"Family Collection" continues to pay attention to the special program "Follow the Cultural Relics to See the Past and the Present". Today, our column group continues to take you to the Yichun City Museum to have a look, the ear bottle that circulated in the Han Dynasty was mainly used for furnishings and ornamentation, but in later generations it became an entertainment appliance, that is, a pitcher. So, is this pair of pierced ear copper kettles unearthed in Yichun City used for furnishings or entertainment?
The pierced ear bottle is named because it has ears on both sides of the pot head, it can store water and flower arrangement, and it can also fill wine, and the furnishings are more practical. The pair of bottles we see are flat, so they are also called through-ear copper flat pots, and the furnishings are more useful.
This pair of piercing ear pots was burned and cast in the Yuan Dynasty, and imitated the Shang and Zhou utensils in style, it is a ritual vessel that holds liquor, also called a sacrificial vessel, and is mainly used for sacrifices.
That's right, it's imitation. Whether it is a pierced ear bottle or a pierced ear pot, in the final analysis, it is an object, since its appearance, it has been imitated and innovated, and many kilns such as Ge kiln, official kiln, and Longquan kiln have been fired. The two ears of the ear jar and the ear pot are in the shape of straight tubes, and to some extent, they also have the meaning of exhorting the king to be open and good at accepting advice, which is also one of the reasons why it has been favored by the royal family in successive dynasties.
Liu Lifang, a librarian at the Yichun Museum, said that in the Song Dynasty, the ear bottle gradually evolved into a furnishing vessel or porcelain wine vessel for people to watch and use. The Southern Song Dynasty pierced ear bottle is generally smaller, with a height of no more than 20cm; The position of the piercing ear bottle in the Yuan Dynasty is not flush with the bottle mouth, but in the middle and upper middle, middle and lower middle of the bottleneck; In the Ming Dynasty, the body of the pierced ear bottle is mostly a jade pot spring shape, the piercing ear is located in the middle or lower part of the bottleneck, and the bottle body is also decorated with carved flowers. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the ear bottle was still a furnishing and entertainment tool in the court.
In addition to the ears on both sides of the bottle are different in different dynasties, it is difficult to see on other utensils, its charm is not as simple as we can think, otherwise from the Song Dynasty, there will not be so many dynasties are imitating and innovating this object.
Liu Lifang introduced, ear piercing bottle from the beginning as a ritual device, to later become an ornamental device, and even to the end of the entertainment device, and even set off a retro trend, although the shape has not changed, but its function with the social progress and people's viewing level of different development and change.