Karl Hahn

Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Zhang, Jing

Area of Concentration

East Asian Studies

Abstract

Jade is a semi-precious mineral that has played a significant role in Chinese societies since antiquity. As a material culture, jade has a life beyond the context that it was created in and is capable of evoking images of the past. This paper explores jade culture’s significance to Chinese culture at different points in time and its use in state and political legitimization. Jade culture has been recycled throughout Chinese history to reflect societal shifts and to meet the particular needs of a given society. This paper starts by looking at jade culture during Chinese antiquity, and then during the Qing dynasty, the territorial precursor to modern China, and then finally it looks at the construction of a contemporary Chinese identity through the state’s cultural policies, legitimized by jade culture. This paper demonstrates that jade culture has an important role in building myths and legends that bridge people in one context to another, greater past.

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