Chinese Blue and White

A large collection of excavated material from the port-city of Siraf in Iran is held in the British Museum, London. The material was collected between 1966 and 1973 but only recently catalogued. Among some seventeen thousand pieces of stone, metal, glass and ceramic from the Siraf site, including many Chinese ceramic sherds of the Tang dynasty to the Qing dynasty, is a single shard of Chinese Tang high-fired white stoneware with cobalt-blue decoration. This early blue and white ware is of the ‘blue spotted’ type that can be related to both low-fired and high-fired examples of the Tang dynasty excavated from Gongyi (formerly Gongxian) Henan, China in 2004. The shard can also be compared to a complete high-fired Tang stoneware jar in the University of Hong Kong Museum that is also sparsely decorated with cobalt-blue spots and dashes on a white ground. So far as is known the high-fired Siraf sherd is the only example of Tang dynasty Chinese blue and white found in the Middle East and therefore of prime interest in the study of East-West trade, interactions that may have operated in the ninth century between these two ceramic traditions.

Numerous sherds of Iraqi blue and white earthenware material were also found at Siraf. Most show typical Middle Eastern palmette, floral or calligraphic cobalt-blue painting, but a few used blue spots and blue dashes and appear similar to the Tang blue and white shard itself. Siraf also yielded a number of Chinese white-glazed stoneware sherds decorated with green spots, together with Middle Eastern green-on-white glazed earthenware sherds made in a comparable style.

Middle Eastern blue and white at this time was a short-lived, though highly-prized production and probably made in Iraq from sometime in the 820s onwards, and for less than one hundred years. Surviving examples are mainly bowls of typical ninth century Chinese form. The decoration of Iraqi blue and white however is almost always of Middle Eastern style and this has led scholars to think that blue and white of this period may have been an independent Middle Eastern innovation. Until now this view has been reinforced by the lack of any Chinese Tang dynasty blue and white sherds (whether low fired or high-fired) having been found in the region – unlike the masses of green-on-white glazed Chinese wares excavated at sites such as Samarra and Siraf, and which are widely regarded as having had a strong impact on the development of Middle Eastern ceramics in the later eighth and ninth centuries.

The Chinese shard itself, and the contemporary Middle Eastern shards of ‘spotted’ blue and white found in the same context at Siraf, may mean that this view should be re-assessed, although just where the Iraqi ‘spotted blue’ shards should be placed in the overall chronology of Iraqi blue and white earthenware is still an open question.

The book tries to trace back the origins of a joint East and West cultural identity. It describes the development of a Eurasian decor by analyzing the cultural interactions, the trading routes, the merchants, customers and the economics of the trade. Porcelain is the carrier of culture; the trading routes and ships were the means; and the trade itself was the mechanism for the intercultural contacts.

Exchanges and interactions give culture new vitality. When arts created by different Asian civilizations are introduced to each other, they fascinate, inspire, and facilitate reproduction. The arts continue to develop and evolve into a unique art category of their own. Of such arts, the blue and white porcelains are among the most memorable. Their pure and bright appearances and delicate and exquisite decorations (produced using cobalt materials) are synonymous with porcelains of extreme beauty.

Radiating Hues of Blue and White: Ming Dynasty Blue-and-White Porcelains in the National Palace Museum Collection, one of the opening exhibitions of the National Palace Museum (NPM) Southern Branch, introduces the NPM’s rich collection of high-quality Ming dynasty blue and white porcelains. The said porcelains, which feature radiating hues of blue and white, are considered a masterpiece of Ming dynasty (1368–1644) craftsmanship. Through trades, bestowments, and gifting, blue and white porcelains became treasured artifacts for numerous Asian dynasties, influencing countries such as Korea, Vietnam, and Turkey. By making their own blue and white porcelains, the beauty of the “blue flowers” was introduced to everyday aesthetics. As these art pieces continued to circulate and inspire over time, they became a classic artifact in Asia.

This catalogue, edited by research fellow Tsai Mei-fen (of the Department of Antiquities, the NPM) and research assistant Weng Yu-wen (of the Department of the Southern Branch Museum Affairs, the NPM), contains a fascinating introduction to the exhibition items as well as detailed monographs of the historical background of blue and white porcelains in various Asian countries during the Ming dynasty. The magnificence of and differences between the blue and white porcelains produced by the different regions were analyzed using factors such as geographical origin, raw materials, and firing techniques. In addition, the evolution of the blue and white porcelains from a Chinese artifact to one used in Asia and Europe was explained. The blue and white porcelains, which are elegant, exquisite, gorgeous, and luxurious and feature constantly changing designs, continue to capture the fascination of people from all ethnicities. The radiating hues of blue and white have stood the test of time for more than 700 years and continue to amaze the world even this day.

In Southeast Asia, porcelain from Vietnam has been developed into a very sophisticated and fascinating industry. In addition to the favorable geographic location and the surrounding natural resources, Vietnamese artisans had the ability to master the skill of ceramic making. For example, during the 14th century, China and Vietnam were the only two countries capable of producing blue and white porcelain, thereby allowing the footprints of Vietnamese blue and white wares to travel across the world by means of trade.

For the future Southern Branch in Chiayi, the National Palace Museum has worked ceaselessly to acquire Asian artworks. This fine exhibition uses thirty-eight carefully selected works from the collection to represent Vietnamese ceramic culture. The collected Vietnamese blue and white porcelain dates from the 15th to 16th centuries, a period that approximately corresponds to the mid-Ming dynasty in China. Besides one or two works of art, the vast majority of the porcelain was found at the bottom of the ocean on sunken ships, alluding to the busy oceanic trade activities of the time. Thus, the items in this exhibition not only show the revolutionary and innovative character of Vietnamese porcelain, they also demonstrate a multi-faceted view of Asian culture.

Like a lotus rising from the water, this exquisite exhibition of Vietnamese blue and white wares will emerge in Chiayi, giving residents the pleasure of being first to experience the plentiful and rich cultural features of Asia through Vietnam.

Blue-and-white porcelains are undoubtedly emblematic of Chinese craftsmanship, and have been so for several centuries. However, in this paper, I analyze a quintessential piece of blue-and-white porcelain for the purpose of explicating a wider story about East-West Asian relations -- one of exchange, mercantilism, travel, transformation and craftsmanship. I explore how the ubiquity of cobalt blue on Chinese porcelains is evidence of flourishing trade and cultural exchange between East and the Middle East/West Asia (specifically, the areas today known as China, Iran and Iraq). On the level of the specific, I employ an artistic analysis of the artefact to demonstrate how the Yuan dynasty ushered in a widespread cultural transformation through the incorporation of vast regions of the globe into its umbrella of influence, and through the centralization this dynasty undertook thereafter. However, this paper ultimately questions the teleology of ownership as it relates to cultural claims in the context of contesting and changing powers.

Almost all archaeometric studies on Chinese ceramics are carried out on the excavation materials. Therefore, a detailed, comparable database that defines different workshops and production periods already exists. But the masterpieces preserved at museums, art galleries, and/or private collections, which are artistically considered as genuine artifacts, also require similar scientific investigations to define their provenance and authenticity. The research on artworks is only possible with the use of portable, noninvasive techniques that are developing daily concerning their capability of detection limits, rate of measurement, and ease of use. In this study, the results obtained with a handheld X-ray fluorescence (XRF) (also called portable XRF) and wavelength dispersive XRF instrument were compared to evidence the efficiency and drawbacks of the portable model. To achieve this goal, 12 sherds, which represent blue-and-white porcelains of Yuan and Ming Dynasties (China), were analyzed and the chemical composition of the body, glaze, and blue decor were identified. The comparison of the results with the measurements carried out on the excavation materials, which are produced in both southern and northern China, revealed the authenticity of the artifacts. Even sodium cannot be detected with portable XRF, the distinction of different production centers is possible with the detection of major (Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca), minor (Fe, Ti), and trace elements (Zr, Sr, Rb).

The beginnings of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain in Safavid Persia are naturally connected with trade between China and Persia, which took place during the Yongle reign (1402–1424), when Sino-Persian exchange entered a new era. It is worth remembering here that between 1406–1433 China launched seven major maritime expeditions that reached as far as the Indian Ocean, Ceylon, eastern coast of Africa, Persian Gulf, and Persia. Interestingly, all of these brave voyages were conducted by a Muslim admiral named Zheng He (1371–1433).1) It is due to these courageous actions that the Chinese gained sophisticated geographical knowledge and established important trade connections. It is worth noticing here that the vast crew taking part in these trips also included merchants. In 1433 the expeditions were stopped all of a sudden most probably because of the fact that China’s economy was not yet sufficiently developed to continue foreign trade expansion, which was a rather marginal activity for the overall economic situation of the country. As later history proved, this thoughtlessly and rather short-sightedly made decision turned out to be unfavourable for China, when trade was successfully conducted by the Europeans.