The Porcelain in Han Dynasty
4 min readW hile it is generally agreed that porcelain was first made in China, authorities differ widely in fixing a date for its invention. The Chinese attribute its invention to the Han Dynasty, when the new character tz’u was coined to designate, presumably, a new substance. The official memoir on porcelain adminis tration in the area of Jingdezhen, the first edition of which was published in 1270, says that according to local tradition, the ceramic works at Xinpin (an old name for Jingdezhen) were founded in the time of the Han Dynasty and were in constant operation for centuries.
This is confirmed by the celebrated super intendent of the Imperial potteries appointed in 1728, who states in his autobiography that the result of his research shows that porcelain was first made during the Han Dynasty at Chang-an in the district of Fuliang. The industrial environment of the period lends a certain plausibility to the theory, as we know that quantities of glass vessels were being imported at the time from the workshops of Syria and Egypt, and it seems natural that experiments should be made to fabricate something similar at the Chinese potteries. The Han Dynasty was the first to open up regular communication with western countries by sending Zhang Qian on a mission to the Yuezhi, whose capital was then on the northern bank of the Amu Darya River. The envoy started in 139 B.C.E. and was kept prisoner for ten years by the Xiongnu nomads who ruled Eastern Turkestan, but finally reached his destination through Fergana, in modern-day Uzbekistan.
Travelling through Bactria, he tried to return by the Hotan-Lop Nur route, but was again stopped by the Xiongnu. He finally escaped and returned to China in 126 B.C.E., after an absence of thirteen years. Zhang Qian found bamboo staves, cloth and other goods in Bactria, which he recognised as products of Sichuan, and was told that they were brought there from Shendu (India). He reported to the emperor the existence of this southwestern trade between China and India and also intro duced the name of Buddha and the concepts of Buddhism as an Indian religion. The grape vine, the lucerne plant (Medicago sativa), the pomegranate from Parthia and several other plants were introduced into China by him and cultivated in the Shang Lin Park at the capital. The Emperor Wu subsequently sent friendly embassies to Sogdiana and Parthia in the beginning of the reign of Mithradates II and sent an army to Fergana in 102-100 B.C.E., which conquered the Kingdom of Dayuan and brought back in triumph thirty horses of classical fame. In the far south, modern-day Vietnam was annexed in 110 B.C.E., and a ship was dispatched from that port to get a supply of the coloured glass of Kabulistan, which was becoming so highly valued at the Chinese court.
The official introduction of Buddhism followed in the year 67 C.E. Emperor Ming, having seen a golden figure floating in a halo of light across the pavilion in a dream, was told by his council that it must have been an apparition of Buddha, and at once sent a special mission of inquiry to India. The envoys returned to the capital, Luoyang, with two Indian monks, who brought with them Sanskrit books, some of which were then translated, and pictures of Buddhist figures and scenes, which were copied to adorn the walls of the palace halls and the new temple that was built for the occasion. This was called the White Horse Temple in memory of the horse that had carried the sacred relics across Asia, and the two Indian shramanas lived there until they died. The subsequent influence of Buddhist ideals on Chinese porcelain has been all-pervasive; Buddhist themes and characters appear in decorations on the oldest ceramic pieces. In 97 C.E., the celebrated Chinese general Ban Chao led an army as far as Merv and sent his lieutenant Gan Ying to the Persian Gulf to take a ship there on an embassy to Rome, but the envoy shirked the sea journey and came back without accomplishing his mission. Roman merchants came by sea to Chinese-occupied Southeast Asia in 166 C.E., appearing in the annals as envoys from the emperor Marcus Aurelius, and later arrivals of Roman traders were reported at Canton in 226 and 284 C.E. Meanwhile, the overland route to the north, which had been interrupted by the Parthian wars, was re opened, and many Buddhist missionaries came to Luoyang from Parthia and Samarkand, as well as from Gandhara in Northern India. China’s gradual exposure to other cultures and its embracing of Buddhist philosophy may well have led to the creative expansion that inspired the invention of porcelain as a ceramic style. The eminent Japanese art critic Kakuzo Okakura suggests in The Ideals of the East that the alchemists of the Han Dynasty, in their prolonged research for the elixir vitae and the philosopher’s stone, may have somehow made the discovery, and he arrives at the conclusion that “we may ascribe the origin of the wonderful porcelain glaze of China to their accidental discoveries”.
China’s gradual exposure to other cultures and its embracing of Buddhist philosophy may well have led to the creative expansion that inspired the invention of porcelain as a ceramic style. The eminent Japanese art critic Kakuzo Okakura suggests in The Ideals of the East that the alchemists of the Han Dynasty, in their prolonged research for the elixir vitae and the philosopher’s stone, may have somehow made the discovery, and he arrives at the conclusion that “we may ascribe the origin of the wonderful porcelain glaze of China to their accidental discoveries”.
