Jade — The Atlas

Chinese tradition

Jade is used in Chinese tradition.
Chinese yu is a worked stone of ritual, burial, and court. Laufer’s study is archaeological and dated; it is still about China, not Maya jadeite.
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912
used in · sourced · documented
Jade is used in Death.
Chinese burial practice, as Laufer treats it, places jade on and in the corpse (mouth pieces, plugs, tomb jades). A Chinese mortuary craft, not Classic Maya funerary jadeite and not “jade energy.”
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912
used in · sourced · culturally specific
Chinese tradition is used in Jade.
Jade working is a Chinese craft-history. Laufer’s book is one named survey.
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912
used in · sourced · documented
Chinese dragon is associated with Jade.
Imperial and burial jades may carry dragon imagery. A Chinese pairing of creature and stone, not a Mesoamerican jadeite cosmology.
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912
associated with · partially sourced · documented

Maya tradition

Jade is used in Maya tradition.
Classic Maya jadeite has its own ritual and kingly jobs. Taube’s article keeps that symbolism off Chinese yu.
from Karl A. Taube · The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion, 2005
used in · sourced · documented
Jade is used in Death.
Taube describes Classic Maya jadeite in funerary rites and in conjuring gods and ancestors, as a material of the breath-spirit. A Maya tomb and earspool grammar, not Chinese orifice-plugs and not a pan-Mesoamerican “jade of immortality.”
from Karl A. Taube · The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion, 2005
used in · sourced · culturally specific
Jade represents Maize.
Taube argues Classic Maya jadeite can stand for maize (among other jobs). A Maya religious identification of a hard green stone with the staple grain, not Chinese burial jade and not Sahagún’s maize-as-food.
from Karl A. Taube · The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion, 2005
represents · sourced · culturally specific

Jade is associated with Green.
Jade is often green in both China and Mesoamerica. Color is shared; the rites are not.
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912; Karl A. Taube · The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion, 2005
associated with · sourced · culturally specific
Jade is associated with Stone.
Jade is a stone that can be worked. Ritual jobs come after hardness.
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912; Karl A. Taube · The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion, 2005
associated with · sourced · documented

Nahua tradition

Jade is connected to Obsidian.
Mesoamerican working of hard green stone and of volcanic glass are neighboring crafts. They are not one “sacred stone” of later shops.
from Bernardino de Sahagún and Nahua collaborators · Florentine Codex, c. 1577; Karl A. Taube · The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion, 2005
connected to · interpretive · culturally specific

Two stored meetings of this pair

These are separate published relations. They are not one meaning.

Jade is used in Death.
Chinese burial practice, as Laufer treats it, places jade on and in the corpse (mouth pieces, plugs, tomb jades). A Chinese mortuary craft, not Classic Maya funerary jadeite and not “jade energy.”
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912
used in · sourced · culturally specific

Jade is used in Death.
Taube describes Classic Maya jadeite in funerary rites and in conjuring gods and ancestors, as a material of the breath-spirit. A Maya tomb and earspool grammar, not Chinese orifice-plugs and not a pan-Mesoamerican “jade of immortality.”
from Karl A. Taube · The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion, 2005
used in · sourced · culturally specific

sources

Jade · Berthold Laufer
Berthold Laufer, Jade: A Study in Chinese Archaeology and Religion.
The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion · Karl A. Taube
Karl A. Taube, “The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion,” Ancient Mesoamerica 16 (2005).
Florentine Codex · Bernardino de Sahagún and Nahua collaborators
Bernardino de Sahagún, General History of the Things of New Spain (Florentine Codex).