International Journal of Korean History (Vol.18 No.1, Feb. 2013) 1 On the Date of the Coin Pattern Pottery in Korea Wei Zheng*1 Brief Instruction on the Issue In recent years, coin pattern pottery has been an object of study that has been a concern of Chinese and Korean academia. Some years ago, P’ungnap tosŏng (Pungnap doseong) of Korea had at one-time unearthed more than 30 pieces of large coin pattern pottery with a height of over 50 centimeters (Picture 1). The unearthed pieces of pottery contained fish paste and were covered with cloth in the pot mouth. These pieces force us to do new thinking about the relevant materials and problems. As we all know, P’ungnap tosŏng and Mongch’on tosŏng (Mongchon doseong) are very important ancient cities in the history of Korea; they are also critical materials in the study of the history of Paekche (Baekje) and the Three kingdoms period of Korea. However, there were no unearthed dating materials in these two cities, and the age of these cities are mainly estimated indirectly through comparisons with unearthed Chinese relics. Thus the date of Chinese relics becomes a crucial problem. In archaeology studies, the age without dating things will be mainly judged by comparison with relics of the same kind. As for the foreign relics, factors like the unearthed situation, the output condition, and the epoch differences between the output and input areas have to be considered. Meanwhile, final judgment is reached through cooperation of Chinese and * Professor, School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University. 2 On the Date of the Coin Pattern Pottery in Korea <Picture 1> Coin Pattern Pottery in P’ungnap tosŏng Height: 56cm1 Normal size Amplified section foreign scholars. Although academic exchanges between China and Korea deepens day by day, there is much left to be done on the research work on the coin pattern pottery unearthed in P’ungnap tosŏng of Korea. In the remainder of this article, I will explain some still forming ideas about the dating problem. 1 P’ungnap tosŏng is a city built on a plain along the south bank of the Han River; Mongch’on tosŏng is a city on hills about 1 km to the southwest of P’ungnap tosŏng. Generally speaking, P’ungnap tosŏng is a plain built city while Mongch’on tosŏng is a mountain built city, and they follow the regulation that plain built cities and mountain built cities depend on each other during the Three kingdoms period of the Korean peninsula. According to the unearthed pottery, especially the coin pattern pottery pieces, scholars of Korea believe that P’ungnap tosŏng was built before the 3rd century and that Mongch’on tosŏng was built in the late of 3rd century.2 These dates are because they believe that the date of the unearthed coin pattern pottery is equivalent to the Western Jin dynasty or later.3 From the aspect of archaeology, there are some doubts about this judgment. The coin pattern pottery pieces unearthed from an accumulation, which formed the abandonment period, and such a large and strong coin pattern pottery could be used for decades or even hundreds of years. Therefore, when using the date of the coin pattern pottery to speculate on the building era of P’ungnap tosŏng and Mongchontoseong, we need to be Wei Zheng 3 very careful. However, this problem is not the focus of this paper. The key point is to suggest some ideas about the date of the unearthed coin pattern pottery of P’ungnap tosŏng, and there is the possibility that these pieces of pottery belong to the Wu period. Reexamination on “East Asia” Korean scholars believe that the date of the unearthed coin pattern pottery of P’ungnap tosŏng falls in the Western Jin dynasty or later, which directly relates with Chinese scholars’ research achievement. It is represented by the paper “The Research of the Unearthed Coin Pattern Pottery In early East Asia” (Dongya Diqu chutu zaoqi qianwen taociqi de yanjiu, hereafter, “East Asia”), which is so far the most systematized research paper on the coin pattern pottery. This paper analyzes the coin pattern pottery’s development and features in East Asia, especially in China as the center. On the basis of dividing China's coin pattern pottery into different periods, this paper gives its opinions on the coin pattern pottery of Korea: the relics of Korea have mostly been taken as remains of the Western Jin dynasty. But after observing a renewable coin pattern pottery jar in P’ungnap tosŏng, we know that it is very high; it’s swelling body tapering downwards; the coin pattern is not so clearly; the layer of stamping is less, the coin pattern is mainly distributed in the shoulder part, all of which are more like the remains of Western Jin dynasty era or later period. The unearthed coin pattern pottery shreds of Mongch’on tosŏng, P’ungnap tosŏng, and Hongsŏng Singŭmsŏng are all coin pattern deformations. The body and glaze are combined in poor condition and there is the phenomenon of peeling, which shows the general characteristics of the late era, belonging to Eastern Jin dynasty era through the speculation. 4 On the Date of the Coin Pattern Pottery in Korea In order to get a better acknowledgement of the coin pattern pottery date in P’ungnap tosŏng, it is necessary to do careful investigation on the content of “East Asia.” “East Asia” divides the periods of China's coin pattern pottery into four periods roughly and the overall evolution status is summed as: from high to low in the body, from more to less in the coin pattern layer, from clear and deep to fuzzy and light in the stamping and handwriting (Picture 2). The third period is the late Eastern Han dynasty and Wu dynasty, with the characteristic of hard ceramic in brown or black glaze; of porcelain in glaucous or greenish yellow glaze. The device had increased the pickle jar and so on, and the marks had added the “Da quan wu qian,” “Da quan dang qian,” “Da quan wu bai,” “Tai ping bai qian,” and so on. At the same time, a large number of deformed coin patterns, no coin pattern or yansheng coin pattern had appeared. The fourth period is from the middle of the Western Jin dynasty to the Eastern Jin dynasty, with the characteristic of decline of the coin pattern pottery, with the shape changing from the tank and vast to urn and jar. The coin pattern became shallow, decorated mainly on the shoulder and the type was mainly in deforming and yansheng coin pattern or no coin pattern with peeling glaze. 4 According to the division of “East Asia,” the third and the fourth periods are the same in the deforming coin pattern and no coin pattern, which are also the most easily grasping characteristics of the coin pattern pottery. The coin pattern pottery of P’ungnap tosŏng is of the same characteristic. Considering that the relics of the third period are mainly in the middle or late-period of the Wu dynasty, the existing time of the coin pattern pottery in P’ungnap tosŏng is generally from the middle or late period of the Wu dynasty to the early Eastern Jin dynasty, but not only in the Western Jin dynasty or later period. Perhaps considering the time difference between input fields and output fields, the unearthed relics of P’ungnap tosŏng are delayed to the middle or late period of the Western Jin dynasty in some research, while the middle or late period of Wu dynasty has been ruled out. Is this reasonable? Wei Zheng 5 <Picture 2> Evolution diagram of the earlier period coin pattern pottery in “East Asia”4 (From Archaeology and Cultural Relics. 2008, Vol 2, P90) From the middle or late period of the Wu dynasty to the early Eastern Jin dynasty, the unearthed coin pattern pottery in China is different in kind. Even on the same coin pattern pot, there are several different kinds. Their sizes are not big, and their height is below 25 cm in general. While the more than 30 pieces of coin pattern pottery pot of P’ungnap tosŏng are 6 On the Date of the Coin Pattern Pottery in Korea consistent in size, body, and glaze, and were unearthed together. The height is above 50 cm, which shows that these pieces are very special. They were likely produced at the same place and epoch, then transported to Paekche and stored in P’ungnap tosŏng. So, these potteries, including the few relics with the same characteristics in Mongch’on tosŏng and Hongsŏng Singŭmsŏng should not be inputed to Paekche intermittently, but at the same time. At the same time, P’ungnap tosŏng is also the capital of Paekche, so these coin pattern potteries might be related to the royal family of Paekche. There are no other goods inside the coin pattern pot except the large quantity of fish paste, which ordinary families could not obtain. In other words, the coin pattern potteries of P’ungnap tosŏng and other sites are related to the royal family, and they are the goods the royal family customized and imported from China, because there are the similar-volume coin pattern pottery found only in an Eastern Jin cellar of Zhenjiang Gaozi of China. So the pottery found in P’ungnap tosŏng may be special customized items in China by the Paekche royal family. In order to illustrate the size difference between the coin pattern pottery of P’ungnap tosŏng and the Chinese pottery, here to provide the “part of the unearthed coin pattern pottery (jar, urn) body specifications registration table in China and Korea quote from “East Asia” (Unit: cm): Diameter Coin Length of Dynasty Unearthed Place Height of pattern the surface Bottom layer Wu (Chiwu, Ma Bridge of 25.8 31.2 16 Year year) Nanling, China 10 Wu (Chiwu, Zhuran Tomb of 22.8 32 20 Year Twelve) Ma'anshan, China 8 General Sun Tomb Wu 19 26.5 19 of Erzhou, China 8 Western Jin Shihuang Town of (Taikang, Year 24.5 33 16 Chengzhou, China 6 Nine) Western Jin Jielu Village of Qu (Taikang, Year 28 28 18 County, China 4 Eight) Wei Zheng 7 Tianzi Hillock of Western Jin 21 30.5 18 Anji, China 4 Zhenjiang City, Eastern Jin 23.5 28 15.2 China 4 Zhangzhu of Eastern Jin 15.6 32.4 14.4 Yixing, China 2 Gaozi of Dantu, Eastern Jin 39 58 China P’ungnap tosŏng of Eastern Jin(?) 34.2 56 23 Korea According to the analysis above, the coin pattern pottery of P’ungnap tosŏng is in a strong particularity.