Industry

 

 
-POTTERY and PORCELAIN-
 

Section 4
Han Pottery

Contents


Introduction

Jar, hu. Stoneware decorated with relief designs under a dark-green glaze. Han Dynasty.

Han ceramics vary enormously in quality, from unglazed and roughly modeled earthenware to a high-fired, glazed stoneware verging on porcelain. Most of the grave goods were made of coarse pottery generally covered with a lead glaze which easily oxidizes, producing that silvery-green iridescence which is so attractive a feature of this class of Han wares.

The hunt among mountains. Relief on the shoulder of a pottery hu. Line drawing after Palmgren. Han Dynasty.

The technique of lead glazing was known in the Mediterranean world before the Han, and if not discovered independently may have been introduced by way of central Asia. The finest of these lead-glazed wares are the jars (hu) for grain or wine. Their shapes are simple and robust, the imitation of bronze being aided by a very precise finish and the application of t'ao-t'ieh masks in relief, while incised lines or geometric motifs around the shoulder enhance the beauty of their form.

Sometimes they are decorated with a frieze, depicting, in relief under the glaze, a hunt among mountains, in which all manner of creatures real and imaginary chase each other around and around- as on those extraordinary full-scale models of Mount P'eng-lai which were made to appear at the hunting feasts of the Han emperors. These reliefs, in which we often find towering ranges of hills, may well preserve the designs of Han scroll paintings on silk.

Watchtower. Pottery with green glaze. Eastern Han Dynasty.

In Han times, many people believed that upon leaving this world one could take with him his family, servants, personal possessions, domestic animals, and even his house into heaven. As these could not actually accompany him, models (ming-ch'i, literally, bright, or spirit, utensils) were placed in the tomb. and the custom persisted long after the fall of the Han.

Therefore, a retinue of servants and guards, farmhands, musicians, and jugglers are found in Han tombs, such as its occupant probably never enjoyed in his lifetime. There were barns with fowl modeled in relief on the top. There were watchtowers in several stories, their wooden beams and transoms either indicated by incisions in the clay or painted red. The house and barns of the South China tombs are raised on stilts, like those in Southeast Asia today. Farm animals are modeled with uncanny realism; watchdogs from Szechwan graves are squat and menacing; those from Changsha, with heads erect and muzzles quivering.

These figurines are a useful source of information on the daily life, beliefs, and economy of Han China. The tableau excavated in 1969 from a Western Han tomb at Tsinan, Shantung, depicts the kind of entertainment with music, tumblers, and dancers that was often represented on the walls of tombs and tomb shrines. They, too, illustrate the extent of China's foreign contacts at this time. The pottery stand for a bronze "coin-tree" found in a grave in Szechwan, for example, is decorated with a frieze of elephants in relief, modeled with a naturalism that has no counterpart in other Han reliefs.

Stand for a lamp or "coin-tree". Pottery. From a tomb at Nei-chiang, Szechwan. Eastern Han Dynasty.

Some of the Han figurines were individually modeled, but the majority of the smaller pieces were mass-produced in moulds, though the forms are reduced to essentials, none of their vitality or character is lost. At Changsha, where the clay was often poor and glazes apt to flake off, the ming-ch'i were generally made of painted wood, which, like the silk and lacquer found in the Changsha tombs, has miraculously survived the ravages of time.

Of quite a different kind was the fine-quality felspathic stoneware, which was made in a number of centers in Chekiang. This ancestor of the Sung celadons has a hard body and thin glaze ranging in color from gray to olive-green to brown. It is often called Yüeh ware, because the type-site is at Chiu-yen near Shao-hsing, the old name of which is Yüeh-chou.

Recent Chinese writers confine the term Yüeh ware to the porcelain celadon made for the court of Wu-Yüeh in the 10th century CE, calling all earlier celadons "old Yüeh" or simply ch'ing tz'u, green porcelain.

However, in translation this is misleading, as some of it can hardly be called green, and none of it is true porcelain. In this examination, therefore, the term Yüeh ware is retained to cover the whole huge family of pre-Sung Chekiang celadons.

Dog. Pottery covered with reddish-brown glaze. From Changsha, Hunan. Han Dynasty.

Tray with figures of musicians, dancers, acrobats, and spectators. Painted pottery. From a tomb at Tsinan, Shantung. Western Han Dynasty.

Basin, Yüeh ware. Stoneware with modeled and incised decoration under a gray-green glaze. Third or 4th century CE.

The Chiu-yen kilns were in operation at least from the 2nd century CE; those at Te-ch'ing, north of Hangchow, perhaps a little later. Many of their products, found in dated tombs in the Nanking region, are imitations of bronze vessels, even to the loop-handles and t'ao- t'ieh masks that adorn them. Some are stamped with geometric or diaper designs under the glaze, preserving an ancient tradition of central and southern China which spread not only northward but also into the Nan-hai, the peninsula and islands of Southeast Asia.

Gradually, however, true ceramic forms began to emerge, aided by a rich, luminous, and even luscious glaze. The Chiu-yen kilns seem to have closed down in the 6th century, after which the Yüeh tradition was carried on in many parts of Chekiang, the chief factories being around the shores of Shang-lin-hu in Yu-yao-hsien, where the remains of more than twenty celadon kilns have so far been discovered.


Source

 

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Copyright DateRichard R. Wertz