gems, jade, China, nephrite, Chinese jade carving

This collective work is interested in the perception and representations of precious objects in the Chinese world of yesterday and today, and more particularly in the role played by these objects at the cultural and historical level. Different areas are addressed: literature, history, anthropology, sociology, art history... Coming from different countries of the world, the authors propose different angles of attack and different points of view to better understand the way of thinking of the Chinese and Chinese culture in general. Many illustrations make it possible to concretely visualize the objects concerned and at the same time to obtain additional information on specific elements of the text. Finally, a complementary file on gold and jadeite in Mesoamerica sheds new light on the place of objects in a culture, their symbolic functions and the notion of preciosity.