Regina Krahl Green Wares of Southern China Regina Krahl Green Wares of Southern China he ceramics recovered from the Belitung ceramics (fired around 1200°C) were made in 1 Wood 2000, 19. Twreck included some 900 pieces of green- this region. These wares represent the ultimate glazed stoneware from southern China. They predecessors of porcelain, and precede any are of two very different types: a smaller part similar production in the West by almost three represents fine tablewares, a larger part mas- thousand years. sive storage containers. The former presumably constituted a precious part of the ceramic cargo, The igneous rocks and volcanic ashes left in carried on board to be sold on arrival. The lat- the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and ter merely provided the ‘packing cases’ for more Guangdong from volcanic activity some 140 mil- valuable goods and were most probably not in- lion years ago constitute highly suitable raw ma- tended for sale on their own. Many of these large terials for producing fine stonewares. They can vessels bear identifying Chinese characters or often be used more or less as mined, or else can other markings, incised or inscribed in ink, and be easily processed by levigation.1 The earliest may have been re-used for several voyages (cf. glazes on these high-fired stonewares developed appendix IV nos 6–20). naturally due to wood ash falling onto the hot vessel surface during firing, where it reacted with These green wares come from two different the clay to form a glaze. Soon after such first for- regions in the south-east of China, Zhejiang tuitous appearances, proper lime glazes were cre- and Guangdong. Zhejiang supplied fine table- ated by mixing wood ash with clay slips, which wares only, Guangdong made both tablewares could be deliberately applied. and storage containers. Until the Song dynasty (960–1279), the south-east of China was the The Yue kilns in northern Zhejiang province are undisputed centre for the production of green- the oldest kilns in China whose name has be- glazed stonewares, and at the time the present come universally associated with their products. pieces were made, the ceramic industry in this Yue is the historical name of the region around area had already more than two thousand years Shaoxing, where kilns have been located since of experience. China is unique in its develop- at least early historic times (the second half of ment of these hard, dense and extremely durable the second millennium BC). In the Han dynasty ‘green wares’, which in the West are often called (206 BC–AD 220), the wares began to display ‘celadons’. Their origins can be traced to China’s a distinct identity, and from then on the name bronze age, when after the middle of the second Yue became a synonym for fine ceramics. At the millennium BC the world’s earliest ‘ high-fired’ time of the Six Dynasties (222–589) the Yue kilns’ 352 Green Wares of Southern China production was boosted, as nearby Nanjing had national community of resident merchants with been chosen as capital by all the six dyn asties a keen interest in any products which could be 2 See, for example, Zou Houben et al. 2000, 350ff. which gave the period its name. Yet, in spite of exported. Both appear to have discovered China’s the kilns’ reputation and the excellent quality ceramics around the same time. 3 For these white stonewares from Hebei province see p. 302ff. of their ceramics, which had no competition in in this volume. China or elsewhere, Yue ware – like ceramics in Probably the first Chinese document praising general at that time – does not seem to have been the virtues of any ceramics is the Chajing, The greatly appreciated, neither for aesthetic nor for Classic of Tea, the well-known manual on the practical reasons, but was used mainly for burial art of tea drinking, written by the poet Lu Yu purposes. (739–804/805) between 761/2 and 777. In this treatise Lu Yu elevated the then popular con- Related green wares of lesser quality were also sumption of tea into a ceremony to be celebrated made in neighbouring regions, such as Guang- in style, thereby probably reflecting a trend of dong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi and Fujian, even his time. He lists and carefully describes over though few kilns of that period have as yet twenty accoutrements as the required equip- been located there. Only from the sixth century ment of the tea connoisseur. In discussing the onwards, when the kingdoms of the north in- relative merits of different ceramic tea bowls, he creased their power, did stonewares of compara- ranks Yue ware highest, a preference he explains ble quality begin to be made in northern China, with the observation that their blue-green glaze and the Yue production experienced a temporary colour enhances the colour of the tea. In likening setback. Examples of the late sixth and seventh Yue ware to jade and Xing (white) ware3 to silver, century are very rare. Tombs, even in the South, comparing Yue with ice and Xing with snow, Lu were furnished with earthenwares of lesser qual- Yu passed a judgement on their beauty and ex- ity, which were not only easier to make, but also pressed, perhaps for the first time, an aesthetic more glamorous and versatile in appearance, of- appreciation of ceramics. fering a choice of bright glaze colours.2 Lu Yu’s observations foreshadow an evaluation of When Yue wares reappeared in increased quan- ceramics as a desirable luxury, akin to precious tity in the eighth century, it was as wares for the metals and stones, which developed fully in the living. By that time, China had a native class of ninth century as workmanship became finer and discerning connoisseurs with an interest in fine quality increased. At that time Yue ware featured utensils for daily use, as well as a sizeable inter- in many poems: Gu Kuang (c. 725–c. 814) com- Green Wares of Southern China 353 Green Wares of Southern China pared it to jade, Xu Shen (dates unknown) to incense vessels. About a century after the appear- 4 Watson 1984, 34; Seven Thou- ‘autumn floods’, an expression for ‘bright eyes’; ance of The Classic of Tea an exquisite group of sand Years 1994, 102; Feng Xian- ming 1998, 314; Mino Yutaka and Meng Jiao (751–814) talked about the ‘ lotus- tea utensils, incense vessels and sarira containers Tsiang 1986, 13. leaf cavity’ of a Yue bowl; Shi Jianwu (fl. 820), was donated by the imperial household to the 5 Watson 1984, 34; Zhou Lili mentioned it in an ode devoted to the tea from Famen Temple in Fufeng county not far from the 1982, 277. Sichuan; Lu Guimeng (died c. 881) mourned the capital Chang’an (modern Xi’an), which con- 6 Famensi 1990; Gifts of the Tang excessive quantity of trees used to fire it (‘Rob- tained one of the holiest Buddhist relics, a ‘finger Emperors 1999. bing a thousand mountain peaks of their king- bone’ of the Buddha. fisher-blue’); Pi Rixiu (c. 834–c. 883) compared Yue and Xing wares to the twin souls hun and The imperial donations included luxury objects po; and Xu Yin (fl. late ninth/early tenth century) of gold and silver, immensely rare items of glass praised the beauty of mise (‘secret colour’, a par- and lavish wrappings of silk, as well as fourteen ticularly fine type of Yue ware) tea bowls made to exquisite vessels of green-glazed stoneware from be presented to the emperor.4 the Yue kilns. In a contemporary inventory of the find they are classified as mise (‘secret colour’) The likeness to jade was suggested not only by ware. Their fine and smooth body material, and their colour and tactility, but also because of glossy, tactile, translucent bright green glazes are the resonance of the high-fired stoneware body. unmatched elsewhere, and represent the very Duan Anjie (late ninth century) recorded in 894 peak of the Yue ware production. The treasury that during the reign of Wuzong (840–846) a containing all these items was sealed in 874.6 certain Guo Daoyuan used twelve Yue and Xing ware bowls filled with varying amounts of water In the Five Dynasties period (906–960), mise to play a musical scale – just like performances ware of the Yue kilns is said to have been the of- done with glasses today. Their tone is said to have ficial ware of the kings of Wu-Yue, who ruled the surpassed that of chimes made of jade.5 Zhejiang region at that time; and when the Song established a new dynasty in 960, they sent it as The greater part of Yue wares made in the Tang tribute to the Song court, hoping thus to prolong dynasty (618–907) was connected with the their independence. Nevertheless the kingdom drinking of tea. The celebration of tea was linked soon vanished, and the kilns were eclipsed by with Chan Buddhist ceremonies: tea was drunk new ones established in the north. during meditation, with incense burning along- side, in temples as well as in elegant houses. Tea Although some Yue ware may thus have reached wares are therefore usually accompanied by imperial tables, the greater part of the kilns’ 354 Green Wares of Southern China production was not for official use. Evidence Although at that time China no longer had a for its use in China is altogether scarce. In the monopoly on the production of silk, the export 7 E.g. Wang Qingzheng 1996, pl.