Shanghai · Zhujiajiao · 89 / 91 Caohe Street

桂魄

GUI PO JADE

One piece of jade, chosen for one person.

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31.11° N
121.05° E

01 — Name

Gui Po —
the old word for the moon.

Legend has it there is a cassia tree in the moon, so the moon itself was once called gui po. We borrowed the name: jade should be like moonlight — not glaring, made to be looked at for years.

The shop is on Caohe Street in Zhujiajiao, four years old this year. My father kept his own shop elsewhere in Shanghai for forty years and closed it the year before last. I have been looking at stones with him since I was thirteen.

A green jade bracelet on a wrist, beside a small red clay teapot and a red apple — The counter · afternoon light

02 — Forty years

Forty years, his counter.
Four, mine.

One counter moved to another address. The rules did not change — darkness, torchlight, never under the lamp.

1958
My father is born. He goes on to spend forty years on jade, with one pair of hands and one pair of eyes.
1998
I am born. A child appears beside the counter; from ten I am often taken to the source to pick stones.
2011
His eyes begin to fail. At thirteen I take the torch, reading stones for him in the dark.
2024
He retires and closes the shop he kept elsewhere in Shanghai for forty years. By then mine in Zhujiajiao is two years old.
2025
“Gui Po” is registered.
2026
Four years and more in Zhujiajiao. The counter has moved from his shop to mine.

A green jade bracelet held up in daylight on the stone-paved street outside the shop — Outside · daylight

03 — In the dark

A blue-green beaded bracelet resting on a dark carved wooden horse

Jade has to be read in the dark.

The lights in the shop are for visitors. We do not use them when buying: under a lamp the cotton vanishes, the cracks vanish, and every stone looks good. We use a torch, held against the back. The light passes through and shows the structure, the cotton, the cracks, one by one. My father read stones this way for forty years. So do I.

Backlight

Torch flat against the back, light through. Whether the structure holds — one look will tell.

Never under the lamp

Good looks under a lamp are lent by the lamp, not by the stone. We trust only what we see in the dark.

III

The person first

Who it is for, how long it will be worn, whether it minds a knock. Jade has a temper; so do people. Ask first, then choose.

We don't sell jade that only looks good under a lamp.

— the torch my father handed me when I was thirteen

04 — Natural

Natural jade only.

If it can be re-tested, we dare to sell it.

Dyed, resin-filled, heat-treated — none of it goes into the case. Whether a piece is natural, take it to any laboratory for re-testing. We are not afraid of that.

天然

A green jade bracelet resting on a pale grey stone, on a wooden table

05 — Number

Every piece carries
an eight-digit number.

It is written on the price tag and in the ledger. The photograph is of that exact piece, not a sample. The number is not decoration — it means someone recognises this piece, remembers it, and answers for it.