Jade Objects of Prehistoric Age in China: Their Major Distributional Regions and Characters and Jade Culture

Based on the finding results of the archaeological investigation in the past 80 years in China and taking as the tangible evidence 200 000 ancient jade objects excavated from the cultural relics which were distributed throughout the landscape of China in the New Stone Age, this paper describes the jade objects of prehistoric age from such aspects as the major distributional regions, characters, cultural zoning, cultural features, forms of expression and status in the ancient civilization, and presents a rational demonstration of their historic contribution.