Empress Cixi's Jade Collection: Most Famous Pieces

The Greatest Private Jade Collection in History

Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) assembled the most spectacular private jade collection in the history of China — a treasury of jadeite, nephrite, and carved jade objects that reflected both her extraordinary personal passion for the material and the extraordinary resources available to the ruler of the world's most populous empire. Her collection ranged from the most intimate personal ornaments — jade hairpins, bangles, and rings worn daily — to monumental carved pieces that filled the halls of the imperial palace, and from the finest imperial green jadeite to the most sacred white Hetian nephrite.

Cixi's jade collection is known today through several channels: the pieces that survived in the Palace Museum collections in Beijing and Taipei, the pieces that were buried with her and subsequently looted from her tomb, and the contemporary accounts of foreign visitors and Chinese officials who described her collection in detail. Together, these sources provide a picture of a collection of extraordinary scope and quality — one that has never been equaled in the history of Chinese jade culture.

The Jadeite Cabbage: The Most Famous Piece

The most famous piece in Cixi's jade collection — and arguably the most famous jade object in the world — is the jadeite cabbage now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. This extraordinary carving — made from a single piece of jadeite that naturally displayed both white and vivid green areas — depicts a Chinese cabbage with two insects on its leaves: a locust and a katydid, both symbols of fertility and abundance.

The jadeite cabbage was reportedly a wedding gift to Cixi, and it was among her most treasured possessions throughout her life. The carving's extraordinary naturalism — the way the white and green areas of the jadeite are used to represent the pale inner leaves and vivid outer leaves of the cabbage — reflects the extraordinary skill of the craftsman who made it and the extraordinary quality of the jadeite from which it was carved. The piece is now one of the most visited museum objects in the world, attracting millions of visitors to the National Palace Museum each year.

The Jadeite Bangles: Daily Wear

Beyond the monumental carved pieces, Cixi was famous for her collection of jadeite bangles —olean the simple circular bracelets that are the most common form of jade jewelry in Chinese culture. Cixi reportedly owned hundreds of jadeite bangles, ranging from the finest imperial green pieces to more modest stones, and she wore them constantly — stacking multiple bangles on each wrist in the fashion of the Qing court.

The finest pieces in Cixi's bangle collection were made from imperial green jadeite of exceptional quality — translucent, intensely saturated green stones of a color and clarity that has never been surpassed. These bangles, which were among the most valuable objects in the imperial treasury, are now distributed among museum collections and private hands worldwide, their extraordinary quality making them among the most sought-after jade objects in the auction market.

The Burial Jade: Underground Treasury

When Cixi died in 1908, she was buried with a collection of jade objects of extraordinary value. Contemporary accounts describe the burial jade as including jadeite pieces of exceptional quality — bangles, pendants, hairpins, and carved objects — arranged around her body in the elaborate burial protocols of the Qing court. The total value of the burial jade was estimated at the time as equivalent to hundreds of millions of dollars in contemporary terms.

The tomb was looted in 1928 by warlord troops, who removed the burial jade and sold it on the black market. Some pieces were subsequently recovered — including a jadeite watermelon that was reportedly found in the possession of a warlord's concubine — but most of the burial jade disappeared into private hands and has never been recovered. The looting of Cixi's tomb is one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of Chinese imperial jade, and the pieces that were recovered provide a tangible connection to the most jade-obsessed ruler in Chinese imperial history.

The Jade Pillow: Tourmaline and Jade in Death

Among the most famous objects buried with Cixi was a pillow made of carved tourmaline —olean the pink and red stone from California that was her other great gemstone passion. The tourmaline pillow, which was placed under her head in the burial, reflected her belief in the healing and protective properties of precious stones — a belief that extended beyond life into death.

For crystal healing practitioners, Cixi's burial jade and tourmaline offer a powerful meditation on the enduring nature of gemstone energy. The stones that she chose to accompany her into death — jade for virtue and longevity, tourmaline for heart healing and protection — reflect an understanding of gemstone healing that transcended the boundaries of life and death, and that continues to resonate with contemporary crystal healing traditions.