The World Of Ceramics

THE

WORLD OF

CERAMICS

The World Of Ceramics

English edition:

Author: Xin Hu, Yong Chen and Yunyun Zheng

English edit and proofread: Bryan Parry

Cover Design: Jeffrey Choy

Design Media Publishing (UK) Limited

http://www.designmediauk.com

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ISBN: 978-1-83865-055-1

© Copyright 2020 Design Media Publishing (UK) Limited

Original edition: © Copyright 2019 Jiangxi Fine Arts Publishing House

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Preface

Ceramics originate from China.

China takes pride in ceramic wares.

About 20,000 years ago during the Upper Paleolithic, ceramic wares, one of the greatest inventions in the human history, whose influence extends to the entire human civilization, emerged. The Xianren Cave, together with the nearby Diaotonghuan rock shelter located in Wannian County in Jiangxi Province, provides solid evidence of this great invention. In the Han Dynasty, ancient the Chinese further developed this technology and elevated primitive ceramic wares to the earliest form of celadon through the soft caress of blazes. It should be noted that Europeans only learned this technology 1,500 years later. Ceramic wares, along with the Four Great Inventions, namely, (printing, papermaking, gunpowder, and the compass) deeply shaped the perception and lifestyle of people all over the world and also altered the traditional means of cultural communication that people had observed for over 2,000 years. Ceramic wares thus became a beautiful representation of Chinese culture, a carefully designed pass through which foreigners get to know about China.

1.

Ceramic wares have a long and splendid history. As time progressed, the technologies around ceramic wares became more developed, and the styles of ceramics became increasingly diverse and refined. By the Song Dynasty, a mature ceramics industry had been established, and the whole industry was dominated by the Five Great Kilns: Guan Ware, Ge Ware, Ru Ware, Ding Ware, and Jun Ware, each with their own unique features and characters. In the Yuan Dynasty, the Fuliang Porcelain Production Office in Jingdezhen made its fame through its gorgeous blue-and-white wares. Jingdezhen thus became the porcelain capital of China. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties(1644-1912), porcelain production reached its height, and porcelain culture that celebrated ingenious pottery skills was widely spread throughout the whole nation.

Slim and graceful ceramic wares were sold abroad as one of the earliest and most popular cultural commodities that signified Chinese art and culture. They were a diplomatic document that connects China and the world, the Records of the Grand Historian forged by fire and clay.

The grandeur of the Tang Dynasty, a golden age of cosmopolitan culture, dazzled the lucrative trade routes along the Silk Road. The porcelain wares sold in the Tang Dynasty were a vivid demonstration of gallantry and audacity, an epic manifestation of various legends pertaining to emperors, ministers, wits and beauties, and a reflection of the livelihood of the community that was deeply influenced by the Hu People.

The Song Dynasty was a time when cultural pursuits overshadowed national defence Chinese people, at that time, started to regard their own culture with self-esteem. Celadon, which displayed the aesthetic understanding of a harmony between nature and humans, played a significant role in promoting the business activities along the Silk Road.

The wilderness of the Yuan Dynasty, whose vast territory extended over Eurasia, enabled further cultural communication and exchange, and thereby gave rise to mysterious blue-and-white porcelain. The patterns of the Blue-and-White Porcelain of the Yuan Dynasty were an offspring of the recombination of foreign cultures and national aesthetic standards. The emergence of the Blue-and-White Porcelain of the Yuan Dynasty marked the official transformation of monochrome porcelain into polychrome porcelain. However, no one would have ever anticipated that blue-and-white porcelain, which is now an icon of Chinese ceramics, was initially an export commodity!

History has also proved that the Ming and Qing Dynasties were the golden age of Chinese export porcelain. Jingdezhen, which embraced the ceramic wares from all parts of the world, became the porcelain capital of the globe. Further, Zheng He's treasure fleet roamed the sea. These glorious expeditions introduced tea and crockery to the other side of the world and introduced Chinese culture to foreign countries, as the fleet travelled from Southeastern Asia, Western Asia, Eastern Africa, Mediterranean, and all the way to Europe.

Later on, the discovery of new lands empowered several European countries, including Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Marine trades preluded a new page of the human history. Meanwhile, the world was awestruck by Chinese porcelain, which immediately became a global representation of sacred, marvellous, and mysterious art. Europeans went crazy for Chinese crockeries. They were amazed by the Chinese culture manifested by those beautiful wares!

2.

Porcelain is a cultural ambassador. The exquisite porcelain production technologies in Jingdezhen provided technical support for the global ceramics industry. These technologies were first brought to Korea, and subsequently to Japan, Vietnam, Thailand and other south-east Asian countries, and finally to western Asia, eastern Africa and Europe. In the Zhengde Era of the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese people visited Jingdezhen specifically to learn how to produce blue-and-white porcelain. After these Japanese merchants returned to Japan, they started their pottery business in Arida. In the 17th century, Delft in the Netherlands made its fame through Delftwares, an imitation of Kraakporselein in Jingdezhen, and later on became the porcelain capital of Europe. Meanwhile, a French missionary, Entrecolles (Yin Hongxu), came to Jingdezhen in 1712 to promote Christianity and later brought kaolin, an important raw material for pottery, to the west. In the mid-18th century, French people successfully created real hardened porcelain, and the technologies soon spread to Britain, Sweden, and the Netherlands, which opened a new page in the European porcelain history.

The widespread popularity of Chinese porcelain, in a way, promoted Chinese culture. The widespread distribution of Chinese porcelain throughout Europe and the Americas, as well as the frenetic interest in Chinese ceramic wares from the 16th to 18th century, reflected that the west paid homage to this ancient civilization. Kings of various European countries, including the kings of Portugal and Russia, all fell in love with Chinese ceramic wares. Chinese porcelain was thus circulated among royal families and aristocrats as a symbol of nobility. By the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century, Chinese ceramic wares were displayed in most wealthy European families. The philosopher Graham wrote in his book, There has been one time when every household possessed Chinese products. Our styles are deeply influenced by Chinese culture. Without those Chinese wares, people will have the impression that their socio-economic status is compromised. Europeans loved to discuss the latest news in China. They favoured Chinese goods and also had an insatiable curiosity about Chinese culture and history.

Export porcelain evidenced cultural communication. In the Yuan Dynasty, the trade routes that spanned Eurasia furthered the cultural communication and collaboration between the east and the west and, in return, shaped the styles and patterns of porcelain in the Yuan Dynasty. The incorporation of cobalt into blue-and-white porcelain further increased the popularity of Chinese ceramics. Jingdezhen started to receive porcelain orders from European countries in the 16th century. Many porcelain wares engraved with Portuguese inscriptions have indeed been discovered at archaeological sites. In the 17th century, Dutch inscriptions were engraved in exported porcelain, which demonstrated frequent business activities between Chinese and Dutch merchants. Later on, French, German, and English inscriptions also emerged. In the 18th century, customized porcelain took up the majority of the export porcelain, most of which were for the purpose of advertising western celebrities, cities and ports, life of the nobility, Greek mythology, biblical stories, German coat of arms and family badges. These porcelain wares thus provided Chinese people with a glimpse of European history, culture, architecture, and fashion. Chinese ceramics, as a consequence, not only served as a global ambassador that advertised Chinese civilization and culture but also, indirectly, diversified Chinese culture with other foreign cultures.

3.

Chinese porcelain has come a long way. Thanks to generations of skillful workers, Chinese export porcelain rose to fame because of exquisite production technologies, elegant ornamental designs, and unique styles. Those exports were the carrier of Chinese culture, an organic combination of Chinese cultivation culture, Confucianism, Taoism and Western culture, a piece of solid evidence of cultural communication between the East and the West. They were miraculous products of our national culture, science and technologies, and global culture. Just like President Xi Jinping stressed in his speech at the headquarters of UNESCO in Paris, civilizations diversify through communication. Mr. Fei Xiaotong also pointed out that cultures need to be shared and acknowledged to prosper.

Export porcelain played an indispensable role in the history of Chinese porcelain. Nevertheless, they lack a general acknowledgement, although they haven’t shifted completely into oblivion. In order to advertise the stories pertaining to Chinese export porcelain and promote the history of porcelain culture, Jiangxi Publication Group Company, in response to the needs of the public, decided to conduct a comprehensive cultural project named The World of Ceramics. We are going to publish a book series entitled The World of Ceramics, film a documentary, establish an export porcelain database, set out assessment standards for export porcelain, and hold an export porcelain exhibition, among other things.

The book series, The World of Ceramics, is comprised of three installments: The Overseas Journey of Chinese Ceramics, The Culture of Ceramics and A World Lit Up by Ceramics. The book series aims to reconstruct the old glory of ceramics, discuss the porcelain culture, and advertise the beauty of ceramic wares. We aim to lead readers to revisit the history of ceramics that stretches back for 1,000 years, understand the cultural significance of porcelain, and the great contribution ceramics have made to the human civilization. The World of Ceramics will help the public understand the wisdom of ancient Chinese people, and Chinese aesthetics and perception of beauty.

This book series tailors to both lay people and learned professionals. It's a piece of academic and literature work that has a critical and artsy presentiment. The arguments established in the book series were based on extensive academic research. We pay particular attention to the behavior of each individual in a historical context, and emphasize the importance of developing a new narrative from a new perspective. We use ceramics to mirror history. As such, this book series not only has certain academic values but also artistic values. In 2016, The World of Ceramics was listed as a project of the 13th Five-Year National Key Book Publishing Plan and of the National Publication Foundation.

In response to the Belt and Road initiative, we have this great opportunity to promote Chinese culture. Reflecting upon our past, we see how our ancestors survived toils and snares. Our history is still with us, and it is telling us our old glories and feats.

The prominent British historian Arnold Toynbee predicted that Chinese civilization will provide endless cultural resources and thought for the world in transition and for 21st-century society. Robert Finlay, an American scholar, also noted that China had initiated the first round of cultural globalization and for the most part of human history, China had been the most economically developed country in the world.

We should, therefore, feel confident to promote our own culture in this new era.

The old glory of Chinese ceramics is largely attributed to the widespread of Chinese culture. Ceramics culture exerts a deep influence on a wide range of areas. Our research would certainly not cover everything due to limited time and expertise, so we welcome comments and criticism from our readers.

Zhao Dongliang

December 2017

Contents

THE OVERSEAS JOURNEY OF CHINESE CERAMICS

Chapter One / Silk and Porcelain Routes of the Han and Tang Dynasties

Chapter Two / Pushing through Wind and Wave across the Seas

Chapter Three / Peak and Decline

THE CULTURE OF CERAMICS

Chapter One / Lofty Mountains and Winding Rivers: The Cultural Elements in Ceramic Wares

Chapter Two / Kilns, Ports and the Charms of China: A History of Maritime Ceramic Route

Chapter Three / More than Forms: Historical Legacy and Unbound Beauty

Chapter Four / Mixed DNA and Appeal of Porcelain: From Cultural Identity to Aesthetic Integration

A WORLD LIT UP BY CERAMICS

Chapter One / The Central and Western Asia: Tang Sancai and Spices on the Way to Samarkand

Chapter Two / East Asia: Porcelains of Dynastic China, from Great Tang to Ming

Chapter Three / Europeans’ Fascination for Chinese Pottery for One Hundred and Fifty Years

Chapter Four / A Brief Introduction to American Porcelain

1THE OVERSEAS JOURNEY OF CHINESE CERAMICS

Silk and Porcelain Routes of the Han and Tang Dynasties

I like the title of this book, The Overseas Journey of Chinese Ceramics.

People of the world, this is our world. This stalwart claim made in a blend of both vernacular and literary Chinese from the 20-year-old Mao Zedong still has the strength to stir the hearts of any and all who hear it. His confidence and air of a world leader shall be forever remembered, from the unyielding solemnity of the socialist anthem The Internationale to the domineering serenity of his statue that looks from the Xiang River onto the expanse of China.

The First Emperor of Qin's Terracotta Army

The most important word in the title of this book is ceramics. The Chinese have always had the spirit of global travel, and this was seen to an extreme degree as early as the Qin and Han dynasties (221 BCE – 220 CE). Xu Zhiheng wrote in his Discussion of Porcelain from the Yinliu Studio, Although pieces of porcelain are small in size, they are indistinctly tied to the fate of the nation and the world. Despite the changes that take place over time, the basic physical properties of porcelain do not change regardless of whether they have been passed down, buried in the ground, lost at sea, or shattered into fragments. Porcelain has not only borne and spread Chinese history, but due to its physical permanence, it can be said to be hard evidence of historical events—an eternal record of foreign affairs between China and the world, an advanced moment of art, and a massive quantity of freeze-frames from the past. But porcelain is also mundane. It was the first commercial product bearing Chinese culture to be exported abroad and to enjoy widespread popularity.

Statue of Emperor Wu of Han

It is commonly known that the Chinese ethnicity began its rise based on agrarian culture, that it was born along the Yellow River, and that it was nourished by the soil of this river. In addition, China is a large coastal nation with coastline extending a total of 32,000 kilometres. Over 18,000 are on the mainland, and its territorial coastal waters extend for over three million square kilometres. Since ancient times, the Chinese have never been intimidated by the sea. Looking back at the dawn of Chinese civilization, eight wooden oars and a piece of black pottery (its colour coming from charcoal) in the shape of a canoe were found at the site of the about 7,000-year-old Neolithic Hemudu culture; another piece of pottery in the shape of a canoe was unearthed at the Honghuatao site in Yidu County of Hubei Province. In addition, the people of the Longshan culture left behind traces of their travels on the mainland coast and on islands in the Bohai and Yellow Seas. During the Neolithic period, the people of coastal China were already braving the seas. Over a thousand seashells used as currency were found in the tomb of Fu Hao at the Yin ruins in Anyang. At that time, these people had already become quite comfortable with making trips to outlying islands. The people of the Ganyue culture, who creatively imprinted imagery onto ceramics, were also accomplished sailors. Today, we may find it hard to imagine how those of ancient times scaled mountains and crossed seas to carry out exchanges with other people, and most of us significantly underestimate their spirit in the face of the challenge of the ocean and with regard to achievements in marine exploration.

Hegel once stated, Humanity was bound by an ordinary piece of land, an ordinary plain, shackled in continual reliance, but the ocean forced humanity to transcend such limited concepts and behavior.

It seems that reliance of agrarian civilization on the land comes at a formidable price. It is said that the transformation of humanity from hunting to farming began with the gathering of seeds by a certain woman 8,000 years ago. One may read on page two of the authoritative work History of Chinese Ceramics, The invention of pottery is doubtless to be credited to women. So from where and what time period was the woman who fired the first piece of pottery? And was it the case that a piece of clay was formed into the likeness of a clam, a piece of fruit, a seed, or a grinding stone and then accidentally placed into a fire, hardening to the point that it was found to be able to hold water and other objects? Could it be that the history of ceramics is actually the story of some mysterious woman? Jumping ahead to the present day and looking at the Dai people of Yunnan and the Gaoshan nationality in Taiwan, we see that their pottery is still the work of women. Moreover, in the West, pottery is much more popular with women than men.

Map of Zhang Qian's Travels West

Map of the Silk Road

In the past, scholars agreed that the invention of pottery took place at relatively the same time for cultures around the world, but on 28 June 2012, an article entitled Early Pottery at 20,000 Years Ago in Xianrendong Cave, China, published in the journal Science, announced that a joint US-Chinese team had found something remarkable. Based on tests carried out on organic matter from pottery fragments unearthed there, the history of Chinese pottery was found to date back 20,000 years! This makes these fragments the oldest samples of pottery (and thus earliest known) worldwide. The fragments contain coarse sand and have decorative stripes and cord markings. They are even 2,000 to 5,000 years older than the pottery from the Miaoyan site in Guilin, China, Siberia in the Amur River region, the No. 3 site in Ustylovka, and the No. 1 site of Hirayama in Japan. Thus, Wannian County (the location of Xianrendong Cave) of Jiangxi, China, well deserves the honour of being known as the place where pottery was first invented. This revision of history was not by chance. Within the Neolithic-period stratum of 12,000 years ago at the Xianrendong Cave, phytolith samples from wild rice plants were unearthed, proving that people of that time collected wild rice for food. Phytolith samples from the Terracotta Army, whose material originally came from the stratum from about 10,000 years ago, bear the characteristics of cultivated rice, serving as verification that people were growing their own rice by then. In addition, the rice-plant phytolith samples found there from about 7,500 years ago all showed signs of cultivation. This means that present-day Wannian is currently also known as the place in the world where rice was first cultivated. Thus, the area abounds with agricultural and cultural relics of the past. The name Wannian (10,000 years) suits it well. It is probably no accident that the Jingdezhen, globally affirmed as the world capital of porcelain in times past, is only 100 kilometres away.

Pottery was the world's first artificial material made by the human hand, a defining mark in the history of human society's development. It accounts for the earliest instance of people making use of physics and chemistry to create a new type of physical substance; it was the beginning of mankind's legacy of changing what has been created by nature. In The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, Engels stated that the invention of pottery signified the end of the ages of barbarism and savagery (the Neolithic period). Indeed, ceramics are an important part of the history of artificial materials.

From the coil method to the use of the turntable; from firing on an outdoor platform to firing inside a covered mound; from red, white, black, and grey pottery as well as impressed stoneware and proto-porcelain to porcelain itself; in all of these advancements, we see leaps and bounds time and again in the evolution of artificial material. Furthermore, China was the only producer of hard-paste porcelain, the global pioneer, for 1,700 years!

China was the cradle of ceramics and the motherland of porcelain. Counting porcelain, silk, and tea, China's Four Great Inventions (the compass, gunpowder, papermaking, and printing) could be expanded and said to be the Seven Great Inventions. Porcelain is an eternal symbol and historical account of China.

China's proto-porcelain began with the Shang and Zhou dynasties over 3,000 years ago. By the Western and Eastern Han dynasties, proto-celadon was well developed and later led to the invention of celadon. Thus, during the Eastern Han dynasty (over 1,700 years ago), China was already producing porcelain.

From the Qin dynasty (221– 206 BCE) to the Qing dynasty (1644 – 1912), although there were times of peace and prosperity, war and instability were quite common. During the bloodbaths that were part and parcel of changes in dynasties, famous kilns and types of ceramics also underwent change, even to the point of dying out. But despite fluctuations in production and the movement of where porcelain was being made, it was always known that when the kilns of porcelain in one area of China were cold, one could be sure to find them burning in another. This was especially true in later times with Jingdezhen of Jiangxi, which fittingly became known as the world capital of porcelain.

Su Wu Tending Sheep

Ren Bonian, Qing Dynasty

National Art Museum of China Collection

China's export porcelain is inseparable from the overall history of Chinese ceramics and constitutes a glorious chapter in the history of globalization. Scholars have defined three peaks for China's export porcelain: the first was from the late Tang dynasty (618 – 907) to the early Song dynasty (960 – 1279), the second was from the late Song dynasty and early Yuan dynasty (1271 – 1368) to the early Ming dynasty (1368 – 1644), and the third was a golden age spanning over two centuries from the mid-late Ming dynasty to the early Qing dynasty. There is sense in defining these periods so precisely, but it may seem unnecessarily complex. It might be clearer to just say that the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties each had their peak periods preceded and followed by times of wax and wane, though such categorization unfairly leaves out the Han dynasty.

Portrait of Ban Chao

Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty was highly competent and had a bold vision, making China both prosperous and strong. During his reign, the court official Zhang Qian travelled west twice, (and similar diplomatic missions were later successively undertaken by the court officials Su Wu, Ban Chao, and Gan Ying), not only writing poetry full of patriotic spirit and vitality and other works themed on resistance to foreign invaders that invoked both praise and tears, but also initiating (during wartime) the Silk Road, that symbol of benevolence and peace whose significance is well known to this day. The Silk Road began at Chang’an, continuing through the Gansu-Hexi Corridor and present-day Xinjiang before reaching as far as Central, Southern, and Western Asia, the Mediterranean countries of Southern and Eastern Europe, and North Africa. In total, it stretched over 7,000 kilometres.

The Maritime Silk Road formed during the Qin and Han dynasties. This sea route went to Japan, the Korean Peninsula, the southern section of the Indian subcontinent, and Sri Lanka. Written records, artefacts found both on land and in the sea, and collections that have been handed down over time serve as evidence that, by the Qin dynasty, Chinese porcelain and rice had made their way to Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and India, and methods for the production of both were being enthusiastically taught in those places as well.

Much later, during the magnificent Tang dynasty, Chinese culture was being spread with a grand bearing and an openness to accept other cultures; the dynasty was at its peak just when East and West made contact. In addition to the terrestrial Silk Road, a maritime route beginning at Guangzhou extended the Han-dynasty route that started at Xuwen. Tang dynasty shipbuilders were able to build boats of up to 60 metres long with watertight bulkheads that allowed for voyages as far as Oman, Persia, and Bahrain, and they could change vessels at the Red Sea to continue on to Egypt and other North African nations. Merchant boats from these nations also came to Chinese ports such as Guangzhou and Quanzhou. A large number of Chinese porcelain vessels and fragments have been found at the sites of ancient ports in these countries. In 1998, the Tang dynasty porcelain found in the Belitung shipwreck (an Arab trading vessel that sunk en route from Africa to China in about 830 CE) serves as evidence of the flourishing porcelain trade of that time.

This shipwreck has, like a dream, allowed us to return to the Tang Dynasty. This is something that touches people deep inside and that has quenched a long-standing thirst, a great dream that can never be forgotten.

Porcelain Vase with Image of Wang Zhaojun Leaving Her Homeland, by Li Jusheng of the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute

In 1998, the Belitung shipwreck was discovered, and the following year, efforts for salvaging what remained after over a millennium took place. It was as though the Chinese people were taken back 1,200 years and given a glimpse of the peak of the Tang dynasty (albeit only by means of print and electronic media for most people). Despite the salvaged gold, silver, jade, and stone, such as 209 gold coins and 29 bronze mirrors from Yangzhou, the most impressive items were the porcelain pieces, which accounted for 98% of the total cargo. This was export porcelain. The ship was slightly off the main route of the Maritime Silk Road, and of its haul, most of the shapes and designs had the characteristics of custom-ordered exports.

According to A Brief History of Pottery and Porcelain in China, the Tang-dynasty merchant Li Linde braved a storm in 842 to reach Japan from Mingzhou. Before the discovery of the Belitung shipwreck, this was the first record of private trade between China and Japan.

However, on the bottom of a celadon bowl from the shipwreck is inscribed with 16th day of the seventh month of the second year of the Baoli period, which was the year 826, 16 years before Li's private (or private with imperial assistance) voyage to Japan, thus making it the earliest record of Chinese porcelain being exported. Moreover, this piece had been destined for the distant port of Siraf on the Persian Gulf!

It should be said that the reign of Tang Wenzong (the sitting emperor in 826) was a time at which the dynasty was already in decline. Nonetheless, this boat was carrying an impressive load of 67,000 pieces of porcelain, the majority of which had been produced in the Tongguan kiln near Changsha. There were over 900 pieces of celadon and over 200 of highly refined porcelain from the Yue kiln; over 300 pieces of white porcelain, with over a third of those coming from the Xing kiln; a white-glazed long-stemmed pitcher with green coloring from the Gongxian kiln in Henan; and three completely intact blue and white porcelain dishes.

According to some experts, the greatest of these pieces from the shipwreck are the three blue and white porcelain dishes because they are, to date, the pieces of blue and white porcelain of earliest origin, so they are an era-marking milestone. Despite other fragments of blue and white porcelain purportedly from the Tang dynasty having been found on occasion, there is always doubt. As for blue and white porcelain from the Tang dynasty that has been passed down through the generations, all that exist are a piece with a flat rim at the Museum of Copenhagen and a bowl at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and even the authenticity of these pieces is debatable. In 1975, a fragment of a blue and white porcelain pillow was found at the Tangcheng site in Yangzhou. The ornamentation has a round flower within a rectangle that is again encircled by a diamond outline. Inside the diamonds are irregularly-shaped leaves. This is very and surprisingly different than traditional ornamentation. The three blue and white porcelain pieces found on the Belitung shipwreck are the earliest samples of complete, clear pieces. The blue flowers look like chrysanthemums or wheels, freely expressive, containing aspects that are representational, impressionistic, and abstract, full of the Mesopotamian style. The decoration is similar to that found on a fragment of blue and white porcelain unearthed in Yangzhou in 1975 and which was deemed to have been custom-made for the purpose of export. In the 1980s, another blue and white porcelain fragment was unearthed in Yangzhou, but its decoration was quite traditional. According to research by Zhang Zhigang, blue and white porcelain was not made in Yangzhou; it was made in the Tang-dynasty Gongxian kiln, and the blue pigment was similar to that of the cobalt pigment imported for tricolor-glazed pottery. The Tangcheng site in Yangzhou also produced a bowl of blue and white porcelain with glazed yellow and green spots, seemingly a blend of the styles of tricolor-glazed pottery and blue and white porcelain.

Statue of Faxian

The three exceptional blue and white porcelain dishes and the celebrated bronze mirror from the shipwreck serve as important evidence that the ship had first set sail from Yangzhou.

That being the case, we cannot help but ask why there are only three such pieces? May we not assume that these were samples to be brought back to the Arab world to see if there would be a market for more such work, or in modern terms, an international market survey? Is it also possible that since the ship sank and thus provided no feedback from this market survey that the production and export of Tang-dynasty blue and white porcelain, which had been on the rise, came to an abrupt end, hence having to wait another 500 years (during the Yuan dynasty) to flourish once again? As can be seen, the necessity of a successful marketing scheme for a good product has been a long-standing truth!

Celadon-glazed Jar with Two Handlxes, Eastern Han Dynasty

Next are the over 100 articles of white porcelain from the Xing kiln. Such porcelain was as favoured by emperors as Ru celadon. The Xing and Ru kilns were short-lived, which made what they produced even more valuable. It is known that there are less than 70 pieces of Xing white porcelain in the world excluding those found on the Belitung shipwreck. Thus, the over 100 pieces on the shipwreck were quite a find! These pieces from the wreck indeed live up to their reputation as Xing white porcelain: they have suffered not even the least bit of corrosion or stain after a millennium of immersion in seawater and the intrusion of all kinds of plants, animals, and microbes.

Third, let us look at the over 200 pieces of Yue kiln celadon. The Tang-dynasty poet Pi Rixiu wrote in his poem Teaware, The Xing and Yue kilns both produce porcelain, round as the descending moon and light as the ascending cloud. Yue celadon was of slightly higher quality than Xing white porcelain, and these over 200 pieces are indeed exquisite and of great value.

Fourth, is the one-metre-tall glazed pitcher with its dragon-head stopper, hence its name of Glazed Dragon-head Pitcher. The piece recalls the Tang-dynasty tricolour-glazed Phoenix-head Pitcher. The dragon-head pitcher is impressive in size with a look of grandeur, and due to the Arab influence in style, it is suspected to have been custom-ordered by an Arab client. Some believe it to have been a diplomatic gift from the Tang court.

There are two green-glazed porcelain dishes inscribed in the centre of the bottom with the Chinese characters ying (abundance) on one and jin feng (tribute offering) on the other. This is evidence of the strong likelihood that a diplomatic envoy was aboard this boat. Did the fate of the voyage keep an important round of international trade talks from taking place?

Finally, we have the over 56,500 pieces (the majority of the find) of Tongguan kiln porcelain from Changsha.

Storyteller Figurine, Han Dynasty

Chinese and foreign experts wholeheartedly agree that the quality of this massive amount of Changsha porcelain is lower than that of the pieces from the more famous kilns,