Accession Number
1991/2.15

Title
Bowl

Artist(s)
Chinese

Artist Nationality
Chinese (culture or style)

Object Creation Date
12th century

Medium & Support
porcelain with glaze

Dimensions
1 11/16 in x 7 1/16 in x 7 1/16 in (4.29 cm x 17.94 cm x 17.94 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Willard A. and Marybelle Bouchard Hanna

Subject matter
A Qingbai 青白 (literally “bluish white”) teabowl of the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279). The unglazed rim would have been finished with a copper or silver metal band. Bowls with this motif were mass-produced at the longquan celadon kilns during this time period, and copied by numerous other kilns.  Fish in Chinese is pronounced yu, which is a homonym for abundance, thus a fish motif is a wish for abundance. The six incisions around the sides are an attempt to give the bowl the shape of a lotus flower, which are related to Pure Land Buddhism where practitioners are reborn into Amitabha's Western Paradise through lotus buds. Lotus flowers were a popular motif on ceramics during the Song dynasty  and continuing through the Qing.

From the eighth century on, tea drinking was firmly established as an important Chinese social custom. The tea was taken in the form of a powder that was whisked into a frothy brew with hot water in elegant conical ceramic bowls. Initially, white wares from Yue, Xing, and Ding kilns were favored, but later black tea bowls from Jian became the color of choice.

Qingbai wares, which consisted primarily of tea bowls, were produced in southern China during the Song dynasty (960-1279)  at Jingdezhen, Jiangxi in imitation of northern Ding porcelains. A reduction atmosphere in the Jingdezhen kilns and a high kaolin and low iron content  in the clay result in the pale blue cast to Qingbai wares.

Song society, lead by cultured emperors like Huizong (r. 1101-26) and Gaozong (r.1127-63), did not seek power and empire like the previous Tang dynasty, but instead sought learning and contemplation surrounded by refined and elegant daily objects. The pottery industry responded by producing immaculate white wares that could replace silver as luxury tableware. By the eleventh century, Ding had become firmly established as the great white ware of the north, just as the great white ware of the south, qingbai ware was started being produced at the kilns of Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province. Chinese connoisseurs of the time praised the color and feel of qingbai tea bowls as being like “icy jade” and the ware went on to make Jingdezhen the porcelain capital of the world from the tenth to fourteenth centuries.

Physical Description
A thin porcelain conical bowl with a direct rim on a footring.  The interior has incised double fish decorations and six linear divisions around the walls.  It is covered in a white glaze with a bluish tinge, and an unglazed rim.

Primary Object Classification
Ceramic

Primary Object Type
bowl

Collection Area
Asian

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form. Keywords
Fish
Qingbai
bowl
bowls (vessels)
ceramic (material)
fish (animals)
porcelain (material)
porcelain (visual works)