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Home , Chinese ceramics, Ding ware, Kaiyuan Tongbao, The Classic of Tea, Yue ware

Regina Krahl

White Wares of Northern Regina Krahl White Wares of Northern China

he white on the Belitung wreck Huanghe (), ‘are rich in clay minerals 1 Wood 1999, 27, with a map, 26; Tcomprised some 300 items, all of them made while and ‘clays’ south of the cf. also above pp. 119–122. in northern China. Most of them represent table- divide tend to be rock based and rich in fine 2 White wares made of a pure wares. As with green wares, two distinct qualities and ’.1 And it would seem that for white clay and fired at tempera- tures just high enough to qualify can be distinguished, reflecting the production the first two millennia or so of China’s historic as stonewares, have been dis- covered at sites of the late Shang of different centres in and . period, the two regions developed their dynasty at Anyang in Henan Among them are examples of probably the finest traditions quite independent from each other. province. These rare examples are finely made, fashioned in ceramic wares available at the time, and some Although the origins of stoneware production shapes and decorations imitating contemporary , but are of the earliest true made in China. in the north can equally be traced to the Shang lacking a glaze. No continuous They also include the only complete examples dynasty (c. 1600–c. 1050 BC), this part of China development of stonewares can be detected from these early be- dis covered so far of China’s earliest blue-and- lacked the continuous development which char- ginnings, and at present they still white ware. acterizes the south.2 have to be considered as isolated experiments, rather than the ori- gins of north China’s stoneware production. China’s fame as a ceramic-producing country is After these early beginnings, it is only in the sixth based on its production of porcelain. Porcelains century, almost two millennia later, that stone- are closely related to stonewares, so closely in fact, wares appeared again in northern China, the that the does not distinguish at intervening period still being shrouded in mist. all between the two. In the West, the term porce- From that time onwards, however, the northern lain is used for which are fired at even stoneware industry developed rapidly, with a higher temperatures than stonewares, around varied range of green, black and white wares ap- 1350°C (while for stonewares a firing tempera- pearing all more or less at the same time. White ture of c. 1280°C is characteristic), and which wares, at that time unique to the north, became – unlike stonewares – are white, translucent and as much associated with it as green wares were resonant. In practice, there is no distinct dividing with the south. line between the two but a smooth transition. In the (618–907) white stonewares The development of high-fired ceramics in the were made by several northern manufactories. north took a course completely different from Superficially they all look quite similar, but they that in the south. Nigel Wood has repeatedly can vary considerably in material and work- demonstrated that, geologically, the stoneware manship. The most important distinguishing and porcelain raw materials in the northern part feature, perhaps, is that their transparent glazes of China, i.e. very roughly the area north of the can cover either a pure white body, or a pure

302 White Wares of Northern China white which in turn hides a non-white body. While Lu professes a personal preference for The former requires a very finely prepared clay ware as bowls, he relates that some of his 3 See Jia Zhongmin et al. 1987, 1–10. without impurities. Such stonewares with a pure contemporaries ranked the white bowls of Xing white body and a highly glossy, translucent glaze ware highest. 4 Since a precise piece-by-piece distinction between stonewares with a tendency to run down the vessel surface in and porcelains is impossible, the term stoneware has been chosen thick glassy drops were made by the Xing in In the eighth and ninth century, however, Xing here to designate all white wares Neiqiu and Lincheng counties, Hebei province, white wares and Yue green wares developed side- found on the wreck. The term is here used in a general sense 3 already prior to the (581–618). In by-side, the former representing the finest ware for high-fired ceramics, ‘ci’ in Chinese, rather than in its specific the Tang dynasty, the body ranged in colour from of the north, the latter that of the south. There are sense, as distinct from porcelain. pure white to cream-white and can be translucent many parallels in the range of shapes produced 5 Yutaka Mino and Katherine and resonant. The glaze tends to be very thin, and by the two manufactories, but shapes with R. Tsiang consider the advent of often has an attractive bluish tinge due to the use sharp, angled profiles are peculiar to Xing ware. these white wares to have seriously effected the demand of wood as fuel and to firing in a reducing kiln The reputed use of twelve Xing and for wares for some time (Mino Yutaka and Tsiang 1986, atmosphere; more rarely it is tinged with yellow bowls filled with varying amounts of water, for 20). due to oxidization. Tang dynasty Xing ware can playing a musical scale, which is recorded for the 6 For an english translation of the be fired at temperatures of up to c. 1350°C, and 840s, is related below (p. 354) in connection with text see Carpenter 1974, 90–93. 4 can reach the level of true porcelain. Yue ware. References to Xing can be found in the 7 Zhou Lili 1982, 277. literature particularly between the mid-eighth The appearance of sturdy ceramics which did not and the late ninth century, which was probably easily crack, crackle or chip, which were and re- the period of its greatest popularity. It was not mained dense and immaculately clean, and were only popular for tea but also for wine: in a poem elegant at the same time, must have seemed al- composed between 821 and 824 cups and most miraculous at the time.5 Surfaces as bright, Neiqiu bottles are mentioned by Zhen glossy and smooth as those of the best Tang (779–831) in connection with different wines. A white wares were known only from precious reference by Li Zhao (active early ninth century), metals and precious (or semi-precious) stones. written sometime after 824, that white porcelain As Yue wares evoked in Chinese connoisseurs the bottles from Neiqiu and Duan inkstones are used image of jade, Xing wares evoked that of silver. by everybody, the noble as well as the lowly, has This was first written down between 761/2 and often been taken as evidence for the wide dis- 777 in by the tea connoisseur tribution of these items among the populace.7 (739–804/5), who compared Yue to jade However, given that Xing ware has survived in and Xing to silver, Yue to ice and Xing to snow.6 such small numbers and, like Duan inkstones,

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was always considered as particularly desirable, the Xing kilns started to decline, did the 8 E.g. Zhou Lili 1982; Fan Dong- Li Zhao’s remark must be taken as an overstate- kilns switch to coal as fuel, which, due to the qing 1991; Richards 1984–85, etc. ment, written perhaps to impress on the reader greater oxidization in the firing, gave their white 9 In The Complete Collection of the affluence and prosperity of the times. Xing wares the ivory tone generally associated with Treasures 1996, compare two bowls of ‘Xing’ ware, pls 82 and is even said to have been a tributary ware to the Ding. 83, with two bowls of ‘Ding’ ware, pls 96 and 97. court (cf. above p. 245). The differences between Tang Xing and Ding Appreciation was certainly great enough to in- white wares have been studied by a number of spire imitation. Close copies were made during researchers, and the same, or almost identical, the Tang dynasty by another Hebei manufactory, objects are still being attributed to both manu- the Ding kilns at Quyang, which were located factories.9 On the whole, however, the findings nearby, somewhat further to the north. The Tang would seem to indicate that in the Tang dynasty dynasty products of the two can be so similar as the Ding kilns were imitating Xing, rather than to be difficult to distinguish (fig. 1).8 Both kiln developing their own characteristic features. centres still fired with wood at that time, their Although the two wares were similar, Xing is glazes can therefore both have a bluish tinge. unfailingly described as superior in quality and Only around the end of the Tang dynasty, when workmanship. A very smooth body and even

Fig. 1 Xing ware (left) and (right) bowl fragments (after Fan Dongqing 1991, 48, fig. 2).

304 White Wares of Northern China glaze application, without obvious streaks or tear The pure white body material has a remark- marks, are ascribed to the products of the Xing ably fine texture; the application of a slip – di- manufactories. luted white clay – as found on other white wares, was unnecessary (cf. also above pp. 129–130). The Hebei white wares found on the Belitung Although the body does not look strongly vit- wreck are of very high quality. They are charac- rified, being neither glassy nor translucent but terized by thin potting, and diligent use of the instead rather chalky and matt, the pieces were knife for subsequent trimming. Shapes are there- clearly high-fired, and produce a clear sound fore delicate and precise, with exacting profiles when struck. The surface is evenly covered with and neat foot rings with sharply cut edges (cf. no. the thinnest layer of glaze, usually of a bluish 86). Rim lobes on bowls and stands are cut, while tinge, which degrades easily because it is so thin. the corresponding raised ribs are created through Generally the glaze shows no , but often the application of slip, crisply shaped with a knife minute bubbles. In terms of purity and smooth- (cf. nos 88, 89). Occasionally the simple marking ness of the body, evenness and clarity of the of the rim lobe through a line of slip is elaborated glaze, and precision of the profiles, the examples into a decorative triple line fanning out from the found on the wreck can be classified among the rim (cf. no. 90). best white wares known from this period. Similar

Fig. 2 Xing ware bowl fragments from the kiln sites in Lincheng county, Fig. 3 Xing ware bowl fragment from the Qicun kiln site in Hebei province (after Yang Wenshan and Lin Yushan 1981, 41, fig. 4). Lincheng county, Hebei province (after Li Huibing 1981, 47, fig. 8).

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pieces have been excavated from the Xing kiln or may not represent intentional ornamentation 10 The material published so far sites (figs 2, 3).10 The Hebei white wares on the (nos 92, 94, 95). from the Xing kiln sites is, how- ever, still scarce; bowl and cup Belitung wreck have here therefore been attrib- fragments related to pieces on uted to the Xing rather than the Ding kilns. Xing and Ding were not the only white wares the wreck are illustrated in Yang Wenshan and Lin Yushan 1981, made in Tang China. The desire to create ce- 41, figs 4–6; Li Huibing 1981, 46, fig. 3, and 47, figs 4 and 8. The Xing ware bowls were intended for tea, like ramics with a clean white surface may have been the similarly shaped bowls of Yue ware; they all fairly universal, but mostly it was curtailed by 11 Mino Yutaka 1998, 102, fig. 43. show the classic bi -disc foot (nos 86–88). Cups clays firing grey or buff, or containing impuri- 12 Li Zi Yan and Chan Liang Zhu 1988, 10. come with and without handles (nos 91–94), and ties which resulted in dark spots. At Gongxian in sometimes have the sharply angled profiles of Henan the craftsmen soon discovered that they contemporary metalwork (no. 95). The fact that could simulate the effect of a pure white ware they were made in white but not green ware con- by covering their somewhat coarse and impure firms the intended association with silver. The off-white clays with a layer of white slip, and this exact use of the handled cups has not yet been method spread also to other kilns. Besides in determined. Those without handles might have Hebei, kilns making Tang white ware have also been used for wine, together with stands (nos 89, been discovered in Henan, Shanxi, and 90), although they are rather large. It is tempt- provinces.12 ing to believe (although completely unsubstan- tiated) that a stand like no. 89, that was excavated At a casual glance, Gongxian wares closely in from the reputed site of the house resemble Xing wares. The application of the of the Tang poet and renowned drinker Bo Juyi slip did suffice to render the body smooth and (772–846), might have been used in this way.11 even, the glaze clean and sparkling, and the The wreck did not contain any Xing ware wine whole piece pure white. A closer look, however, bottles. reveals considerable differences in material and craftsmanship. Gongxian white wares are much Two white ewers (nos 96, 97) for hot water, to more heavily potted and less carefully finished. be used in the preparation of tea, represent a The body material, which generally is visible type made by several kilns at that time. They can at the foot, is much less fine, and impure. The not be attributed to the Xing kilns with as much glaze is less clear and glassy, and in combination confidence as the pieces above, and might equally with the slip often produces a creamy tone. The have been made by the Ding kilns. Decoration is Henan wares were fired at lower temperatures absent from all Hebei white wares, except for and in a less reducing atmosphere. Whereas Xing some thin incised horizontal lines, which may wares are akin to porcelain and can indeed reach

306 White Wares of Northern China that stage (with firing temperatures as high as have the same shape as some Yue bottles on the 1350°C for some of them13), Gongxian wares are wreck (nos 140, 141), with side lugs for fastening 13 Wood 2000, 98. slip-covered stonewares. These white stonewares a cover or for carrying; this shape is otherwise 14 Tan 1993, 3. were not the only and perhaps not the most im- rarely seen. 15 Compare a white ewer from portant product of the Gongxian kilns; the kilns the kiln site in Ceramic Finds are better known for the colourful -glazed A very small group of slip-covered white stone- from Henan 1997, cat. no. 17. made in the first half of the Tang wares on the Belitung wreck differs from the 16 Crowe 1975–77, 264ff; see also above pp. 68–69, 80–81. dynasty for burial purposes. Their white wares Gongxian examples, by being superior in mate- were nevertheless held in high esteem, a large rial but inferior in workmanship. These pieces quantity of sherds having apparently been found have a relatively fine-grained, smooth body, even at the Tang imperial palace site, Daming- probably light buff or off-white in colour but gong, at Xi’an.14 on the outside now strongly discoloured by . The white slip was, however, carelessly applied The Gongxian white wares on the wreck are well and is not reaching down to the base. The general made, although the potting is somewhat clumsy appearance is quite rough, the potting thick, and and shapes can be warped. They have a coarse- profiles are not very distinct. These pieces might grained body of greyish to pale buff or pale beige have been made by a different Henan kiln centre, colour, generally containing impurities in the such as, for example the Hebiji kilns at Hebi. 15 form of tiny dark specks, which makes the ap- They include a bowl with bi -disc foot (no. 98), plication of a slip indispensable (cf. also above and a small cup with flared rim (no. 99). They pp. 122–126). The slip is applied in thick layers, may have been loaded on board in southern Chi- often more than once. The glaze is transparent, na by chance, their different origin not having has a faint yellow tinge, and tends to be strongly been noticed and not of any consequence to the crazed. In combination with the slip it can, in customers further west. the best cases, take on a beautiful, creamy ivory tone. At the time of the Tang, the production of high- fired stonewares was unique to China. The clean The wreck contained Gongxian bottles, jars, and and sparkling appearance of Tang white wares bowls. The large bowls were probably intended was admired abroad in particular. Early Chinese for food (no. 106), while the large covered jars, white wares from various manufactories have either with or without a spout, may have been been found, for example, in Brahminabad, Siraf, used for storing wine (nos 100–102), and the Samarra and Fustat, but also at many other sites bottles for serving it (nos 103, 104). The bottles in Mesopotamia and further into Iran.16 It was

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not so much their style that appealed – beauti- ware clay at their disposal, nor the Chinese ware’s 17 Lindberg 1953, 24. ful ceramics were also made elsewhere; it was of hardness and density, Mesopotamian potters 18 A Chinese white bowl is com- course their practicality, but perhaps even more nevertheless set out to emulate the Chinese wares, pared with an Islamic imitation so their translucency that beguiled foreign ob- by using Chinese shapes and covering their pot- in Crowe 1975–77, pl. 104a. servers. It was undoubtedly admiration of Xing tery with opaque white glazes (fig. 4).18 With- 19 Ibid., 266f. ware which caused an Arabian merchant named out the superb material to recommend them, Sulayman to write, in 851, that ‘the Chinese have undecorated white wares in quiet, unpretentious a fine clay of which they fashion drinking vessels shapes were probably rather limited in their ap- that are as delicate as glass and through which peal. Thus, their style was developed further, and one can see the water, despite that they are of clay the Middle East suddenly saw the production of and not of glass’.17 white wares both in non-Chinese forms and with non-Chinese coloured decoration.19 The influx Although neither this quality – translucency of to the Near and Middle East – could easily be reproduced with the earthen- in the eighth and ninth centuries is believed to

Fig. 4 Tang white stoneware bowl (left) and contemporary Mesopota- mian copy (right). Foundation, London (after Crowe 1975–77, 276, pl. 104a).

Fig. 5 Blue-and-white bowl from Iraq. 9th century. Private collection (after Crowe 1975–77, 276, pl. 104b).

308 White Wares of Northern China have given the much needed impetus for a new painting was also tried out on the high-fired inspiration of the ceramic craft in that region at white wares made in this region. Although as 20 See ibid., 267 and pl. 104b, for a bowl in a private collection in that time. yet no Tang blue-and-white stonewares appear Teheran; Sarre 1925, pl. XVIII, for to have been discovered at the kiln site, their fragments excavated at Samarra. Perhaps the most striking innovation of the Gongxian origin is evident, since in material and 21 Porter 2000.

Islamic potters was the utilization of for workmanship they are practically identical to the 22 Cobalt had already been used blue painted designs on white . They at kilns’ monochrome white wares. in China in the (475–221 BC) for glazed first applied cobalt to their new white wares faience beads. The time of its introduction as a glaze colour with great restraint, for painting palmettes, gar- The appearance of blue-and-white vessels in for pottery vessels is still a mat- lands, palm trees, and some ‘pseudo- calligraphy’ Mesopotamia and in China around roughly the ter of debate. From the eighth 20 century onwards it was used (fig. 5). Even though painted lines are gener- same time is intriguing. Unfortunately, the exact fairly frequently, but may already ally somewhat thick and fuzzy, since the pigment time of the introduction of cobalt-blue decora- have been experimented with in the seventh. tended to diffuse into the surrounding glaze, the tion to Middle Eastern ceramics is still a matter cobalt used in Mesopotamia yielded such a clear of debate, since the Mesopotamian examples 23 Wood (forthcoming). and bright colour that the blue-and-white effect cannot be dated precisely; and firm evidence 24 See Municipal Office 2000, passim. is most attractive. It soon became one of the fa- for dating the Chinese examples is equally 25 A pillow fragment is said to voured pigments for decorating ceramics in the lacking. Blue-and-white stoneware fragments have been found in a stratum Middle East.21 have been excavated from the site of the Tang together with a coin, a type minted between city of and from some other sites, but 713 and 741, but used for a long In China cobalt had been employed as a glaze their number is very small and the utilization of period of time; see bowuyuan fajue 1977, 29. A blue- colour for monochrome and polychrome burial cobalt as a pigment for painting white stoneware splashed box fragment discovered 22 at Luoyang is tentatively attribu- pottery at least since the eighth century. The was apparently very short-lived. The first com- ted to before 841, on account of a origin of the cobalt used on Tang ceramics is still plete examples have come to light on the present lack of coins from the Huichang reign under emperor Wuzong under discussion. Recent studies have shown it wreck, which also provides the most specific (841–846); see Cheng Yongjian to be distinctly different from that used in Meso- clues so far for their dating.25 2000. potamian pottery, and thus refute the previously held belief that it came from Iran. 23 Lead-glazed Three dishes recovered from the Belitung wreck earthenwares in various colours including co- (nos 107–109) show for the first time complete balt-blue were the main product of the Huangye designs. Their main feature is a quatrefoil motif kilns in Gongyi Municipality, former Gongxian, based on a single or double lozenge, surrounded in Henan province until the mid-Tang period.24 by palmette-like fronds of leaves. The few sherds It is therefore not surprising that cobalt-blue discovered in China are the remains of bowls,

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dishes, a ewer, a pillow and a box, with similar fills a roughly square field. The lozenge motif 26 The fragments have been pub- or simpler designs (figs 6, 7).26 More elaborate on the Chinese versions can also be outlined in lished, for example, in Nanjing bowuyuan fajue 1977, 29, no. 9 decoration would have been difficult to achieve, a series of consecutive strokes rather than each and pl. 2:1; Zhang Pusheng and since the blue painted lines tended to blur. side being drawn in a continuous line. This could Zhu Ji 1985, 67–71, no. 10; Wang Qingzheng 1987, pls 1–3; Wang be due to the fact that the cobalt solution sank Qinjin 1994, 417, fig. 4:14. These palmette and lozenge motifs do not easily in so quickly that longer strokes were difficult to 27 Nigel Wood has suggested yet fit into the repertoire of Tang ornamentation achieve; or else it could be a sign that the painters another possibility, namely that the Chinese painters inadvertent- (see also above pp. 235–238). The relationship were copying a model not fully understood, and ly might have copied a difficulty encountered by the Mesopo- with the designs of contemporary Mesopota- it might well be Arabic writing which caused the tamian painters who painted mian blue-and-white bowls, however, is striking. Chinese painters to hesitate in their strokes.27 on dry glaze rather than on the , as in China (personal A bowl such as illustrated in fig. 5 would have communication). provided a perfect model, with its quatrefoil Blue-and-white ceramics certainly did not accord design with four fronds of leaves surrounding with the prevailing Chinese taste of the time, an indistinct Arabic/Persian inscription which where coloured ceramics were used for funerals.

Fig. 6 Tang blue-and-white pillow fragment from the site of the Tang city of Yangzhou, province (after Wang Qingzheng 1987, pl. 3).

310 White Wares of Northern China The admiration for plain white vessels for use and-white porcelain tradition. Technically they among the living was based on their perceived – like also the complete pieces from the wreck 28 Only the box fragment (Cheng Yongjian 2000), which may or similarity with silver. Regarded from this angle, (nos 107–109) – do indeed represent China’s may not be an example of Tang any coloured decoration would have spoiled the first high-fired ceramics using the blue-and- blue-and-white stoneware (see note 26), came from a tomb site, desired effect. Tang blue-and-white was most white colour scheme. But with their heavy, slip- at Luoyang in Henan. likely made basically for foreigners. Virtually all covered, non-white bodies they can hardly be 29 See in this volume pp. 38f., the sherds found in China come from Yangzhou, considered proper porcelain. In addition, they 83–91 the main international port at the time.28 The are fundamentally different from, and in their pieces on the present wreck may well have been evolution unconnected to the wares from the loaded on board in that harbour, too, for ship- southern kilns of , which began to ment to the Middle East.29 With the changing make cobalt-blue painted porcelain in the Yuan fortunes of the maritime trade to western Asia, dynasty (1279–1368), and from that point on however, it is not surprising that the production until today have made virtually all of China’s of such pieces was short-lived. It would seem blue-and-white. But even once this momentous that Gongxian blue-and-white wares remained development began in the fourteenth century, it no more than isolated experiments, produced was to take around a century for the new colour in very small quantities, and that the style was scheme to become truly popular in China. The abandoned soon after it had been developed. ninth-century activities can be seen as a trial run, albeit unsuccessful in the long term, in the his- The Yangzhou fragments have been much tory of blue-and-white porcelain. publicized and researched in China, and hailed as the earliest representatives of China’s blue-

Fig. 7 Tang blue-and-white bowl fragments from the site of the Tang city of Yangzhou, Jiangsu province (after Wang Qingzheng 1987, pls 1, 2).

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