It is possible to find it depicted in its variants on fabrics, architectural and furnishing elements, ceramics and jewels. It is usually represented alone or surrounded by flowers, bats (bringer of good luck and happiness in China) and other symbols of prosperity.
Carnelian also has great relevance in Chinese culture: its name, 玛瑙 mănăo (which is also the generic name for agate), literally means “horse brain” and derives from the wisdom of the Mongols, who had associated the graduated streaks of stone to the folds of an equine brain.
Even the reckless (and feared) general Cao Cao, hero of the ancient “Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms” (we are in the third century AD), receiving the gift of wine poured into a container carved in agate, wrote a poem about it, associating the wonderful mineral once again to a “horse brain”.
A compendium of natural sciences published during the Ming Dynasty then defined that agate/carnelian could not be classified as either stone or jade, but should belong to a category of its own. In the treatise it was narrated how small agates/carnelians were usually used as a person’s adornment in the form of pearls, bracelets, belt buckles or thumb rings. The largest were instead carved and sculpted into containers or decorative elements, making the most of the natural streaks of the mineral.