From what aspects is the quality of bloodstone evaluated? Is the bloodstone as red as possible?

The main technical uses of bloodstone are making seals, carving handicrafts and appreciating the original stone. The oriental culture it shows is unique among the world's cultural and artistic forests. The main factors affecting the quality of bloodstone are color, texture, transparency, hardness, defects and technology, rather than simply recognizing that the redder the better. I will talk about the quality evaluation dimension of bloodstone from the above aspects.

First of all, color affects color evaluation in three dimensions: brightness, blood volume and blood distribution. People usually divide the brightness into four grades: bright red, bright red, purple red and light red. Bright red blood, commonly known as "carmine", is the most precious bloody variety in "chicken blood" because its color gives people vivid beauty. Scarlet blood, a superior blood species, is the most common blood species, only slightly less brilliant than scarlet; Purple blood, commonly known as "pig blood red", is also called dark red. The degree of "purple" is different, the upper blood species is in fresh purple, and the lower blood species is in dark purple. The main reason for purplish red is that cinnabar contains many elements such as iron, manganese and titanium. Blood is reddish and thin, belonging to blood species. When identifying blood color, we often encounter multiple levels of blood color distributed on the same original stone or finished product, which depends on which level of blood color is the main factor to determine its grade and value.

Look at the blood volume. Blood volume refers to the content of cinnabar visible to the naked eye in the original stone or finished product of bloodstone, which is usually determined by the percentage estimated by visual inspection. The content of "chicken blood" has roughly several grades in industrial classification: the highest grade is about 90% blood; The second gear is about 70% blood; The third gear is about 50% blood; The fourth gear is about 30% blood; The fifth gear is the gear with blood volume 10% ~ 20% or less.

The overall grade of stone can only be determined by comprehensive analysis of blood color, blood shape, texture, defects and other factors. Generally speaking, frozen stone with good texture, with blood volume greater than 30%, is a high-grade product; More than 50% will become treasures; More than 70% can be called "Dahongpao". The amount of blood on the completed square chapter depends not only on the percentage of blood, but also on the area of blood color distribution. Whole blood and six-sided red square seal are the top grade, followed by five-sided red and four-sided red, followed by three-sided red, two-sided red and one-sided red.

In addition, the distribution of blood is an important indicator to measure the quality of bloodstone. The distribution of blood can be roughly divided into seven types: large flake, block, strip, cloud, star, line and image.

Among them, large flake means that the blood distribution area is relatively large and concentrated in contiguous areas. If the blood with large flake distribution is thick and fresh, it is a treasure or the best; Mass is commonly known as block red, although the blood distribution area of this blood shape is not as large as sheet. The shape of whole blood is irregular small lumps, such as Chinese painting splashing ink; Strip, commonly known as red, strip red, and some like fluttering red ribbons. Cloudy, commonly known as Xia Hong. The color of this blood sample is mainly reddish, with a few red or purple; Line pattern, commonly known as silk red. This blood shape can often draw a sketch-like picture, which is linearly curved and distributed; Star-shaped, commonly known as red. Blood spots are like mung beans, sesame seeds or even needle tips, thin or dense, and can be distributed in groups. The blood color is mainly bright red and light red, with occasional bright red; Image is a kind of blood shape that is difficult to find. It is a vivid combination of several blood shapes.

The above seven blood shapes are generally large, banded, massive and image-shaped, followed by clouds, lines and stars. If more than two blood shapes are naturally combined on a stone, it depends on which blood shape is dominant and whether it constitutes a beautiful picture. For example, the whole stone has three colors, commonly known as "Liu". If it is strip or block, it is high-grade; Mainly cloudy, linear and star-shaped, medium and low. On the other hand, it depends on the effect of overall collocation and makes appropriate evaluation.

Of course, the blood shape depends on the location of the seal. If concentrated in the upper part and waist, it is more conspicuous and is considered to be the best location for distribution, with high grade; If you concentrate on the bottom, but there is less blood at the top and waist, it will affect the overall beauty and the grade will be much lower. Therefore, the distribution ratio of blood volume is also an important criterion to evaluate the seal grade and value.

Look at the texture "stone can't be said to be the most pleasing to the eye". It has been said by predecessors that the standard of stone quality is "Liu De", that is, fineness, hardness, moistening, greasy, warm and coagulation. Those who are "refined" are meticulous in arts and sciences; "Knot", with tight structure; Those who are "moist" are as slippery as fat; "greasy" people are greasy; Those who are "warm" contain precious gas; Those that "coagulate" are frozen. This "Liu De" is the effect of high-quality jade texture. Bloodstone is divided into the following four types according to texture.

The first is frozen bloodstone. This variety is the elite of bloodstone, and many famous products and treasures come from this variety. Frozen bloodstone is an aggregate of cinnabar, dickite, kaolinite and other minerals, with hardness of 2-3, slightly transparent to translucent, waxy luster, and grinding and blood match each other. The main varieties are:

Bean green land, pure texture, soaked in erythema; Peach blossom land, clean and clear, covered with blood spots, peach petals fall like spring, colorful and extremely beautiful, so it is a good product; White jade, as white as the moon, without impurities and miscellaneous colors, as pure as plain jade, red with chicken blood erythema, its beauty is obvious; Sheep fat land, delicate as sheep fat, pure and moist; Glass floor, transparent floor, blood inside and outside, bright and valuable; Meat patties, meat patties are light in color, slightly transparent and even; Horn land, dark gray, translucent and dense; In the land of Black Corner, the "black whirlwind" is the rarest, and it can also be called a masterpiece in bloodstone.

If the above-mentioned textures reach the frozen ground level, they are ox horn frozen bloodstone, Tianhuang frozen bloodstone, patty frozen bloodstone, pink frozen bloodstone, agate frozen bloodstone, sheep fat frozen bloodstone, glass frozen bloodstone, vermilion frozen bloodstone, hibiscus frozen bloodstone, multicolor frozen bloodstone, silver gray frozen bloodstone, bean green frozen bloodstone and so on. The so-called Tianhuang bloodstone belongs to this category, which is produced in Shangxi Township and is the only stone of Tianhuang and bloodstone. Tianhuang bloodstone, born of the noble "king in stone" and the delicate "queen in stone", is a rare treasure, and the number of people entering the market is very rare. Because it is very precious, most of them keep their original shapes.

Followed by soft bloodstone. This kind of soft colored stone is based on rich colors, although its transparency and gloss are not as good as those of frozen bloodstone, but it is better than frozen bloodstone to form beautiful patterns by combining various blood colors, blood shapes and colorful textures. It is the most common kind of bloodstone, and its output accounts for about 60%. Soft bloodstone is composed of cinnabar, dickite, kaolinite, a small amount of alunite and timely fine particles, with a certain waxy luster, hardness of 3-4, opaque or partially transparent.

Then there is the hard bloodstone. Its structural components are mainly composed of cinnabar and silicified tuff. Its hardness is above grade 6, even reaching grade 7. Opaque, dry, dull, commonly known as "hard goods", poor gloss, belonging to low-grade materials. The texture and color of hard bloodstone are monotonous, with gray and white, a little black and multicolor. Generally speaking, hard ground bloodstone is difficult to carve and belongs to low-grade products.

Finally, there is only bloodstone left. The color is similar to that of a few varieties of bloodstone in frozen soft ground, but the composition of the stone is different, which leads to the difference in hardness and transparency. Since 1980s, with the development of stone carving technology and the change of technological requirements for bloodstone, this kind of stone, commonly known as "hard goods", has been gradually valued and developed by people, among which a few rare treasures have appeared.

Other quality evaluation factors affect the evaluation of bloodstone, such as transparency, luster, hardness, defects, technology and so on. Transparency is also called luminous flux, that is, the light transmittance of jade. The transparency of bloodstone can be divided into four grades: transparent, translucent, slightly transparent and opaque. Generally speaking, the higher the transparency, the better the quality. If the original stone with high transparency is attached with marl, it is not easy to identify, so it can be clearly presented after washing with water or partially polishing with sand skin.

Gloss refers to the reflection intensity of bloodstone surface to light. The opacity reflectivity of cinnabar is 26.8%. In actual identification, it is inconvenient to observe with naked eyes, and it is not necessary to detect with instruments. Waxy luster is the main luster of bloodstone, and the strength of waxy luster is one of the criteria to distinguish the quality of bloodstone. Generally speaking, waxy luster is strong, transparency is high, hardness is low, and the quality of bloodstone is good; On the contrary, if the waxy luster is weak and the hardness is high, the quality of bloodstone is also poor.

The hardness of bloodstone is roughly divided into three grades: one is Mohs 2 to 3; The second is Mohs 4 to 5; The third is Mohs 6 to 7. Among the three hardness grades, grades 2 to 3 are the most vulnerable to knife stab and have moderate hardness; Grade 4-5 is difficult to be cut, difficult to carve and high in hardness; You can't get a knife above level 6, which is obviously excellent.

The size of defects and process depends on the shape and size of the original stone and the integrity of the finished product, that is, defects and cracks The defects of the original stone mainly depend on whether it affects the cutting of the square seal. Generally speaking, it is better to keep the square seal intact. Some rough stones are irregular, which affects the cutting of square seals, but they have unique advantages in making ornaments with natural shapes and carving handicrafts. Therefore, the grade should not be determined by the number of defects, but by their natural shape.

Secondly, it depends on the impurities in the texture. Impurities are divided into hard impurities and soft impurities, which have been mentioned in the evaluation factors of texture and color. Mottled is the "dirty color" of bloodstone. The quantity and distribution position will directly affect the quality of bloodstone. For large bloodstone ornaments, mottling and cracking are usually difficult to avoid completely, which depends on the degree of damage to the aesthetic feeling of the whole handicraft. Sometimes, if some variegated colors are used as pretty colors, they complement each other with "chicken blood" and blend into one, but they can increase aesthetic feeling and artistry. This variegated color is not variegated.

In a word, the core factors of quality evaluation of bloodstone are color and texture, as Deng Sanmu, a famous calligrapher and seal engraver, pointed out in his book Seal Engraving:

"The blood stone is of high quality and is in the blood."

Its transparency, luster, hardness and flaws are all auxiliary factors. At present, apart from the unified classification of diamond quality in the world, the quality evaluation and classification of other colored gems, jade and colored gems is a very complicated issue. Because it is influenced by many factors and the evaluation pays special attention to collocation, the advantages and disadvantages can complement each other. Therefore, it is difficult to establish a unified standard for the quality evaluation of jadeite and colored gems, especially for jewels and gems. Different people have different views, which is the main source of the view that "gold is valuable and jade is priceless".