Yupei () is a generic term for jade pendants. Yupei were popular even before Confucius was born. Jade culture is an important component of Chinese culture, reflecting both the material and spiritual culture. Jade is deeply ingrained in Chinese culture and played a role in every aspect of social life; it is also associated with positive qualities and aspects such as purity, excellence, and harmony.Jade is even more valued than gold in Chinese culture. The history of the art of jade carving in China to make ornaments, including dress ornaments, extends back to before 5000 BC. Ancient Chinese held even greater importance to yupei after it was regarded as a moral integrity by Confucius. Yupei could be used as belt or waist ornaments (such as jinbu 禁步) and as necklaces which appeared as early as the Liangzhu culture. Strings of jade pendant are also used to decorate headwear, such as the mianguan.
Terminology
Yupei () is composed of the Chinese character yu () which literally means 'jade' and pei () which means 'pendant'.
While the term 'jade' typically refer to nephrite and jadeite in scholarly literature, the character yu () in China can also be applied to other forms of precious stones and materials, such as agate, serpentine, soapstone, marble, tremolite, and hornblende The True jade () in China is actually the nephrite, which have been used and prized for millennia in China. It is only since the 18th century that jadeite (from Burma) was discovered by Chinese carvers and started to be used in China. Jadeite became popular in jewellery making due to its bright green colour.
Design and construction
Yupei could be stringed together to make an ensemble of jade pendants (which would hold at the belt and could also be composed of chains of bi (璧; jade discs or jade rings). Jade in the form of huang were also popular in the making of yupei and had a rigid and specific rules attached to its use. Some jade pendants also combined jades in the shape of dragons, phoenixes, anthropomorphic figures, human-dragons, and animals (birds, badgers), and/or could be carved in the shapes of diverse objects (such as gourds) or with Chinese characters (e.g. double happiness). Jades in the form of bi and cong (jade tubes) appeared as early as the Liangzhu Neolithic culture (c. 3000 BC) in Zhenjiang and Jiangsu provinces.
Jinbu (禁步)
Ensemble of jade pendants and/or jade strings which were combined with other precious materials (such as silver or gold accessories) were called jinbu; jinbu were a type of (waist accessories) which were typically worn by women to press down their clothing. Jinbu appeared thousands of years ago and were initially only worn by nobles, but with time, it was gradually adopted by all women regardless of their social ranks. The jinbu also used to be an indicator of elegance and etiquette in ancient times: if the behavior of its wearer is discourteous (i.e. walking too fast), the jinbu would sound loud and thus, the jinbu would remind the wearer to mind his manners and elegance; on the other hand, if its wearer behave appropriately, the jinbu would sound melodic and pleasant. This is also explained in the chapter《玉藻 Yu Zao》in the Liji:
History
Ancient
In the pre-Qin period, unearthed jade pendants were found to be carved in human and anthropomorphic figures and/or combination of human and animals design (e.g. human faces, eagle sizing the head of a man), dragons (e.g. pierced-dragon shape), phoenix (e.g. pierced-phoenix shape), animals (such as birds) and carved in shape of bi, and semi-disc shape (half-bi) jade pendants. Huang and half-bi were sometimes used as component of an ensemble of jade pendant. Jade pendants could also be found in strings of jade ornaments (e.g. in the forms of small jade tubes, called cong). Strings of jade could also be combined with other forms of jade pendants. Jade pendants worn as necklace appeared as early as the Liangzhu culture.
Zhou dynasty
In the Western Zhou, people started to associate moral connotations to the use of jade, such as morality. This eventually led to the formation of Chinese jade belief system of how "a gentleman compares virtues to a gem", a concept which was later fully elaborated by Confucius, who would then compare the qualities of a jade to the 5 virtues (kindness, wisdom, integrity, courage, and purity) of a gentleman (junzi) in the Book of Rites (Liji).