Riding the wind of rebirth

Lin Wanqiu was shocked: "Xiao Miao, are you an expert?"

“No, no,” Mai Xiaomiao waved her hands repeatedly, “We’re just going out to have fun. I’m in charge of bargaining, and Elbow is behind me directing things. It’s so exciting.”

"You've also irritated me." Lin Wanqiu didn't know whether to cry or laugh: "That plate is the only one that can be exchanged with the outside world. Even before Elbow picked it out by Daliushu, everyone thought it was a fake."

"Because such a bottom pattern is only preserved in the Palace Museum of Liao Province, it has never attracted much attention, so no one knows that there are very few such patterns in the Yongzheng official kiln."

"By the way, Elbow likes to say 'Go up the mountain to shoot birds, whoever sees it gets a share', shouldn't you also get a share of this plate?"

Mai Xiaomiao said a little embarrassedly: "It's useless for me to keep it. I gave all the things I found that time, as well as the things that Grandpa Wang, Mr. Yuan, Grandpa Qi, and my fourth cousin Elbow gave me to him."

"Ah, this..." Lin Wanqiu was speechless: "What did Mr. Wang give you?"

"I gave you a nice little incense burner." said Mai Xiaomiao.

"Eh? The old man's stove was given to Elbow before... No, the one the old man gave you is the Li Chengde bowl stove?!"

"I can't remember clearly what it was before, but it seems to be a bowl-shaped furnace, because the old man said that I am a doctor, and a bowl-shaped furnace is a perfect gift for a doctor." Mai Xiaomiao stretched out his hand to compare the size: "This big, Elbow often uses it to teach me how to write seal characters now."

"I'll teach you how to write seal characters, and this furnace will be in his hands..." Lin Wanqiu sighed, "Xiao Miao, you are so easy to please. Besides, you are too daring!"

When the coffee and biscuits were brought over, Zhou Zhi was introducing knowledge about porcelain to Li Laoer and Li Laosan.

Of course, today's topic is overseas returnee porcelain.

"There is no doubt that porcelain is the largest category of returned cultural relics. After all, the word China stands for both China and porcelain, and it is not called that for nothing."

"But it would be a huge misunderstanding to think that you can just pick up any bargains for Chinese porcelain in the overseas antique market..."

"Wait!" Li Laoer was already fed up: "Why did I hear Wanqiu say that you picked up a lot of big bargains in the United States? And you also told her that she should go abroad more often, because there are many more bargains abroad than in Panjiayuan and Daliushu?"

"That depends on who it is." Lin Wanqiu said as she put down the plate. "For someone who has the ability to appreciate elbows, of course there are leaks everywhere, but for you, it's better not to buy."

"Yes! It's like this!" Mai Xiaomiao said, "Elbow and I visited the Big Willow Tree once. There were a lot of things inside, but Elbow said that only one in a hundred was worth buying. The remaining ninety-nine percent were worthless, or even simply scams."

"We also have to exclude the Qing Dynasty's three-generation lacquer snuff bottles and Yongzheng's rouge purple Laifu dishes." Lin Wanqiu shook her head: "After you have been there, it will be less than one percent." Zhou Zhi said: "The returned porcelain actually refers to the porcelain that was sold at home and abroad and eventually returned through various channels."

"But these porcelains are actually of varying quality. The commercial practice of exporting Chinese porcelain only began to flourish in the Song and Yuan dynasties. Before the Tang Dynasty, China's own porcelain was not even good enough to pass the customs, let alone be exported."

"So although there are records of Chinese ceramics being exported since the Han Dynasty, it was not an organized, large-scale commercial activity. It was not until the Tang Dynasty to the Five Dynasties, and after porcelain reached its first peak in the Song Dynasty, that export activities began to flourish."

"Since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the types of porcelain exported from China to foreign countries mainly include Longquan celadon, Jingdezhen blue-and-white porcelain, blue-and-white porcelain, underglaze red porcelain, underglaze black porcelain, Jizhou kiln porcelain, Ganzhou kiln porcelain, celadon produced by some kilns in Fujian and Guangdong, black porcelain from Jian kiln, imitation Jun glaze porcelain from Tiedian kiln in Jinhua, Zhejiang, Cizhou kiln porcelain, Ding kiln porcelain, Yaozhou kiln porcelain, etc."

"For example, the Xin'an shipwreck contained more than 20,000 pieces of porcelain."

"The more than 200 years from the middle and late Ming Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty was the golden age of Chinese porcelain exports. The exported porcelains were mainly Jingdezhen blue and white porcelain, colored porcelain, Guangdong Shiwan porcelain, Fujian Dehua white porcelain and blue and white porcelain, Anxi blue and white porcelain, etc."

"During this period, a more refined export porcelain variety appeared - Dingshao porcelain, whose shapes and decorative patterns were mostly Western colors, and some of them were painted with family, company, group, city and other patterns, which were called heraldic porcelain."

"The quantity of porcelain exported during this period was very large. Experts estimate that about 200,000 pieces were exported each year in the 17th century, and about one million pieces per year at the peak in the 18th century."

"In addition to the Korean Peninsula and island countries and Southeast Asia that are relatively close to China, it also reaches as far as Africa, Europe and the United States."

"There were two routes at the time. One was to sail westward from the coastal ports of Fujian and Guangdong in China to Africa, then go around the Cape of Good Hope and sail along the west coast of Africa to Western European countries. The other was to sail from the ports of Zhangzhou and Xiamen in Fujian to Manila in the Philippines, then cross the Pacific Ocean to the east to the port of Acapulco in Mexico, go ashore and travel by land, through Mexico City to the Atlantic coast port of Veracruz, and then board a ship to sail east to Western European countries."

"This has also formed a very interesting cultural exchange phenomenon. For example, the birth of blue and white porcelain was due to the fact that Western merchants brought Sumaliqing to China for custom-made firing. Many of the patterns they requested were later inherited and developed by the Chinese and eventually became traditional patterns of Chinese porcelain. For example, the famous lotus pattern and passionflower pattern, etc."

"There were some interesting historical events in between. For example, in 1602, armed merchant ships of the Dutch East India Company intercepted a Portuguese merchant ship loaded with Chinese porcelain off the coast of Africa. When these precious porcelains arrived in Amsterdam and were auctioned, the whole of Europe was excited. This was the first time that the Western world had seen Chinese porcelain on such a scale, triggering competition among the Dutch, King Henry IV of France and King James I of England to buy them."

"The captured Portuguese cargo ship was named Clark, so this thin-bodied blue-and-white porcelain produced in China absorbed Western styles, with six to twelve pieces of openings cleverly divided by lotus-shaped or fan-shaped frames on the edge of the plate, and filled with colorful patterns such as miscellaneous treasures, flowers, landscapes, and figures, and was named 'Clark porcelain'."

"This novel design, although the pattern adopts traditional Chinese painting methods, has broken away from the traditional Chinese style in its layout and incorporated more exotic elements. It is obviously a product specially customized for overseas markets. Since entering the European market, it has been deeply loved and became an important commodity sold to Europe from China in the middle and late Ming Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty."

"During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty in China, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Imjin Rebellion brought many Joseon porcelain workers to the island country, where they imitated Clark porcelain and called it 'Hibiscus Hand'. After the Ming Dynasty implemented a maritime ban, Hibiscus Hand porcelain even replaced the domestic Clark porcelain for export."

"Since most of these porcelains were shipped to various parts of Japan through Imari Port, they were called Imari porcelain or Hizen porcelain, and gradually developed into diversified varieties such as blue and white porcelain and colored painted porcelain." (End of this chapter)