Copy a paragraph by the way
"From horseback to desk" —— A probe into the modeling of purple sand flat pot
□ Li Qi
All along, I like the shape of the virtual flat pot very much. The flat and round shape gives people an open-minded and carefree feeling. It has a distinctive personality, beautiful shape and intriguing. It is precisely because of its unique shape that I have the idea of exploring the source of its shape, so this essay is slightly fascinating.
Speaking of the flat pot in purple sand, it was first seen in the "virtual flat" made by Shi Dabin in the Ming Dynasty, and later made by famous artists. The biggest feature of this device is "flat". According to the modeling of teapot is nothing more than bionic pictograph, antique bronze ware, geometric abstraction and other methods, we still look at the flat pot of bronze ware for comparison first.
Flat pots first appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period (about 770-700 BC). A copper flat pot with a height of 20 cm and a width of 20 cm was unearthed in Longxian County and used as a wine vessel. The copper flat pot in the Warring States period is already very beautiful (see the Warring States flat pot in Smith Museum). This shows that the shape of the flat pot appeared in the Central Plains culture during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. What was the flat pot like in the Spring and Autumn Period? In the introduction, it is said to be "flat rectangle with high circle feet." There is a stream in front, a dragon in the middle of the inserter and a dragon in the back. The belly is decorated with a big bird pattern, the circle foot is decorated with a wave pattern, and the middle decoration is like a cloud pattern. This device has a unique shape and a novel and smooth pattern. Change the shape and decorative style of the Western Zhou Dynasty. "In particular, the last sentence,' Changing the modeling and ornamentation style of the Western Zhou Dynasty', is the most crucial, and it also raises a question for us, that is, why did the modeling of utensils suddenly change in similar dynasties?
There is a passage in the national social science fund project "Ethnic Integration and Assimilation in the History of the Central Plains" hosted by Ren Chongyue, a researcher from Henan Academy of Social Sciences: The Central Plains was the political, economic and cultural center of the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. During this period, frontier ethnic minorities such as barbarians, Rong, Yi and Di also took the opportunity to move in, and they lived with the Central Plains in summer. In the Warring States period, some ethnic minorities disappeared because of their integration into China. From the time point of view, after hundreds of years of ethnic integration in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, not only the changes of language and race, but also the use of utensils will inevitably learn from each other and evolve. Hu Fu riding and shooting in Wuling, Zhao Haoqi during the Warring States Period is an obvious example. Even two opponents can improve their abilities by learning from each other's strengths. In a word, no matter in peacetime or wartime, the exchange of national culture is unstoppable. Speaking of ethnic minorities and their cultural exchanges with the Han nationality, it seems a bit far-fetched about how the flat pot came from, but please note that from a big perspective, there are clothing, language and small aspects. That's their musical instrument-water (wine) bag. The following passage, taken from the Turku Tribal History, records in detail the method of making water sacs by Mongolian compatriots:
"Mongolian Turks hold wine skins, which are made of yak skins or camel skins. When it is made, the fur on the leather is shaved, pressed with exquisite patterns, and smoked in into the pit for about ten days, so as to make the leather with special fragrance. Sew the leather with sausage thread, and then apply the needle holes on the outside with animal bone glue, tightly. Large wine bags can hold 50-60 kg, and small ones can hold 1 kg. It has the advantages of no peculiar smell, no spilling of wine, no fear of squeezing, hitting and bumping, and is easy to carry on hunchback and horseback. A wine bag can be used for 70 or 80 years and passed down to three generations. Every grandparents should make wine bags for their future grandchildren for 2-3 years as genetic souvenirs, and don't give them to others. Some guests will be rejected if they don't understand the customs of the guests. Turkish wine sacs have never been manufactured or sold. "
"Bag" means a pocket, which is oblate when filled with water. The flat shape does not take up space, and it can be conveniently worn on the waist or carried by camels on livestock. Made of animal skin, easy to obtain. According to some data, on the three-color camel figurines unearthed from the tomb of Antang in 1957, two wine vessels were flat, and the small flat pot on the left was exactly the same as the glazed pottery flat pot in the Northern Qi Dynasty. From these two points of view, the flat shape is very suitable for nomadic people to use on horseback. According to their habits, convenience is not the primary goal of Han people in the Central Plains to settle down. In the containers used in daily life, large capacity, convenient use and convenient materials acquisition are the first goals to be considered. Decoration and sacrifice are secondary and developed from practical utensils. The materials used by Han people to make containers are mainly pottery and metal. Making flat pots with bronzes or pottery will have the following consequences: first, the capacity is small; Second, the landing point is unstable. Therefore, whether for abstract aesthetic expression or for practicality, there is no need to invent this kind of modeling. So far, the only conclusion is to learn from the practical container "capsule" of ethnic minorities.
Thus, the formation process of flat pot was preliminarily established.
After the Spring and Autumn Period, there were flat pots in Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, but the material gradually changed from metal to ceramic. In the Ming dynasty, due to the similar texture, the rise of purple sand made a large number of ceramic practitioners switch to purple sand technology. At the same time, their transformation has also integrated the ceramic modeling creation method into the new purple sand culture. Shi Dabin, a genius in the history of purple sand, created pot shapes such as magnolia petals, seal bags and monk's hats, which were refined from porcelain, daily bionic and pictographic. The following picture of a turquoise fish holding a flat pot with algae patterns gives us a reference for physical evolution in stages. From the earliest capsule to bronze ware, the spout, lid and neck are closer to the teapot. Then the practitioners of Zisha still consider practicality in the creative process, because in the past, flat pots were hip pots, which did not need frequent watering and washing, nor did they need to consider the influence of the high pot body on the control of tea and tea soup when Kung Fu tea was brewed, nor did they need to pay more attention to the requirements of water quantity and capacity. Put the pot down, first, the water level will not be too high to suffocate the tea, and it will be more stable in actual use. The height of the pot body after it was put down was just the height of a thread-bound book at that time, and it was also used when it was placed on the desk to make tea, hence the name "Shuping". This wizard in the history of teapot may have invented the virtual flatness of teapot through the flat hip flask of porcelain.
Xuping, it has evolved with history. From minority leather goods to Han bronze wares-ceramics, from practical utensils on horseback to elegant play on the table of Central Plains literati, from water wine to tea soup filled with fragrance, the rough beauty of leather goods is transformed into implication, tolerance and elegance through purple sand. ...