"Mindu Porcelain Language"
Author: Jian Shui
One
From the faltering and barbaric times to today, how many secrets of mankind are hidden in the dust of time. Underground mausoleums, deep-sea shipwrecks, in the many elements of deciphering the code of human development, stone tools, oracle bones, bronze, ceramics... Especially in China, an ancient civilization known for "china", pottery or porcelain, those clay that was reborn in nirvana in the burning flames, like an indispensable gene carrying national information, remained in the ancient world.
Sixty years ago, at the beginning of 1954, in Tanshi Village, Sugarcane Town, Minhou County, about 20 kilometers away from the provincial capital Fuzhou, villagers repairing the embankment to fetch soil found a large number of white clam shell accumulation layers, and the subsequent stone tools, pottery spinning wheels, pottery pieces, etc. appeared to remind the magic of this time. In the past 60 years, there have been 9 archaeological excavations, and this rectangular low hill has been used as a thick ancient book, which has been read page by page, revealing the long history of Min culture. Those ash pits, pottery kilns, trenches, more than 80 tombs from the late Neolithic to the Shang Zhou, and a large number of precious cultural relics depict the vicissitudes of about 3,000 to 5,500 years ago, recording the traces of the "Tanshishan culture" along the way.
Since the 1920s, in Yangshao Village, Shichi, Henan, many faience pottery painted with exquisite decorative patterns have been published in fieldwork, which has splendidly caused the entire archaeological community, so that the Yangshao culture, an important Neolithic culture in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, is also known as the faience culture. As one of the most typical Neolithic cultural relics in southeast China, the pottery that appeared in the Fuzhou Tanshishan site is also full of amazing fine products.
In 2012, the World Expo with the theme of "Vibrant Oceans and Coasts: Resource Diversity and Sustainable Development" was held in Yeosu, South Korea, and during the "Fujian Activity Week", the window of the Marine Culture Corridor of the China Pavilion showed the audience three "provincial treasures" from Fujian: "China's First Lamp", "Submarine Cable" and "Lucky Ship" models. The first national first-class cultural relic, "China's First Lamp", comes from Azukuishi Mountain.
The tower-style clay pot with a height of 28.6 centimeters, with a conical handle on the top and a pot-shaped bottom, is the only strangely shaped clay pot excavated from Neolithic tombs in The country.
Threaded pottery, glazed porcelain beans... The most interesting thing is the variety of soup pots. Fuzhou people are famous for their love of drinking soup, and the stew pot soups that are made of their own methods at folk banquets are appetizing to think of. Mindu's chief dish "Buddha Jumping the Wall", dozens of raw materials simmered in one altar, the thick soup is overflowing, so it is also known as "full altar incense". Customs have been around for a long time and seem to be supported here. The large and small clay pots excavated from the Azukuishi mountain site can be said to be the ancestors of modern casseroles, reproducing the eating habits of the ancestors who paid attention to soup and water during their lifetime.
The Azushiyama Site Museum, built on the site today, is the first large-scale archaeological site museum in Fujian Province. In the Archaeological Site Hall, part of the site of the 8th excavation, tombs, pottery kilns and trenches that have been mixed with the soil, etc., lead visitors to history under the cold light.
Pottery that once changed the original state of human beings "drinking blood" has now become a key to open the heavy door of history. Shapes, ornaments, craftsmanship, etc., reveal the secrets of change. Similar pottery pieces have been found in the Pingtan Shell Mound Culture and the lower bottom of the Azushiyama site, which is about 5500 to 6000 years old. Taiwan's earliest Neolithic culture, the Daxiaokeng culture, is very similar to the mainland shell hill culture of about the same period, and the pottery is printed pottery. Taiwan's Fengbitou culture is comparable to the Azushishan culture, and the craftsmanship level of the two pottery is so similar that it seems to be brothers in blood. There is also the mysterious Austronesian language family scattered on the vast ocean, in November 2010, the descendants of the South Island language family in Polynesia in the South Pacific, thousands of miles away, crossed the ocean to shell hills and azukuishi mountains to find their roots. Link by link, how are chains connected together?
Two-thirds of the Azushiyama site remains unexcavated. In the long divine state, how many ceramics guard the secret of the maker lie quietly underground, looking forward to the sudden review of future generations. Maybe one day, inadvertently, a humble piece of pottery will burst out of the earth and bring more stories.
Two
On the afternoon of September 22, 2014, the elevator renovation project in a residential area of Cangshan, Fuzhou, was stepping up, and when the workers in front of Building 6 of the community were digging a deep pit, they unexpectedly met several large green bricks with copper coins. A few days later, an ancient tomb from before the middle of the Tang Dynasty was excavated by the joint archaeological team of the province and the city, and more than 30 excavated artifacts that have been cleaned out include ming artifacts made for burial and objects for daily use. Pottery and porcelain of different shapes and sizes include pan pots, four-series pots, amphora jars, yantai, Boshan stove, incense burner, and various types of dishes and plates, which are quite exquisite. A miniature ceramic stove about 30 cm long and about 10 cm high is "cute" and exquisite, with two pots on the top and a closed door shovel. Experts say that those large and small bowls and cups are tea sets, and boshan stoves and incense burners are used to incense.
It is conceivable that this tomb owner was rich before his death, and he had a lot of interest in life and loved to drink tea. Five Cups - The round tea tray is equipped with 5 small tea bowls, and there is no shortage of people today. A cup of tea, clear smoke, from the celadon incense burner decorated with flying phoenixes scattered around, such a elegant enjoyment who can give up? No wonder you have to take it with you after you die. There are not many written records on the historical development of Fujian in the Tang Dynasty, but these vessels vividly show the scene of life at that time, which is a rare research object.
Fujian, which is rich in tea, has a long tea culture, and the tea set also performs a wonderful performance in the middle. The black glazed rabbit of the jian kiln is famous in the world, and the "Tang Wu Tea Entry" of the origin of Mindu is also eye-catching. This small clay pot with tea powder thin tire sauce glaze is regarded as a rarity in the Japanese tea ceremony world. When objects are given a spiritual symbol, there are always some incredible events happening in history. It is said that 500 years ago, during the Sengoku period in Japan, small strong tea pots from China were not only status symbols for the upper class, but also even triggered conquests. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of the three warring states that unified Japan for the first time in modern times, rewarded the "Tangwu tea into" to the generals who had distinguished themselves in battle, and his own tea into the "Kitano eggplant" has always been regarded as a national treasure of Japan.
For a long time, the life of "Tang Wu Cha Into" was buried in the wind and dust of the years. Since the 1990s, a large number of Song Dynasty thin tire sauce brown glazed pottery, pots, bottles, boxes, bowls, lamps, water injections, pots, aromatherapy, pots, etc., have been found in the ancient ruins of Fuzhou, and the largest number of small pots of various types has been found. The shape, tire quality, glaze color and craftsmanship of these thin tire sauce glazed clay pots are almost the same as those of the Japanese "Tang Dynasty Tea Entry" passed down from generation to generation, and the finest is extremely fine, generally the tire thickness is only about 2 mm, and the miniaturizer is only 1 mm, which is a typical representative of Fuzhou ceramic art in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. As more and more specimens have been published, it is shown that the Hongtang kiln site in Hongtang Village, Hongshan Township, Fuzhou, is one of the sites where such pottery was fired.
There should be other fuzhou ancient kilns that have also fired this kind of tea heavy equipment. Perhaps from those ancient kilns, there are more fine works that are not yet known. There used to be so many ceramic kilns burning in the middle and lower reaches of the Minjiang River. Not far from the Hongtang pottery kiln site, there is a Huai'an kiln. The Pukou kiln in Lianjiang, the Dongzhang kiln in Fuqing, the Eunxi kiln in Beifeng, and the existence of a large number of ancient kiln sites found in Minhou, Mawei, Lianjiang, Luoyuan and other places prove that the ceramic industry in Mindu was once prosperous.
When it comes to Min porcelain, it is impossible not to mention minqing. Compiled and published in the 1990s, the Chronicle of Minqing County, a total of 36 volumes, was listed as one of them, and the ceramics were listed as one of them, and occupied the 10th volume quite high. The types of porcelain produced include daily coarse porcelain, daily fine porcelain, art porcelain, building materials porcelain, electric porcelain, electronic industrial porcelain, etc., covering the entire family of ceramic products. The ancestors should have long ago used the extremely large amount of kaolin (porcelain clay) in this area, and the ancient pottery pieces found date back to the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. The scale of ancient kilns in the county is so large that there are kiln sites piled up on the hills from the edge of the Minjiang River to Dongqiao Town, and only about 10 kilometers of Yiyao, Qingyao, Da'an and Anrenxi in Dongqiao Town, about 100 ancient kiln sites have been found on more than 20 hills. In 2007, CCTV broadcast a program entitled "The Mystery of Entering the Fuzhou Yi Kiln", which recorded one of the important production areas of blue and white porcelain in the Song and Yuan dynasties in China - the Minqing Ancient Kiln, whose kilns and products have quite a personality and are named "Minqing Kiln". To this day, ceramics is still the most distinctive industry in Minqing, as one of the important production bases of glazed tiles in the country and the largest export base of electric porcelain in the province, it is still worthy of the title of "Porcelain Capital". Those beautiful and practical glazed tiles may have been quietly embedded in the floor and walls of your new home, and you can enjoy the richness of the soup and the tranquility of the tea with the owner.
Emperor Shangao's distant Fujian did not have a magnificent imperial kiln, and the fukuju people's kilns were everywhere, firing mostly daily products. Speaking of which, among the utensils created by human beings, there is no more "up the hall, down to the kitchen" than ceramics, and the large vat of pickled pickles and the exquisite vase are not contradictory. Countless cups and pans and pots and pans enter the homes of ordinary people, bringing warmth and happiness in ordinary life. Fuzhou's ceramics not only meet the needs of local residents, the historical export of Shanghai, but also become the heavy carrier of the Hai Silk Road, in the process of casting the Sino-foreign exchange chain, so deep and extensive, hooking countless overseas people.
Three
The great Confucian Zhu Xi once wandered around Bamin and sighed with regret. Among the surviving chapters are the two poems "ShiQi River Trip" and "Late Hair Huai'an", both related to Huai'an (formerly known as Huai'an) at the northwestern tip of Nantai Island in the Fujian capital. "Stop the Stone Pass Hall and untie the cable to clear the riverside." "Hang up the sails and look at the smoke, and dress up and say goodbye." He lingered here at least twice, not only leaving behind poems, but also leaving the word "Taro Yuan" in the ink list book "Taro Yuan" at a post station near Huai'an Taro Yuandu.
At least twice, and perhaps more, the famous Northern Song Dynasty theorist came to Huai'an, a place where the Mountain of Qi, so called "Stone Pass", was located. The Minjiang River, which came from the river, was split by the Mountain into the Bailong River (now known as the Minjiang River) and the second stream of the Wulong River; the river surface was open, and it was an important wharf for overseas goods and goods in the upper and lower reaches of the Minjiang River to be transferred through Fuzhou before the Yuan Dynasty. Whether it is to go to Tong'an as the main bookkeeper, or to return to the hometown of jianyang Wufuli where the lotus root is fragrant, the waterway is the most convenient and safe at that time, and Zhu Zi, who comes and goes, must stop in Huai'an. In that "boat and navigation gathering", as an important node of the Maritime Silk Road, there is an endless stream of ships going south into the sea and tracing the counties in the north. Wang Yingshan of the Ming Dynasty recorded in the "Record of Mindu": "At the head of the Shiqi River. Southbound to public opinion, north to boat. Imperial envoys came and went. "It was exactly the scene that was busy at that time.
The bustling ferry terminal is not only Huai'an. Water is the blood of the ancient and modern capital of Fujian. The Minjiang River meanders, up to the babbling stream, down into the gushing East Sea, and the waterway is engraved on the earth. Whether it is a estuary or a bay, the fleet of ships traveling from the south to the north is full of goods, and it is from the port docks where the boats are connected, that they are transported to other provinces and sail to the world. For example, the Xing Port of Min'an, such as the Changle Taiping Port where Zheng He stopped in the West seven times.
Similar to the Huai'an kiln, fuzhou's ancient kilns are mostly located at the ferry port, and you can go boating along the water when you leave the kiln. Heavy and fragile, in the ancient times of difficult transportation, what could complete the long trade journey of ceramics better than the convenient and economical waterways? The Minjiang waterway that goes straight to the sea is connecting a ceramic export route, and even the products of the whole kiln are shipped far away. Neighboring jiangxi province, Jingdezhen ceramics also choose shortcuts, with a shorter land route from the Xinjiang River system to the upper reaches of the Minjiang River, down the river out of the Minjiang estuary into the sea. In 2005, the underwater archaeology of "Bowl Reef No. 1" in pingtan sea area found more than 10,000 pieces of fine blue and white porcelain in Jingdezhen during the Qing Kangxi Dynasty, witnessing this historical process, and CCTV and Fujian Radio and Television Group broadcast the underwater archaeology of "Bowl Reef No. 1" for 6 consecutive days.
China's once glorious maritime history has left a rich underwater cultural heritage, which began in 1987 and has obtained a large number of precious underwater cultural relics in the past 20 years, mostly export porcelain. Lianjiang Dinghai Bay is the maritime gateway of the ancient Fuzhou Port, one of the transit stations of coastal trade, the archaeology of the ancient shipwreck in Dinghai is an earlier underwater archaeological project in China, and about a thousand pieces of black glazed cups from the water are initially believed to be fired in the Fuzhou area during the Song and Yuan Dynasties; a batch of blue and white porcelain bowls in the same sea area may also be produced from the Minqing Yi kiln, the Tingjiang long handle kiln, the Fuzhou Eunxi kiln and so on.
In that year, there were three merchant shipping routes from Fuzhou, one to Japan, one to the Nanyang Islands via Penghu, and the other to Southeast Asia and the Persian Gulf and East African coasts via Guangzhou. The route has repeatedly discovered ancient shipwrecks, and there are always Chinese ceramics on the shipwrecks, and the figure of Fuzhou kilns is always flashed in the ceramics. In a sense, the Maritime Silk Road is more like a ceramic road, and the ceramic products that have not yet reached their destination, completely broken, are still quietly anchored in the deep-sea shoals, laying a bridge of human exchange that will never fade.
Are the ceramics who have successfully crossed the ocean in a foreign country? In the Philippines, in Malaysia, and in many parts of the world, ancient ceramics related to Fuzhou have been discovered in recent years. One of the ancient construction experts who has worked in Southeast Asia for more than 30 years is Changle Overseas Chinese, who is enthusiastic about collecting Chinese export porcelain and has found more than 300 pieces of porcelain, including a Tang Dynasty sauce glaze jar from a village near the Strait of Malacca. Interestingly, when the villagers speak here, the pronunciation of individual words is similar to that of Fuzhou dialect. Under the inquiry, Fang knew that the ancestors of these people came from Fuzhou to cross the sea. Among the objects carried by the ancestors is this Tang Wu dynasty sauce glaze jar about 60 centimeters high.
After years of use, the glaze has shed a lot of sauce glaze jars, and the stains of the years are now back home. I would like to ask the ancient construction expert, do you know which kiln the sauce glaze jar is produced from? What words heard in a foreign village can be polished for a long time and still have their local pronunciation unchanged? The Chinese who lived in the Strait of Malacca, and whose ancestors boarded the ship from which dock in Mindu, was it Huai'an that Zhu Xi had repeatedly lamented?
If Mr. Zhu had traveled to Huai'an, he would not have recognized his former appearance. In the 1990s, when exploring the birthplace of "TangWu Tea", researchers asked the vendors that the source of the broken thin tire sauce glazed small jars placed in the stalls was the Huai'an Wharf. Explorers picked up pieces of the stone crevices of the ancient pier, rode their bicycles along the river, and even went up the river to Azukuishi Mountain, where vendors had also picked up some. Around that time, the villagers of Huai'an Ancient Village began to migrate to their new homes a few kilometers away. The pace of urban development is fast, and a large number of brand-new properties are already standing. In the dark of night, the rich fragrance of osmanthus flowers in the Huai'an Conference Center floated across the street and drifted to the river. The ancient official road on the riverside still exists, and the horizontal chisel grooves carved for anti-slip on the long stone are clearly visible; two modern carved antique stone people, as if welcoming your arrival, take a walk and take a look, expressing a bit of nostalgia.
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