The sculptor of the Jadeite Cabbage is not known. It was first shown in the Forbidden City's Yonghe Palace. This is the home of the Qing Empire's Guangxu Emperor's Consort Jin. She likely got the sculpture as part of her dowry for her wedding to Guangxu in 1889. After the end of the Qing Empire in the Chinese Revolution of 1911, the sculpture became part of the collection of the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City. The piece survived the Second Sino-Japanese War (World War II) and the Chinese Civil War. It was finally made a part of Taiwan's National Palace Museum.