Preface
The Mongols are a people on horseback, fighting on horseback, sleeping in the wilderness, drinking and eating meat, and living in pursuit of water and grass. However, once they took power, they had to settle down and rule over a vast territory.
After Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan dynasty, unified China, not only no longer lived the life of nomadic herders, but also decided to develop the navigation industry, he vigorously promoted the policy of "Tongdu mutual market", encouraged non-governmental trade, and supported the development of navigation.
Merchant ships from all over the world laden with exotic and valuable goods shuttled through the vast sea, and a new maritime Silk Road was formed.
This trade route, which ran through the East and the West, brought abundant wealth.
However, what kind of story is hidden behind this unprecedented "global purchase"? What kind of height did the Yuan Dynasty's maritime career reach?
The background to the generation of the art market in the Yuan Dynasty
At the beginning of the twelfth century, when the Song, Liao, Jin, Western Xia, Western Liao, and Dali major separatist regimes in China were competing for power, a new ethnic group, the Mongols, emerged in the northern region.
The Mongols are a powerful ethnic group that has been integrating and developing gradually in northern China. According to the records of the old Tang Dynasty and other sources, the residents of the Tang Dynasty lived in the area of the Ergun River, and the Mongolian and Mongolian Wei people, who mainly lived a fishing and hunting life, should have a direct relationship with the later Mongolian people.
In 1206, after a long period of war, the Mongol tribes held the "Kuriltai" in the difficult river. From then on, in the vast steppe of Saibei, a unified, complete and vigorous military feudal state, the Mongol Khanate, was formally formed.
After the establishment of the Mongol Khanate, it actively implemented an expansion policy, destroying the Western Xia in 1227, and in 1234 it joined forces with the Southern Song Dynasty to destroy the Jin, and then attacked the Southern Song Dynasty with the alliance, and destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty in 1279.
At the same time of breaking the gold, destroying the Xia, betraying the alliance, and attacking the Song Dynasty, the Mongolian iron cavalry drove straight to the west three times in a row, crisscrossing Central Asia and West Asia, approaching the European continent, drinking the Volga River, and raising the prestige of the South China Sea, establishing the Dayuan Dynasty with a vast territory and a prosperous and rich base, becoming the most powerful feudal dynasty in Chinese history since the Han and Tang dynasties.
Although the fate of the Yuan Dynasty was short-lived, it is undeniable that its national strength and territory were unprecedentedly strong. After the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, in order to consolidate its rule over the whole country, it made great adjustments and contributions in terms of politics, military, transportation, agriculture and handicrafts, domestic trade and overseas trade, adding vitality to the art market of the Yuan Dynasty.
An overview of the handicraft trade in the Yuan Dynasty
The rapid development of the commodity economy and the unprecedented prosperity of society and culture had a direct impact on the art market in the Yuan Dynasty, especially the handicraft trade, and the continuous, standardized and further in-depth development of the art market.
domestic trade
After the Yuan Dynasty unified the country, with the recovery and development of agriculture and handicrafts, commodity production gradually flourished. Due to the unification of government decrees, the development of transportation, post stations spread all over the place, and the social security was relatively stable, so that the north to Yilanzhou, the south to the South China Sea Island, the west to Tibet, and the east to the seashore, all of them can use a unified currency to respect the same government decree.
During this period, the flow of caravans was smooth, the scope of goods sales was increased, and the speed of sales was accelerated, which led to the acceleration of the circulation of the art market. The scope and size of the market have also increased.
With the acceleration of urbanization in some cities, the rational structure of the city, and the relatively active market economy, the art market has moved towards a sustainable and standardized development trend, and the handicraft trade has also flourished.
According to the research and research of Long Denggao's book "The Development of Traditional Chinese Markets" and relevant historical documents, the number of large and medium-sized cities in the Yuan Dynasty has significantly exceeded that of the Song Dynasty, and the scale and function of cities are also significantly better than those of the Song Dynasty.
For example, Marco Polo traveled to the capital of the Yuan Dynasty: "Around the city of Bali of this Khan, there are about two acres of the city, and the location varies from far and near, and there are merchants in each city who come here to buy goods, and build this city as a prosperous commercial city." ”
The rulers of the Yuan Dynasty actively took various measures to develop the handicraft industry, stipulating a strict management system, and allowing the existence and development of various forms of private handicrafts in addition to effectively controlling the highly restrictive government handicraft industry and "artisan households". Promote the wide distribution of handicraft sites, the rapid increase in employees, the general improvement of the level of technology, the increasing number of craft product categories, and the output of craft products has also appeared a new growth point.
Not only that, but the classification of handicrafts in the Yuan Dynasty has also become increasingly detailed and concentrated.
According to Marco Polo's records, there are dozens of markets in which a single commodity is concentrated in Yuandadu, and the distribution of various markets is becoming more and more reasonable.
As far as the art market is concerned, there are as many as eight kinds of artworks such as Zhuzi City, Shathorn Shanshan City, etc., not only there are many kinds of handicrafts, but also the Yuan Dadu has become a gathering place for handicrafts from all over the world, and merchants from all over the world have come here to operate trade, which fully enriched the domestic handicraft trade in the Yuan Dynasty.
It can be seen that Yuanda is in an important position in the commodity economy, and it is a prosperous place for domestic handicraft trade.
Compared with the bead market and other handicraft trade, the silk and porcelain trade of the Yuan Dynasty attracted more attention in the upper class and court trade.
First of all, in the silk weaving industry, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Chengdu have set up "brocade institutes" to create many new silk categories. In the government-run handicraft industry where more than 3,300 households of Huihui craftsmen from the Western Regions are concentrated in Yuanyang, Hebei and Zunmalin, Hongzhou, Hebei, and Wanduo, there is still a kind of Jinqi that is mixed with gold thread and pasted with large and small pearls, which is called "Na Lost Jin".
This kind of brocade is extremely difficult to produce, exquisite and gorgeous, with extremely high artistic appeal, and is welcomed by the upper class society as well as domestic and foreign markets. It is recorded in the "Travels of Marco Polo": "There are thousands of cars that enter the city every day. This silk was used to make a lot of gold brocade silk and several other items. ”
Secondly, in terms of porcelain production, due to the implementation of the "craftsman household" (official craftsman and military craftsman system, the continuous increase in the amount of porcelain required by all strata of a strong unified country, the establishment of the "Dadu Four Kilns", the establishment of the Jingdezhen "Fuliang Porcelain Bureau", the rapid increase in export porcelain, and other factors, the kiln field has been numerous, the demand for craftsmen has increased, the number of large-scale new utensils has been increasing, the scale of production has generally expanded, and the firing technology has become more and more mature.
All this made the porcelain of the Yuan Dynasty sprung up on the strong foundation of the fragrance and charm of the previous generation, and produced a new leap. Among them, the most influential is blue and white porcelain.
In 1278, a year before the fall of the Southern Song capital, the new emperor set up the Fuliang Porcelain Bureau to oversee the production of imperial porcelain in Jingdezhen, the first time a Chinese monarch had appointed a commissioner to take charge of such matters. The Porcelain Bureau was subordinate to the Shosho Academy, which specialized in the procurement of luxury goods for the palace, and by 1295 the number of staff had quadrupled. Foreigners, especially Persians, led the business of the institute.
They sent all kinds of tapestries embroidered drapery, military flags and motif decorations of imperial robes to Jingdezhen for potters to decorate porcelain. They also provide oxidation drills for use in official kilns.
It can be seen that the blue and white porcelain of the Yuan Dynasty was developed in the early stage, and the patronage of the imperial court was indeed indispensable. The emergence and development of blue and white porcelain in the Yuan Dynasty was the result of the impact of Song porcelain on Southwest Asia.
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, China and Southwest Asia began to have unprecedented contact with the ornamental traditions, and the Chinese flowing space and the geometric layout of Southwest Asia met and learned from each other.
Overseas trade
During the Mongol and Yuan dynasties, the cultural exchanges between China and the West were unprecedentedly active, and the cavalry of Genghis Khan and his descendants swept across the Eurasian continent along the steppe Silk Road, establishing the four khanates of Ögedai, Chagatai, Kipchak, and Yier and the Yuan Dynasty, connecting the Eurasian continent as one.
The famous capital of the Yuan Dynasty and the capital of Shangdu became the place where caravans from all over the world gathered. "Marco Polo's Travels" recorded: "Upper Capital City: Huang Qianshe District, sunrise of strange goods. Dialects slander each other, and powder becomes primary. The opening is cool, talking and laughing.
As far as overseas trade cities are concerned, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Quanzhou, Qingyuan (Ningbo, Shanghai and other medium-sized cities) are all important trading ports open to the outside world with municipal shipping divisions and lifting divisions, showing their unique charm.
Among them, Quanzhou, known as the first port of foreign trade, mainly exports porcelain and silk, and imports cloves, beans, pepper, diamonds, and jewelry.
The above-mentioned ports played an extremely important role in the overseas trade of the Yuan Dynasty, and the overseas trade areas they linked were from Korea and Japan in the east to the coast of Africa in the west, and there were many official documents, and there were words such as "return to the fields" and "analyze the capital and fields". And the overseas trade of the Yuan Dynasty, the most important was the export of porcelain and silk.
The main means of trade circulation was done through the Silk Road.
The Silk Road is a peaceful road connecting the East and the West and leading to the rest of the world, promoting the economic prosperity and development of countries along the way, and enhancing mutual understanding and friendship between countries. It is precisely because of the special function and great role of the Silk Road that it shoulders the important historical mission of developing the economies of various countries.
China is the clan country of the Silk Road, because a large number of Chinese silk fabrics are exported, mostly through Chang'an to the west, so later generations call it the "ancient Silk Road". The overland trade routes to South Asia, West Asia, and Europe are known as the "Overland Silk Road".
The sea passage connecting the Americas and Africa from the sea is known as the "Maritime Silk Road". There were also trade routes through the steppes or deserts, also known as the Steppe Silk Road".
During this period, "Genghis Khan ordered the Mongol kings, nobles, high-ranking generals, and concubines to select two or three cronies to form a huge Mongol caravan to trade in Khorezm." The Mongol caravan was large, with more than 400 men and more than 500 camels, carrying valuable goods such as gold, silver, silk, camel hair products, beaver furs, and panther skins. ”
From this, we can clearly understand the importance that the Yuan Dynasty attached to overseas trade, and most of the goods traded were handicrafts, and the quantity and beauty of the items were breathtaking.
In the Yuan Dynasty, Changchun Zhenrenqiu took the opportunity to record what he saw on the way from China to Central Asia. Chinese artisans can be found everywhere in Samarkand, and most of the household utensils there are made of brass, red copper, and porcelain. ”
The economic exchange of handicrafts between China and the West is far more than that, and the rich clouds originating from the bronze ornaments of the Shang and Zhou dynasties in China were also introduced to the West through Central Asian and Chinese silk cloth patterns during the Mongol and Yuan dynasties, and appeared in Persian pottery and stone carvings.
Persian craftsmen from Chinese embroidery, Mongolian carved saddles, copied the dragon and phoenix decorations, with their own lion heron sphinx, it can be seen that the handicrafts of the East and the West learn from each other, and the greater significance is that the cultural exchanges brought by the handicraft trade promote the spiritual exchange and cultural integration. Another thing that came to the West through the Silk Road was porcelain.
Export porcelain also accounted for a large proportion of the handicraft trade in the Yuan Dynasty, but the amount of Chinese porcelain shipped through the Silk Road was limited, with a few exceptions. Most of the porcelain carried west by the camel caravans remained in the Islamic world, which became a major export market for Chinese goods.
Large quantities of porcelain were often sent by sea vessels to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. The Southwest Asian market is easily absorbed in the nearest market. And if Europeans wanted to get porcelain, they had to go to its source, China.
In the time of Marco Polo and Dante, porcelain was unique in the West, a phenomenon that proves that in the world system controlled and operated by the three major powers of Muslim trade, the Mongol power, and the Chinese economic power, the West was only a sleeping territory.
Today's famous vase, known as the "Tehir Vase of the Gueneeres", is one of the few porcelain pieces that reached the West during the Mongol period, and what a noble status it achieved there.
epilogue
The Yuan Dynasty was a dynasty of great unity and integration, with a vast territory, a splendid culture and a prosperous economy. With its broad mind, it accommodates all cultures, and with its flexibility and adaptability to meet the needs of countries and their own economies.
Actively absorb the economic development system of all dynasties, integrate their own economic characteristics, actively formulate a correct economic development route, encourage the development of handicrafts and agriculture, and attract merchants from all over the world with favorable economic policies, hoping to attract merchants to bring the goods they need and desire to their barren grasslands, and inject a trace of fresh blood into the economy of the Yuan Dynasty.
The Silk Road also played a crucial role in the prosperous trade exchanges of the Yuan Dynasty, the most active being the Grassland Silk Road.
In terms of porcelain, the successful development of blue and white porcelain in the Yuan Dynasty is the most wonderful stroke for the development of Chinese porcelain and even the world's porcelain, which enriches the handicraft trade of the Yuan Dynasty and makes it a splendid scenery in the handicraft trade of the Yuan Dynasty.