Bringing artifacts to life
Let the culture pass on
There are tall buildings in the floating clouds
In the historical exhibition hall on the second floor of the Cangzhou Museum, there is a green glazed pottery building from the Eastern Han Dynasty. The terracotta building has three floors, each of which can be disassembled, with densely arranged tiles on the top and cirrus pattern tiles. The tail end of the one to three layers of vertical ridge is curved and upturned. Each floor is subdivided into two layers, with a parapet on the top, a balustrade wall underneath, and a bucket arch under the eaves.
Tao Lou was popular in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, and gradually declined to the Western Jin Dynasty, belonging to tomb ceremonial supplies, that is, Ming utensils. Why did the Eastern Han Dynasty appear and popular pottery such a bright ware? There are several reasons for this:
The first is the realistic construction technology and trend development. The Han Dynasty was on the rise of feudal society, and people's enthusiasm for building tall buildings promoted the development of building technology. In the Qin and Han Dynasties, high-platform architecture was popular, with soil piled up as a platform and a hall on the platform; by the Western Han Dynasty, high-platform architecture gradually developed into a pavilion building; to the Eastern Han Dynasty, the transition from a high-platform building to a pavilion building was completed. The realistic pavilion architecture laid a solid foundation for the production of the Ming pottery building.
The second is the concept of "miniature" bright instruments. The "Xunzi Ritual Treatise" says: "The instrument is not effective, and the appearance of the instrument is not used." All ceremonies, deeds, and ornaments; sending death, decorating mourning also..." In the funeral ceremony, the apparatus that is displayed and not used is to "mourn" and "the righteousness of death and life." The miniature artifacts hidden in the tomb are the medium for communicating life and death, expressing the funeral idea of "death as a matter of life", and also reflecting the Han Dynasty's concept of life and death.
The third is the concept of filial piety in which things die as if they were born. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Confucian thought of the scholar class has gradually been internalized into the moral cultivation of all strata of society and externalized into the consciousness of action. The "Treatise on Salt and Iron" points out that "although there is no heart of mourning, those who bury heavy coins are called filial piety." Filial piety is expressed in the abundance of materials in the funeral, and the car clothes, ceremonial utensils, etc. have strict requirements for the level of the tomb owner himself and cannot be surpassed. Therefore, pottery towers and other ming instruments that express the wealth, power, and idle life scenes of the scholar class began to become popular.
The fourth is the religious idea of "immortals living in a good building." The images of immortals in the Spring and Autumn Period and before were mostly isolated innate gods; during the Warring States period, fangshi mostly used immortality and longevity as the symbol of immortals; since the Han Dynasty, the imagination of cultivating immortals, ascending immortals and becoming immortals after death has begun to flourish. Emperor Wu of Han was good at asking for immortals, and Gongsun Qing said: "Immortals are visible, but they are usually invisible, so they are not seen." Now His Majesty can be observed, such as the city of the Miaoshi, the jujube, the gods and men should be able to cause. And the immortals are good at living in the building. "It can be seen that tall buildings are tools to attract gods, to approach gods, and to become gods. Therefore, the pottery tower, which can be "ascended to the far horizon" and "ascended to the same level as the floating clouds", has become a hiding place for the soul to reach the world of immortals after death, pinning on the religious desire of the ancients to become immortals after death.
The popularity of Han Dynasty architectural mingware, represented by the tao lou, was a turning point in the ancient tomb ritual culture. From the early development of practical utensils for life to the stage of making ming utensils for funerals, this custom has had a profound impact on future generations. To this day, the "paper building" is still burned when funerals are held in some areas, and it has to be said that the Han Dynasty pottery building is its indiscriminate pursuit.
Author Lu Qingyuan