Xinjiang — Hetian White Jade Cicada Pendant, First Cry

The cicada spends years underground before it emerges. The jade it is carved from took longer.

Hetian white jade — hetian baiyu — is the material against which all other jade in China is measured. It comes from the Yurungkash and Karakash rivers in the Xinjiang region, where nephrite pebbles are carried down from the Kunlun Mountains and deposited in the riverbeds. The finest material — called yangzhi bai, mutton-fat white — has a colour and texture that the Chinese have compared to rendered fat for over three thousand years: not pure white, but a warm, slightly translucent white with a surface that appears almost soft. The stone is warm to the touch in a way that other stones are not.

The cicada form in Chinese jade carving has a specific history. During the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), jade cicadas were placed in the mouths of the deceased — a practice called han chan, mouth jade — to ensure rebirth. The cicada's life cycle — years underground, sudden emergence, brief brilliant existence — made it the natural symbol for resurrection. The phrase yi ming jing ren, "one cry that startles everyone," comes from the Warring States period: a king asks why his bird has not sung in three years. The answer: when it sings, it will shake the world. The cicada is the bird that has not yet sung.

This pendant is carved from Hetian white jade — the colour sitting in the warm white range, the surface showing the characteristic texture of quality nephrite. The cicada's wings are rendered in low relief, the body in the round. The cord hole is drilled at the head.

Origin: Yurungkash River, Xinjiang, China
Material: Natural Hetian white jade nephrite, river pebble
Type: Pendant

One piece only. What you see is what ships.