From its cover, this book sounds like a history of jade. But it's actually a history of jadeite, not jade. But even that's not accurate as while jadeite runs through this book, it's actually a history of China and surrounding areas, mostly from the 1700s to the present. It's a unique angle on a fascinating history and I'd highly recommend it. Just don't assume it's a book that will only be of interest to gemologists! ( )

One of the disadvantages of buying most of your books from Amazon is that you’re never quite sure what you will get - especially since reviews at Amazon are suspect. The complementary advantage is sometimes you get books that are still interesting despite not being what you expected. So it is with The Stone of Heaven. I was expecting, I think, James Michener meets high pressure metamorphic mineralogy, with lots of juicy little tidbits about hydrothermal alteration interspersed with anecdotes about famous jade lumps painstakingly carved by Chinese artisans into stunningly accurate representations of green peppers, green apples, green crickets, and The Incredible Hulk.

Instead, the authors, a pair of British journalists, have written a political, sociological and psychological history of jade. It’s not clear if they even know the difference between jadeite and nephrite or the petrology and geological provenance of jadeite deposits; but they do know and transmit quite a bit of knowledge about East Asia in the last two centuries. It was refreshing to find that journalists in the UK, unlike their American counterparts, understand that research is more than just interviewing.

Chinese emperors wanted jade. Unfortunately the only place they knew where they could get it was a part of Burma where “godforsaken hell hole” is a serious understatement. (Aside to alternate history buffs - how would history be different if the botroidal jade deposits of Wyoming were known to Emperor Qianlong?). At any rate, Chinese efforts to conquer the Karen and Shan tribes of Burma came to nothing as armies disappeared into the jungle and never came back.

Eventually the Western powers got into the act. Flimsy excuses were found to conquer Burma, and although China wasn’t conquered (probably because nobody could agree on how to divide it up) a joint French/English expeditionary force, justifiable incensed over Chinese refusal to cooperate in addicting their entire population to opium, marched on and sacked the Summer Palace. (I’ve always been proud of my country because we were not involved in the sordid Opium Wars, since we were too busy exploiting our slave population at the time).

The orgiastic looting of the Summer Palace, where shiploads of artifacts were sent back to London and Paris, only acted to develop an appetite for jade in the West as well as the East. At this point the tone of the book changes, and the authors begin chronicling various figures from both China and the West who conspicuously consumed jade jewelry. This include Chiang Kai-shek, who demolished and looted the Imperial tombs to finance various warlord enterprises; his third wife, who was not at all adverse to the odd jade bangle; the last emperor, Pu-Yi, who at least had the excuse of needing to flee Peking in a hurry for selling off the last Imperial pieces; Madame Wellington Koo, heiress and wife to a Chinese diplomat, who eventually died in poverty in New York, and Barbara Hutton, who went through a series of husbands and jewels before dying addicted to Coke (that’s right, the carbonated kind). This part of the book reads a lot like tabloid journalism - unpleasant but titillating little details abound. No one comes off well at all.


Finally, the last part describes, in a way that could be a little more self-effacing, the authors describe their own adventures in trying to gain access to the jadeite mines in Myanmar, not one of the world’s most accommodating tourist destinations. In a laudable display of political neutrality they come down just as hard on the nominally socialist government of Myanmar and the actually communist government of China as they previously did on various imperialist Europeans. Apparently communist dogma about national liberation movements and downtrodden workers and peasants get swept right into the dustbin of history when there’s money involved, since the PRC cheerfully supplied military assistance to the government of Myanmar so they could crush various ethnic groups in the northern part of the country and take over the jadeite mines - in which the PRC now has a major interest. In the last chapter, the authors somehow manage to get into the mines of Hpakant - maybe because they could pronounce it - and document AIDS-stricken workers staggering around with baskets of overburden and spending their pittance wages on drugs and brothels.

There’s a lot of stuff here that’s just a little dubious; the authors are telling a story about sleazy history and they’re not at all averse to throwing in sleaze of their own just to make sure reader interest doesn’t fall off. I really want to get the same history from other sources before I’m convinced. Which means, of course, that I have to read some more books. Darn. ( )

A history book on the story of imperial jade. I love jade so I was interested in the background. Interesting reading - a different way to get a history lesson on China. I hope I can find some good jade while we are in China to bring home - although I know it wont be the imperial jade as it is way out of reach price wise ( )

Tells Asian history via the theme "jade" ( )

A well researched book on the history imperial jade which parallels the history of the past few centuries of Chinese history. Such promising material but such ploddish writing. A chore to read. ( )