Sri Lanka is the "pearl of the Indian Ocean", named because its territory resembles the tears of God falling on the Indian Ocean, and is only one water away from India, known as "Ceylon" in ancient times, which is the hub connecting the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. Although China is separated by thousands of miles, the Maritime Silk Road (Porcelain Road) closely links the two.
The advantage of being located in the middle of the East-West sea route made Sri Lanka an important transit point for ancient maritime trade and the main source of Chinese ceramics. Beginning in the 1920s, the sheer number, duration and quality of Chinese ceramics unearthed across Sri Lanka shocked the world.
The National Museum of Sri Lanka exhibits ancient Chinese foreign porcelain
Located in the northwest of Sri Lanka, the manta ancient port site was an important trading port until the first half of the 11th century, and a large number of Chinese ceramics found in its 9th to 10th century strata include white and green colored porcelain from Henan in the 8th to 9th centuries, Zhejiang celadon porcelain, Changsha copper official kiln porcelain dominated by Yue kilns, and green glazed porcelain from Guangdong kiln system.
Exquisite Porcelain from the Song and Yuan Dynasties was unearthed at the sites of Anuradhapura, Sikri, Polonnaruwa and other places, and the Celadon Bowl of the Southern Song Dynasty Longquan Kiln excavated in the Yepper hoover Urban Ruins 80 kilometers south of Anuradhapura in the north of Sri Lanka is perfect in terms of tone, shape and other aspects, which is really rare.
From the 14th century onwards, Galle, Sri Lanka, became an active port. In 2006, archaeologists carried out seabed salvage work in the waters near Galle and found a large number of porcelain and blue and white porcelain from the early Ming and Qing dynasties. Given that dozens of ancient Chinese shipwrecks have yet to be salvaged in the waters off Sri Lanka, the total amount of Chinese porcelain unearthed in Sri Lanka continues to increase. Among the many cities connected by the Maritime Silk Road, the discovery of Sri Lanka is only a small microcosm of this "porcelain road", and for a long time, from East Asia to Southeast Asia, West Asia, and even Africa, Europe, and the Americas, from the Tang Dynasty in the 9th century to the Opium Wars in the 19th century, the East-West trade of Chinese porcelain has always run through it.
The fragments of Chinese ceramics scattered around the world include white porcelain with a white and smooth surface, beautiful blue and white porcelain, yuezhou kiln porcelain, black brown glazed porcelain and famous blue and white porcelain with a strong pattern engraved in the blue and yellow color. They lie there silently, like living mirrors, waiting to be discovered, to find the era when the whole world was crazy about it.
"The pottery bowl is as crystal clear as a glass"
Chinese porcelain as an important trade commodity export, began in the late Tang Dynasty in the 9th century, along the Hai Silk Route, porcelain from Guangzhou, to the southeast, through Vietnam, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and other places to India, Sri Lanka, and then west to Arabia (Big Food), as far as Africa, Egypt. The countries and regions along the way, such as Palan Bangna in Java, Manta in Sri Lanka, BangPaul in Pakistan, Shiraf in Iran, and Fustat in Egypt, have clearly unearthed Chinese porcelain from this period.
In the "Records of Chinese India", compiled by the Arabs in 851 AD, suleiman's praise for exquisite Chinese porcelain is recorded: "They (Chinese) had exquisite pottery, in which the pottery bowl was crystal clear like a glass: although it was a pottery bowl, the water in the bowl could be seen from the bowl." This is "the first depiction of porcelain in the West" (Sinologist Bo xihe). Since Suleiman saw such porcelain in the port, it can be inferred that they were used for export. During the reign of Caliph Al Al Rashid (786-809), the governor of Khorasan did his utmost to collect and contribute an unprecedented amount of gold, silver, silk, treasures and porcelain to him, including 2,000 exquisite pieces of daily porcelain and 20 pieces of porcelain used by the Chinese Heavenly Son, such as bowls, cups, and cups, which he presented.
In the Tang Dynasty, ceramics were generally fired with high heat, which can be roughly summarized as "four combinations": Changsha kiln porcelain, Yue kiln celadon porcelain, Xing kiln white porcelain and Guangdong region celadon porcelain. Yueyao Celadon and Xingyao White Porcelain were the first waves of porcelain exported abroad, followed by the white porcelain kilns under the influence of the Xingyao kilns and the rapidly rising Changsha kilns. Later, changsha kiln jumped up, and together with Yue kiln porcelain, it became the most important output product in the export porcelain of the 9th to 10th centuries, accounting for the vast majority of output.
Since the late Tang Dynasty was the initial stage of Chinese porcelain export, only for foreigners to taste, the kiln factory specializing in the production of export porcelain has not yet appeared, and the Chinese style of Yue kiln and Xing kiln is still obvious. Compared with the Yue kiln and the Xing kiln, the Changsha kiln is a big step forward. In order to meet the needs of export, it looked for inspiration from the art styles of West Asia and Persia, and boldly used maroon painting to increase the decorative and color effect of porcelain.
Common ones are paintings with colorful piles of Hu ren music and dance, lion-shaped figures, painted coconut groves, date palm shapes, and some birds and finches. "Counting the Changsha kiln porcelain excavated from the Silaf site in Iran, the number of kiln celadons far exceeds that of kiln celadons. Nevertheless, the quality of Changsha kiln porcelain is far inferior to the latter, and the porcelain often transported to the most distant places is of the highest quality and the greatest value, in order to exchange for spices, ivory and other items that are extremely valuable in China. The quality of the artifacts found in West Asia and the Middle East is generally more exquisite, mainly Yue kiln porcelain, and the quality of porcelain found in Southeast Asia is relatively poor, with Changsha kiln porcelain as the bulk.
Generally speaking, the export porcelain unearthed in the 9th and 10th centuries is mainly daily porcelain, with bowls and plates as the bulk for the daily use of the local upper class. After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, with the emergence of special export porcelain kilns, the scale of porcelain output was greatly enhanced, "customization" tended to be obvious, and the types of utensils began to expand to special supplies, and more and more people accepted and used it.
Export porcelain that is imitated at home and abroad
The five famous kilns of the Song Dynasty, except for the official kilns, all had exports. Export porcelain is mainly blue and white, most of which are celadon and Longquan celadon is particularly typical. Longquan is in the south of present-day Zhejiang Province, close to Fujian, and the waterway is connected with Fujian and Zhejiang, with Quanzhou and Mingzhou as the export base, through Wenzhou and Yangzhou. In order to prevent the outflow of copper coins in foreign trade, songning ZongJiading twelfth year (1219) stipulated that the purchase of foreign goods should be priced at silk brocade porcelain, and the use of gold, silver and copper coins was strictly prohibited, which greatly promoted the export of porcelain, and the Longquan kiln porcelain industry flourished.
Exported Longquan celadon throughout Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Syria, Egypt, Kenya and other places. The New Guineans buried longquan celadon plates in the beach by the sea, and only used them during festivals. In Borneo, Longquan porcelain plates and bowls are treated as heirlooms, symbols of wealth and power, and have been preserved for generations. “
During the Ayyubid and Mamluk dynasties of Egypt, the court received a large number of Longquan celadons. Saladin, the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, gave Longquan celadon as a high-grade gift, giving 40 pieces to The Sultan of Damascus, Nordin, at a time. Islamic burial customs do not allow the use of utensils to bury, the wealthy people use Chinese porcelain such as Longquan celadon to decorate the appearance of the tomb and the pillar in front of the tomb, and also use them to decorate the residence and even the solemn Mihrab in the main hall of the mosque, indicating the lofty status of Longquan celadon in the minds of the east African people. ”
If the output of late Tang dynasty porcelain is only "taste", then the outflow of porcelain from the two Song Dynasties has changed the lives of local people to a certain extent.
Foreign imitations of Longquan porcelain emerge in an endless stream, Egyptian Forstadt ruins piled up in ceramic pieces.70%-80% are Islamic pottery pieces imitating Longquan porcelain, the emergence of a large number of celadons in the Luo song Huluo kiln, is longquan celadon shipped to the country after the recruitment of Chinese porcelain workers imitation, so the shape of the vessel are similar to Longquan celadon. Unfortunately, no raw material for porcelain making kaolin was found in West Asia and North Africa, and the local kiln could not burn the high temperature required to make porcelain, so the wounded products were not porcelain, but pottery.
The yuan qinghua that came into being
On the eve of the unification of the whole country, the Yuan Dynasty government set up a "Floating Beam Porcelain Bureau" in Jingdezhen to supervise the manufacture of porcelain needed by the official government, and longquan porcelain, which had long dominated, began to give way to Jingdezhen porcelain.
The rulers of the Yuan Dynasty advocated white, taking white as the auspicious, and compared with Longquan celadon porcelain, the large number of fired blue and white porcelain in Jingdezhen was more likely to win the favor of Mongolian rulers. According to the "Tao Jiluo", there were more than 300 porcelain kilns in Jingdezhen in the Yuan Dynasty. The Yuan government collected porcelain masters from all over the world to concentrate on the porcelain kilns of the "Fuliang Porcelain Bureau" and performed servitude labor. In addition to the official kilns, there are still a large number of folk kilns in Jingdezhen, shouldering the burden of domestic and foreign sales. All kinds of talents gathered in Jingdezhen, and they exchanged skills with each other, which contributed to the emergence of blue and white porcelain.
Today, the largest and highest-level blue and white porcelain treasures are concentrated in Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, Turkey, and the National Museum in Tehran, Iran. It is a lucky one born in response to the needs of the West Asian market. Its white porcelain background is covered with dark blue patterns, which is in line with the aesthetic concepts of Islamic civilization. The large size and strong shape are all in line with the living habits of the West Asian region.
The export of blue and white porcelain in the Yuan Dynasty created a history of foreign trade, because the Yuan Dynasty had opened up direct communication with European and Mediterranean countries, and the export of porcelain was often tens of millions.
Many people have made a fortune for this, and in the pen of the Yemeni writer Bumei Karama, Ben was a rich cloth merchant who went to China and India, sold porcelain, and became rich. When the merchant moved from India to Aden, he brought with him many possessions, the most notable of which were those beautiful Chinese porcelains.
When the Arab marcher Ibn Battu traveled to China in 1345, he found that Qinklan (Guangzhou) was as rich in porcelain as the thorn tong (Quanzhou). Merchants trafficked porcelain from Qinklan to all parts of China, to India and Yemen. When passing through Damascus, he once saw a young slave girl break a Chinese porcelain dish in the street, and in order to avoid the whipping of the rabbit master, she immediately went to the shop and bought the same porcelain plate. Hundreds of years later, a similar story happened again, just a change of dynasty and a Ming Dynasty. The Mughal Emperor of India, Jahangir (1569-1627), loved a Chinese porcelain plate in his collection, but it was broken due to the negligence of the custodian, who wanted to entrust someone to China to buy another similar plate, two years passed, the plate did not come, but the matter was discovered by the emperor, and the custodian was not only punished but also confiscated.
Two months later, the Mughal Emperor asked him to go abroad to buy the exact same plate, and if he could not buy it, he was not allowed to return to China, and the poor custodian managed to buy a piece of the same porcelain plate exported from China in Persia, which was transferred from the Persian king at a high price.
Export porcelain and Rococo art
After Zheng He went to the West, the export process of Ming porcelain accelerated, and it could sail long distances by boat to Europe and the Americas. In 1505, a celadon bowl in the hands of bishop Ofwell Sea in England is said to be the first piece of celadon porcelain that was transmitted to England. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Longquan Celadon came to France and was given a cute name "Shela Tong", which is the name of a shepherd in the legendary play of the late 16th century French writer Dülf's famous book "Astre), named after the Longquan Celadon and the color of the shepherd's clothes, but at this time, Longquan porcelain is already a yellow flower of tomorrow, and the blue and white porcelain that is famous in West Asia began to be famous in Europe and even the world.
The earliest introduction of blue and white porcelain to Europe was the Portuguese who first arrived in China in the 16th century, the opening of the new shipping route greatly expanded and extended the Maritime Silk Road, and chinese porcelain represented by blue and white porcelain entered an era that made people all over the world crazy. Before Westerners joined the Chinese porcelain trade, Chinese porcelain was mainly spread through official trade channels, driven by profits, and Asian merchants, including Chinese merchants, would also join the porcelain trade, but due to various policies, official trade has always been dominant.
After the Portuguese settled in Macau, they stocked Chinese porcelain here and shipped it to Southeast Asia, East Asia and other places in exchange for more silver to buy Chinese porcelain, and then shipped it to India, East Africa, and Europe to make profits. The surviving Blue and White Jug in Lisbon with the coat of arms of King Manuel I of Portugal (1469-1521) is one of the earliest Chinese export porcelains found to date in Jingdezhen specially fired for Western Europe.
On the tapered vault of the Palazzo Santos in Lisbon, 260 pieces of blue and white porcelain made from 1500 to the middle of the 17th century were installed, with a variety of shapes and complex patterns, which were rare, and for decoration, but also to show wealth and prestige, Chinese porcelain was permanently fixed to wooden shelves. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Dutch joined the porcelain trade. In 1602, the Dutch East India Company captured a Portuguese merchant ship, the One Clark, in the Strait of Malacca, containing 100,000 pieces of Blue and White porcelain from the Wanli period, and two years later, these Chinese porcelain were auctioned in Amsterdam, causing a sensation throughout Europe. The profit from the auction is huge, and the value of blue and white porcelain is doubled.
Since then, Chinese porcelain has become popular in Europe, and people have called these exquisite Chinese export blue and white porcelain "Clark porcelain".
Clark porcelain glaze is extremely thin and fragile, as transparent as glass, with a variety of flowers and geometric patterns, mainly Chinese style, such as sika deer, mountain view in the middle of the people, water mandarin ducks in the lotus pond, birds and rockeries. Its prototype appeared in the late Jiajing Emperor and remained popular until the reign of the Wanli Emperor. Compared with the stereotypical and standardized royal decoration, Clark porcelain is fresh and lively, natural and casual, and is deeply loved by customers at home and abroad.
Later, the monopoly of the porcelain trade was acquired by the Dutch East India Company, and by 1638, 3 million pieces of Chinese porcelain were transported to Europe, dominated by blue and white porcelain painted with Chinese-style decorations, these porcelain types had plates, bowls, bottles, jars, military holdings (water vessels), etc. Clark Jue, which at first only the upper class could enjoy, also completed its transition to "tableware for the whole people" in Europe.
Augustus was a loyal fan of Chinese porcelain in 1717, in order to get King William of Prussia. 127 pieces of Chinese porcelain from Ham I, which Augustus exchanged for a corps of Saxon troops (600 dragoons), which came to be known as "Guards Vases" (or Dragoon vases), are still on display in the Wingle Palace Museum in Dresden, Germany.
Beginning in 1729, China's export porcelain exports entered the era of "private customization", and porcelain was produced according to the patterns, types and quantities of porcelain provided by foreign merchants, such as Guangcai porcelain and heraldic porcelain.
In order to get more customers, a porcelain merchant Yan Shihua who deals with American merchants is also in the American media. The advertisement was advertised in the hope of stimulating american consumer demand for his porcelain: "Yan Shihua, a porcelain merchant in Guangzhou, China, respectfully informed the American merchant, the senior class, and the captain that he could best obtain a variety of porcelain with elaborately carved badges, symbols, and other decorations (which could be customized on request) on reasonable terms. He will process all kinds of orders carefully and quickly. January 8, 1804 In Guangzhou. ”
After the Opium War, the market competition with Japanese export porcelain
The rise of the porcelain industry in Various European countries has gradually dried up the export of Chinese porcelain. Nevertheless, the Chinese fashion it brought with it has long remained in the porcelain halls of major European palaces, and its influence on the Rococo art style has become a topic of discussion for posterity.
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