Containing a profusion of illustrations from the V&A's worldclass collection, Chinese Jades examines jades from the neolithic era to the 19th century, providing a comprehensive history of their development with new photography of exceptional pieces which have not been seen before. Ming Wilson's uniquely accessible approach to this popular subject draws on the latest archaeological research as well as ancient Chinese sources to provide invaluable background for the collector and student alike. Confucius (551-479 BC) praised jade as 'the embodiment of virtue'. Excavations in China since the 1970s have shed much light on the use and production of jade in neolithic and early dynastic periods. Excavated jade artifacts dating from the seventh to seventeenth centuries are rare, so it is particularly valuable that a number of specimens have been unearthed from tombs and pagoda foundations during the past two decades, thus allowing heir loom jades to be compared with these excavated examples and correctly dated. This book is a timely reassessment of what is known about Chinese jade, which has been a central element of Chinese material culture for an uninterrupted span of seven thousand years, and will appeal to collectors and newcomers to the subject alike.