Teacher Zhao Lin of the Department of Cultural Relics and Museology of Fudan University brought us a lecture on "Lu Ning Jin Li Li Li" Tang Dynasty Living Utensils". Teacher Zhao Lin took the use of the utensils that appeared in the "Twelve Hours of Chang'an" as a clue, combined with the cultural relics excavated from the underground palace of Famen Temple and the cellar of HeJia Village, revealing the beauty and wisdom hidden in the tang dynasty living utensils. This review will bring you the key dry goods in the teacher's lecture!
Opening
Yang Xin, academic research manager of the museum, briefly introduced the development history and overview of ancient Chinese glass before the Tang Dynasty. The Feons pipe beads excavated from the tombs of some nobles in the Western Zhou Dynasty are the prototypes of ancient Chinese glass. From the Warring States to the Han Dynasty, dragonfly-eyed glass beads were popular and were the first peak of glass development in ancient China. The theme of "imitation jade" was clearly established in the Han Dynasty, which influenced the aesthetic interest and orientation of ancient Chinese glass production. Due to the influence of the Silk Road, the development of glassware during the Wei and Jin Dynasties reached a second peak. There are two clues to the development of ancient Chinese glass: one is soda-lime glass from the Western world, and the other is lead barium glass in ancient China. The exotic glassware was exquisitely made and became the favorite of the upper class at that time.
Teacher Zhao Lin introduced three kinds of drinking utensils to the audience, such as goblets, multi-curved long cups and screw cups, as well as two kinds of wine containers, Hu bottles and Tiliang pots; and two kinds of incense vessels, sachets and fox incense burners, the latter also called lion incense burners. Among them, the beam pot and the fox incense burner have not been fully explained due to time reasons, and will be decomposed next time.
Blue glass goblet (collection of Shokura-in temple in Nara, Japan)
The goblet of the drinker
The shape of the goblet is characterized by: the high foot part is long, easy to hold, there is a bead-like bulge in the middle of the foot, and the middle earth calls it "abacus bead" - named for the shape, and the outside of the utensil is decorated with decal.
The Goblet originated in ancient Rome and then gradually spread eastward until the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire in 1453, and the Goblet was used in Eastern Europe for a long time. Over the course of time, it spread to West Asia, to Persia central Asia, and then to Middle-earth. The goblets seen today are generally products of Sassanid Persia, equivalent to today's Iranian region, which was introduced from Central Asia.
Hunting pattern high foot silver cup (excavated from the cellar of He Jia Village)
In addition to glassware, a tall silver cup was unearthed in Hejia Village. The Tang Dynasty people especially loved to decorate hunting patterns. Drinking alcohol is mostly men, the Tang Dynasty is brave and martial, hunting patterns and goblets combined, undoubtedly became a very favorite theme of the Tang people.
Green Glass Twelve-Curved Cup (Collection of Shosoin, Nara, Japan)
A long cup of multi-curved drinkers
What is a multi-curved long cup? As the name suggests, the rise of the mouth along the part is like a wave, but also like a petal. There are two kinds of performance of the starting curve: one is the horizontal layering type, the wave is roughly parallel to the body and does not lead to the bottom, and the other is the longitudinal split valve type. The starting curve of the body is different, there are four, eight, twelve and so on. The multi-curved long cup was born in the Sassanid Persian region, so scholars generally call this long cup a Sassanid multi-curved long cup, which later spread to Central Asia, to Middle-earth, and even to Japan.
Multi-curved long cups, called lobed dish by British scholars, are split-petal plates, while Chinese and Japanese scholars collectively refer to them as long cups. In fact, the multi-curved long cup is the name of our people today, and the Tang Dynasty people called it 叵羅, or Polo, Buluo or Chiseled. This is the view of Mr. Sun Ji of the National Museum of China, who believes that this is a transliteration of Persian. Precisely because it is a transliteration, there will be different deviations when writing specific words, so it is normal for the Tang people to call it Polo, not falling or chiseling.
Such multi-curved long cups have also been unearthed in Hejia Village. In addition to the popular long cups, Sassanid Persia also had oval cups that were completely unflected.
Pale yellow glass tea bowl, tea saucer (Famen Temple Underground Palace)
Glass saucer (Famen Temple Underground Palace)
In the stone stele of the underground palace of Famen Temple, it is recorded that the underground palace contains a pair of glass tea bowl holders and eleven glass plates. This blue glass dish, scholars believe it is a product from Sassanid Persia, while the glass tea bowl and tea saucer are believed to be glassware made by the craftsmen of the Tang Dynasty themselves.
Eastern Jin Dynasty Nautilus Cup (Nanjing Museum)
The conch of the drinker
As the name suggests, a conch cup is a drinking vessel that uses the shell of a shellfish in the sea to hold wine and drink. Probably after the Wei and Jin Dynasties (the fourth century), with the further development of the southern region, especially the Liangguang region, some rare utensils from the Central Plains from Lingnan gradually entered the Central Plains as a southern specialty, and were regarded as treasures by the nobles in the Central Plains.
This is a Nautilus cup excavated from the tombs of the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the Nanjing area, and its shell is taken from a kind of conch in the ocean, the Nautilus. Why is this snail also called a nautilus? Zhou Qufei of the Song Dynasty explained in the "Answer to the Lingwai Dynasty": "There is a sleep resembling a parrot... The Parrot Cup. "It's about the shape of the conch, like a sleeping parrot bird with its head buried between its wings. Today's people see the parrot cup in the ancient literature, and may think of the parrot bird, but in fact, the parrot cup often refers to the conch cup, especially this kind of conch.
The ancients also took the Nautilus cup to punish the wine. Because the inside of the conch is divided into small compartments one after another, the small holes are connected, the wine cannot flow out unimpeded, and if the wine cannot be drunk or punished, it is very interesting to drink.
A screw cup with amphora that appears in the play "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an"
The outside of the cup is inlaid with a layer of gilded copper hoops, and there are two ears on both sides, which are taken from ancient Chinese ear cups. The ear cup is a very old wine vessel in China, which has appeared in large quantities since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States. What is the origin of this type of ear cup? There is a more mainstream saying that "cup" is "thrown". Ancient people drank water, went to the stream and picked up the water with both hands, and then brought it to their mouths and called it drinking. When doing the action of holding water, the thumbs are just on the sides of the hands, so some people say that the ears next to the ear cups are actually imitating the shape of the thumbs. Mr. Luo Zhenyu believes that the feather in the ancient literature also refers to the ear cup, because the cup ear resembles the wings of a bird and is named for the feather. Ancient texts have long mentioned yuqin, such as "Chu Ci Summoning Souls" "Yao pulp honey spoon, real feather coveting." After Ban Jieyu fell out of favor in the Book of Han, she "drank yu and sold her worries". Feathers and multi-curved cups have some similarities in shape, both are oval long shapes.
Eastern Roman gilt gold and silver pot (excavated from the tomb of Li Xian in Guyuan, Northern Zhou)
The bottle of the wine container
Along the Silk Road into Middle-earth at different historical times. After the Hu bottle was introduced to China, because it came from Hudi and came from the Hu people, the Tang people called it Hu bottle, probably because it had a sharp mouth, and the Tang people also called it a crane mouth bottle.
The bottle is also a very common utensil in Eurasia, it can be used to hold wine, water, horse milk and goat milk, a multi-purpose, is a very common instrument at that time.
Tang Dynasty blue glazed phoenix head dragon handle pot
In addition to gold and silver and glazed vessels, Hu vases also appeared on ceramics in the Tang Dynasty. In this bottle, the craftsman added his own creativity to turn the original smooth handle into the shape of a dragon, and the crane beak part was made into a phoenix head.
The bottle can make a variety of different deformations, such as the appliqué phoenix vase collected in the Tokyo National Museum and the decal pot in the British Museum, the prototype of these two artifacts may be a crane-billed bottle, but inspired by the phoenix head or the local shape, the craftsmen have made different changes.
In the Song Dynasty, there are still some relics of the crane mouth bottle, such as this one, which is a wine note on the top and a warm bowl on the bottom, which is used as a match.
Tang Dynasty gilded double moth cluster pattern skeletonized silver sachet (unearthed from the underground palace of Famen Temple)
Sachet of incense vessels
The "Clothing Account" of the underground palace of Famen Temple records: "Two sachets weigh fifteen, two or three points. "This small incense vessel and incense are recorded as sachets, and the name sachet was very popular in the Tang Dynasty, also called it incense ball.
In the Tang Dynasty's "All The Sutras and Sounds", it is explained that "the sachet bearer, the incense burner is also a round vessel." Ingenious organs, turning but not tilting, so that the inner constant peace. "There are mechanisms in the sachet, and if you roll like a ball, the inside will always remain horizontal."
Two pieces, one large and one small, excavated from the underground palace of Famen Temple, are decorated with flowers and moth patterns. On one side there are live rings that connect the upper and lower hemispheres, and on the other side there are hooks nested, which are opened when the spices are placed in.
Sachets appeared in the Han Dynasty, but the physical objects did not survive. In Sima Xiangru's "Beauty Endowment", it is said that "the golden bow [zā] incense, the tent is hanging low", and the Song people made notes on the endowment, saying that the golden bow is the incense ball. "One who can rotate between the mats." That is to say, it can be placed in the quilt and can be turned around, neither affecting the incense nor splashing out.
Gilded gold and silver sachet (unearthed at Famen Temple)
epilogue
"People sing little wine, flower dance Tang Dynasty Spring." Grass color fans three paths, the scenery moving neighbors. May it be so long that every year the phenology is new. This poem fully depicts the prosperity and prosperity of the Tang Dynasty, and the living instruments of the Tang Dynasty are also the material testimony of the spiritual outlook of the Tang Dynasty.
The lecture ends here, thank you very much for the wonderful explanation brought to us by teacher Zhao Lin, and I hope that this combing can enhance your understanding of the use of Tang Dynasty instruments.