No Ordinary Stone

"It is of warm liquid and moist aspect like benevolence; it is solid, strong and firm like politeness; when struck, it gives out a pure, far-reaching sound, vibrating long but stopping like music; like truth it gives out a bright rainbow; it shows a pure spirit among the hills and streams; and in the whole world there is no one that does not value it."

- Confucius speaks about jade.

"Jade is no ordinary stone. Not even an ordinary 'precious' stone. It has a 'certain something' that made a Chinese emporer offer fifteen cities for a jade carving he could hold in one hand; that made Montezuma smile when he heard that Cortez was interested only in gold, since Montezuma's most precious possession was jade. That caused men of civilizations oceans and centuries apart to believe it to be the 'stone of imortality.' That made some men forbid it to their wives, and other men to speak through it to their gods, and still others spend years carving a single object from it.

For there is magic about jade that seems to elude man's definition, that sets it apart from all other stones. A mystery that lies beyond man's appreciation of it's rarity or the skillful carving of it's surface; that entices and comes closest to revealing itself when man handles 'the stone of Heaven.' A special, hidden beauty that causes men, when they speak of jade, to speak in the language of myth and legend. Ordinary words are limited; the special quality within the jade is not."

Richard Gump - Jade: Stone of Heaven