Jade: the story of a spendthrift

Perhaps, many of you are not familiar or have no idea of Jade. Jade is an ornamental stone. It usually consists of two types:

• Nephrite consists of a microcrystaline interlocking fibrous matrix of the calcium, magnesium-iron rich amphibole mineral series tremolite(calcium-magnesium)-ferroactinolite (calcium-magnesium-iron). The middle member of this series with an intermediate composition is calledactinolite (the silky fibrous mineral form is one form of asbestos). The higher the iron content the greener the colour.
• Jadeite is a sodium- and aluminium-rich pyroxene. The gem form of the mineral is a microcrystaline interlocking crystal matrix.

Both kinds of Jade are highly valued by Chinese. One small Jade stone with perfect carving can be sold more than hundreds of thousands. The appreciation of Chinese towards Jade has been a long story which can be traced back thousand years ago. There is even one saying that "The righteous person should wear the jewelry of Jade ". 

Ok! I think it is enough for the summary of the jade.( Actually it is not even a summary, there is far more things to talk about.) Today, i wanna to introduce one person, he is the Burma people, but descendant of Chinese. He was once a very rich person, owning 18 Jade mines, but he is also a spendthrift, spending all family fortune in one year. He is Hu Yanrong, 胡焱荣. 

Hu's family has run the Jade mines in Burma for four generations. The hard work and intelligence of the family has brought them fortune. In 1965, Hu was born in the Chinese family in Burma. In 1995, Hu went to Taiwan to study Chinese. When he saw the "cabbage Jade" in the Palace Museum. He was astonished and enchanted by the delicacy of such masterwork and beauty of the Jade. He then determined to become the master of Jade-carving. He used 20 years to collect many jade stones which are nearly perfection. He didn't sell them, but used for his own practices of  carving. In other family members' viewpoint, he was quite a spendthrift. 

Because of the high hardness and vulnerability of jade stones, it is super difficult to carve. One masterwork needs one to three years to complete the carving. The Palace Museum has two such masterwork of Jade carving, they are valued more than 1 billion RMB. 

Ok, now let's see some of the Jade stone.