Dehua—China’s Ancient Porcelain Production Center

Abstract

A Passion for Porcelain While it is true that Westerners sold opium, for centuries, Chinese trafficked in porcelain, which for Europe’s royalty was as addictive as any poppy product. Thin as eggshells, translucent in sunlight, ringing like a bell when struck, porcelain captured the imagination of Westerners like nothing since Cleopatra’s Chinese silk negligees, and was so seductive in its allure that Europeans used “China” as a euphemism for “sex”.

The Chinese pottery (porcelain) is manufactured only in the towns of Zaytun and Sin-kalan... The best quality of (porcelain is made from) clay that has fermented for a complete month, but no more... The price of this porcelain there is the same as, or even less than, that of ordinary pottery in our country. It is exported to India and other countries, even reaching as far as our own lands in the West, and it is the finest of all makes of pottery.

—Ibn Battuta, History’s Greatest Traveler (1304–1369)

A Passion for Porcelain. While it is true that Westerners sold opium, for centuries, Chinese trafficked in porcelain, which for Europe’s royalty was as addictive as any poppy product. Thin as eggshells, translucent in sunlight, ringing like a bell when struck, porcelain captured the imagination of Westerners like nothing since Cleopatra’s Chinese silk negligees, and was so seductive in its allure that Europeans used “China” as a euphemism for “sex”.

Janet Gleeson, author of The Arcanum—the Extraordinary True Story, an absorbing account of the Europeans’ passionate pursuit of porcelain, notes that in Wycherley’s 1675 play, The Country Wife, an admirer sees Mr. Homer with Lady Fiddler and begs: “…don’t think to give other people china, and me none; come in with me too.” After Lady Fiddler comments: “…we women of quality never think we have china enough,” the exhausted Mr. Homer says: “Do not take ill, I cannot make china for you all…”.

The Arcanum—The Extraordinary True Story, reads better than a mystery or thriller as Janet Gleeson recounts the incredible lengths to which Europeans went to discover the “Arcanum” (the secret of porcelain production), and the extremes they went too to preserve the Arcanum once they discovered it. The European’s passion for porcelain created an entire industry for corporate espionage, and counter-espionage.

European monarchs gleefully bankrupted national treasuries to satisfy their passion for porcelain. And like monarchs who a millennia earlier were obsessed with spying out the secrets of silk, so Europe’s kings were driven to fathom the secret behind porcelain, which like silk was worth more than its weight in gold. Countless potters and scientists were imprisoned until they either produced porcelain or rotted in the attempt. Most rotted. But Quanzhou had the answer.

Zaytun, one of ancient China’s two great porcelain centers, was famed for its pure white porcelain, which is considered even today by connoisseurs to be the most sublime of porcelains. Zaytun shipped its celestial crafts, via the Silk Road of the Sea, to the four corners of the earth. Song Dynasty porcelain went for a song and a dance at home, but it fetched a king’s ransom abroad—with good reason.

While Chinese were wielding chopsticks and delicate tableware, my European forebears used fingers and wooden boards, so they descended upon China in the search for plates, bowls, spoons, and spices (medieval Europeans, lacking refrigerators, used Asian spices to doctor spoiled meat).

Wits and Half-Wits. In the 1990s, some Chinese media claimed, in all seriousness, that Chinese were smarter than us barbarians because chopsticks require more dexterity than knives and forks. This may be true. But knife and fork require two hands, whereas chopsticks only use one. Therefore, we use both sides of our brain, whereas chopstick wielders only use one. In other words, our full wit, versus... I rest my case.

About 1,000 years ago, clusters of kilns were located all over Quanzhou, from Hui’an and Jinjiang to Tong’an (Tong’An and Xiamen were part of Quanzhou back then). Eleventh century comb-decorated bowls from Tong’An have been found in Japan and Southeast Asian countries.

During the Song and Yuan dynasties, production expanded and gradually moved from the coast to the inland regions of Anxi and Dehua, where output grew fivefold during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Alas, much of the ancient.

Qudougong Ancient Kiln (屈斗宫古窑址). Since 1949, archaeologists have found over 180 ancient porcelain kilns, dating from the ancient Song Dynasty to the more recent Qing. These kilns have fired the imagination of guidebook authors, who have written of the 17-chamber Qudougong Kiln: “Such a large-scale kiln of ancient times looks like a dragon crouching on a hill, magnificently.” Archaeologists recovered over 6,700 Song and Yuan Dynasty relics from the kiln’s 17 chambers.

This well-preserved ancient kiln, discovered in 1976, is located on the southwest hillside of Mount Pozai, in Baomei Village, Xunzhong Township, Dehua County. Whether you’re an expert or a layman, this fascinating site gives insights into Song and Yuan Dynasty ceramic technology and technique.

Modern Porcelain. Modern Dehua kilns produce every porcelain product imaginable, provided you’ve a limited imagination: fine dishes, statues of deities and demons, and gigantic vases big enough to hide in (see Porcelain Street below). I loved the trolls, perhaps because I’ve got Norwegian blood in me (bitten by a Scandinavian mosquito). I could see a faint resemblance.

Porcelain Street. The large arch near the river, with the character, “Taocijie” (陶瓷街), marks the beginning of Porcelain Street and probably the end of your budget. Get great bargains on everything from tableware and statuary to porcelain lamps and garden decorations.

I bought some plates made for export at Mr. Lin Shuangyang’s small shop on Porcelain Street. No one in his immediate family was in the porcelain business, so Mr. Lin’s cousin attended the technical school by the ancient Dehua kiln, and opened his own factory in 1973. It wasn’t until 1999 that they finally achieved their dream of opening this shop.

Bone up on Blanc de Chine!. Learn more about Dehua’s exotic porcelain in the fascinating book, Blanc de Chine—the Great Porcelain of Dehua. Written by Robert H. Blumenfield, an American collector of Dehua’s blanc de Chine, the 240-page book is available on Amazon.com for only US$52.50 (a bargain, compared with the US$75 retail price). Or try Blanc de Chine: the Porcelain of Tehua in Fukien. Amazon.com has two used copies—a steal at only US$495.

Dehua Cuisine!. Dehua has fine food, and even finer prices. Try the Yiyuan Restaurant (益源大酒家), on Xingnan Street (兴南), the same street as Porcelain Street, but downtown, past the river. We fed a crowd in a private room for less than 100 yuan. They offer most “Laowai” favorites, but also try mountain delicacies like red mushroom soup. Because they’re red, Chinese say they cure anemia and replenish women’s blood after childbirth. I doubted that I suffered from either anemia or childbirth, even though my love for Chinese food may cause me to appear like I’m in the second trimester. Still, red mushroom soup is excellent, especially if you have the good fortune to eat it fresh, right after they’re picked (only during two weeks at the end of August).

Daiyun Mountain (戴云山). This 1,856-meter high provincial-level natural preserve is a delightful place to stroll on sizzling summer days. Attractions include rare animals and plants, which you won’t likely see since they’re rare, and Daiyun Temple, which was built in the 2nd year of Taiping in the Liang Dynasty (908).

Nine Immortals Mountain, in the Daiyuan range, gets its name from the legend that it was the meeting place for Zhang Guolao (张果老) and seven other immortals. The site has 99 caves, 12 scenic areas, and over 40 calligraphic inscriptions with so many stories behind them that you’d need to be an immortal yourself to hear them all.

Shiniu Mountain (Stone Ox Mountain, 石牛山). The 1,782-meter high mountain, in eastern Dehua County, is a circular volcanic basin famous for “graceful and marvelous stone caves”, though apparently not all are natural. I read that the Stone-Pot Cave of the Lion Cliff was “built” in the Southern Song Dynasty.

Popular attractions include the Ming Dynasty Stone-Pot Temple, cable cars, glass observation platform at the peak, and Daixian Waterfall, which descends into a picturesque, winding creek 30 km long. Bamboo raft rides are the best way to enjoy the tranquil scenery. The hot springs are also hot attractions, and rather than just opt for a starred hotel, try spending a night in a “Nongjiale” (Farm B&Bs).

Lingjiu Rock Temple (灵鹫岩寺). This temple’s drawing card is the view. Situated on the northwest of Jiuxian Mountain, the misty scenery changes constantly, but you can always find the 12 official sites of “strange rocks and queer caves” with names like Vulture Rock.

Incensed in Yongchun. In China, the drive is always at least as interesting as the destination, and the trip to Dehua is no exception. The nicely paved concrete road snakes through valleys and past a unique village, Hankou (汉口村), which was dusted in crimson as if the Red Tide had become a red snowfall. Even the ducks were red. It turned out that red-dusted Hankou was a village of incense makers (and gave a whole new twist to my notion of “Red China”)—a tradition they have inherited from their Muslim trader forebears of 800 years ago (Fig. 14.1).

Fig. 14.1

Yongchun Incense

The salvaged Song Dynasty ship on display near Kaiyuan Temple is mute testimony to the perils of sea travel even during Zaytun’s heyday. The ship was returning to China with many Southeast Asian products. It also had over 2,400 kg of the coveted incense that Muslims were famous for making (I’d have been incensed if my ship of incense sunk). Eventually Muslims began making the incense right in Quanzhou, and a few centuries later moved to the hinterlands of Yongchun. Today, the Hui-minority Pu family still makes incense in a Hankou factory run by Mr. Pu Chongqing (蒲重庆).

Mr. Pu said his Muslim ancestors came to Quanzhou around 1200. One of his illustrious ancestors was Mr. Pu Shougen (蒲寿更), the Chief of Customs whose wheeling and dealing accounted for so much of the foreign trade at that time. The extent of Muslim influence is seen in that yet another of his ancestors was governor of Chongqing, in Sichuan.

The Pu family’s award-winning Pu Qinglan incense is now as popular overseas as in China, with annual domestic and foreign sales each equaling about US$6–7 million. Visit their factory at Hankou Village, Dapu Township, Yongchun County (永春县达浦镇汉口村).

Yongchun Brickmakers. Not far from Hankou are fields of domed kilns on both sides of the highway. I was fascinated at how quickly they could fashion bricks by hand with wooden forms. Not near as exotic, I suppose, as the fashionable porcelain up the road in Dehua, but much more practical.

Hankou Bridge and Farmhouse!. A beautiful old wooden farmhouse with an enclosed courtyard snuggled up against a hillside, and shaded by massive trees. To get a halfway decent photo I stood in the middle of the highway, one eye on the viewfinder and one on the kamikaze truckers who seemed bent on redressing opium-era grievances upon my person. Finally, I asked a fellow who owned a three-store place across the road if I could take the photo from his rooftop. He happily agreed, though he could not understand why I’d want to photograph an old house. Why not a new one?

I clamored onto his rooftop and was rewarded with yet another Kodak moment—a panoramic view of the brand-new Hankou covered bridge! I had tried to take a photo of it the previous year, but couldn’t get the right angle. The bridge isn’t in any guidebooks, but it should be, because it proves that bridge building is not a lost art in southern Fujian (Fig. 14.2).

Fig. 14.2

Hankow Yongchun New Bridge