What is the origin of malachite name?

Malachite is a supergene mineral of copper. Because of the high copper content, it is green or dark green, which is called "stone green" in ancient times. Because of its color and unique concentric pattern, it is like a peacock's beautiful tail feather, hence the name, which is particularly precious. Malachite has such a beautiful name because its color is similar to the green spots on peacock feathers. In ancient China, malachite was called "green", "stone green" or "green". There is a sad legend about the origin of the name malachite: in ancient times, the barren hills around Yangchun Shishan were sparsely populated. A young man named Wen Ya went up the mountain to work and saw an eagle chasing a green peacock. The peacock was injured by the eagle and fell to the ground.

Wen Ya drove away the eagle, rescued the peacock, took it home for medication, and finally cured the peacock. He took the peacock to the mountains and made it fly. Peacock circled in the air for a week, shouted to Wen Ya, and then flew south. Wen Ya continues to work hard every day.

One day, it was very hot, and Wen Ya fainted from heatstroke. After a while, Wen Ya woke up and saw a beautiful girl in green giving him medicine. He was very grateful.

The girl said, "I am very grateful to you for saving my life last time." I am here to report today. "

Wen Ya knew that the girl was changed from a peacock. They talked leisurely and fell in love. Yawen is reluctant to part with the girl's departure. Zhuo Yawen met a girl by the Shijie River late at night. That night, Peacock Girl came to the river as agreed and married Wen Ya.

When the news that Peacock Girl stole dust and married Wen Ya was known by the Emperor, the Emperor ordered him to put Peacock Girl at the foot of the Rocky Mountain.

Wen Ya didn't take Peacock Girl home, and looked around, which was very painful. He dug a mountain for the rich man to mine, and heard the voice of Peacock Girl coming from the big stone. In order to save the girl, he invited miners to cut the mountain and blow up rocks. Finally, he saw the green malachite, took it back to the furnace for smelting for three days and three nights, and produced a dazzling copper block.

Wen Ya grinds the copper block into a bronze mirror, washes it with water, and then looks after it. Suddenly, he found the peacock girl smiling at him. Wen Ya put the bronze mirror on the bed, and often looked at the smiling face of Peacock girl, thinking infinitely.

Seeing that Wen Ya and Peacock Girl were deeply in love, God granted them the right to get married, and they both flew to heaven. Since then, many beautiful malachites have been buried under the Rocky Mountain. ...

Shijiahe culture is a bronze culture at the end of Neolithic age, which is about 4600 ~ 4000 years ago. Named after its first discovery in shihe town, Tianmen City, Hubei Province, it is mainly distributed in Hubei Province, southwest Henan Province and northern Hunan Province.

There is a large-scale site group with more than 50 sites. Copper blocks, jade articles, sacrificial relics, symbols with similar characters and urban sites have been found here, indicating that Shijiahe culture has entered a civilized era.

Copper blocks and malachite, the raw material for smelting copper, were found in Dengjiawan site of Shijiahe culture, which marked the emergence of copper smelting industry at that time.

During the Shang Dynasty in BC13rd century, there were already handicrafts such as malachite hairpin and funerary objects such as malachite figurines. Because of its bright blue-green, it became one of the most attractive decorative materials in ancient times.

For example, malachite was found in the bronze smelting ore in Yinxu, Anyang, Henan Province, with the largest weight of 18.8 kg. ..

Two malachites were also found in the site of Guo Guizu cemetery from the late Western Zhou Dynasty to the early Spring and Autumn Period in Shangcunling, Sanmenxia City, Henan Province. There are also a large number of animal-shaped jade ornaments, such as jade lion, jade tiger, jade leopard, jade deer, jade dragonfly, jade fish and jade turtle. A large number of pearls and tubes made of malachite were also found in other Western Zhou cemeteries. Among the relics found in the tombs of Zhuolu in Hebei during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there are also malachite and azurite associated with malachite. The ancients also regarded malachite as a precious traditional Chinese medicine stone medicine. Compendium of Materia Medica records:

Shilu was born in Tongkeng, the ancestor of copper. Copper turns green with the smell of Ziyang, and turns into stone after a long time, which is called stone green.

In ancient China, it was also used as a pigment, also known as "stone green", which was made of malachite and did not fade after thousands of years. Malachite medical stone, jade-inlaid copper frame, jade-covered copper frame and jade horn cup with obvious copper ooze were found in the tomb of Nanyue King in the Western Han Dynasty. These relics strongly show that in the Western Han Dynasty 2200 years ago, malachite in Yangchun was used by Nanyue King as a pigment for painting, a medicinal stone for alchemy, a raw material for copper smelting and a jade inlaid.

The mining and copper smelting of malachite in Yangchun, Guangdong Province began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The smelting sites of Han Dynasty discovered in the mining area are thousands of meters long, leaving more than ten thousand tons of copper slag 1.

Malachite in Tang dynasty is also called leopard stone. It has been found that malachite is soft and easy to carve. Therefore, the production technology of malachite in Tang Dynasty is complicated. Some malachite vessels are extremely fine, flat-bottomed, round and tidy, with extremely beautiful radians and extremely thin walls. Looking at these exquisite utensils, I really feel that the wisdom of the Tang Dynasty is unimaginable.

For example, the malachite box in the Tang Dynasty was 5.2 cm high, with a diameter of 15.5 cm and a belly diameter of 16.5 cm. Box straight wall, jade bottom, son and mother mouth. It may be malachite transported on the Silk Road. This kind of stone is only found in the ruins of the Tang Dynasty in Chang 'an and Luoyang. Inferred from the shape and other artifacts found together, the artifacts made of this material were very precious at that time.

There are also malachite powder boxes with a diameter of 7 cm and a height of 3.3 cm.

In the Tang Dynasty, according to the "Infinite Life Sutra", malachite was once one of the seven treasures of Buddhism, and sometimes it was made into a letter containing Buddhist bones and relics. Such as the Tang Malachite relic letter, the letter is rectangular blue-banded malachite, the cover is bucket-shaped, and the mouth is female. Solemn and sacred.

The coffin in the letter is made of gold, and the lid is surrounded by colored beads of gold thread. The center above the front fender of the coffin is decorated with a large colored bead, and a double door is chiseled from below. The upper part of the door is curved, and there are several rows of doornails on the door, depicting cinnabar.

The glass bottle has many sides and a long neck, and the lid is painted gold with a flower pedicle. There are several solid objects of different colors in the bottle, which should be relics.

The iron lamp is a six-sided pavilion, which opens the door on one side and opens the window on five sides. There is a Buddha in the pavilion. Above the pavilion is a pavilion with guardrails, with a Buddha standing on each of the six sides, with a quiet posture. The lamppost in the middle of the pavilion is a person with great material resources, which is eye-catching and extremely rich. Lux holds the shower head, the petals are divided into three layers, and the stamen is used as a lamp, which is elegant and wonderful; 6 feet slightly outward, lower adduction. The whole shape is solemn and elegant, full of extremely romantic imagination.

A gold coffin was placed in the letter, a glass bottle with a gold cover was placed in the coffin, and an iron lotus lamp was placed on the side of the letter. It is an important material in Buddhist ceremonies.

In addition, malachite has also been carved into daily utensils and musical instruments such as fuming stoves and pots, representing the luxury fashion of Chang 'an and Luoyang in the Tang Dynasty.

For example, this Tang malachite hookah is 8.5 cm high, 4 cm in diameter and 9.5 cm in bottom diameter. It was made of malachite, which was an extremely precious imported material at that time and was used to light incense.

Malachite Tomb in Tang Dynasty, with a diameter of 28 cm, a height of 9.5 cm, a diameter of 1.2 cm and a bottom diameter of 5 cm, has the same sound quality in the first six holes and the last two holes, and is an important material for studying the music history of China.

In the Song Dynasty, porcelain production developed unprecedentedly, and craftsmen found that if blue and white were covered with malachite green, the color of blue and white would turn black, and the effect of malachite green and black flowers in Cizhou kiln would be obtained.

At this time, malachite carvings, such as malachite seals in the Song Dynasty and school stationery, were 6.5cm high, 3.5cm wide and weighed 153g. There are also malachite original stone ornaments, about 30 cm high, 20 cm wide, about 15 cm thick and weighing about 15 to 20 kg.

This technology continued until the Ming and Qing Dynasties. For example, in the town of Malachite Beast in Ming Dynasty, 1 1 cm was high, and the carved Swiss beast was very fierce and powerful.

There is also a study cylinder with malachite fish pattern and sea water pattern in Amin era, which is 5.8 cm high and 9 cm in diameter. Malachite is very beautiful in color, with four fish patterns, and the following is the pattern of seawater.

Empress Dowager Cixi of Qing Dynasty used a facial massager made of malachite, agate and jade to roll on facial acupoints to promote facial blood circulation and regulate facial nerves, thus achieving the effect of removing spots and whitening skin.

Beijing also treasures malachite landscape bonsai and handicrafts that the Qing court loved. Malachite was used as one of the materials in Yashi study by the Qing court. For example, in the Qing Dynasty, malachite was embedded in a white jade carved character story mountain, which was carved from natural malachite and passed through the stone character story map. The mountains and rocks are green, the high platform stands on the side, the ancient trees are towering, the pines are lush, and the houses are faint. On the right, Gao Shi boy takes the piano to visit his friends.

The figure in the picture is carved from Hetian jade and white jade, which is in harmony with the color of malachite. Exquisite and natural carving. It is a typical Qing dynasty craft style.

Another example is the malachite plate in Qing Dynasty, which is1.8cm high, 20.7cm long and15.4cm wide. The dish is made of green malachite, shallow and carved into the shape of a lotus leaf. There are concave carvings and bas-relief patterns on the inside and outside of the plate. This dish of malachite contains beautiful green patterns. Below it, the lotus branches carved by mahogany are seats. Bright shallow dishes with dark wooden seats form a sharp color contrast.

There is also a clear malachite snuff bottle with a height of 6.5 cm and a diameter of 1.6 cm, which is oblate and green all over, fully showing the natural texture of malachite. There is a red coral cover inlaid with copper and gold at the top, a turtle spoon at the bottom and oval feet at the bottom.

Snuff bottles made of malachite are extremely rare. This snuff bottle is dark in color, and the lid buckle is decorated with red coral, with a little red in the evergreen tree, which makes the whole snuff bottle look very lively.