? In modern times, Xu Zhiheng described in detail the shape, characteristics and origin of the name of plum bottles in the book "Drinking Porcelain for Six Zhai":
? "Plum bottle mouth is thin and short, shoulder is extremely wide, and it is slightly narrow to the shin, which is only commensurate with the thinness of plum, hence the name Plum bottle." Regarding the use of plum bottles, Cizhou Kiln has a pair of plum bottles with white background and black flowers. There are a book "Selling Alcohol" and a book "Drunk Sea" on the bottle, which is undoubtedly a vessel for holding wine. Plum bottles are not only vessels for holding wine, but also ornamental products that people can't put down. Therefore, this kind of container is beautifully made, not only considering the wine storage capacity, but also paying attention to the beautiful shape. {Make friends with Tibetans. 1318301425 Lu}
? First, the title and use of plum bottles
? The nickname "Meiping" did not appear in the book "Tao Ya" in the late Qing Dynasty, and there were several versions of its name. In the early years of the Republic of China, Xu Zhiheng's "Drinking Six Zhai on Porcelain" is more credible, which is interpreted as: "The mouth of the plum bottle is small and short, the shoulders are extremely wide, the shin is slightly narrow, and the feet are slightly rich. The small caliber is only commensurate with the thinness of Mei, so it is named Mei Ping. "
? The earliest plum vase appeared in the Song Dynasty, but it was not originally used for flower arrangement and appreciation. There are two plum blossom vases with white background and black flowers in the Jin Dynasty in the Shanghai Museum, and the bottles are written with the words "Qing Ancient Wine Sea" and "Zui Xiang Wine Sea" respectively. The Liaoning Provincial Museum has Drinking, which was written by Tang Yin in the Ming Dynasty and is considered to be a copy of Zhao's works in the Northern Song Dynasty. This painting depicts eight people, including Li Bai, He and Zhang Xu, sitting in a pine forest drinking, and a waiter is pouring the wine from a plum bottle into a wine jar. All these indicate that the plum bottle was originally used as a wine storage device. Chicken leg bottles unearthed from Liao tomb in Fakutai, Mao Ye, Liaoning. In the tomb discovered in Ruichang, Jiangxi Province in the 10th year of the Southern Song Dynasty (125 1), a pair of plum bottles from Cizhou kiln were placed on the head of the tomb owner, and plum bottles were also unearthed in the tombs of the Southern Song Dynasty, indicating that plum bottles were mainly used as practical wine storage vessels in Liao and Song Dynasties, but sometimes they were also used as funerary objects.
? Zhao Lingzhi's Backstreet Record in the Northern Song Dynasty records: "Tao Ren is a utensil with wine classics. Jin 'an people hold wine like a crock, with a small neck, a ring in the mouth and a big belly. You can hold wine after a fight. Where people eat, the cloud is a wine vessel, and the book cloud must pass through or through the five classics. People from other countries travel to China, and they don't reach their purpose. When they heard the arrival of the Five Classics, they were greeted by a belt, but they knew that five bottles of wine were the Five Classics. "Many scholars believe that this kind of small-mouth belly-filling porcelain bottle named Wine Classic can hold a barrel of wine, which is probably the title of plum bottle in Song Dynasty, so plum bottle in Song Dynasty can also be called" Beijing bottle ". In the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, from the analysis of ancient poems, plum bottles at this time may be called "bottles" and "wine bottles".
Second, the predecessor of plum bottle-drumstick bottle
? Before the Northern Song Dynasty, there were no plum bottles. In the Tang Dynasty, there were only white glazed vases close to plum bottles (both the Shanghai Museum and the Forbidden City have collections, and they are short in shape, all made of cosmetic soil and should be fired in the northern region), which is different from the S-shaped plum bottles that our descendants said.
? The emergence of Meiping has an important relationship with the Qidan nationality in Liao country. Qidan was one of the northern minorities in ancient China, and had many contacts with the northern Han nationality in the Tang Dynasty. "Liao History" records that "between deserts, the cold wind blows hard, grazing and fishing are food, fur clothes are clothes, and horses and chariots are at home at any time. This time and place is limited to the north and south. There is a desert in Liao country, surrounded by the Great Wall, which is suitable for governance. It is cold in autumn and winter, and it is normal to fish with aquatic plants in spring and summer. At four o'clock, each has its place, which is called "squatting".
? In order to adapt to the migration life, the Khitans created and fired portable ceramic beam-lifting pots (commonly known as "stirrup pots" and "cockscomb pots") that imitated leather bags. They also created a long-bellied porcelain bottle with a thick top and a thin bottom, which looks like a chicken leg and is used to transport water or store wine. This chicken leg bottle is considered by many modern scholars as the prototype of plum bottle. Small mouth is to avoid water and wine splashing, reduce the volatilization of wine and facilitate transportation. There are also pictures of Qidan people carrying chicken leg bottles in Liao tomb murals. The chicken leg has a small mouth, thin legs and a long abdomen, so it is convenient to tie it at the back with a rope. The inverted trapezoid makes the rope buckle tighter and tighter, which is really suitable for the living needs of the Khitan people who are nomadic hunters and live on aquatic plants.
? Excavation of Zhang Shiqing's Tomb in the 6th year of Liao Tianqing in Xuanhua County, Zhangjiakou City (116). In the mural on the south wall of the back room, there are two waiters with flagons and wine glasses. There are three turquoise plum bottles placed side by side, and the bottle mouth has a lid (some scholars think it is sealed with mud), which should be porcelain plum bottles (figure 1). Interestingly, the three plum bottles were placed on a low wooden frame with three round mouths, and the plum bottles were just stuck on the wooden frame. This picture shows a porcelain plum bottle with a slender shape and a small bottom in the Northern Song Dynasty. When it is used, it should be placed on this wooden frame. Because of its large size, it cannot be served on the table. 1999 Liaoning Provincial Museum collects a set of painted murals of Liao Dynasty, and also depicts a wooden table, on which there is a note of warm bowl, deep-bellied bowl and other wine vessels, and a short table with a cover and three long-bellied plum bottles with lids. Unfortunately, due to the age, the foot of the plum vase on the mural is blurred, and it is impossible to see whether there is an opening in the low table.
? 1March, 1999, during spring irrigation in Xiabali Village, Xuanhua, villagers found strange water seepage in the cultivated land about 50 meters southeast of Zhang Shiqing's tomb. After receiving the report, Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics started drilling, and found and cleared nine ancient tombs, which were found to be the graves of the Zhang Shiqing family. Among them, an epitaph was unearthed in Tomb No.7, indicating that Wenzao is a close relative of the same family, Wenzao is an elder, and belongs to An people. Zhang Wenzao and his wife were buried together in Da 'an, Liao Daozong for nine years (1093). The artifacts unearthed in the tomb include two green glazed chicken leg bottles with a diameter of 6, a bottom diameter of 6.5 and a height of 2 1cm. It is shaped like a small mouth, a short neck, shoulders, a long round belly and a small flat bottom, and the whole body is painted with green glaze. The bottle is shorter than the ordinary Liao chicken leg bottle, so it should be regarded as a plum bottle. When unearthed, the bottle mouth was sealed with lime, and there was still purple liquid in the bottle. There are also murals with rich themes in Zhang Wenzao's tomb, which basically occupy the whole tomb wall, mainly reflecting the genre paintings of the tomb owner's life, including Sanletu and Qipu. On the east wall of the front room, there is a child's play picture, mainly about tea ceremony. In the picture, there is a plum bottle with a small belly on the wooden table and a slender chicken leg bottle on the low table. Considering that the two glazed chicken leg bottles unearthed in the tomb are similar to the traditional plum bottles in shape, and the bottles contain purplish red liquid, the chicken leg bottles depicted in the murals in the tomb should also be used to hold wine. It can be seen from the murals that plum bottles at that time had a long belly.
? Plum bottles in Liao Dynasty have tea foam glaze and white glaze desquamation, white glaze scratch, white glaze desquamation and black filling, and the decorative patterns are mostly peony patterns. In terms of modeling, there are chicken leg bottles that inherit the traditional modeling of Qidan, such as the "dry two-year field" tea foam glazed plum bottle collected by Liaoning Provincial Museum, which is 64.9 in height, 24.3 in abdominal diameter and 8.4 cm in diameter, and has a flat bottom without glaze. "Ganer" should refer to the two-year period of Liao Gantong (1 102) and Tian. Figure 3 shows a painted plum vase that was burned under the influence of Chinese culture. Hutougou Township, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, is the location of the cylinder tile kiln in Liao Dynasty. Mr. Liu Yi of the Forbidden City mentioned in the article "Discussion on the Historical Evolution of Plum Bottles" that he saw many remnants of chicken leg bottles during his inspection in Gangwa Kiln, indicating that Chifeng Gangwa Kiln was an important producer of plum bottles in Liao Dynasty.
? Third, plum bottles in Song and Jin Dynasties
? After the chicken leg bottle was introduced into the Northern Song Dynasty, the porcelain bottle with long belly and small mouth was also fired in the Northern Han Dynasty, and the shape of plum bottle was finally fixed. It is mostly produced in the northern and southern folk kilns in the Song Dynasty, but it is rare in the official kilns such as Guan and Ru in the Song Dynasty, indicating that plum bottles are mainly used as a practical tool for dressing in folk life. In terms of modeling, the northern plum bottle retains more traces of the Khitan drumstick bottle, which is slender and beautiful. The bottle mouth is mushroom-shaped or trapezoidal, which is convenient to tie with ropes. However, the height of Shadow Plum Bottle produced in Jingdezhen in the Southern Song Dynasty and Plum Bottle fired in Jizhou Kiln in Jiangxi Province is obviously lower than that in the North, with smaller volume, larger abdominal diameter, short and fat, and smaller vessel type, which reflects that the products from different kiln areas in the south and north of the Yangtze River at that time had certain regional characteristics. In addition to plum bottles in ceramics, there are also plum bottles in the gold and silver wares of the Song Dynasty. 1April, 1996, a cache of Song Dynasty gold and silver wares was found in West Street, Pengzhou City, Sichuan Province. More than 350 pieces of gold and silver wares were unearthed, including Yinmei bottles 10, all of which were hammered, including Sumei bottles, Ruyi Yunwen plum bottles and Feng Niaowen plum bottles. These hoarded gold and silver wares were produced in the middle of the Southern Song Dynasty, and a few were from the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty to the early Southern Song Dynasty. Similar Song Dynasty silver plum bottles are still collected in domestic museums, which shows that the quality of Song Dynasty plum bottles has expanded from ceramics to metal products.
? Plum bottles produced in the Northern Song Dynasty are represented by carved plum bottles in Yaozhou kiln. This celadon carved plum vase is now in Shanghai Museum, with a diameter of 7.5, a foot diameter of 1 1 and a height of 48.4 cm. Tall and straight, there is no tire connection trace in the belly of the bottle, which shows that it is a kind of blank-drawing molding, which shows the superb skills of Yaozhou kiln porcelain makers. Because plum bottles with a long belly and a small bottom are not easy to place, Yaozhou kiln in the Northern Song Dynasty also made a spitting bottle, which looks like the lower part of the plum bottle with a long belly was cut off. This type of bottle is called spitting bottle in the north, which is said to be named because of the "spitting" sound when wine is poured out of the bottle. Ding kiln in Hebei, Cizhou kiln, Bacun kiln in Henan, Hebi kiln and dengfeng kiln all burn carved plum bottles.
? 195 1 year, the archaeological department excavated the tombs of the Song Dynasty in Baisha Town, Yuxian County, Henan Province. Among them, the No.1 tomb was in the Fu Yuan period of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the inner wall of the tomb used brick carving and painting to describe the life scene. The west wall of the front room of the tomb showed the picture of the couple drinking, with notes and cups on the table of the Eight Immortals in the middle, the owner and his wife sitting at the table, and three maids on both sides. Judging from the wine set on the table, this plum bottle should also be used for holding wine. Considering that the plum vase in the Liao Dynasty tomb was placed on a wooden pedestal with an opening, the plum vase in the mural of Baisha Song Tomb was shorter than that in the Northern Song Dynasty. Can it be explained that the square seat with high waist may also have a circular opening, and the feet of plum bottles are also placed in circular grooves, so that the plum bottles placed on the wooden seat feel shorter?
? Plum bottles in the Northern Song Dynasty are all small-mouthed, with slender bellies and small bottoms. By the end of the Northern Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Jin Dynasty, the shape of plum bottles had developed, and the bottom diameter of plum bottles had increased, so they could be placed directly on the ground without relying on wooden supports. Examples of this can also be found in archaeological materials. Excavation of Jin Dynasty Tombs in Ma Village, Jishan, Shanxi. The brick carvings on the north wall of an early Jin Dynasty tomb show couples drinking, and the brick carvings on the south wall are equipped with a stage and a drama, which shows that these brick carvings together constitute the scene of the tomb owner and his wife drinking and watching the drama. This picture is placed in the center of a square table with a note, a cup and a fruit bowl on it. There is a plum bottle under the table, and the bottom of the bottle is very large in diameter.
? Mr. Xu Tao from the Appraisal Group of Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau told me that when they were doing cultural relics appraisal in northern Shaanxi, many cities and counties collected black glazed plum bottles from the Song and Jin Dynasties, indicating that plum bottles were used in relatively dry northern areas. There are more than 10 pieces of black glazed plum bottles with similar shapes in the Palace Museum, one of which is engraved with "Tianweiguan Bottle" on the shoulder. This kind of coarse porcelain plum bottle was used to transport water wine in the northern part of the Northern Song Dynasty. Water is a necessity for marching, and wine can improve morale. Zhao Yanwei in the Southern Song Dynasty recorded in Volume 7 of "A Nest at the Foothills of Yin Mountain" that in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, Yue Fei and Han Shizhong's troops "returned to the army without putting their relatives in the army", and "once they entered the rear of the Cape, the armies were under their control, and they were arrogant and extravagant, rewarded abnormally, and were extremely brave and strong. Whenever there are powerful enemies, they send them back to the army. As for why the bottle is called "Cape", Zhao Yanwei said, "Fan Intelligently participates in politics, saying that Yanbei people call the bottle" Cape ",and the general's bottle will be carried by his cronies. Fan tried to make a fool of himself, but when he saw that a middleman was guilty, he pointed out that this was also a mistake. Therefore, Han Bing was used as a famous army. According to this record, the two words "wēi" and "léi" are similar in pronunciation, which leads to misinformation. In the early Southern Song Dynasty, most of the generals who commanded the main force against gold were from northern Shaanxi, and Han Shizhong and other cronies of northern Shaanxi generals were called the "bottle-carrying army" (that is, the commander's pro-army), which shows the legacy of the northern army using ceramic plum bottles.
? At the same time as the Southern Song Dynasty, the northern minority Jurchen nationality established the Jin regime, which also showed the national characteristics of binge drinking. At this time, northern plum bottles inherited the rough style, represented by Bai Mei vases and black glazed plum bottles fired by Cizhou Kiln and Bacun Kiln, and carved plum bottles were also fired by Xixia Lingwu Kiln. Plum bottles with black flowers on a white background, which were fired in Cizhou Kiln, Hebei Province during the Song and Jin Dynasties, were characterized by painting. There is a kind of string-pattern black porcelain plum bottle fired by Cizhou kiln in Jin Dynasty, which looks like Liao drumstick bottle and has simple decorative pattern. The word "wine bottle" is engraved on the shoulder. During the investigation in Huairen Kiln, the cultural relics department of Shanxi Province also found a plum bottle with black glaze, with convex and concave patterns and the word "wine master" engraved on the shoulder, indicating that it was also a plum bottle in Jin Dynasty, and most of it retained the charm of Liao drumstick bottle. Shanghai Museum has several pieces of plum bottles in the Jin Dynasty, among which "Gu Qing Jia Niang" from Cizhou Kiln in the Jin Dynasty and "Zhengba" plum bottles with white dragon pattern on black ground in Bacun Kiln in the Jin Dynasty are representative. The "Zhengba" plum bottle with black background and white flowers is painted, filled with white cosmetic soil, and the bottle has obvious traces. There are vertical dragon patterns on both sides of the belly of the bottle, and the word "Zhengba" is written on the lower part of the dragon. The word "Zhengba" may come from Buddhist concepts such as "Eight Zhengs" and "Eight Branches" (that is, dragons and eight branches).
? The following plum vase standards can be represented: it is a blue-and-white glazed plum vase fired by Jingdezhen kiln in the Southern Song Dynasty, which is now in the Guangdong Provincial Museum. The diameter is 4.3, the base diameter is 9.4 and the height is 31.8cm.. The shoulders are decorated with smooth carved lotus patterns, supplemented by shallow fine grid patterns, simulating water waves, like a lotus pond swaying in the breeze. Lotus water waves and elegant shadow green glaze set each other off, giving people. 199 1 In September, a Southern Song Dynasty cellar was discovered in Jinyu Village, Suining, Sichuan, and 985 pieces of porcelain were unearthed, including 8 blue-and-white glazed plum bottles, among which the blue-and-white glazed plum bottles also had shallow cup-shaped porcelain lids. Figure 12 plum bottle with lid for celadon from Longquan kiln in Southern Song Dynasty, with a diameter of 5.9, a base diameter of 7.3 and a height of 28.5 cm. The tire color is gray, the glaze color is elegant, the glaze surface is moist and crystal clear, and the tire is exposed at the bottom. The whole body is decorated with concave-convex strings, and the lines are smooth and beautiful. This plum vase was unearthed in the tomb of 1979 in the first year of Qingyuan in Songyang County, Zhejiang Province (1 195) and is now in the Suichang County Cultural Relics Management Committee. Figure 13 shows a plum vase carved with black glaze, which was fired in Jizhou kiln in the Southern Song Dynasty. The height is 2 1.2, the diameter is 4.8, and the base diameter is 6.6 cm. 1972 Unearthed in Jizhou Kiln, Jiangxi Province, now in Jiangxi Provincial Museum. Its base diameter is obviously increased, and its abdomen is decorated with carved plum blossoms on both sides. The knife method is fine and smooth, with strong local characteristics.
? In the Jin and Southern Song Dynasties, a new type of plum bottle appeared, with a slightly larger bottle mouth. This kind of big mouth plum bottle was fired in Yaozhou kiln from the end of Northern Song Dynasty to the beginning of Jin Dynasty, and many pieces were unearthed at the kiln site. This kind of plum bottle with a big mouth and a long belly, which appeared in the late Northern Song Dynasty, should be improved from a small mouth plum bottle in shape. Its capacity is reduced, its height is lower than that of the Northern Song Dynasty, and its mouth bottom size is increased. Don't rely on the bracket when you put it. It is also convenient to make one catty or half a catty of wine with a lifter at a time, which is an improvement on the shape of plum bottles. Dazu stone carving in Guangyuan, Sichuan Province preserved the map of the underworld from Xichun to Chunyou in the Southern Song Dynasty. One of them is a picture of persuading people to drink. The words "Buddha tells monks to drink in hell" are engraved next to the map. In the picture, a man is holding a wine bowl and using a tray to persuade him to drink. The woman behind him is holding a big plum bottle. It can be seen from the map of Dazu stone carving to persuade wine that this kind of big-mouthed plum bottle was also fired in the southern region during the Southern Song Dynasty, and it was also used as a wine container.