The mainstream of Jingdezhen porcelain production in the Yuan Dynasty is Qingbai porcelain and egg white glazed porcelain, in comparison, the blue and white porcelain is created late, the output is also small, the domestic discovery of Yuan blue and white is not rich, less than 200 complete pieces, and the foreign collection of Yuan blue and white ware is estimated to be nearly 300 pieces. Archaeological discoveries prove that the blue and white porcelain of the Yuan Dynasty was exported in a wide range, from Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia to North Africa and East Africa and other places in coastal cities and important inland cities. There are two types of Yuan blue and white collections in these areas, of which the heirloom collections are mainly concentrated in the Topkapu Sarayi Museum in Turkey and the Archaeological Museum in Tehran, Iran (originally in the Ardebil Shrine in Iran), and the largest number of excavations are in the Tughlaq palace site in Delhi, India. The collections or excavations in these three places are all large blue and white porcelain pieces that are huge, bright and beautifully painted.
In addition, many blue and white porcelain or fragments of the Yuan Dynasty have also been unearthed or handed down in Southeast Asia, such as the "Madjapahit royal capital ruins" found in Central Java. Fragments of Yuan blue and white have been found in many cities near the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, the most representative example is the site of Al-Fustat in northern Cairo, Egypt, according to statistics, since the 20th century, the number of Chinese porcelain tiles unearthed in Fustat is about 12,000 pieces, including the late Tang Dynasty in the 9th century to the early Qing Dynasty in the early Qing Dynasty. Syria is located at the gateway from the port city to the Iranian plateau, where many centuries-old Yuan blue and white flowers have been found.
Yuan blue and white porcelain collected or unearthed abroad
1. Plum vase in the Topkapi Palace Museum 2
3. Alderbi Temple Collection Plate 4. Excavation Plate from the Tughlak Site
All in all, the Yuan blue and white found along the sea route constituted a coherent and complete marketing route. For the transportation and sale of ceramics, sea freight is undoubtedly also a more suitable choice. Ceramics are heavy and fragile, and land transportation is obviously costly and difficult, but sea ships not only have a large load capacity, but also load ceramics and play the role of ballast, which is the main way for ceramics to be exported. At present, there are only a few city sites on the land route that have been discovered, and the relationship between them is not close, and even the clues will be lost in Central and Western Asia, and it is impossible to construct a sales route from beginning to end, and more in-depth research needs to be further enriched with archaeological materials.
Compared with overseas discoveries, the types of Yuan blue and white ware found in China are diverse and the quality is quite different, and the types that are not found in foreign include drinking utensils (such as goblets, cups, cups, persuasion plates, holding pots, phoenix head pots, pear-shaped pots, etc.), household utensils (such as pen holders, powder boxes, bird food jars, etc.), ritual utensils (incense burners, net bottles, goose, garlic bottles, etc.) and Ming utensils (tower jars, statues, etc.). The most common bowls, plates, bottles, and pots in Turkey, Iran, and India account for a small proportion of the varieties excavated in China, and many of the blue-ground and white-flowered utensils, as well as plates depicted with garden landscapes and animal patterns, are not found in excavations other than domestic kiln sites, and should be exclusively for the use of these overseas countries. And compared with similar utensils, the volume of the domestic is not as large as that of foreign countries, for example, the diameter of the collection of Iran and Turkey is 40 ~ 50 centimeters, and the domestic only two pieces of fish algae pattern plates (about 45 cm in diameter) unearthed in Changde City, Hunan, the diameter of the lotus pond mandarin duck pattern plate unearthed in Linxi Cellar in Inner Mongolia is only 13.6 cm, the diameter of the dragon pattern plate is only 15.9 cm, and the diameter of the light dragon pattern plate unearthed in Luoma Bridge in Jingdezhen is only 27.7 cm.
Yuan blue and white porcelain unearthed in China
1. Inner Mongolia Jining Road cellar unearthed goblet 2. Zhejiang Hangzhou cellar unearthed pen frame water bowl
3. Futian Township, Pingxiang City, Jiangxi Province, unearthed incense burner with a seat
Through the statistics of the types and quantities of artifacts unearthed in China and abroad (Iran, Turkey and India), it can be seen that the sales of Yuan blue and white have a distinct market orientation, and there are certain differences in the type and quality of Yuan blue and white products supplied to the domestic market and foreign markets. For reference, the quality of the Yuan blue and white porcelain found in the ruling center and wealthy areas of the Yuan Dynasty in China is much better than that of the surrounding areas of Jingdezhen, and there are also some cellars of the Yuan Dynasty that preserve a large number of blue and white porcelain, such as the Baoding and Gao'an cellars. The cellaring of this item shows that the Yuan blue and white flowers were also relatively novel and precious varieties at that time, so the large number of high-quality Yuan blue flowers found overseas should be the same as those in China, and they are not consumed by the ordinary people.
Of course, there was also frequent civil trade during this period, and Wang Dayuan, the author of "Daoyi Zhiluo", was a commoner who went to sea with a merchant ship, and from his description, we can get a glimpse of the prosperity of maritime trade at that time, so we can also find some folk fired Yuan blue and white porcelain and fragments in Southeast Asia and North Africa. In comparison, these small pieces of blue and white porcelain are by no means larger than those of large pieces, and few of them have survived in the Middle East. This still indicates that the sales of large items are mainly aimed at regions such as the Middle East and South Asia.
Yuan blue and white porcelain unearthed from domestic cellars
1, 2. Hebei Baoding cellar unearthed 3, 4. Jiangxi Gao'an cellar unearthed
This article was excerpted by Sun Li and Li Qian from the Underwater Archaeology Research (Volume II) edited by the Underwater Cultural Heritage Conservation Center of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. ——A Reflection on the Nature of the Export of Blue and White Porcelain of the Yuan Dynasty Preserved Overseas". The content has been slightly abridged and adjusted.