On January 15th, the special exhibition “Longquan Celadon and Globalization in the World” jointly sponsored by the Palace Museum, the Zhejiang Provincial Museum and the Lishui Municipal People’s Government opened in the Wulin District of Zhejiang Bo. Wang Xudong, member of the party group of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and president of the Palace Museum, Hu Haifeng, secretary of CPC Lishui Municipal Committee, Cai Xiaochun, deputy secretary-general of Zhejiang Provincial Government, Ge Xuebin, deputy director of committee of cpc zhejiang provincial committee Propaganda Department, Chu Ziyu, secretary of the party group of Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and director of Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, Zhao Guoying, vice president of the Palace Museum, Liu He, member of the party group of Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, and Lu Cailiu, deputy mayor of Lishui, attended the opening ceremony. At the opening ceremony, Chen Shuihua, director of Zhejiang Museum, Wang Xudong, president of the Palace Museum, and Hu Haifeng, secretary of CPC Lishui Municipal Committee, delivered speeches on behalf of the three organizers. Craig Barclay, curator of the Oriental Museum in Durham University, delivered a speech as the representative of the borrowing unit.
At the opening ceremony, China arts and crafts master Hu Zhaoxiong, China arts and crafts master Zhang Xi, China ceramics master Xiaochun Ye, China ceramics master Mao Danyang, Zhejiang provincial arts and crafts master Xu Jianxin and Zhejiang provincial arts and crafts master Wu Wang donated celadon works to Zhejiang Museum, so that more outstanding contemporary Longquan celadon could meet the audience through the platform of the museum. The leading guests presented certificates to a group of representatives of “Celadon Watchers”, including volunteer lecturers from the Ceramic Museum of Zhejiang Museum and cultural protection staff from Longquan Kiln site, who contributed their own strength to promoting celadon culture in their ordinary posts. It is the inheritance and persistence from generation to generation that keeps Longquan celadon kiln alive and goes to the world.
“Longquan in the world” has returned to its hometown, and the Millennium kiln fire is endless.
Longquan is the hometown of celadon. For a long time, Longquan celadon has influenced the lifestyle and aesthetic orientation of the East and the West with its exquisite glaze color and dignified and elegant classic shape. During the hundreds of years from 12th to 15th century, Longquan celadon was sold to many countries and regions in Asia, Africa and Europe along the vast “Maritime Silk Road”, and at the same time, the advanced porcelain-making technology was spread to various places. It led the fashion of ceramics in the world at that time, and also led the trend of ceramic production in different parts of the world. As a symbol of China’s national prosperity and cultural prosperity, Longquan celadon crosses the ocean, opening her era of globalization and promoting exchanges and integration between China and world civilizations.
A total of 513 pieces (groups) of cultural relics from 42 cultural and cultural institutions around the world were exhibited in this exhibition to explain the development, distribution, use and technical dissemination of Longquan celadon in China and around the world from the 12th to 15th centuries, aiming at presenting the global picture of Longquan celadon culture in a three-dimensional way, and also being an expert colleague of Zhejiang Museum and Palace Museum..The concentrated display of research results in recent ten years. The exhibits cover all continents of Asia, Africa and Europe, and it is an unprecedented exhibition with the largest number of fine Longquan kiln products, the widest coverage and the largest scale in history.
Previously, the special exhibition “Longquan Celadon and Globalization in the World” had been exhibited in the Palace Museum for three months, attracting many domestic and foreign audiences. Now it is of great significance for the exhibition to return to Zhejiang, the hometown of celadon. In order to reflect the geography, this exhibition has specially added the tracing content from “source” to “flow”. At the same time, an exhibition of works created by contemporary Longquan celadon masters was added, and 78 pieces (groups) of contemporary Longquan celadon works were exhibited. The creators were both national non-genetic inheritors and rising stars, which reflected the inheritance and development of Longquan celadon technology. The exhibition will be held in Zhejiang Expo until February 16, 2020.
Looking back on the Millennium development history, the road of flourishing ceramics is presented.
The exhibition is divided into four units. The first unit “Kiln Looking at the Millennium” takes the historical context as the main line, telling the nearly thousand-year history of Longquan Kiln’s prosperity, development, heyday, decline and revitalization. The exhibits are mainly representative objects of Longquan celadon in various periods. In the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, influenced by Yueyao technology, Longquan area began to produce celadon. By the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty, Longquan Kiln had gradually taken shape. During the Southern Song Dynasty, Longquan Kiln, which enjoys the harmony of time, place and people, ushered in its peak. The production scale of Longquan celadon in Yuan Dynasty was unprecedented, which was popular all over the country and went to the world. In the mid-Ming Dynasty, the imperial court’s sea ban policy forced the overseas trade to be interrupted, and the porcelain production of Longquan kiln suffered an unprecedented blow. After the founding of New China, the call of the times ignited the eternal kiln fire, and Longquan celadon ushered in a revitalization.
The second unit, “National Treasure”, explains the profound relationship between Longquan celadon and the government in different historical periods. Since the Song Dynasty, Longquan Kiln has been one of the most important suppliers of palace porcelain and national sacrificial porcelain. In the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, especially in the early Ming Dynasty, the product shape and decorative patterns of Longquan kiln were basically the same as those of the imperial porcelain produced by Jingdezhen Imperial Ware Factory, indicating that the production of celadon in Longquan kiln was always under the direct supervision and management of the court. The guarantee of system, the promotion of policy and the knowledge and technology from the court have all become the necessary conditions for the production and development of Longquan celadon.
The third unit, “Long Xing Tian Xia”, shows the marketing and export of Longquan celadon in China and around the world. From the 12th to 15th century, Longquan kiln celadon was exported to all parts of the world through ports such as Ningbo, Wenzhou and Quanzhou, and through the Maritime Silk Road. From the land silk road to the Eurasian continent. From home and abroad, from the palace to the people, from the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean coast to the desert hinterland of Central Asia and West Asia, it has been unearthed in many important sites. Longquan celadon has a wide trading area and a large number, ranking first in China porcelain, and has become a worldwide commodity.
Unit 4 “Concord Quartet”, Show.Kilns at home and abroad imitate Longquan celadon. From the mid-12th century to the mid-15th century, the popularity and fashion effect of Longquan celadon in the world are unparalleled in the history of cultural exchanges between the East and the West. It is on the basis of this widespread recognition that Longquan celadon has also begun to shift from pure commodity export to deeper cultural and technical export. Longquan celadon leads the world’s ceramic science and technology progress, artistic creation and cultural aesthetics with its exquisite skills, superb glaze color and classic modeling, which has promoted the development of porcelain industry in many countries and regions.
Overseas treasures return home, and star national treasures appear in groups.
In this exhibition, many Longquan celadon treasures from national museums in Britain, Japan, South Korea, Iran, United Arab Emirates, India and other countries crossed the ocean and returned to their hometown. Among them, the most eye-catching one is the “horse locust trip” from the Tokyo National Museum. It is a green glazed flower bowl of Longquan kiln in the Southern Song Dynasty and an important cultural treasure designated by Japan.
According to legend, in the early Ming Dynasty, Japanese envoys were ordered by the general to bring a cracked Longquan celadon bowl from the Southern Song Dynasty to Ming Dynasty. Because the general loved it so much, he asked the Ming court to give him another bowl of the same kind. However, the style of Longquan celadon had changed greatly from the Southern Song Dynasty to the early Ming Dynasty. Neither the Ming Dynasty envoys nor the envoys in China could find the same Longquan celadon bowl, so they had to ask someone to make it up and then bring it back to Japan. Unexpectedly, they made up the green glaze and glaze of the back bowl.
Exhibits from domestic museums are also rich in national treasures, including the boat-shaped inkstone drops of Longquan kiln in Yuan Dynasty, one of the “Top Ten Treasures of Town Museums” in Zhejiang Province. The inkstone drops are unique in shape and exquisite in workmanship, representing the peak level of porcelain-making skills of Longquan celadon in its heyday. Once appeared on the cover of Longquan Celadon, the first professional catalogue about Longquan Celadon after the founding of New China.
In 1998, China’s postal department issued a set of special stamps for Longquan Kiln Porcelain, with a full set of four pieces, and selected four representative Longquan Kiln porcelains in different historical periods, namely, five-tube bottles in the Northern Song Dynasty, phoenix-ear bottles in the Southern Song Dynasty, gourd bottles in the Yuan Dynasty, and carved three-fruit holding pots in the Ming Dynasty. In this exhibition, the audience can see the elegance of these star artifacts.
Ten years of hard work has cast an exhibition, adding icing on the cake to the wonderful activities.
Zhejiang is the hometown of celadon, and the Zhejiang Provincial Museum has a rich collection of celadon. In order to understand the situation of Zhejiang celadon overseas, in 2009, the researchers of Zhejiang Museum began to carry out special investigation and research on the topic of “Zhejiang celadon overseas”, and set up a series of special exhibitions on the Maritime Silk Road, and carried out a number of international academic activities related to it. From 2012 to 2014, Zhejiang Provincial Museum and Palace Museum jointly declared and undertook the Compass Project of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage-“Study on the External Communication of China Ancient Porcelain Production Technology”. Based on years of research results, the special exhibition “Longquan Celadon and Globalization in the World” came into being.
In order to make the academic exhibition go to the general audience, the organizer will let the audience know about Longquan celadon through a series of informative, interesting and interactive supporting activities during the exhibition.
On the eve of the opening of the exhibition, an elegant collection of “Celadon Night” combined Longquan celadon musical instruments, flowerware, tea sets and incense utensils with the elegance and interest of the ancients through five parts: porcelain music and elegance, porcelain poetry, porcelain rhyme and fragrance, porcelain dream drunk tea and porcelain road sail shadow, so that the audience could appreciate the beauty of Longquan celadon.
The “Treasure Hunt in the Exhibition Hall” will run through the exhibition period. Visitors can collect the “Treasure Hunt Map” at the entrance of the exhibition hall, visit the exhibition with thoughts and participate in the interaction. After the “Treasure Hunt”, they can also exchange limited edition exhibition commemorative postcards. During the exhibition, there will be a “celadon workshop” outside the exhibition hall. Every weekend, professional teachers from Longquan will give on-site guidance and invite the audience to experience the drawing and production process of Longquan celadon. In addition, curator’s guide, “Celadon Watcher” guide, volunteer’s explanation and academic lectures will be launched from time to time. Please pay attention to the event promotion of Zhebo’s official WeChat.
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