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Porcelain is an important symbol of China’s excellent traditional culture and has played an important role in promoting exchanges between China and foreign countries. The English word “China” in China means porcelain, and the Maritime Silk Road is also called the “Porcelain Road”. The main exports of ancient China were silk, porcelain, and tea. After thousands of years, they have become popular around the world, confirming the mutual learning between Chinese and foreign civilizations and fully embodying the peaceful nature of Chinese civilization. In stark contrast, in modern times, Western imperialism has dumped opium, sold arms, and engaged in colonial plunder against Eastern countries. This column takes you to review China’s representative commodity on the Maritime Silk Road – porcelain, appreciate the shining cultural charm of Chinese porcelain, recall the traditional friendship of people-to-people exchanges, and reveal the historical logic of a community with a shared future for mankind.
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▲Silk Road route map. (Image source: Earth Knowledge Bureau)
▲Five Dynasties secret color lotus bowl, collected by Suzhou Museum.
“The wind and dew of the Nine Autumn Festival bloom over the kiln, and capture the green color of thousands of peaks. I hope that the Midnight Festival will be prosperous, and we will share the remaining cups in the middle of the night.”
This is the poem “Secret Color Yueqi” by Lu Guimeng, a poet of the Tang Dynasty. The autumn morning breeze is gentle. Yes, that’s right. She and Xi Shixun have known each other since childhood because their fathers were classmates and childhood sweethearts. Although as they grow older, the two of them are no longer as cold as they were when they were young. When the frost and dew are thick, seeing the secret-colored porcelain of the Yue kiln being fired through the fierce fire of the kiln, the treasures that resemble green and black are as if they have captured thousands of people. The green color of the peaks and barriers. It seems that through Lu Guimeng’s eyes, one can glimpse the “Guangling Sanjue” Ji Kang.
Yue kiln celadon is called “mother porcelain”.The past is like smoke, but through celadon treasures, we can think about it for thousands of years, find the past of Yue kiln celadon, or learn how the star products of the Maritime Silk Road came to the spotlight of the historical stage.
There is also a Yue kiln passed down through the ages: the quiet and good years of Yue kiln celadon
Earth gives life to the body, fire gives life, and people shape the soul. The evolution history of celadon is closely related to the development of Chinese civilization. The earliest “celadon” unearthed is undoubtedly the celadon-printed Dakou Zun from the Shang Dynasty tomb on Minggong Road, Zhengzhou, Henan. Its cyan color comes from the iron element in the glaze. Because it is in the transformation stage from pottery to porcelain, this type of porcelain is It is called “early celadon”. However, due to natural conditions and craftsmanship, this kind of pottery and porcelain product is not yet true porcelain.
▲Shang Dynasty celadon-printed large-mouth statue, collected by Henan Museum.
Mr. Xia Nai, the founder of modern Chinese archeology, pointed out that “the original porcelain was gradually improved in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and finally porcelain appeared in the late Han Dynasty, becoming one of the characteristics of Chinese civilization.” Combining the three keywords of “porcelain”, “late Han Dynasty” and “lower Yangtze River”, it is not difficult to deduce the “mother porcelain” status of Yue kiln celadon. The celadon of the late Eastern Han Dynasty has a good degree of porcelain, a firm glaze bond, and a crisp sound when struck, making it a mature porcelain. The finished products handed down from generation to generation are full of simplicity and simplicity.
During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, political power changed and nationalities blended. The old thoughts were free and spiritual freedom was unprecedented. The art of porcelain making reflected the changes in the social aesthetic consciousness at that time. Yue kiln celadon began to adopt various molding methods such as wheeling, kneading, and molding. Incorporating Buddhist and Taoist beliefs, many new styles were introduced – lotus petal patterns and honeysuckle patterns were widely used, animal-shaped statues, chicken-head pots, and sheep-shaped utensils , lion-shaped utensils are even more diverse.
▲Yue kiln celadon and Xing kiln white porcelain.
In the diversified, open and powerful Tang Dynasty, porcelain-making workshops blossomed everywhere and competed for beauty. During this period, celadon completed its transformation from a still gray and loose fetus to a delicate and light fetus, which is known as “green in the south and white in the north”. “Beibai” refers to Xing kiln white porcelain, while “Nanqing” refers to Yue kiln celadon. Lu Yu, the tea sage who is very particular about tea drinking utensils, commented, “Xing porcelain is like silver, Yue porcelain is like jade, Xing porcelain is like snow, Yue porcelain is like ice, Xing porcelain is white but brown, and Yue porcelain is green but brown.” Lu Yu’s conclusion is that “Xing is not as good as Yue” and “bowls are worse than Yue kilns”, which shows that the status of Yue kiln celadon in the industry had reached its peak at that time.
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▲The “Clothing Account” stone tablet in the underground palace of Famen Temple, Fufeng County, Baoji City, Shaanxi Province, collected by Famen Temple Museum.
Around the late Tang Dynasty, secret color porcelain appeared, and the artistic level of Yue kiln celadon reached an unparalleled lofty status. What is secret color? Zhao Lingji of the Song Dynasty recorded in “Hou Zhenlu” that “Today’s secret color porcelain is said to have been produced by the Qian family in Yuezhou, and was burned as an object of worship. The ministers were not allowed to use it, so it is called secret color”. The “Qian family” refers to the Wuyue Kingdom during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The Qian family attached great importance to the Yue kiln’s secret-color porcelain, and the secret-color porcelain once became tribute porcelain. However, there are still different opinions on what the secret color is. In 1987, 14 pieces of Yue kiln secret-color porcelain were unearthed from the underground palace of Famen Temple in Fufeng County, Shaanxi Province, as well as the “Clothing Account” stone tablet. The stele contains “seven porcelain secret color bowls with two silver ribs inside; a total of six porcelain secret color plates and stacks.” The mystery of the secret color, namely blue, was finally revealed.
▲Records about the Yamatai Kingdom in “Three Kingdoms”.
During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Yue kiln celadon passed the sea route and became aIt is the “top product” in East Asia. Bronze mirrors dating from the “Chiwu” reign of the Eastern Wu Dynasty and fragments of Yue kiln celadon have been unearthed from ancient tombs in Japan. The Chiwu period coincided with the reign of Queen Bemihu of Yamatai Kingdom, and was also an important period for the rapid development of Yue kiln celadon. According to the Records of the Three Kingdoms, the envoy from the Wei State visited Japan at that time and “seriously gave you (Yamatai State) good things.” In addition to granting Queen Himihu a gold seal to represent the pro-Wei Japanese king, he also rewarded Japanese subjects with five pieces of Jiangdijiaolong Brocade, Ten pieces of crimson millet corn, fifty pieces of dark crimson, fifty pieces of cyan green, three pieces of cyan ground sentence and brocade, five pieces of fine silk, fifty pieces of white silk, eight ounces of gold, and two five-foot knives. , hundreds of bronze mirrors (with the inscription “the third year of Jingchu” on them), fifty kilograms each of pearls and red vermilion, but there is no mention of celadon. It can be generally inferred that the Yue kiln celadon products produced under Sun Wu’s rule are truly rare and precious.
Coincidentally, Yue kiln celadon Huzi from the Western Jin Dynasty, as well as Yue kiln celadon products such as chicken-head pots and sheep-shaped vessels from the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties have also been unearthed in the Korean Peninsula.
Li Tang’s Yueqi is unprecedented: the “star” of the Maritime Silk Road
Since the Tang Dynasty, Mingzhou Port (today’s Ningbo Port), as a deep-water port and close to Cixi, Shangyu and other Yue kiln production areas, has become an important foreign trade port, shouldering the historical mission of economic and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. It is a maritime silk One of the starting points of the road.
▲Route map of the Tang Dynasty Maritime Silk Road. (Image source: Fujian Provincial Library official website)
The Maritime Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty roughly had three main routes: northeast, from Myeongju via Heishan Island to Yeongam, Jeollanam-do on the Korean Peninsula today; eastward, from Myeongju across the East China Sea to Amami University in southern Japan. Island, then sail north for a long time, and then to Sasha. Doesn’t this silly son know that even so, as a mother who gives everything for her children, she is still happy? What a silly boy. Motorcycle, going north to Hakata and Chikushi, from the Seto Inland Sea to Namba Mitsuura in Gyeonggi Province; going south, one goes from Mingzhou to the south. This is of course impossible, because all he saw was the appearance of the big red sedan, and there was no way to see it. There were no people sitting inside, but even so, he could not help but look at the Taiwan Strait, southeast to the Philippine Islands, and then along the west coast of Luzon Island, Mindoro Island, Cebu Island, Mindanao Island, and the Sulu Islands, passing by From the northwest coast of Kalimantan to Java and Sumatra, and then through MaliA Strait, passing through the Nicobar Islands and the Andaman Islands, passing through the Bay of Bengal, reaching the east coast of India, going south to Sri Lanka, and then going north along the west coast to the Persian Gulf. At this time, you can land at Shiraf and go deep into the interior of Iran. At the end of the Persian Gulf, you can trace The Tigris River reaches Thesiphon, Samarra and Abilta, or along the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula through Oman to the Gulf of Aden, or northward via the Red Sea to the ports of Aizab and Qusayr, and then across the desert to the Nile River. Next, arrive at Fustat; the other starts from Mingzhou and goes south to Guangzhou and Champa, then goes around the Malay Peninsula to Sumatra, and then overlaps with the previous route.
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▲The monsoon route once brought huge profits to the trading activities of Arab merchants. Today, it can also become the starting point for us to explore the Maritime Silk Road. (Image source: “Human History on the Map”)
▲Japan’s customs clearance documents for entering the Tang Dynasty.
Through the hands of a large number of merchants, Yue kiln celadon was put on ships and sailed to the Maritime Silk Roads. After experiencing turbulent waves, it traveled thousands of miles across the ocean and reached as far away as Ethiopia, Egypt, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, Oman, Iran, Iraq, and more recently India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. Using celadon as a medium, a huge trade network spanning Asia and Africa was formed between China and foreign countries.
During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Wu Yue State gave secret-colored porcelain to the Japanese royal family as a foreign affairs gift. Its route starts from Meishu and goes straight across the East China Sea to the southwest coast of Kyushu, then arrives at Hakata Port and reaches Kyoto. As soon as the secret color porcelain arrived in Kyoto, it was regarded as the most precious Tang object by the imperial family. Prince Shigemei, the fourth prince of Emperor Daigo, recorded in his “Original Chronicles” that “TianliOn June 9, the fifth year, four pieces of agarwood were folded and applied to the imperial meal, and the bottle was made of secret color. It can be imagined that the agarwood smoke rises slowly when burning agarwood, and the secret color porcelain, which is like ice and jade, adds to the elegant mood.
▲Celadon box with the inscription “Shangyakju” is collected by the National Museum of Korea.
As countries compete for Yue kiln celadon, the trend of imitating celadon overseas has emerged. Goryeo celadon produced in the Korean Peninsula has emerged in large quantities, and even has a “Goryeo secret color”, and is sold to eastern Zhejiang. The Sarutou kiln near Nagoya, Japan, produces a large number of ceramic products with shapes, patterns, and glaze colors similar to celadon. After the 9th century, even Egyptian craftsmen began to imitate Yue kiln celadon to make pottery. These imitations show that the craftsmen admired Yue kiln celadon and even raised a few chickens. It is said to be for emergencies. Sincere admiration for Chinese culture.
▲ Yue kiln secret color porcelain eight-sided pure vase, collected by the Palace Museum.
Treasure celadon will never fade under the erosion of history, and the story of the Maritime Silk Road continues.
(About the author: Wei Shijun, a doctoral candidate at the School of History and Culture, Hubei University)
(Daozhonghua WeChat public account)