The jade Ya Zhang operated as an early passport in ancient China, granting mobility only to a minority: royal families, tribal or state rulers, military commanders, diplomatic envoys, and ritual messengers. Ya Zhang was carved from jade mined in early dynastic resource corridors, primarily the Yellow River upper basin in Gansu (Qijia cultural zone, 2300–1600 BCE), the Kunlun–Hotan belt in present-day Xinjiang, and later river-mountain systems along the Min (Sichuan) and Yangtze uplands (Hubei, Jing Mountain region). These landscapes supplied jade as politically controlled geological capital, binding land, identity, and sanctioned movement into the same system. Today, although passports appear universal, privilege persists through hierarchy: citizens whose passports grant broad visa-free movement, while people whose mobility is restricted by passport regimes cannot be ignored. Using a random stone as an ineffective credential, this work reveals identity as a condition of recognition, not possession.