If you want to ask the world today, what is the most recognized gem on earth? Many people must respond to diamonds first. Indeed, diamonds deserve to be the "king of gems" today. But perhaps few people know that the world's first diamond mine was not discovered until 1871. In other words, the history of mankind's real exploitation of diamonds on a large scale is only three hundred years old. So, retrospective of the history of human jewellery, before the diamond, what is the most recognized gem of the Earth?
This time I am afraid that not everyone can accurately answer it. The answer is agate.
In the same historical period of Greek mythology, it was about the eleventh century BC to the eighth century BC, and that China was the Western Zhou Dynasty. Chinese people in the Western Zhou Dynasty have widely used agate as a decoration, which is not only written, but also unearthed as evidence. Now we can see the Western Zhou agate, mainly some straight tubular beads, the processing has been very fine. The "Sima", often held by the players, refers to the agate beads of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The Western Zhou Agate is dominated by red and has not been rotted for thousands of years. The unearthed Western Zhou Agate is still radiant, and is often worn by some players who are not calm, and they will show off their talents.
According to Chinese ancient books, agate is from the West, and the visible literature includes the "Agate Fu" of the Three Kingdoms Cao Yu. The West, which the ancient Chinese called it, is actually India. Tang Xixi took the scriptures and went to India, not the Western geography. In the West of modern geography, if China is the coordinate, it should go directly to Central Asian countries such as Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and it will be far worse. It is speculated that the ancient Chinese agate may have been introduced from India at the beginning. In many Buddhist classics, agate is also one of the seven treasures of the Buddha. These also prove that agate as a treasure has a long history in India.
The official Chinese historical documents since the Han Dynasty have detailed records of the tribute treasures of neighboring countries. Among them, in addition to the rare 玳ç‘, pearl, ambergris, 真真香, Canaan incense, the other most frequently occurring treasure is agate.
What is the saying about agate in the Bible? Everyone who has read the Bible knows that there is a holy city called Jerusalem, the wall of Jerusalem, the well-known Wailing Wall, the place where pilgrims go. According to the biblical Revelation, the base of the walls of Jerusalem was built with twelve kinds of gems, one of which is red agate. In the Old Testament Exodus, agate was regarded as the "stone of fire", and there was also a description about the Lord giving agate a gift to Moses and Perron.
The above is about history and culture. Below we have a general knowledge of the natural science of agate.
The chemical composition of agate is mainly silica. Most agates are formed by volcanic eruptions, so they tend to scatter on the surface of the earth. In ancient times, humans have not learned to dig three feet to open mines. The ancients worked on the land, fishing for shrimps and grazing rice, and accidentally they could pick up an agate on the ground. The original aesthetic orientation of human beings, like colorful things, both in the east and west, and agate is precisely the most colorful gem in the world. Let us imagine that the ancients accidentally found a piece of agate on the riverside. When you look at this thing, it’s fascinating. It’s just like a flower, it’s brilliant, it’s a big piece, so it’s either dedicated to the tribal leader, or left it privately. As a treasure. And agate is just the most widely distributed gemstone in the world, and almost all of the world's continents are rich in agate mineral deposits. So the ancients came to the agate and were highly probable events anywhere in the world. It can be said that agate can become the earliest universally recognized gem of all mankind, and it is simply the arrangement of God.
From the geological point of view, agate is formed by the rise of high temperature matter in the mantle. Usually, the agate ore produced by volcanic eruptions mostly has an oval appearance, commonly known as egg agate, and has a dark brown thick skin on the outside. It is of different sizes and looks dirty, much like the newly dug potatoes. There is also a part of agate which is formed by the geological formation of the mantle. It is usually associated with rocks. This kind of agate belongs to the mine agate. It has many impurities and cracks. It is generally difficult to produce a whole material. For example, the familiar red mountain agate in Liangshan is the egg agate, while the southern red agate in Baoshan, Yunnan is the mineral agate. Therefore, Baoshan South has many red cracks and rarely produces large amounts of material.
In the long geological evolution of agate ore, due to various reasons such as earthquakes and river erosion, some will be exposed to the surface. These agate ore exposed on the surface, after long-term weathering on the land, the skin gradually recedes, leaving only the agate core, it becomes what we call the weathered agate. The Alashan agate that everyone likes is a typical weathered agate. The agate stones that have been washed away by the water for a long time, most of them become a very smooth pebbled shape, which is equivalent to the son jade in Hetian jade. This kind of agate, we are generally called water agate. The colorful Nanjing Yuhua Stone is not a colored flower stone, but a water agate.
Regarding agate, the Chinese have two most popular words. One sentence is "Agate is not red," and the other sentence is "Agate is not a pretty, it is purely awkward."
Let me talk about red first. In the ancient literature before the Han Dynasty, agate was called "Red Jade." The name "Red Jade" indicates at least two problems: 1. The ancient Chinese believed that agate was similar to jade, and it was a very rare treasure. 2. The agate used in ancient China was red, and the concept of agate was red. For thousands of years, it is not the specialization of modern Chinese.
People who have a little contact with agate have generally heard of "South Red." Nanhong is the abbreviation of South Red Agate, which is a convention. Generally speaking, Nanhong, which is now mentioned in the wenwan market, refers to the red agate produced in Baoshan, Yunnan and Liangshan, Sichuan. However, in the old agate category, there is actually a red agate produced in southern Anhui and the Aba area in Sichuan. It is also classified into the Nanhong family, collectively known as Gannan Nanhong. South Red Agate was very popular in the Qing Dynasty. As we all know, when the Qing Dynasty, all the characters with heads and faces must wear the beads. The most important thing about the beads is the beads and the back clouds. Then, what are the beads and the back clouds of the Qing Dynasty? From the existing Qing Dynasty to the Pearl, the most used is the South Red Agate. The study shows that the South Red used in the Southern Red Pearl of the Qing Dynasty was originally Gannan Nanhong. After the middle of the Qing Dynasty, it was gradually changed to Baoshan Nanhong because of the almost complete mineralization of Gannan South Red.
The description of Nanhong is a bit general, so in order to make a difference, the player will add a supplementary explanation in front of Nanhong to accurately describe the differences, such as Liangshan Nanhong, Baoshan Nanhong, Gannan Nanhong and so on. In the red agate family, in addition to Nanhong, there are three other common red agates, which are called Xihong, Donghong, and Warring States Red.
Chinese wenwan, pay attention to details, details determine the value and price of the collection. Donghong, Nanhong, Xihong, and Warring States Red are all red agates, but there are differences in details, which directly leads to huge differences in their prices. So to play agate, first of all, you must clearly understand this red one, otherwise Donghong will buy Nanhong, and Hebei will fight for the national red. When the wallet is drummed again, it will only be tossed after repeated tossing. Two layers of cowhide.
Nanhong is particularly hot now, let's focus on South Red. If you go to the wenwan market, you will find that the trail of Huanglongyu, which was short-lived in the past few years, has been quietly removed from the counter by the store that has kept pace with the times, and replaced with a red agate. The worried person looked at the red scorpion in the counter and they were all South Red beads. Zhangkou asked the price. The store quoted the 300 yuan, the 200 yuan. So you choose 2 each, and you want to buy a single person when you pick up 1000 oceans, but you find that there is some contempt in the eyes of the store. You can explain that this is the Liangshan joint material, Nanhong, 300 yuan; that is Baoshan Nanhong, 200 yuan a gram. You suddenly got sweaty, knowing that Baoshan South Red Beads were originally sold by grams, not by one.
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