“No discarded things”: Material resourcefulness and nephrite jade management in Early Modern China

Abstract

This paper examines the management of remnant and imperfect jade—referred to as huican jade—in the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), focusing on how the Qing court systematically incorporated these materials into imperial production. This research argues that the court’s engagement with huican jade reveals a core principle of imperial jade crafting, which I term material resourcefulness. Material resourcefulness refers to the capacity to recognize and exhaust a material’s potential through skilled engagement with its properties, including both its desired and undesired features. This research first highlights jade’s central role in imperial production by showing how nephrite provided a uniquely productive platform for exercising material resourcefulness. While nephrite’s translucence and toughness allowed its beauty to be shown through craftmanship, its irregular veins, patterns, and colors invited artisans to apply their ingenuity to transform constraints into possibilities. This transformation depended on artisans’ close attention to and deliberate manipulation of the stone itself. Second, by showcasing artisans’ technical virtuosity – the skill required to mobilize material affordances and make imperfect jade productive – this research reveals artisans’ agency within the highly centralized imperial system of making. Lastly, this study illuminates the political implications of material resourcefulness by revealing how the transformation of imperfect materials into perfect artifacts allowed the Qing emperor to align himself with ancient sages and to present his empire as one that encompassed and surpassed earlier polities in technical virtuosity.