How to identify a jade fish in the Song Dynasty?

In the Song Dynasty, the jade fish was formed, and the bionic varieties were carp, shark, mandarin fish, grass carp and so on. From the observation of the shape of the jade fish in the Song Dynasty, the shark can be ruled out first. Sharks grow in the sea, and the lotus fish often coexist with the lotus, and the leaves of the lotus lotus flowers often grow in lakes and ponds.

The Song people carved the jade fish, rewrote the realism, and sought the artistic conception, which was an important manifestation of the secularization of jade in the Song Dynasty. If it is a shark, it is the result of the combination of the products of two different environments, which belongs to the creation of time and space beyond history, and it is obvious that the image of the fish in Fish Hoppe as a shark is inaccurate.

From the existing Song Dynasty jade fish shape system, the Song Dynasty jade workers on the jade stone to see the most types of jade fish is the mandarin fish, in the folk is called Guiyu. This fish has a flattened side, a large mouth, a prominent lower jaw, a raised back, well-developed hard spines, and small and round scales. Ferocious, tender meat, fast growth, strong adaptability, produced in major rivers and lakes in China, is one of the precious freshwater edible fish.

In the early years of the Song Dynasty, due to the influence of the northern Khitan and later the Liao State, the jade trade in the frontier was not normal, resulting in the jade material used not being guaranteed. According to the literature, the size of the jade ritual ware made by the Northern Song Dynasty court often has a certain gap with the real thing. Judging from the existing jade fish in the Song Dynasty, the jade workers are more particular about the selection of materials when making jade fish.

The jade fish is mostly carved in pieces, the material is not too large, relatively speaking, most of the materials of the jade fish are high-quality Khotanese jade, especially the appearance of vivid shape, full of life breath and realistic techniques of C-shaped mouth lotus, grass flower fish, basically all choose white and pure white jade or green and white jade milling. Even if there is some green jade texture or black jade, its structure is often more meticulous, rarely cracked, and full of oiliness, after polishing, it shows a warm and shiny effect, which is easy to be appreciated and loved by the wearer. Moreover, the shape of the piece carved jade fish has a trend of developing towards the round carved fish, and the edge is polished in an arc, which is different from the piece carving of the Shang and Zhou jade fish.

At that time, there were also real round carved fish, indicating that the development of jade operations in the Song Dynasty was moving towards the three-dimensional visual effect of round carving, which was synchronized with other types of jade carving shapes.

Since the Shang and Zhou dynasties, jade as fish has only appeared sporadically, and has not formed a popular trend. In the Northern Song Dynasty, due to the development of the urban economy and the expansion of the citizen class, the mystical religious and ceremonial color of jade was weakened, and the style began to develop with a strong secularization tendency and a strong life atmosphere, and a large number of jade objects related to fish themes appeared. This period can be described as the second peak stage in the history of the development of ancient jade fish.

In the Song Dynasty, jade fish were found more, and the form was more abundant, according to the difference in shape, it can be roughly divided into four categories, which are classified below

Type 1: Elongated body, resembling a shark. The fish cocks its head and tail and jumps.

This kind of jade fish is usually compounded with other things, and it is rare to have a single form, and most of the compounded ones are lotus, and the edge of the lotus leaf is rolled inward. Most of the fisheyes are small round pits made of solid drills, and there are also thin yin line rings formed by thin pipe drill sleeves. The head of the fish is rounded, the mouth is slightly open, and the gills are depicted in a wide arc with an oblique knife.

The body of the fish is light and scaleless. embossed pelvic fins, protruding from the body, swimming; dorsal fin erect; The tail is slightly bifurcated and oscillates in a curved shape; The surface is neatly engraved with yin lines. However, the edges of the edges, such as fins, tails, lotus flowers, lotus leaves, etc., are mostly carved into a zigzag shape.

The second category: short round body. Most of these types appear as monomers, with a fat and round shape, small and cute.

The eyes are generally round with multiple inscribed lines. In addition to the scaleless fish, there are still carved scales in this period, all of which are made into a grid formed by the intersection of the carved parallel lines. There are occasional square holes between the back and abdomen.

This kind of fish is very close to Liao and Jinyuyu.

The third category: wide flat body, which may be mimicked from mandarin fish. The body of the fish is flat and wide, in a static creeping shape, and the movement is poor.

Large round eyes, fish mouth carved by subtraction method, large mouth slightly open, thick lips. The dorsal fin is well-developed and erect, the tail is wide, and the surface is thick and the yin line indicates the fin bone. This type was popular in the Southern Song Dynasty, and the overall shape is close to that of the Yuan Dynasty jade fish.

The fourth category: antique jade fish.