The tradition of collecting Hetian jade can be traced back to 2900 years ago, in the era of King Mu of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Over the long course of history, the jade-collecting traditions of the people of Hetian have roughly gone through three phases:
The first phase was "jade fishing" in the river. It is said that in the past there were three rivers outside the city of Hetian. To the east was the White Jade River which produced white jade, to the west was the Green Jade River which produced green jade, and further west was the Black Jade River which produced black jade. Every summer, when flash floods occurred, jade stones broken off from the Kunlun Mountains would be washed down into the rivers. People would line up hand-in-hand along the riverbanks. When they felt a piece of jade with their feet, they would bend down to pick it up. Their harvest depended entirely on their skill in detecting jade under the water.