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- Imperial Jade Carving Centres During the Qing Dynasty
they were sent to the palace jade workshops. Part of the jade remained at the palace in Beijing to be carved and polished in the imperial jade workshop,24 while the remainder was sent from the palace to eight other places to be carved. These locations included Suzhou, Lianghuai (Yangzhou), Hangzhou, Jiangning, Huai- guan, Changlu, Jiujiang and Fengyang. In the early part of Qianlong�s reign, the delegated tasks of jade carving for the palace had only been entrusted to the Im�perial Silkworks in Suzhou, but with the enormous increase in jade coming from Xinjiang after 1759, there was a need to spread the jade carving tasks over more areas.
Of the eight jade carving locations, Suzhou and Lianghuai were the most impor�tant. Suzhou, one of the older centres of the jade craft, had a large number of skilled craftsmen and often supplied workers to other cities. The jade carving industry of Yangzhou was closely linked with the Salt Administration of Lianghuai, which had its seat in this city. They produced some of China�s most exquisite jade carvings. Often the Salt Administration did not request compensation for the costs involved with carving jade for the palace like other places did, but did the work free to ex�press their gratefulness to the emperor for his benevolence.
After Suzhou and Yangzhou, the next most important centres for the carving of palace jades were Changlu, Hangzhou, Huaiguan and Jiangning. The workers in these places were partly local and partly from Suzhou, Yangzhou and Beijing. The Salt Administration office in Changlu, which was responsible for carrying out pal�ace jade carving tasks, was later moved to Tianjin.
The least important jade carving centres were Jiujiang and Fengyang. In these cities, usually only small jades were carved into simple shapes like serving plates and bowls. Both locations had none of their own jade craftsmen and had to send special representatives to Suzhou to hire jade carvers to perform their assigned duties.
The making of jade objects in the Beijing palace workshop followed several strict procedures. The first step in the production of a jade piece was the selec�tion of the material and the making of a design by the head of the workshop. The design might be from a manual of patterns or simply his own personal design. Or he may prefer to take his inspiration from the jade piece itself, so that its shape and colour are used to the maximum advantage, thus assuring that as little as possible
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