The West-East Jade Transmission and the Formation of Chinese Civilization

摘要：The major program of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences completed in 2012, entitled “The Research on Myths and Legends about Chinese Civilization Source”, led to such a conclusion: The imaginative myths and legends generated along with the Chinese civilization has a profound prehistoric root, far beyond the limit of the Chinese character generation period. The main path of Chinese myths and legends lies in the jade mythology and resulting jade belief. When viewing the origin of jade from a perspective of mythology, we find each major jade (e.g., jade ring, jade arc) form is covertly driven by a mythological concept. The investigation of the era and regional distribution of unearthed jade wares may outline the spreading path map of the jade mythology and belief.