribed as a medicine and credited with having miraculous powers and the ability to ward off evil and bad luck. A villager in Xinjiang told the Los Angeles Times, “I believe it will cure everything. I have heard when it touches your skin, it sucks out the poisons.”
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