From Baoshi to Fei Cui — Qing-Burmese Gem Trade, c. 1644–1800

The Transition of the Gem Trade (c. 1644–1719)

The earliest account of the Qing-Burmese gem trade was written by Liu Kun in 1680.

Merchants collect the stones and return to the frontier passes. Those rubble-shaped ones are called “rough stones” [huang shi 荒石]. The workmen in Tengyue grind them with shellac [zigeng 紫梗] and smooth them with small stones [baosha 寶砂], and then they start to shine [baoguang 寶光].⁷ The red-[colored] ones are the best, such as “rose-water” [meigui shui 玫瑰水], “pigeon-blood” [gezi xie 鴿子血], and “garnet color” [shiliu hong 石榴紅]. All these are good ones, whereas those called “old red” [lao hong 老紅] are valueless. The blue ones are called yaqut [yaqing 鴿青], the white ones cat’s-eye [maoeryan 貓兒眼], the green ones zumurrud [zumulü 祖母 綠].⁸ But only the extremely shiny ones are excellent pieces. Those as big as peas are called “hat top” [maoding 帽頂], those as big as soybeans and mung beans are called “precious stones” [baoshi 寳石], while the smallest ones are called “ghost eyelash” [gui jieyan 鬼睫眼].⁹

This account reveals precious information on the classification of gems and the gem trade in the late seventeenth century. Far more effectively than the descriptions of Song Yingxing (1587–1666) and Gu Yingtai (1620–90), Liu Kun contributes to the terminology of gemstones in general and of Burmese rubies and sapphires in particular.¹⁰ For example, he uses, for the first time, gezi xie and gui jieyan to describe gemstones, and applies meigui (hong) and shiliu (shui) to Burmese rubies and sapphires, illustrating that Chinese knowledge of these gems had deepened. Indeed, either the Chinese or, more possibly, the Arabs invented the term “pigeon’s blood” and the Burmese borrowed this term (kuiswe) to refer to the best kind of ruby.¹¹

During the early Qing, the gems from Burma desired by the Chinese were still dominantly baoshi (as during the Ming times), not jade (yu). This is seen from the fact that Liu Kun writes with elaborate detail on baoshi, despite the fact that his zumulü may refer to jade. Three other accounts written in or concerning Yunnan between 1687 and 1694 reinforce the view that the Chinese were still primarily fascinated with baoshi, not jade. All of them mention Burmese baoshi, and two have relatively detailed descriptions, while only one mentions jade (biyu 碧玉).¹²

The Chinese probably could not purchase the best baoshi, including rubies and sapphires, as the Burmese king had monopolized the mines since the late sixteenth century.¹³ Many Chinese sources of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including the one by Liu Kun, attest to this.¹⁴ For example, Liu Wenzheng stated in 1625, “Now it is up to the barbarians (the Burman and the Shan) to provide [baoshi], whereas in the past [the Chinese] could choose at will and set the price. Thus the prices are getting increasingly high, while the good ones are harder to obtain.”¹⁵

Xu Jiong, who was sent to Yunnan as an inspector, wrote around 1688 on Burmese baoshi. He first quotes Liu Wenzheng’s observation above, then provides his own comments.

Also, in the barbarian land there is much poison, and on the way the bandits are rampant. [Baoshi traders] who take shortcuts to avoid custom duties suffer heavily [from these dangers]. I hear that in recent years the barbarians guard baoshi even tighter; those who take [baoshi] out of [Burma] will be immediately executed. There are big baoshi, [but they have to be] broken into smaller pieces and then smuggled out [to China]. Even the small ones are not cheap! At present these [gem] stones in the capital (Beijing) are from Yunnan, but in Yunnan they are not as good as those in the capital (Beijing). This is because [in Yunnan] females do not use them as decorations, and the Luoluo [Yi people] favor black color. Thus beautiful stones mostly reach the capital while it is difficult to obtain locally [within Yunnan].¹⁶

The last sentences of this passage suggest huge demand for Burmese gems in the capital Beijing, while the demand in Yunnan was small.

Unlike Burmese jade which was solely exported to China up to the twentieth century, rubies, sapphires, and other gemstones were in demand among Chinese and Burmese, as well as among Indians and Europeans. By the end of the sixteenth century, the Chinese were the largest buyers, but after the Burmese court took control of the mines the quantities and quality of baoshi exported to China must have dwindled.

The Debut of Fei Cui (c. 1719–1763)

Up to the mid-eighteenth century, it appears, baoshi still dominated the Qing-Burmese trade. Nonetheless, Burmese jade was gaining momentum. As Burmese jade increased in popularity, soon to replace baoshi as the primary export to China, the term fei cui was introduced.

The transition from baoshi to fei cui can be observed in the writings of the historian Ni Tui, who arrived in Yunnan in 1715. In his 1719 work, Dian xiao ji, he wrote a lengthy passage entitled “Baoshi,” which not only includes important information on the historical development of baoshi in China and baoshi trade during the Ming times, but also lists various types of Burmese baoshi.

The green ones: luzi 瓐子 and zumulü; the blue ones: soft blue [ruanlan 軟 藍] and fei cui; the white ones: diamond [jin gang 金剛], and tan yangjing 賧羊精 [literally “(color of) goat semen”]; the yellow ones: cat’s eyes 貓 睛, and jiuhuang fen 酒黃粉 [literally “(color of) powder of yellow Chinese chives”]; the red ones: tourmaline or garnet [biyaxi 比牙洗]; and so on, which cannot be all enumerated.¹⁷ It is unknown whether they are from the same mine or not.¹⁸

This is a valuable account. First, Ni Tui provides new classifications of baoshi, including tan yangjing, which had never before appeared in Chinese records, while jin’gang and biyaxi are applied to Burmese baoshi for the first time. Biyaxi is a loan word from the Arabic bijādī, with its Persian form being beejād.¹⁹ The Chinese transliteration of bijādī is various, with the earliest one being bizheda 避者達 in Tao Zongyi’s 陶宗儀 Nancun Cuogeng Lu 南村輟耕錄, written in 1366.²⁰ The Tengyue prefect Tu Shulian provides the most detailed description on bixiaxi:

Besides baoshi there is bixiaxi. It has five colors, with the crimson and clear [toushui 透水] ones being the best, and purple, yellow, green, and moon white colors being inferior, while the worst ones are white and black colors. They are also produced in Mongmit [near Mogok], perhaps belonging to the baoshi type.²¹

Second and more important, Ni Tui used the term fei cui, probably for the first time, to refer to Burmese jade, albeit lumped under the rubric of baoshi. This creative use of the word fei cui was influential, as it would soon be employed to refer to Burmese jade exclusively. Looking at the Chinese terminology for Burmese jade from the mid-Ming times, one realizes that the Chinese, the Yunnanese in particular, had been trying to find a suitable term for Burmese jade for a long time (see table 1).²²

The History of Burmese Jade in China

The history of Burmese jade in China can be traced according to the evidence presented in Table 1, for which the abundant information on Burmese baoshi for the Ming period has been omitted in order to highlight the Burmese jade. Burmese jade possibly started to reach China in the late thirteenth century, but the “gem fever” of the mid-Ming gradually lent it visibility and importance. For example, prior to 1475, jade from Burma was not recorded, and the 1455 gazetteer of Yunnan mentions only that Mohnyin (Mengyang) produced amber (which had entered Yunnan centuries before). Around 1475 appeared hard written evidence showing that Burmese jade was prized and sought (and even sent to Vietnam as gifts) by a Ming eunuch. No doubt, some amount of Burmese jade had arrived in Beijing and other places in China with large quantities of baoshi. Interestingly, it was already called yu 玉, lüyu 綠玉, and zumulü 祖母綠 by the Chinese, emphasizing, correctly, the green color of the Burmese jade, as the word lü 綠 indicates. An account of 1488 even records that people from Mohnyin presented jade (yushi 玉石) to the Ming court. The 1510 gazetteer of Yunnan accordingly updated the produce of Mohnyin by adding green jade (bitian 碧瑱), referring to the Burmese jade and stressing its green color (bi 碧). The firsthand account of 1583 suggests that western Yunnan and Upper Burma (particularly Mohnyin) produced many kinds of jade: cuisheng wenshi 催生文石, baiyu 白玉, biyu 碧玉, lüyu 綠玉, heiyu 黑玉. Actually, they should have all come from Mohnyin.²³ The 1621 account states:

Foreign-produced amber, crystal, green jade (biyu), Gula (Assamese) brocade, Western Ocean cloth, and drugs such as asafoetida and opium are gathered and distributed [by Yunnan merchants], and walk to the four directions without legs.²⁴

The green jade no doubt came from Mohnyin. This suggests that jade from Upper Burma circulated in China to a certain degree, and the earliest archaeological find of jade in fact testifies to this circulation.²⁵ One hastens to add that, comparatively speaking, the amount of Burmese jade in China was still small (vis-à-vis the much larger quantities of baoshi), hence it is not surprising that archaeological finds are still very rare.

However, from around 1475 to the end of the Ming dynasty (and later), the Chinese had been searching for a better name for Burmese jade. During this relatively long period (about 170 years), about ten different names (yu 玉, lüyu 綠玉, zumulü 祖母綠, bitian 碧瑱, yushi 玉石, cuisheng wenshi 催生文石, cuisheng shi 催生石, cuisheng shi 翠生石, biyu 碧玉, heiyu 黑玉, moyu 墨玉, and even possibly baiyu 白玉 [for non-green color Burmese jade]) were used. Even Xu Xiake himself used two names (cuisheng shi 翠生石 and biyu) to refer to the same thing, showing the fluidity of the Chinese terminology for Burmese jade.

Despite these various terms, most accounts emphasize the green color or shade, indicated in words such as lü, cui, bi, and even mo and hei. The word cui 催 is apparently a mistake for cui 翠 (which means 'green,' greener than ordinary lü), as Xie Zhaozhe, using the term cuisheng shi 催生石 in 1621, explained that the gem had “green color with white spots” (secui er jianbai 色翠而間白).²⁶ Xu Xiake makes clear that people in Yunnan favored the pure cui ones (chuncui zhe 纯翠者). This demonstrates that the Yunnanese had, from the very beginning, noticed the special green color in Burmese jade and applied the word cui to it. This usage of the word cui led eventually to the term fei cui for the Burmese jade in the eighteenth century, starting from Ni Tui in 1719.

Burmese jade was not known to the Qing court until 1733, when the Yunnan governor Zhang Yunsui presented a piece of “Yongchang green jade” (Yongchang biyu 永昌碧玉) to the Qianlong emperor. The possible origins of the Burmese word for jadeite, kyok’ cim’ (literally “green stone”) are worth examining. Such a popular usage in modern Burmese actually has a relatively short history. It first appeared in the early seventeenth century, around 1637–1638, and probably did not become popular until the nineteenth century.²⁷ Prior to the seventeenth century, at least in the Burmese chronicles, mra or mra kyok’ were used for fei cui (or green-colored gems).²⁸ This Burmese usage is corroborated more by the Burmese-Chinese dictionaries compiled by the Chinese for official translation by the sixteenth century (and updated in the early eighteenth century). In these dictionaries, the Burmese word mra was transliterated as 比呀 (biya) or 麥剌 (maila) and translated as “玉 (yu),” while mra kyok’ was transliterated as 哶繳 (miejiao), 麥剌繳 (mailajiao), or 麥賴繳 (mailaijiao) and translated as “玉石 (yushi).”²⁹ In view of the long emphasis by Chinese from the late fifteenth through the early seventeenth century on the “green” (lü, cui, and bi, etc.) color or shade of the Burmese jade, and the appearance of the Burmese word kyok’ cim’ in 1637–1638, one may speculate that the coining of this Burmese new word was due to Chinese influence. This should not be surprising, as the terminology and classification of Burmese jade have been dictated by the Chinese. Moreover, up to the early eighteenth century, the term fei cui had not entered the official Chinese usage, and it still took more time to popularize it.

The Triumph of Fei Cui (c. 1763–c. 1800)

From the 1760s on, fei cui starts to appear more frequently in Chinese records. Indeed, Burmese jade, quite literally, began to show its true colors to the Chinese people.

Zhang Yong, in his work Yunnan Fengtu Ji (c. 1736), described the bustling market in Dali, western Yunnan:

Precious and exotic goods are bought and sold, such as baoshi, amber, fei cui . . . Burmese tin, Burmese brocade. . . . Entering the market, [one sees] all kinds of precious and exotic things, goods and people are as many as ten thousand everyday.³⁰

This was indeed a huge market for Burmese commodities, especially gems. Though it seems that baoshi still dominated as it is listed first, fei cui (third on the list) clearly refers to Burmese fei cui. It must be that the Yunnanese had adopted Ni Tui’s word fei cui, which had first appeared in 1719. From 1764 to 1772, in Chinese records, including Qing palace archives, Burmese fei cui is much more frequently mentioned than baoshi under the names Yunnan yu, yushi, and especially fei cui (in 1771). After that, the Yunnan official Wu Daxun wrote extensively on gems and other minerals based on his personal experiences during 1772–1782, referring inter alia to “Yunnan” (actually Burmese) jade ([Dian] yu [滇] 玉), baoshi 寶石, tourmaline (bixiasui 碧霞髓), fei cui stone ( fei cui shi 翡翠石), and cuisheng shi 催升石. This account is significant because it indicates that the previous emphasis on Burmese baoshi had now shifted to Burmese jade, which received enormous attention. Burmese jade now was divided into three categories and classes: yu, fei cui shi, and cui sheng shi. The first and the third, according to Wu Daxun, were of inferior quality and hence not worth much, while the green type of fei cui shi was worth as much as baoshi:

Regarding the quality of fei cui stone, the whiter the better; as for its cui 翠 [green], the deeper the better. There are two types of cui, qing 青 [darkish green] and lü 綠 [yellowish green], while the qing kind is even better, and its value equals to baoshi.³¹

This emphasis on the cui color is typical for Burmese jade. During the 1770s–1780s the value of fei cui soared, and the best fei cui could even compete with baoshi. Another decade or two witnessed fei cui’s overtaking China’s traditional type of jade (nephrite) in price. Moreover, Wu Daxun was the last person who employed the term cuisheng shi; after him, it completely disappeared. After two centuries in circulation—it had been coined in 1583—cuisheng shi was abandoned partially because the Yunnanese had a better term: fei cui, which was on the rise in China, both in popularity and quantity.

Indeed, during the second half of the eighteenth century, Burmese jade made a great leap forward in China, in two senses. First, the term fei cui crystallized. From its debut in 1719 up to 1799, the usage of the word fei cui became more widespread. It was mentioned in 1771, between 1772 and 1782 intermittently, and again with exactitude in 1777, 1779, 1780 (twice), 1796, and 1799, and then even more frequently in the nineteenth century. From this period on, though other names were still used for Burmese jade, fei cui became most popular, and has remained so to the modern times. Second, the volume of Burmese jade exported into China must have increased dramatically. The Tengyue Zhouzhi by Tu Shuliang reflects the situation by 1790. It first points out that because gems gathered in Tengyue, their collective street name was changed from Babao jie 八保街 to Baibao jie 百寶街 (meaning “street of 100 kinds of gems”). Then the account states,

Today the commodities purchased [from Burma] by merchants to Tengyue include, first, gems [zhubao] and, second, cotton. Gems [bao] come in their uncut form [pu 璞], while cotton is carried in bales. [These are] transported on mules and horses which crowd the roads. Currently at the provincial capital there are many jade-cutting shops [ jie yu fang 解玉坊], the noise of cutting goes on day and night. [The jade] is all from Tengyue, while the cotton bales travel to Guizhou.³²

Apparently, zhubao and bao mainly refer to Burmese jade as the word pu is used exclusively for jade, while jade-cutting shops are clearly mentioned. It is notable that this source lists jade before cotton, demonstrating the crucial role of jade in the Qing-Burmese trade during this period.

Another source also demonstrates the large-scale jade trade between Burma and China. By the 1790s the price of fei cui had surpassed the age-old conventional type of jade from Xinjiang. In 1793, the famous scholar Ji Yun 紀昀 (1724–1805) wrote:

The value of things is dependent on the fashion of their time and [hence cannot be] fixed. [I] recall when I was young, ginseng, coral, and lapis lazuli were not expensive, [but] today [they are] increasingly so; turquoise and tourmaline were extremely expensive, [but] today [their prices are] increasingly reduced; fei cui jade [ fei cui yu 翡翠玉] of Yunnan at that time was not considered as jade . . . [but] at present it is seen as precious curio [baowan 寳玩], [and its] price far exceeds the genuine jade [zhenyu 真玉] [from Xinjiang]. . . . Prices of goods are so different in fifty to sixty years, let alone in several hundred years!³³

Table 1 contains some post-1800 information in order to show the triumph of fei cui. Despite the records of baoshi, the term fei cui overwhelmingly dominates the picture. The 1887 edition of the gazetteer of Tengyue arranges all the gems under the rubric of yu, in a sharp contrast to Ni Tui’s 1719 arrangement, which includes all the gems under the baoshi category. This demonstrates that baoshi and fei cui had switched places, with the latter dominating, if not monopolizing the export trade. Statistics are lacking for the gem trade between China and Burma for the period prior to 1800, but large quantities of jade were exported to China during the nineteenth century and the early twentieth.³⁴ Jade consumption in China in these two centuries had reached a new high.³⁵ By contrast, there are no statistics on baoshi, which implies that, relative to fei cui, it was far less important.

Conclusion: The Gem Trade as a Chinese Business

The first written Chinese record of Burmese jade appeared around 1475, while the term fei cui referring to Burmese jade appeared in 1719. However, the appearance of the term fei cui is significant not only in itself, but also in that it registers a transition from an “age of baoshi” to an “age of jade” in the history of Sino-Burmese gem trade. Its emergence demonstrates that Chinese tastes in gemstones had shifted. Behind this shifting were deeper social and cultural forces at work.

Fei cui’s trajectory in China coincides with the trend of jade consumption in Qing China as described by Yang Boda. The first 115 years (1644–1759) comprised the first, or slow-growth, phase. This was a transitional period from the Ming to Qing, when style was still dominantly Ming and few jade works were made. The next fifty-two years (1760–1812) comprise the second phase, or the booming period, which witnessed the socioeconomic recovery of China. Many jade-cutting shops were opened, especially after the Qing started to control the sources of jade in Xinjiang, after the rebellions there were suppressed. Hence, in terms of raw jade supply, places of jade works, procedures of jade-cutting, the distribution of jade craftsmen, classifications of Qing jade, techniques of jade carving, as well as the size of jade works, this was a peak period in the history of jade in premodern China.³⁶

In particular, the Qianlong emperor (r. 1736–1795) was an especially ardent jade lover and connoisseur, and his personal hobby became the most important driving force behind the “jade mania” in Qing China. One modern scholar states that Qinglong “shiyu chengpi 嗜玉成癖” meaning his being obsessed with or addicted to jade, and he composed 848 poems altogether on jade (though none on Burmese fei cui).³⁷

China’s impact on Southeast Asian history is exemplified by the Sino-Burmese gem trade. One probably can say with justification that it was the Chinese who gave life and history to Burmese gem mining and exports, particularly jade. It started with the Mongol invasion of Burma in the thirteenth century, and the Mongols’ search for local gemstones. The Mongols taught the Han Chinese people to appreciate gemstones, including those from Burma, and the Chinese after the Mongols indeed followed that teaching. The huge demand in Ming times, especially from the mid-fifteenth century, created a fever for gemstones, particularly baoshi, across China and thus influenced Burmese history (the rise of the Shans in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries) in a significant way.

If Burmese baoshi benefited from a mix of Burmese, Indian, and European stimuli, then Burmese jade was a thoroughly Chinese business (hardly surprising, as the Chinese have been jade lovers since prehistoric times). Indeed, Burmese jade had nothing to do with Indians and Europeans. The Europeans had been fascinated by Burmese rubies since the fifteenth century and left with numerous accounts.³⁸ But they did not mention jade and the jade mines in Upper Burma until the early nineteenth century, when unfamiliarity led them to call it “noble serpentine.”³⁹ As late as the nineteenth century, one Chinese source commented that “[Burmese] green jade [cuiyu 翠玉] is only exported to China, whereas Westerners prize rubies.”⁴⁰

This is true to this day, as the Chinese people within China and overseas continue to dominate the jade market. Important events and consumption waves in China have substantially influenced Burma’s gem business in the past, and do so still. For instance, for the wedding of the Qing emperor Tongzhi, in 1872, four lakhs (400,000) of rupees were expended at Guangzhou in buying Burmese jade, and “a great impulse was thereby given to the jade trade in Burma.” The total cost of Guangxu’s (Tongzhi’s successor) wedding, in 1889, was 5,500,000 liang of silver, with 80 percent on purchasing dowries, clothes, gold and silver vessels, pearls, fei cui, and so on.⁴¹ Chinese consumers since the Reform Era in the twentieth century, especially in recent decades, have been driving the mining of and trade in fei cui in northern Burma. Even now, the terminology and classification of fei cui follow the Chinese convention.⁴²

Even the Burmese demand had little to do with the jade business by the eighteenth century and thereafter. The long title of the Burmese king throughout history—such as “Proprietor of all kinds of precious stones, of the mines of Rubies, Agate, Lasni, Sapphires, Opal; also the mines of Gold, Silver, Amber, Lead, Tin, Iron, and Petroleum . . .”—which in slightly various forms frequently appears in Burmese chronicles and other historical sources, never includes jade.⁴³ It was not until the late eighteenth century that the Burmese king started to realize the value of jade and thus to regulate it.⁴⁴ From around the 1820s the Burmese king added “jade” to the numerous possessions in his title ('Possessor/owner of mines of gold, silver, rubies, amber and noble serpentine [jade]'), and meanwhile also presented jade to the Chinese emperor and some European monarchs.⁴⁵

The Chinese gave life and history to Burmese gems, particularly fei cui. Thus the history of Burmese jade well illustrates how China, in its desire for luxuries, has been a driving force behind the discovery and export of exotic goods from Southeast Asia, and by extension, this region’s economic growth and state formation.⁴⁶