The culture of jade runs through several thousand years, from a vehicle of divine power in "the blue bi to honour heaven" to a mark of civilisation in "the gentleman matches his virtue with jade".
The Xinglongwa culture in Inner Mongolia yielded jade slit-rings and other pieces, the earliest known jade objects in China, and the culture of jade begins from them.
The rites of the Zhou prescribed the six jade vessels with "the blue bi to honour heaven, the yellow cong to honour earth", and jade became the ritual vessel for sacrifice to heaven and earth.
Liu Sheng, Prince Jing of Zhongshan in the Western Han, was buried in a jade suit sewn with gold thread, showing the Han idea that jade protects the body and that the ritual use of jade stands highest.
Jade Culture is the class in the chapter on Crafts on the jade culture of China. From the jade slit-rings of the Neolithic, to the Zhou ritual jades of "the blue bi to honour heaven, the yellow cong to honour earth", to the jade burial suit of the Han, jade passed from an object of sacrifice to something by which people measured virtue.
