Regina Krahl

One would expect a catalogue on Chinese white ceramics to be only 'on topic' so what a very unexpected and pleasant surprise to find that it includes not only two very succinct and helpful essays on the white wares of north and south China written by two well-known and acclaimed experts (Regina Krahl and Li Zhiyan) but also two excellent articles by two just-as-well-known Chinese social historians, Roderick Whitfield and Sören Edgren on the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties.

First the ceramics: The breakthrough (discovery of a white stoneware clay covered in a colourless glaze) came in China in the 2nd half of the sixth century. From then on, five names dominated the field--Xing, Ding, Cizhou, Qingbai and Dehua. Their beauty caused the Tang dynasty essayist Lu Yu to liken the Xing pieces to "silver" and "snow" in his famous Book of Tea. The two essays cover the evolution of all five, together with extremely helpful information on kiln locations, identifying features to help novices differentiate them, and some explanations I hadn't seen elsewhere (for example, that the change in Ding ceramics from having a slightly blue-tinged glaze to one with a yellowish cast came about when the kilns changed their fuel from wood to coal, changing the firing atmosphere from one of reduction to one of oxidation). If this is too technical for you, don't worry, just skip it and read on as the majority of the text is well-written, concise and very helpful to those first encountering these wonderful white ceramics. And the plates and illustrations are superb. The full-page 4-colour plates are amongst the best one can find anywhere, and are from the Kai-Yin Lo Collection. (Disclosure: she is one of my favourite jewellery designers whom I first encountered when I lived in HK--a profession that apparently enabled her to build two collections--one of traditional Chinese furniture and one of Chinese white ceramics, which she now shares with the world through exhibitions and catalogues.)

The surprise was the very fine article by Roderick Whitfield on the material culture of the N. Song Dynasty (960-1126) by looking at three paintings, one of which is one of China's most famous--Qingming shanghai tu or "On the River during the Qingming Festival". This detail-rich painting exposes the N. Song capital city of Kaifeng (then known as Bianjing) in the midst of one of its most important and colourful festivals, and Whitfield points out fascinating details of this and two additional paintings that reveal the economic, cultural and social bones of the period.

Edgren's essay on "Hangzhou in the Southern Song dynasty--perspectives through print culture" historically complements the Whitfield essay on the Northern Song. The thrust of the essay is the fact that it was only during the S. Song that--although printing had been invented in China much earlier--"conditions were ripe for a general transformation from manuscripts to printed matter as a basic means of communication" (p. 72)--in which the city of Hangzhou played a central role. What an advance--especially for the spread of religion, because it was Buddhism that was the first true beneficiary of printing thanks to the personal religious beliefs of one of Hangzhou's early rulers. As Hangzhou as a city grew, so did its fame as a book-printing centre, but both came into their own when the N. Song capital fell and the remnants of the court relocated its capital to Hangzhou. Scholars have identified 18 commercial printers and booksellers active during the S. Song (1127-1279) signalling a flourishing culture supported by not only official and religious publications, but flyers, handbills, novels, and a wide variety of other 'transitory' and/or diversionary printed works as well (little of which, of course, has survived for scholars to study today).

In short, a book that plays several roles and being a bilingual edition, can play a final role in serving as a good vocabulary builder for those studying either Chinese or English as a second language. There are 84 pages of text (including some excellent bibliographies) and 59 gorgeous plates in addition to several smaller photos and illustrations located within the essays themselves. In short, a delightful and surprising find to anyone interested in classical Chinese art and culture.

… (más)