During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, a huge jade weighing more than 6 tons was found in Mileta Mountain in Hotan, Xinjiang. This big jade is green in color, smooth and moist, soft as fat, and it is a wonderful stone from heaven.
The news soon spread to Beijing, and Emperor Qianlong was overjoyed when he heard about it. He decided to carve this rare treasure into a rare treasure.
Qianlong loves calligraphy and painting. He couldn't put it down even more, but because of the age, the painting had been damaged and faded, and Qianlong, who was over 6 years old, had the idea of comparing himself to Dayu, so he decided to carve this extra-large jade into a map of Dayu's water control, on the one hand, to celebrate Dayu's great achievements in water control, on the other hand, to show that he had made outstanding achievements in imitating his predecessor, in order to make a name for himself through the ages.
the yushan project of "Dayu harnessing water" is huge and time-consuming and labor-consuming. The jade samples were transported from Xinjiang to Beijing for more than three years. In the palace, four patterns were drawn according to the front, back, left and right positions of Yushan, and then they were made into wax samples, which were sent to Qianlong for reading and approval, and then sent to Yangzhou. For fear of the hot weather in Yangzhou, the wax samples were melted for a long time, and they were carved into wood samples according to the wax samples, which were made by Su Yang craftsmen for six years.
"Dayu Water Control" Jade Mountain is 224 cm high, 96 cm wide and 6 cm high with a base weighing 535 kg. It is the largest jade carving work in the world. Jade Mountain is placed on a brown copper seat inlaid with gold wire, and is carefully carved with precious blue and white and Hetian jade. The glittering and translucent luster of the blue white jade is matched with the quaint bronze pedestal, which is even more elegant and sets each other off.
the whole jade is carved into a mountain shape, just like a mountain standing in the Yellow River. There are many kinds of themes carved on Yushan Mountain, such as peaks, streams, waterfalls and figures. The craftsman skillfully combines these themes with the original shapes of materials with realistic techniques of picking up the ground and protruding. I saw mountains and mountains with towering cliffs, covered with pines and cypresses, and among the cliffs, hordes of water control troops gathered. They either cut mountains and cut stones, or carried earth and transported stones.
Among the rock diggers, you can see the figure of Dayu, the commander of the flood control army. The works are vivid and vivid, perfectly reappearing the spectacular scene of Dayu leading the people to open mountains and draw water.
At the top of the mountain, there is also a statue of a god of gold with several ghosts in the form of thunder gods, which seems to be blasting in the mountains and is full of romanticism.
After the Jade Mountain arrived in Beijing, it took another two years of hard work to choose a place to place it, engrave and seal it, and it took a lot of trouble before it was completed. On the front, Qianlong's "Treasure of the Five Dynasties Hall in Five Blessingg" was engraved with a generous seal, and on the back, it was engraved with the "Treasure of Eight Signs". There were long imperial poems and commentaries below, which showed how proud and cherished Qianlong was of this work and regarded it as a summary of his life.
There are many large-scale ornamental "Yushan" jade articles in Qing Dynasty. Based on landscape paintings, local materials are used to design and make them. Its workmanship is rigorous and meticulous. For example, in the "Picture of a Lady in Tongyin", the author skillfully carved dense trees, rockeries and stone tables and benches by using the white and red colors of jade, which is very poetic in Jiangnan courtyards.