As an increasing number of Western customers find their jade from overseas sources through TikTok and Etsy, terminology not commonly heard inside the walls of a local jewelry store continues to gain traction in internet forums.
Today, we’ll be discussing the term “Hetian jade,” a designation that is used by Chinese sellers and internet sellers, but almost never by American jewelry stores. Before we get too deep into this article, it should be known that Mason-Kay also does not use the term “Hetian jade” to refer to nephrite jade, and here we will explain why.
What is Hetian Jade?
To put it simply, when most sellers say they have “Hetian jade” they actually just mean that the item mentioned is nephrite jade. (Note: Mason-Kay does carry nephrite jade, but we don’t call it Hetian jade.)
There are two gemstones gemologically considered jade in the USA: Nephrite jade and jadeite jade (also called fei cui). Nephrite is not a mineral, but rather the gemstone name for micro-to-massive-microcrystalline actinolite-tremolite, an amphibole. These geology words are not important for the jade customer, but rather show that nephrite jade is defined as all other gemstones are: by its chemical composition and crystal structure. It’s not nephrite because of its color or because of where it comes from, it is nephrite because of its chemistry.
The obvious implication of calling a stone Hetian jade is that it must be jade from a specific locale, presumably Hetian (usually called Hotan/Khotan) Prefecture in Xinjiang, China.
But even though Hetian Jade sounds like it’s referring to origin, it truly isn’t. In China, the term “Hetian Jade” is used to refer to any nephrite jade, regardless of origin.
It should be stated that Chinese sellers touting nephrite jade as “Hetian jade” are not necessarily lying about origin, because “Hetian jade” is just their term for what we call nephrite jade.
So why refer to all nephrite as Hetian if it’s not from there?
Well, the term Hetian jade used to refer to only nephrite jade (in this case, tremolite jade specifically) from the Hetian/Khotan region and Kunlun Mountains. But over time, this has changed. Stay with me here…
First, let’s talk about the word “jade.”
We’re getting into some of the complexities of language here. In China, sellers only use the term “jade” when they’re talking to English-speaking customers. In their own language, Chinese sellers refer to nephrite jade as 和田玉 which is translated Hetian jade (nephrite jade) or 翡翠 fei cui (fei ts’ui) also called jadeite jade or pyroxene jade.
If you’ve researched jade terminology very much, you might already know that the Chinese character for jade is 玉 (yu.) However, 玉 can refer to jadeite jade, nephrite jade, jasper, chalcedony, quartzite, and a number of other non-jade gemstones. It’s best to view the term 玉 (yu) as meaning “beautiful stone,” or some may say “carving stone.”
Because of this, the character 玉 is often used at the end of other gemstone names, for instance:
东陵玉 = Aventurine Quartz
岫玉 = Serpentine
You could say that there is a bit of a disconnect between how Chinese speakers and English speakers refer to jade.
My point is: The Chinese don’t really say “nephrite jade.” It’s really an English term based on gemology/mineralogy. The Chinese term 玉 that gets translated to Hetian jade is based on culture and history.
If you want to better understand the disconnect between China’s cultural view of jade and how Western gemologists try (and often fail) to adapt that to their mineralogical categorization, check out these videos from Jewels of the Trade on the Cat’s Eye Nephrite Debate and the Fei Cui Dilemma:
Back to the history of the term “Hetian jade.”
During the Qing dynasty, Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799) took a strong interest in jade, even appointing a minister of Hetian to organize mining so he would have access to more nephrite jade production. Starting around this time, the nephrite jade coming from Hetian was specifically called Hetian jade. But over time, all nephrite jade found between the Kunlun mountains and the Altun mountains came to be called Hetian jade. This loosened the strict implication of the term Hetian, and muddied the waters for distinguishing Hetian jade from other nephrites - because remember, China didn’t refer to jade by its mineralogy as we do today, especially in the 1700’s and 1800’s.
In 2010, the Chinese government declared that any nephrite jade can be called Hetian jade, regardless of its origin. So in China, nephrite from Xinjiang, Qinghai, Russia, South Korea, and other sources are all considered Hetian jade.
Many Chinese sellers will call their jade Hetian without knowing the origin, and some may even assume that all white nephrite jade comes from Hetian.
What does this mean for customers?
Honestly, it depends on what you’re looking for. If you specifically want white nephrite jade from Xinjiang (which is usually what people usually want when they’re looking for Hetian-origin jade), you might find sourcing quite difficult.
Alluvial mining in the Yurungkash River (White Jade River in Xinjiang, China) produces an insignificant yield each year, with many of those stones promised to the highest paying buyers in China so that they will never see the American market. Commercial mining continues in some areas in the Kunlun Mountains, which supplies the Chinese market but very little makes its way to the United States.
Better resources than this blog for understanding Chinese jades include:
Lotus Gemology’s book Jade A Gemologists Guide,
article Hetian Jade by Zhou Zhengyu,
article Texture Differences Between Russian, Korean and Chinese White Nephrite,
article Origin Determination of Dolomite-Related White Nephrite through IB-LDA by Dr. Zemin Luo, Mingxing Yang, Andy H. Shen.
article Identification of a source of nephrite from late Shang Yinxu by multispectral imaging,
JOTT videos collaborating with Andrew Shaw,
the Friends of Jade 2.0 Facebook group,
and the JOTT Discord.
Let it be known - white nephrite jade is available from other origins, not just Hetian.
Of Chinese origins, nephrite jade is known to come from provinces Xinjiang, Qinghai, Henan, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Jiangsu, Fujian, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Guangxi.
Outside of China, nephrite jade comes from South Korea, Russia, Taiwan, and many more locales.
Most white nephrite jade on the Chinese market is from the Kunlun and Altun mountains (this would include Xinjiang and Qinghai jades), South Korea, and Russia.
This is honestly a pretty deep rabbit hole to go down, and is easy to misunderstand because of translation between languages. Also, most Westerners don’t have a strong grip on Chinese geography - which also makes it difficult to understand jade origin.
Why Doesn’t Mason-Kay Say “Hetian Jade?"
We understand that Hetian jade is an accepted trade term for nephrite jade. However, we don’t use it because the term clearly implies origin - and we wouldn’t want someone to buy a Siberian, Korean, or Qinghai jade thinking that it’s fine-quality Hetian jade from the White Jade River in Xinjiang (which is what many customers do think when they buy Hetian jade…)
In the interest of full disclosure and transparency with our customers, we refer to actinolite/tremolite jade as nephrite jade - and only add qualifiers for origin if they can be verified. If we can’t be sure of origin, we won’t list origin in the product listing. Because we serve the American jade market, we price our nephrite jade products based on quality - not origin.
