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The Stone of Heaven: Unearthing the Secret History of Imperial Green Jade, by Cathy Scott-Clark, Adrian Levy
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Taking us from the imperial courts of ancient China to a squalid mine in Burma today, THE STONE OF HEAVEN-now in paperback-reveals for the first time the bizarre true story of Imperial Green Jade, one of the rarest stones in the world, more precious than diamonds, coveted for its life-extending powers and its aphrodisiac properties as well as for its astonishing beauty-a stone that has shaped the destiny of nations and changed the lives of all who have worn it.
- Sales Rank: #449904 in Books
- Published on: 2002-01-07
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.50" h x 1.50" w x 6.25" l, 3.00 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 432 pages
From Publishers Weekly
In an ambitious effort that is equal parts history, sensationalized gossip and political expos‚, London Sunday Times investigative reporters Levy and Scott-Clark trace the winding path of the so-called "Stone of Heaven." The story begins in 1735, when jade-obsessed Chinese emperor Qianlong endeavors to extend China's reach into present-day Burma, reputed to contain the world's finest jade. Over time the infatuation with jade also infects French and British colonials, adventurers, Chinese gangsters, Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong, all of whom energetically loot the Imperial Court's treasures. Descriptions and provenances of legendary jade pieces (some of which are lost for centuries at a time) are given at length. Among the history's cast of characters is bad-girl Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton, who receives a tabloid treatment of her jade collection, marriages, sexual misadventures and profligate spending. But the history, the gossip, even the sensational stories of the depredations of the indigenous tribes who fiercely protected their secret jade mines, pale in comparison to the authors' visit to Burma. Risking their lives, Levy and Scott-Clark pose as gemologists and, with guile, courage and bribery, reach Hpakant, home to the mines. There they find hundreds of thousands of destitute people virtually enslaved amid prostitution, government-sponsored heroin addiction, and "jade disease, or AIDS." The story of the quest for jade ends abruptly in a kind of hell, rendered as astutely as the excesses in this intriguing history. 40 b&w photos. This book's various elements rest uneasily together; no doubt, most readers will be lured by the romance of jade, but in fact the book's strongest point is its horrifying conclusion.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
This mesmerizing chronicle interweaves legend, mythology, and history with a shocking contemporary expose of the Burmese jadeite mines. Before visiting the deplorable mining pits in Myanmar (formerly Burma), the authors embarked on a circuitous research odyssey, retracing the colorful history of the valuable gemstone. Unearthing letters, diaries, and maps and interviewing countless numbers of jewelers and collectors, they pieced together the fascinating tale of a stone so beautiful and exotic that it was said to cast a spell on emperors and commoners alike. Curious as to the current state of the jade industry, they posed as representatives of an Australian mining company to gain permission to visit the so-called Valley of Death, the legendary hills of jadeite in northern Myanmar. Once there, they were shocked to find all the rumors true: the jade mines were a cesspool of abuse, disease, promiscuity, and drug addiction, promoted and sanctioned by the military, the mining companies, and the government. An engrossing combination of narrative history and undercover journalism. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"...fascinating and meticulous detail..." -- Roanoke Times, 8/18/02
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Far Beyond Imperial Jade
By Gloria T August
I have given this book away twice because of my own recommendation of it. It is a very important book not just for the story it tells on Imperial Jade but because of it introduces us to the Empress Dowager as we have not experienced her before. One of the most important parts in this story is the visit of the English women (amongst others) to the Empress Dowager. Here we experience the very human side of the Empress Dowager and the hilarious juxtaposition of the English women in accessing this extraordinary woman and how it was that the Empress Dowager saw them. I believe that through books like this and others that we are beginning to see China and the depths of her ordinary and extraordinary people as a wealth shared by no other civilization. This may be a book on imperial jade but it is far, far more and far deeper than that which means this book is a classic.
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful.
An excellent and thorough read
By Richard Harrold
Levy and Scott-Clark are excellent story tellers, and do they ever have a story to tell. Tracing the history of imperial green jade, or jadeite, they begin in the late 18th century with Chinese emperor Qianlong and 400 rivetting pages later end in present day Myanmar. Along the way the reader is exposed to the unrestrained profligacy of the Chinese emperors and the equally unrestrained ignorance and arrogance of the British colonialists. There is scheming and plots within plots as players in the Chinese dynasties kill their own progeny to ensure a malleable emperor will succeed. The plundering by the British of the old Imperial summer palace is shocking, and the primitive warfare of the Kachin in Burma is horrifying. Levy and Scott-Clark's descriptions put the reader right into the midst of the action: the writing is so effective that you can feel the clinging humidity of the Burmese jungle as 19th century British explorers plod along in search for the mines from whence the jadeite is extracted.
Also of tremendous interest were the passages about the Dowager Empress Cixi. If all you know about the last emperor Pu Yi is from the wonderful movie "The Last Emperor," this book will help round out some of the events and issues driving the Pu Yi story along that were alluded to in the movie. Besides, the movie's only allusion to Cixi is in the very beginning when the toddler Pu Yi is brought to the Forbidden City. Levy and Scott-Clark reveal to the reader from where Cixi came and how her desire for the jadeite was often at the core of her political machinations.
And then there are the final chapters that reveal a scenario so horrifying, so shocking that even the surrealistic visions of Francis Ford Coppola in "Apocolypse Now" cannot compare.
This is definitely the best book I've read so far this year, and probably the best book I've read in the past five years. After reading this book you will not be able to look at another piece of jadeite, no matter how beautiful, and not whince because now you know the stone's infamous history.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Jade: builder, and destroyer, of empires
By VampireCowboy
This was a strange book that was oddly compelling. It was really like two books in one: 70% history devoted to the superstitions surrounding jade, its history -- in terms of mining -- and the way the pursuit of the precious stone shaped countries, careers, and legends. The other 30% was more like a first person mystery and a journalistic effort to expose current conditions in jade producing mines.
It seems an odd balance. I wish the authors had devoted more to the 70% and less to the 30%, which could have been a book in its own right.
Still, it was packed with the kind of illuminating bits information I find so intriguing and makes for a reading experience much like mining - pursuing seams for hidden treasures. It was also overflowing with decadent imperial courts thrown into disarray by modernity (it would seem), war looters, and dealers in antiquities which raised many questions about the current repatriation of plundered and even "legally" purchased archaeological and national works of art.
What I like best about works of history is learning nuggets of information and making connections for myself. The Stone of Heaven facilitated that.
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