Author: An Jiayao
Source: "Cultural Relics Heaven and Earth Monthly" WeChat public account
The original article was published in the 12th issue of Cultural Relics World in 2021
Eye pattern glass bead string, collection of Shanxi Museum (Source: Tsinghua University Art Museum)
Archaeology is an important part of history, a science that studies the history of ancient human society based on the physical objects or relics left over from ancient human activities. Today, take glassware as an example to tell the story of how archaeology studies glassware and the history behind glassware.
Glass is a man-made solid material, which is an amorphous inorganic substance that has been melted and formed. Some people also say that glass is the fourth form of matter, it is solid on the surface, very hard, but the interior is a liquid state, that is, a state in which the crystal state arrangement is not very regular.
The material of glass is very simple and very available, the main material is quartz sand (SiO2), pure sand, quartz stone are the most important raw materials. But if the quartz sand is to be melted into a liquid state, which requires a high temperature of 1700 degrees Celsius, it is difficult to reach this temperature, and there is generally no material that can be made into a crucible. Natural glass exists in nature, that is, obsidian, which was processed into small stone tools in the Stone Age. How to get natural glass? Volcanic eruptions melt the quartzite, which then slowly cools into a glassy state. However, if some materials are added artificially, the melting point of the glass can be reduced, such as adding natural soda ash (Na2CO3), grass and wood ash (K2CO3) or lead dan (PbO), which can lower the melting point of silica, especially after adding lead dan, it can be reduced to below 1000 degrees Celsius, and the quartz sand can be melted into a liquid state. When it changes from liquid to solid, it gradually hardens from very soft, and can be melted, formed and annealed to make simple glassware.
Before talking about glass, we must correct some inherent misconceptions, we often think that glass is a very modern material, such as the Forbidden City, until the end of the Qing Dynasty, the paper paste windows on the palace were gradually turned into glass. In fact, glass is one of the earliest man-made materials invented by human beings, it was first born in the Two Rivers Valley from the 25th century BC to the 23rd century BC, and it has a history of more than 4,000 years. Now when you think of glass, you think that it is a very common and invaluable material, but glass has been one of the most expensive materials in history, and the Old Testament of the Bible, Job, says that "gold and glass cannot be compared with wisdom", and glass and gold are on a par. The Old Testament of the Bible was written in the 4th century BC, so glass was still very precious at this time. In addition, glass has been a popular trade item since its birth, Chinese silk was imported into the West, and there is glass in the products that returned to China along the Silk Road, so today's lecture is titled "Silk Road and Glassware".
A brief history of glass in the world
Glass first appeared in the Two Rivers Valley, that is, mesopotamia, and now Iraq and Iran can be as early as the 23rd to 25th centuries BC. After that, egyptian glass (2000BC), Phoenician Syrian glass (850~100BC), Roman glass (100BC~AD500), Iranian Sassanid glass (AD300~700), Islamic glass (AD700~1400), Venetian glass (AD1300~1700). Now the glass is developed from venetian glass, which is the backbone of the world's glass development, and we in China are a side branch, not on the trunk.
The British Museum in London houses a piece of blue glass found in the formations of your Third Dynasty in Iraq. It looks similar in color to lapis lazuli, but it has a large number of stomata. Because when making glass to add some lime, the glass is strong, only not decalcified, but a plus lime will produce a large number of bubbles, when the glass liquid becomes solid, if the bubbles are not discharged, they are fixed in the glass material. Many ancient glass and modern glass have bubbles, but now the bubbles can be reduced to invisible to the naked eye. Glass pendants have also been unearthed in northern Iran.
From glass trim to glass containers, after more than 1,000 years of development, it can be made into very small bottles. The small glass bottle of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt is not easy to make. Wrap a metal stick with yellow mud or lime, pull the glass liquid into silk, wrap it around the metal stick, and after cooling, pull the metal stick out, because the middle is earthy, and after pulling it out, it becomes a small glass bottle that can hold perfume. Why can glass be processed for a long time? Because it has a softening process, just like we pinch the candy man, in the process of its softness, take the wire up and down, called comb in English, is like a comb, comb it, it becomes a feather-like ornament, very beautiful. This 10 cm bottle was used to hold perfume, which was a very precious thing at that time.
Glass has a variety of processing methods, you can melt the glass into a glass block, cold processing, like jade to hollow out the middle, the edge of the grinding. Glass beads in the Greek period are not the same as the Chinese style, we like round beads, they are flaky, there are holes to wear. Glass can also be made into portraits, the West has the worship of the eye, During the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt, black glass, white glass and blue glass were used to make eye ornaments and inlaid into glass figures.
Around 1000 BC, glass eyeballs were very popular on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, Central Asia, and West Asia. The Egyptian culture worshipped the eye, and they felt that the eye could ward off evil spirits, and if there was any harm to come, they could see this danger and avoid it. By making glass into the shape of an eyeball and attaching it to the body, not only the eyes in front, but also the defense in the back.
The Phoenicians were a particularly trade-savvy people in what is now Syria. They like to wear a kind of human head pendant, the glass is made into the shape of a human head, and the small pendant of five or six centimeters high is hung on the chest, which can also play a role in praying for blessings and avoiding evil. Glass can also be borrowed from the style of gold and silverware, and made into precious utensils imitating gold and silverware. There is also mosaic glass, which is to pull the glass into filaments first, stick filaments of different colors together, then cut the filaments into segments, and then heat it up, and melt it into a glassware, which is very complicated and not easy.
Roman glass refers to the 1st century BC to the 6th century AD in the Roman Empire in the territory of the Glass products, the Roman Empire territory is vast, across the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa, Roman glass is the two river basin glass, Egyptian glass and Greek glass on the basis of the development.
In the early days of Roman glass (mid-1st century BC to mid-1st century AD), glass was still a luxury enjoyed by the aristocracy, and most glassware still used the cast type pressing method, which turned it into a vessel in the model by constantly heating and pressing the glass. Now people often think that glass should be transparent, but early glass is imitation of some natural gemstones, so most of the early stained glass is opaque or translucent.
In the second half of the 1st century BC, there was a revolutionary invention of Roman glass, that is, glass blowing. Previously, no other artificial materials were blown. Take a tube dipped in the molten glass liquid, blow it into a large bubble, and then slowly cool down, and process the bubble into a glass container. The invention of the glass blowing method greatly simplified the glass manufacturing process, reduced the cost, and made it possible for glassware to be mass-produced in batches.
By the middle of the Roman glass period (1st century to the 3rd century AD), due to the popularity of the blowing method, the number of glass increased sharply, at this time some glassware continued to be a luxury used by the nobility, but another part began to become a daily necessity that ordinary people could also use. Due to the blowing method, the transparency of the glass has also increased, and the decorative methods are various.
There is a bird describer, not too big, found more, looks very beautiful. Archaeological excavations have found that the tail of this glass bottle has been interrupted, and the contents of the glass bottle are detected, which is a spice, which is actually a perfume bottle. Put the perfume inside, and then burn the tail through the high temperature, elongate and then seal the mouth, so that the perfume inside will not volatilize, and the spice is well preserved. When the noblewoman wanted to use it, break her tail and the perfume could be poured out. This is why archaeological excavations are all bottles with broken tails. During this period, glass windows also began to be used, and the glass excavated by archaeology in Pompeii, Italy, most of which was half square meters, was cast. Even urns are glass bottles. At that time, the Romans were inseparable from glass from birth to death, and newborn babies used glass bottles to make bottles, not plastic pacifiers, but metal pacifiers, and after death, the ashes were packed in glass bottles. Glassware was something that the Romans used from birth to death. Glass processing methods are also diverse, there is a mold blow, that is, after blowing glass bubbles, there is a mold, you can print patterns and letters. There are cut cups, the colorless transparent glass is processed into a gem-like, polishing out a lot of small concave surfaces, so that the glass can reflect different lights. There is also the use of glass from liquid to solid slowly hardened process, thermoplastic decoration, showing superb skills.
In 395, the Roman Empire was divided into Eastern Rome and Western Rome, and western Rome declined at the beginning of the 5th century, and after the fall of Western Rome, the glass industry also declined. Because the manufacture of glass requires a stable political environment, at that time the glass industry may be a family workshop, confidential recipes, skills to be passed down from generation to generation, the country is in turmoil, the glass industry does not say abruptly, but also greatly decayed, glassware to see very little, the quality is not high.
The Sassanids inherited Roman glass technology and also had their own style. Sassanid glassware is primitive in shape, and likes to be decorated with continuous small circles, using techniques such as cold-processed carving and thermoplastic.
Islamic glass bottles chromatic reliefs from West Asia or Egypt 10th century
In the 7th century, Islamic Arabs arose and soon occupied two glassmaking centers on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the Iranian plateau. Islamic glass craftsmanship and vessels directly inherited the Roman and Sassanid glass traditions, forming a unique style by the 9th century. Cold-working engraving, engraving, hot-working pasting, stacking, glaze and metallic gloss painting are all well developed. Because Islam does not have idolatry, its glass decoration is mostly plant or geometric.
The rise of Islamic glass was followed by Venetian glass. Venetian glass began in the 13th century, and the 15th to 17th centuries were the heyday. At that time, Venice was still a relatively independent city-state, and they solved the problem of bubbles in glass relatively well, producing colorless and transparent crystal glass, with exquisite and delicate products, novel styles, and unique styles. Venice earned a lot of foreign exchange through the glass trade, and the city of Venice was built. Venice provided many preferential conditions for glass craftsmen, such as at that time, nobles and commoners could not intermarry, but good glass craftsmen could marry the daughters of nobles, giving glass craftsmen a high social status. At the same time, Venice strictly protects the technical secrets of glass manufacturing, and whoever wants to disclose the glass formula and process can be executed. The Venetian government said that glassmaking was easy to catch fire, so it moved all the glass craftsmen and glass stoves to an island, Murano, to make glass. Up to now, if you travel, you can go to that island to see, still maintain a lot of handmade glass, there are a lot of fine products.
Although Venice was reluctant to let glass craftsmen emigrate, it could not stop the outflow of technology. At that time, Venice made money from the glass industry, and the surrounding countries also tried to attract Venetian craftsmen with better conditions and more money. For example, Bohemia is so good as Czech glass, it is brought to the north by Venetian craftsmen, so that Czech glass can develop and be unique. Venetian glass has become as pure, transparent and of very high quality as modern glass, so we say that modern glass was developed from Venetian glass.
Ii Dragonfly eyes and the origin of Chinese glass
Through archaeological discoveries, the earliest glass in China appeared in the late Spring and Autumn, all of which are associated with the nobility, and the composition is soda-lime glass, which is a dragonfly eye as soon as it appears. Dragonfly eyes are not easy to do, from glass frits to make small ornaments to glass dragonfly eyes, it takes about 1,000 years of development, but as soon as it appears in China, it is a very beautiful dragonfly eye. The sudden appearance of glass dragonfly eyes suggests that the earliest glass in China is likely to be an imported product.
Hubei Jiangling Wangshan No. 1 tomb found Yue Wang Gou Jian sword, the sword has a bird seal inscription "Yue Wang Gou Jian self-action sword", the sword grid on one side inlaid turquoise, one side inlaid with 3 pieces of blue transparent glass, after nondestructive testing, found to be soda-lime glass, also in Wu Guo's Fu Cha sword also found to use this colorless transparent glass block for decoration.
Tomb No. 1 gudui of Gushihou in Henan Province unearthed 11 glass dragonfly eyes. This tomb was fortunate not to be stolen, the owner of the tomb is a female nobleman of about 30 years old, surrounded by 17 young women, the tomb unearthed a lot of bronze, through the inscription to know that the owner of the tomb is the sister of the Song State King, married to the then Prince of Wu Guofu. Fu Cha once led his troops north, and his wife may have accompanied him, but he died in Gushi and was buried in the local area. The excavated dragonfly eyes were chemically tested and found to be the same as the dragonfly eyes in West Asia, which are also soda-lime glass. Luoyang Zhongzhou Road also has this dragonfly eye.
Everyone knows that the tomb of Zeng Houyi in Suixian County, Hubei Province, unearthed a complete set of chimes, but may not have noticed that it also unearthed more than 170 glass dragonfly eyes, which were also soda-lime glass after testing, and the size, method, arrangement and combination of beads were the same as the dragonfly eye beads excavated by the University of Tokyo in Japan in Iran. Glass eyeballs excavated from the Bak tomb group of the Luntai Group in Xinjiang from the 8th to the 5th century BC are relatively early.
By the Warring States period, such beads appeared in particular, larger in size and more beautiful. Beads are not concentric circles and often prefer to use eccentricity. After chemical testing, its composition is completely different from the glass beads of West Asia, the lead oxide used for fluxes, so it contains a lot of lead, and it is much heavier and much larger than that kind of (West Asian) beads on the hand. It is speculated that this bead from the Warring States period was copied from local Chinese ingredients.
The back of the mirror from the ancient tomb of Jingzhou is surrounded by jade, and the center is this glass dragonfly eye, which shows that its value was the same as that of jade at that time. China is a country that admires jade, so after mastering the technology of making glass, it quickly made imitations of jade with glass, such as jade bibi and sword ornaments.
It can be said that at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period and the beginning of the Warring States Period, The Glass Beads of West Asia were imported into the Central Plains of China as trade goods through the intermediaries of the Nomadic peoples of Central Asia, or imported to the southeast coast of China by sea routes. In the middle and late Warring States period, China was already able to produce glass beads that were similar in appearance to West Asia and completely different in composition, and this newly established glass industry influenced by West Asia soon merged with Chinese cultural traditions to produce imitations of jade.
So if you ask whether there was glass in ancient China, it can be said with certainty that the earliest was the late Spring and Autumn period and the beginning of the Warring States. Our glass is different from That of West Asia, like North Africa, their lake produces natural soda ash, which is the origin of soda, and the raw materials and origins of Soda in China are very few, so using lead oxide instead can also create glass that looks the same, but the composition is different.
III The Silk Road with the Importation of Glassware
In 138 BC, Emperor Wu of han sent Zhang Qian on an envoy to the Western Regions. After the opening of the overland Silk Road, Chinese silk was shipped as a commodity to West Asia and Central Asia, and at the same time brought back many things from the west, glassware is one of them. Earlier we said that nomads like to use glass beads as ornaments, and when they need food or other things, they can pick up the beads in exchange, and the glass beads follow them through Eurasia. But glass containers like glass bowls, glass bottles, transportation is not so easy, to wait until the Silk Road opened, specialized traders to transport, have to work hard to pack, can not let them break on the road. Therefore, after the opening of the Silk Road, Roman glass entered China, and in the Maritime Silk Road may have begun earlier, just mentioned wuguo, Yueguo glass block decoration, may be from the sea.
The Book of Han and Geographical Records records that "Emperor Wu sent people into the sea market Bi Liuli. "Before Zhang Qian passed through the Western Regions, he went out to sea from the current North Sea to trade. In Western literature, a Greek in the 1st century BC sailed across the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the two shores of the Indian Peninsula to write a "Journey Around the Sea of Elyséria", which talked about the location and products of China, about glassware along the Mediterranean coast, and even about the eastward transport of glass raw materials.
Guangzhou Hengzhigang Western Han Dynasty tomb, the age is almost the period of Zhang Qiantong's Western Regions, unearthed 3 pieces of blue glass bowls, may be Roman glass, non-destructive testing ingredients are soda-lime glass, and Western glass formulas are similar.
More interestingly, there is a kind of mosaic glass in Roman glass just mentioned, which was popular from 50 to 100 AD, and it was popular for 50 years, and it was found in many places along the Mediterranean coast. Jiangsu Hanjiang Ganquan No. 2 tomb excavated 3 pieces of this glass fragments, just found, did not expect it is very precious, take 1 of them to do a damage test, a test, and Roman glass composition, and then control the product at that time, know that this is a very precious mosaic glass. This tomb has been stolen many times, and the golden seal of "King Guangling of Han" was found not far from the tomb, and the King of Guangling of the Eastern Han Dynasty died in 67 AD. This kind of mosaic glass only became popular in 50 AD, and by 67 AD it had reached the hands of the King of Guangling, so this trade circulation route was very fast and the route was very clear.
It is said that the Roman glass blowing process occurred very early, appeared at the end of the 1st century BC, and the blown glass unearthed in China was later. The glass bottles excavated from the Eastern Han Tombs in Luoyang used the winding and blowing process. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, many Hu merchants gathered in Luoyang, so this kind of glass bottle was unearthed. The Golden Tomb of Balgam, Afghanistan, dating from the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD, unearthed two of these blown bottles. In this way, the route from glass along the Silk Road, through Afghanistan to China, is very clear.
Xinjiang, as a necessary crossroads of the Silk Road, has unearthed many pieces of polished Roman glass, and the Niya site has unearthed glass-shaped cups, with good transparency and decoration. The Yingpan cemetery also unearthed human face glass earrings, 1 cm diameter discs, the same ornament on both sides. It is actually cut, that is to say, mosaic glass, the glass of different colors is pulled into silk and then arranged and combined, melted into one and then cut in a section, the process is not easy. This kind of thing was originally known to have more in Alexandria, Egypt, and more than half-finished mosaic glass sticks were unearthed, but how to get to Xinjiang is very strange. In 2020, I saw this kind of face glass ornament made in southern Thailand, and I took a photo at the Khlong Thom Museum (a port from the 1st to the 6th century BC) in Krabi. Therefore, in the process of transporting this glass from west to east, the glass manufacturing technology has also been transmitted to the east, and the human face glass earrings unearthed by Niya may be made in Thailand, then transported to the mainland, and then transported to Xinjiang, this route is very far.
During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, glass was very precious, and the Western Jin Dynasty Panni specially wrote "Glass Bowl Fu", saying that "the frost is not enough to be clean, and the clear water cannot be described as clear", that is, it is very transparent and very beautiful. A glass bowl was unearthed from the tomb of Hua Fang of the Western Jin Dynasty (307) in Beijing, and Hua Fang was the wife of the governor at that time and had a higher status. The excavation briefing said that some glass fragments had been unearthed, and I took the opportunity to go to the warehouse and found that it was glassware produced by the Sassanids or the Iranian side. Later, the fragments were taken to the Archaeological Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences for restoration, and are now a first-class cultural relics of the Capital Museum. The "Glass Bowl Endowment" also says: "The Treasure of the Tribute of The Fang, the Unique Wonder of the Weizi Bowl, the Danger of the Quicksand, and the Danger of the Yueliang Ridge, the origin of which is far away." "Let's say why this glass bowl is precious, the Jiliusha is through the great desert, the Yueliangling is the Pamir Plateau, and it is from West Asia through the Silk Road."
Tomb No. 7 of Xiangshan in Nanjing (322) unearthed two carved glass glasses, both Roman glass. Because most of the tombs have been stolen, when this glass fragment was first found, many people doubted whether it was brought in by tomb robbers, and the quality of the glass pieces was quite good, similar to modern glass. At that time, I did not realize that these glasses were very precious, an important physical evidence of the east-west traffic, some thought that it was something brought in by tomb robbers, and threw it away casually, and some more rigorous archaeologists wrote a note, saying that the excavated glass pieces may be mixed in with modern products of tomb robbers. But now it seems that these things are either mixed in by tomb robbery, or are the physical evidence of precious things and traffic.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, although Chinese society was chaotic, there was a kind of atmosphere of fighting for wealth, that is, to be richer than whoever was the richest, to take out their own treasures, and to shock everyone, it was best. The Luoyang Jialan Chronicle records: "(King Hejian) Chen Changhui Clan Room, Chen Zhu treasure vessel ... From the remaining wine vessels, there are crystal bowls, agate glass bowls, and red jade bowls, dozens of pieces. The work is wonderful, there is nothing in Middle-earth, and it all comes from the Western Regions. "At that time, these glassware from the West were treasures that could show the identity of the rich and the rich.
Liaoning Chaoyang Beipiao Northern Yan Feng Sufu Tomb (415) unearthed 5 pieces of glassware, all very beautiful, the most interesting of which is the glass duck-shaped vessel, the instrument is larger, open mouth. The practice of this vessel is very similar to a fish-shaped vessel in Roman glass, which is shaped and decorated with hot work, so it can certainly be Roman glass. For example, the white glass bowl of Shosoin in Japan was transmitted to Nara through China, and the glass bowl excavated from the tomb M107 of the Northern Wei Dynasty in the southern suburbs of Datong City is also a concave ornament of this kind of carving.
As can be seen on the murals, when I was a graduate student, I had the privilege of following Professor Su Bai to see more than 400 caves in Dunhuang, and at that time, no caves were locked, and more than 80 pictures of glassware were collected. There is a painting of Dunhuang that was stolen by Bo Xihe to the British Museum, in which the circle on the glass veil looks like a black dot, which may actually be lead white, and then becomes black, and the bodhisattva's hand can be seen clearly behind the glass veil. Through the murals in Dunhuang, it can be seen that the Silk Road was also the route of the spread of glassware.
The glass bowl excavated from the tomb of Li Xian of the Northern Zhou Dynasty (569) in Guyuan, Ningxia, is the same as the bowl excavated from the Iranian plateau, which is very beautiful when excavated, and the bowl body is carved with a circular concave lens, and three circles on the back can be seen through one.
Not only were the large glass containers, but as Buddhism spread, some glass beads also came in. For example, at the site of the West Gate of the Yongning Temple of the Northern Wei Dynasty in Luoyang (516-534), 160,000 small stained glass beads larger than small grains of rice were found in the mud of the West Gate during excavations. Known as the Indo-Pacific glass beads, the beads are produced in Arikamedu, India, and their production techniques are found along the coast, from Mantai in Sri Lanka to Kuan Luk Pat in Thailand, all the way to Japan, South Korea, and even Hokkaido. In the KimHae Beizuka (1st to 3rd centuries) on the Korean Peninsula, such glass beads have been excavated from the Wuning Tomb in Baekje.
During the Tang, Song and Liao dynasties, a large number of Islamic glass was imported, and a large number of glassware were excavated from the Underground Palace of Fufeng Famen Temple in Shaanxi (874), the No. 5 Pagoda base in Dingxian County, Hebei (977), the tomb of Princess Chen Guo of Liao in Inner Mongolia Naiman Banner (1018), and the North Pagoda of Chaoyang in Liaoning (1032-1054).
In 2016, a glass pot was excavated from the tomb of a noble concubine of the Duolun Liao Dynasty in Inner Mongolia
When the Famen Temple was excavated, I was fortunate to work in Xi'an, Mr. Han Wei excavated in 1987, and in 1988 I saw the actual object and was able to study this batch of glass. I said that this batch of glass is Islamic glass, at this time many people do not understand, especially the Buddhist community is very opposed, obviously unearthed in the stupa, you say that it is Islamic glass, as if blaspheming Buddhism. In fact, it has no religious significance, it is called Islamic glass just to illustrate what was produced in that place during this period, and it is the common name of international research and dialogue. Islamic glass has been preserved intact and is rarely found in other museums around the world.
The blown-stamp Islamic glass excavated at Famen Temple is similar to the age and style of the glass excavated in Iraq. The blue geometric Patterned Islamic glass plate unearthed at Famen Temple, in the world, only the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has a remnant, which is also blue, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art excavated glass fragments at the site of Nishapur in Iran (9th century), surely this site is a glass manufacturing center, the two things are completely comparable, and Nishapur is just on the Silk Road, and the transmission route of glass is very clear. But there is a question, some of these glassware with engravings, some without engravings are plain surfaces, these glass engravings are carved before the introduction, or after arriving in China, local craftsmen carved, need to be further studied. And some glass dark blue a little red, it is likely to use the back of the green, is to use cobalt oxide as an oxidant. Glass can produce so many colors because of the different oxidants in it.
The Islamic glazed glass plates unearthed at Famen Temple, which are thought to be glazed pottery on the surface, are the same as some pomegranate vessels unearthed in Iran. It is actually colorless transparent glass, made into a glass plate with glaze painting, back to the furnace and firing again, both to heat, but also can not let the glass melt, but also so that the glaze can be fixed on the glass plate, so this glazed glass is also very precious.
A square bottle excavated from the pagoda of Jingzhi Temple in Dingzhou, Hebei (977), the bottle body is Islamic glass, the lid is not, and a silver gilded lotus lid is made when the relics are installed.
The Islamic glassware excavated from the tomb of Princess Chen Guo of Inner Mongolia Naiman Banner is also a fine product, with cold processing carved pots, plates, each pattern is like a small pyramid, and broken thin glass bottles, such thin glass if it is transported through the Silk Road is really difficult, so is this glass technology, glass raw materials in the Liao Dynasty has been able to master, made locally, this is also a question.
Hundreds of colorless and transparent glass fragments have been excavated from the Southern Han Kang Mausoleum (942) in Panyu, Guangzhou, and the restored glass bottles must have entered the Southern Han Dynasty by sea.
A bottle-in-a-bottle was unearthed during the reconstruction of the Chaoyang North Pagoda in Liaoning (Chongxi years, 1032-1054), which Roman glass began to have, and Islamic glass inherited this technique, but the gold bottle cap may have been added in China.
The Islamic glass excavated from the No. 1 Funerary Tomb of Liaozuling in Inner Mongolia is all fragments, and only a blue glass bowl is produced. Such a glass bowl can be seen on the Dunhuang painting of the Jimei Museum in Paris, France, and it is this glass bowl that is loaded with flowers on the table, and the Tehran Museum of Glass and Ceramics in Iran also has this glass bowl, the color is different, and the circle feet at the bottom are all the same.
The shipwreck of the Black Stone was transported from China to the west of Changsha kiln porcelain, sank at sea, and there are very few glassware in the cultural relics in the water, this ship is an Arab ship, and the glassware may be something that the crew carried with them.
Jiangsu Yizheng Song Tomb excavated carved flower glass vase
In recent years, the country is still unearthing glassware, such as Jiangsu Yizheng Song Tomb, Inner Mongolia Duolun Liao Dynasty Noble Concubine Tomb, etc. have been excavated, China has become an Islamic glass production area, the largest number of excavations, the most styles, the best quality of the land, the study of Islamic glass has a great effect. At the end of the darkness of the Middle Ages, Islamic civilization had a peak, and glassware played a great role in the development of his chemistry and astronomy. Glass plays a great role in the history of science and the progress of human civilization.
Four Several stages of development of China's domestic glass
The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were the birth stage of Chinese glass. Tomb No. 5 in Guwei Village, Hui County, Henan Province, unearthed a gilded silver belt hook inlaid with jade and glass.
The Han Dynasty was the imitation jade era of Chinese glass. Several pieces of glasses were excavated from the tomb of king Chu of Hanchu in Xi'an ( 128 BC ) in The North Cave of Xuzhou , which were initially reported to be jade cups , and later carefully looked at not jade cups , but lead barium glass that imitated jade. The glass ear cups and glass plates excavated from the tomb of Liu Sheng, king of Zhongshan Jing in Mancheng, Hebei (113 BC), have been chemically tested to be domestically produced lead barium glass, but they look like the jade feels very good. The blue transparent glass strip plate excavated from the tomb of the King of Nanyue in Guangzhou represents the identity, which is also lead glass.
A few years ago, the glass chime excavated from the Han Tomb in Dayun Mountain, Xuyi, Jiangsu Province, is very interesting. The owner of the tomb may be Liu Fei, the brother of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and a set of more than 20 pieces of glass woven chimes has been excavated from the tomb, and the general chimes are stone or jade chimes. Some people think that this kind of glass chime may be a bright object, but its size is larger, and there are traces of polishing for tuning on the chime, which may be practical. When glassware is used as an instrument, the sound is very unique and ethereal, and there are now bands that play exclusively with glassware.
The tomb of Marquis Hai of Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, did not unearth golden jade clothes, but unearthed glass mats (glass mats), and the glass pieces were connected piece by piece and laid on the bottom of the coffin, and under the mat were horseshoe gold and unicorn gold, which were all lead barium glass. The back of the horseshoe gold is sealed, some with jade seals, some with glass seals, also lead barium glass. At that time, glass was indeed regarded as jade, and the scope of use of glass was probably quite wide.
The Han Dynasty produced a lot of glass, but after the Han Dynasty, glass manufacturing seems to have stopped abruptly, it should be related to social turmoil, the glass manufacturing at that time may be in the hands of the government and the royal family, and the politics are unstable, and there is no such lead barium glass manufacturing, only a little small glass beads are left.
When arriving in the Northern Wei Dynasty, there is a document that is very noteworthy, and the "Biography of the Northern History and Western Regions" records: "When (Wei) taiwu was too wu, the merchants of his country (Yueshi) were jingshi, and the ziyun could cast stone into five-colored glass. So mining in the mountains, that is, the Kyoshi cast, ready, the luster is beautiful to the Western comers. It is a hall of worship, with more than a hundred people, and the light and color are reflected thoroughly, and the viewer is shocked to see it, thinking that it is done by the gods. Since then, the glass in the country has become lowly, and people have not cherished it. "Whether the Yueshi people made glass or now glazed tiles and other things, this document alone is not clear, fortunately we found some glass excavated in the Northern Wei Dynasty."
In 481, glass bowls and glass bottles were unearthed from the Northern Wei Taji (481) in Dingxian County, Hebei Province, and the blow molding method had been adopted. At that time, when Mr. Xia Nai studied this batch of artifacts, he said that this batch of things in Dingzhou may have been allocated by the Northern Wei imperial family, and the imperial family at that time was in the current Datong. In recent years, with the construction of Datong City, many tombs of the Northern Wei Dynasty have been excavated, and a number of complete glassware have been excavated, including glass bowls and blown glass bottles, and the glass composition is not completely Western soda-lime glass, and the lead barium glass of the Han Dynasty is not the same, slightly containing a little bit of lead, most of which still belong to the soda-lime glass system, and the potassium contains more. A glass pot found, like the grey clay pots unearthed in Datong, may have been made by Central Asian craftsmen in Datong using local raw materials and Western glass craftsmanship.
In the 5th century, the technique of blown glass was introduced to China from Central Asia, and most of the glassware after the Northern Wei Dynasty adopted the blowing technology. The introduction of blown glass technology is an important turning point in the history of Chinese glass.
During the Sui and Tang dynasties, domestic glass ZTE. The "Biography of He Chou in the Northern History" records: "(He) Chou bo bo tu, more knowledge of old things,...... At that time, China has long been made of glass, and the craftsmen dare not be surprised, and the thick is made of green porcelain, which is not different from the truth. "Whether He thickened glassware or green porcelain is not easy to say based on literature alone, but the excavated cultural relics can speak."
Xi'an Sui Li Jingxun Tomb (608), which is said by the archaeological community to be the tomb of Li Xiaoxiao, a 9-year-old high-ranking nobleman, has unearthed a large number of glassware. The glass box and the glass tube should be a set, and the glass box lid reported at that time did not have a button, but I saw that there were some glass beads in the report, and I found the bead-shaped button in the storeroom and put it on the lid of the box, so that it was exactly the same as the white porcelain locket unearthed from the same tomb. Therefore, at that time, the glass box lid should be buttoned. What the glass pipe is, everyone can not guess, japan's Heian period Nara Doshicho Kameda Mihozan Tomb No. 3 excavated multi-footed Yongyan and glass pipe. The glass tube and the stone together are likely to be the brush of the glass tube, and the "glass pen" mentioned in the literature may refer to this. The glass tube in Li Jingxun's tomb may also be a brush, but not for writing, the glass box may be cosmetics, with glass brush dipped in powder makeup. Li Jingxun is a 9-year-old girl and a very high-status aristocrat, so she can enjoy this kind of thing that is like a toy and can be practical.
Li Jingxun's tomb also unearthed glass eggs, glass cups and glass bottles, through non-destructive chemical testing, we were surprised to find that the glass composition is both high-lead glass and soda-lime glass. Therefore, during the Sui and Tang dynasties, both kinds of glass Chinese were manufactured.
The Sui and Tang tombs in Qin County, Guangxi Province, have unearthed glass high-handled cups. The glass bottles excavated from the tomb of Tang Litai (652) in Yunxian County, Hubei Province, are of high size, measuring 24 centimeters. Li Tai was a very favorite son of Emperor Taizong of Tang, who wrote the "Chronicle of The Land", did not fight for the throne, was relegated to Hubei, became The Prince of Pu, and died in Hubei within a few years. The tomb was stolen, and the glass bottle may have been pried away from the gold edges of the original setting, but the bottle is still beautiful. The Tomb of Tang ShiHao tan in Guyuan (669) also unearthed this particularly thin high-lead glass, which was combined with metal and glass to make glass flowers.
The Tang Dynasty also liked to make a relic bottle of glass, a set of relics, a set of copper letters in stone letters, a silver coffin in a copper letter, a gold coffin in a silver coffin, a glass bottle in a gold coffin, and a glass bottle in a glass bottle, and this practice also spread to the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Shaanxi Lintong Qingshan Temple Pagoda (741) out of the glass relics bottles, but also unearthed a lot of glass small things, together with the three color plates, some like peach shape, may be used as fruit offerings.
Although there are many glassware in the Tang Dynasty, there are not many complete vessels excavated, and the glass fish ornaments excavated from the tangximing temple site in Xi'an are complete vessels, carved with Capricorn fish ornaments, and there are holes that can be worn on the body.
The Secularization of GlassMaking during the Song Dynasty and after the Song Dynasty. The Song people's understanding of glass is relatively clear, and the "Yunlin Stone Spectrum" written by Du Xuan in the Song Dynasty records that" is: "The rubble in the water of the Xijingluo River is quite green and white, and there are five colors of spots, and the whitest one, into lead and various medicines, can be burned into fake jade or glass for use." "The whitest one is quartz stone. Su Shi made a medicinal jade cup and wrote: "Boiling white stone with molten lead, making jade really deceives itself." Polished into a wine glass, the rules of the state porcelain. In his heart, he still thought that Dingzhou porcelain was precious, and satirized the use of stones as fake jade cups.
The glass excavated from the tomb of Yang Price, the toast of Yang's toast in the Southern Song Dynasty of Zunyi, Guizhou, is indeed lead glass, and it was initially thought to be jade. The Song Dynasty liked to make some glass gadgets, made into geese, small turtles, etc., hebei Dingzhou Northern Song Dynasty No. 5 Tower excavated glass grapes. The tomb of Wang Shixian of the Yuan Dynasty in Zhangxian County, Gansu Province, unearthed a very beautiful set of toddlers.
The difference between Chinese-made glass and foreign glass, Song Cheng Dachang's "Yan Fanlu" said: "However, what China casts is different from the Western Regions, and the casting of China is very bright in color, while the quality is light and crisp, and it is cracked with hot wine." To its origin from the sea, the system is simple and blunt, and the color is also faint, and its can be different, although it is a hundred boiling soup note, and magnetic silver is no different, is the name of Fan Liuliye. ”
At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, glass appeared in China, but the name of the glass was not fixed, and it was speculated that it was called Mu Lin, Lu Li, Liu Li, Yang Sui, Sui Zhu, Cast Jade, Five Colored Jade... Various names. In the Ming Dynasty, it was called jar jade and glass, and nitrate was used as a flux, and Japan now calls glass glass. In the Qing Dynasty, in Boshan and Rongcheng, Shandong, stones were used to make glass materials, made into blocks or sticks and transported to Beijing, and then further processed into various things, and there was a material factory in Beijing.
To summarize the characteristics of China's domestic glass: lead glass is the mainstay; imitation jade products are the most; there is no development of glass practical products, mainly ornamental and religious supplies, with bright colors and thin walls.
China's ancient glass is a unique style in the history of glass in the world, which has both a certain connection and relative independence from the products of other worldwide glass production centers. Although the glass manufacturing industry did not develop into one of the major handicrafts in ancient China, since the beginning of the Warring States period, China's glass industry has been continuous, slow and developed, and has maintained exchanges with the world glass industry. Finally, a quote from the French Compendium of the History of Civilization by Fernand Braudel reads: "No civilization can survive without flow, and all civilizations are enriched by trade and the incentives of outsiders." ”
The author, An Jiayao, is a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of History
Editor: Xiang Yu
Proofreader: Water Life
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