In 3000 BC, Egyptians didn't name their craft "fiance", but western scholars agreed to produce the word "Egyptian fiance" for the convenience of discussion. In other words, most modern appellations may not be consistent with ancient appellations, and many of them are valid. People in China have always held many different views on the appellation of ancient glass and coloured glaze, and the classification of these two kinds of beads seems a bit confusing. The general way to distinguish is to use textual research, that is, to use the modern names of materials to correspond to the possible titles in ancient documents; Another method is to use unearthed objects to correspond to the names in the literature. But no matter which of these two methods, there will inevitably be far-fetched elements, some of which can be accurately confirmed, and some of which can only be speculated and inferred.
Both glass and coloured glaze originated from the earliest fiance craft, and they are related to the craft and raw materials, and they are all melted in time. The fiance was dismissed in the second degree. First make the carcass, then make the glass glaze, and then burn the burner. This is very similar to the manufacturing technology of glazed building components which flourished in Ming and Qing Dynasties. People in China used to call the components made by this manufacturing process glazed, and also called the items made in China glazed with high lead and low temperature. This confused name may be related to the same origin of the two processes. During the Roman Empire, there was a glass blowing process in the west. This process abandons the method of die casting, and it is fired at one time. Later, personal decorations and practical utensils were basically done in this way.
The word glass began to be widely used in the Song Dynasty, which should be related to the large number of glassware imported from the West in the Tang and Song Dynasties. In other words, the glass at that time should refer to the glass products imported from the west, not the local low-temperature fired glass. The word "coloured glaze" appears very frequently in the poems of Song Dynasty, and at the same time, there will be "coloured glaze" and "medicinal jade", which also proves the above viewpoint. In short, in the Song Dynasty, people in China began to distinguish between glass and colored glaze, glass refers to western imports, and colored glaze refers to local low-temperature chips.
How did Yaoyu's statement come into being? This can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty:
Bubbles in glass, big or small, floating or sinking, are all characteristics of glass life. These bubbles wander in the crystal clear, floating between the tender and smooth colors. Is it free and easy, affectionate, or awe? The glass is telling and we are listening.
The word medicinal jade also appeared in Song Dynasty. Because jade was relatively rare in the Song Dynasty, and the technology of imitating jade with glass was relatively mature at that time, "medicinal jade beads" were used instead of jade beads, which actually meant glass beads. In the Yuan Dynasty, there was an official workshop dedicated to burning glass called Tanyu Bureau, which was also used to imitate jade articles. In addition, some people use glass to imitate porcelain. Su Dongpo wrote in "Drinking Medicine Jade Slippery Lamp Alone": "Melting lead and boiling white stone is self-deception. Cut into wine glasses and standardize Dingzhou porcelain. " In this paper, the manufacturing process at that time was clearly described, and lead was used as an accelerant to melt and burn in time, imitating Dingzhou porcelain at that time. High lead content has always been an important criterion for judging China native glass.
Western glassware was very precious in ancient China. It has always been an instrument enjoyed by emperors, and it has always been called glass rather than colored glaze. In ancient literature, glass is always associated with the word "big food". In ancient China, the Arabian Empire and the Iranian region were called big food. They inherited the traditional technology of making glass in the ancient Mediterranean region, and the glass products made by them are resistant to high temperature and transparent in texture. This is a problem that ancient glass in China has not been solved, or it may be that ancient people in China did not try to solve this problem, because in ancient times, porcelain was a practical appliance and glass was an ornamental or decorative thing, so there was no need to solve this problem at that time.
From the Ming Dynasty, the local low-temperature glass began to be called "feeder". In ancient China, glass products were not practical, so they were not based on solid texture, but more on process value. What is needed is a sense of vision and art. Even in the Qing dynasty, low-temperature glass was still the main method. The reason why it was called feeder at first was related to the technological process. As mentioned in the last article, glass is fired twice, while glass is molded once. Therefore, in the process of firing glass, it is necessary to add colorant to the glass solution, and the solution is molded once before cooling without glazing. Because when the glass manufacturing process meets the period of mass production, it is generally necessary to prepare "rods" of various colors first, and then melt the rods of the required colors during production. The products produced at this time are what we call "feeders" and "beads". Compared with glass, the feeder has no tire bottom, which is improvised by the artist in the fire and needs to be molded once. Compared with real high-temperature glass, the feeder has low melting point, large specific gravity, many colors and bright colors, which have always been the characteristics of low-temperature glass in China.
All kinds of glass beads almost run through the history of China. As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, we found the existence of Fiona beads in tombs, which lasted until the Qing Dynasty. All kinds of glass beads are loved by people. Historically, they have played the role of assembling parts, trading beads and decorating. , and appear in most forms of all ancient beads. If the narrative is comprehensive, it is necessary to write a separate book. Therefore, this chapter only makes a general explanation, and the representative beads of each period will be briefly introduced in turn.
1, early Fiona Pearl
There are three kinds of fiance glass beads in the early Western Zhou Dynasty: china white, Sky Blue and Wheat Green, and there are round beads, olive beads and tube beads. Usually, the diameter of the bead is between 8- 10mm, and the length of the tube bead is 18 mm, and the diameter is 4 mm. When unearthed, the surface of the tube bead is oxidized and semi-decayed, which is the earliest lead-barium glass in China.
2. Glass beads in Han Dynasty
The largest number of glass beads unearthed in Han Dynasty is abacus-shaped round beads, followed by fishing net pendant, oval, diamond, olive, flat button and polygon. The color is mainly blue, but also blue, light blue, green, lake blue, white, moonlight, brick red, purple brown and so on. Generally, they are translucent, opaque and perforated. According to the analysis of chemical composition, it generally belongs to the potassium oxide-Shi Ying glass system, usually called potassium glass or potassium silicate glass.
3. Western Xinjiang Glass Beads
The glass beads in Xinjiang, a western region, have obvious exotic styles, all of which come from the Central Asian Fine Arts Department, and are often called "Loulanzhu". The shapes and materials of these beads are very rich, and the production process is very clever and random. Some are decorated with eye patterns, much like the eyes of dragonflies in the Warring States period, and some are random water ripples. It can be said that they are the most colorful and spontaneous beads we can see so far.
4. Glass trading beads in Song Dynasty
During the Southern Song Dynasty, maritime trade was very developed. At that time, "five-color burning beads" were often used as trade beads, which is what we call glass trade beads. The appearance of glass trading beads in this period is spiral and coiled, which is very distinctive, mostly blue and translucent. There are also a few dark red beads, which should be made in Suzhou, intended to imitate rubies, and were made about 1 1 at the beginning of the century.
5. Yuan Dynasty glazed beads
The industry of making glass in Yuan Dynasty was very developed, and there was a special "Tanyu Bureau" to make glass for the court. During the Yuan Dynasty, almost all places that exported porcelain exported glass beads at the same time, and the glass beads were specially made according to the different preferences of different regions for colors. The color is not bright, and the shape is mainly abacus. Usually, twisted silk textures can be seen on beads.