Jadeite Cabbage
Qing dynasty, nineteenth century
A head of Chinese cabbage, less than nineteen centimetres tall, sits in a glass case with a crowd around it. The leaves open from a creamy white base and turn a deep translucent green towards the tips, and on the topmost leaves two insects rest, a locust and a katydid, so finely carved that their legs and antennae are thinner than a hair. It is the most famous object in Taiwan, the piece that every schoolchild knows and every visitor comes to see first.
The carver was given a single pebble of jadeite that was half white and half green, with cracks and cloudy patches that most craftsmen would have thrown away. Instead he turned every flaw into part of the design. The white stone became the stalk, the green became the leaves, a streak of paler colour became the crinkled edge of a leaf, and the insects sit exactly where the deepest green lay. Move around the case and look through the leaves against the light: the jade glows. Notice also the tiny veins on the leaves and the way the cabbage is not symmetrical, one leaf curling away as if it had just been picked.
The cabbage was found in the Yonghe Palace in the Forbidden City, the residence of the Guangxu Emperor's consort Jin, and was probably part of her dowry. Cabbage in Chinese sounds like the word for purity, so it was a wish that the bride be chaste, while the insects, which lay many eggs, stood for many children. Made in a Qing court workshop, it came to Taiwan with the rest of the collection in nineteen forty nine. In twenty fourteen it travelled to Tokyo, drawing queues of hours, and it now sometimes visits the museum's Southern Branch. When it is here, it is the last thing many visitors photograph and the first thing they remember.
Did You Know? One of the katydid's antennae is broken and has been missing for a long time, and the museum has decided not to restore it.
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