Virtual pole sub-press: the change of the dragon and snake, the short and long of the plum bottle; between the wooden geese, on whether the fish wears or not; the old wine and the new bottle, the old thing and the new name, change and change, only in one thought.
As a bottle type, the plum bottle is named because its small mouth can only hold a thin plum. Plum bottle body slender, small mouth, short neck, full shoulders, tapering under the shoulders, circle feet, some with lids. This kind of wine storage vessel was indiscriminately coveted in the Sui and Tang Dynasties and popular in the Two Song Dynasties. In the Yuan Dynasty, the newly created blue and white plum vase was exported overseas and was deeply loved by foreigners. Persian miniature paintings have carefully depicted the image of the Yuanming blue and white plum vase.
▲ Reza Abbasi, Portuguese Youth, 1634, watercolor on paper, gold miniature, 14.6 x 19.2 cm
Collection of the Detroit Museum of Art, USA
Although the shape of the plum bottle in the Ming and Qing dynasties evolved from slender and beautiful to fat, short and plump, the basic appearance of its large and small ones did not change much. In fact, this type of plum bottle is unconventional, as a container it is unstable and easy to overturn. So, why did the ancients prefer bottles of this shape?
▲ [Northern Song Dynasty] Cizhou kiln white ground black color Tang grass pattern plum bottle
Collection of the Guanfu Museum
Inner Mongolia Wulanchabu City Bu meng cha right front banner Bayin Tara Tuchengzi unearthed a 43 cm high Yuan Dynasty black glaze long bottle, the bottle is engraved with a four-character inscription - "wine bottle", irrefutably proves that the plum bottle is a special vessel for storing wine, but also fully shows that it is the messenger of eastern and western wine culture exchanges.
▲ [Yuan Dynasty] black glaze inscription "wine bottle" long bottle
The plum bottle is derived from a small-mouthed ample-shouldered amphora pointed bottom bottle that is common both in the Yangshao cultural sites on the mainland and in the surrounding areas of the same ancient Mediterranean. Although they have sizes, they are often made, that is, they all have the characteristics of not being able to be placed smoothly.
▲ Ancient Chinese pointed bottom bottle
▲ Pointed bottles from the ancient Roman period and mosaics with pointed bottom bottles as the pattern
▲ Islamic decorative style "gazelle bottle" (replica)
Alhambra, Granada, Spain
Some scholars believe that this pointed bottom bottle is a water extraction device, and some people think that it is a portable irrigation appliance, but now more and more experts judge that it is a special instrument for brewing. In the oracle bones, all kinds of ways of writing the word "wine" without exception use the word "unitary" as a sound symbol and a meaning symbol, and this "unitary" word is exactly the shape of a pointed bottom bottle. It can be seen that the ancient Chinese winemaking is also inseparable from the pointed bottom bottle.
The shape of the pointed bottom bottle is a scientific structure that the ancients explored in repeated winemaking experiments. On the one hand, the ancients needed to insert the wine bottle into the silt or sand to ferment or store, and the structure of the pointed bottom bottle was easy to insert and fix; on the other hand, the structure of the pointed bottom bottle was conducive to the impurities in the liquid during winemaking precipitation and gathered at the tip bottom, so that when pouring wine or sucking wine with a reed pipe, the impurities were not easily disturbed and floated, so that the wine remained clear. The Egyptian murals give us a visual representation of how people at that time smacked wine with reed pipes when they placed pointed-bottom bottles on a support.
▲ Ancient Egyptians sipping wine map
As a wine reservoir, the use of plum bottles can be divided into three different states according to different occasions: it is held on the chest when serving wine, fixed with a bracket when storing, and tied to the neck with a rope during transportation. Although the Chinese plum bottle became a small flat bottom in later evolution, the base was still needed to support the early storage of the plum bottle, which is exactly the same as in the West.
▲ (Left) [Yuan] Blue and white dragon pattern with seat plum bottle / (right) [Yuan] green and white glaze pile plum pattern with seat plum bottle
Collection of Jiangxi Provincial Museum
▲ (Left) [Early Ming] Plain tire with lid plum bottle and bright black glazed plum bottle holder / (right) [Early Ming] plain tire large-mouth pottery bottle and pink plum bottle holder
Collection of Guangxi Guilin Museum
▲ Ancient Roman pointed bottom bottle and bottle holder (replica)
▲ [Ancient Rome] Blue background white flower Dionysus grape pattern glass relief pointed bottom bottle, 1st century BC, excavated in Pompeii in 1837
Collection of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, Italy
According to the Northern Song Dynasty anecdotal novel "Hou Mackerel Record", this type of plum bottle ware seat is collectively referred to as "wine place", which was originally wooden and later changed to porcelain. With the transformation of the ancient plum bottle in the direction of the furnishing, the shape of the plum bottle has become more and more short and plump and easy to place alone, and the wine has been abandoned. The sake that has lost its original function has since been put into the fish tank and named "Fish Wear", in order to add some obstacles to the free movement of swimming fish and bring some joy to the fish watchers.
▲ [Early Ming Dynasty] Longquan kiln blue glaze hollow plum bottle holder
Collection of the Palace Museum
The change of the dragon and snake, the short length of the plum bottle; between the wooden geese, on whether the fish wears it or not; the old wine and the new bottle, the new name of the old thing, change and change, only in one thought.