Archaeological Study Of Ceramic Pillows In Song And Yuan Dynasties

The invention of ceramic pillow is closely related to the continuous development of ceramic manufacturing technology in China.The emergence of ceramic pillow is the crystallization of our country’s use pillow custom and deep ceramic culture.After the development of Tang and Five Dynasties,ceramic pillows flourished in Song and Yuan Dynasties and declined in Ming and Qing Dynasties.In the long history,Song and Yuan Dynasty is an important development stage of ceramic pillow from small to large,and then from prosperity to decline.Based on the unearthed materials,this paper makes a comprehensive archaeological study of Song and Yuan ceramic pillows.The first chapter is the introduction.First of all,this chapter outlines the development of Pillow Custom and pillows in China.It introduces that pillows in China mainly include hard pillows and soft pillows.Ceramic pillows are the pillows with the largest number of archaeological discoveries and the longest span of the times.They also have the advantages of easy preservation of hard pillows and strong plasticity of soft pillows.Then it elaborates the reasons for choosing this topic and the definition of related concepts,and combs the research history of Song and Yuan Ceramic Pillows.On this basis,it clarifies the research methods,academic purposes and article framework.The second chapter is about the type and chronology.This chapter first divides the Song and Yuan Dynasty ceramic pillow into two categories: high-temperature glaze and low-temperature glaze,and then classifies them under various glaze colors.Among them,high temperature glaze includes white,cyan,bluish white and black glaze,low temperature glaze is divided into monochrome glaze and Colourful glaze.Under the framework of typology,based on the archaeological materials,through extensive and meticulous comparison of the ceramic pillow body and its associated relics,the chronological sequence of ceramic pillows in the Song and Yuan Dynasties was established.The third chapter is about the distribution of ceramic kilns and the characteristics of products.Based on the typological research results of ceramic pillows in the Song and Yuan Dynasties and combined with geographic relationships,this chapter divides the ceramic kilns that fired ceramic pillows in the Song and Yuan Dynasties into two regions: the north and the south.The northern region is divided into seven regions,and the southern region includes four regions.Under this system,the types of ceramic pillows and product characteristics of each kiln are studied,analyzed and summarized.chapter four is divides ceramic pillows into different periods.On the basis of the second andthird chapters,this chapter divides the ceramic pillows in the northern region into five periods and eight segments,while the southern region includes four periods and six segments.Under this stage system,the types,decoration and origin of ceramic pillows in the northern and southern regions were summarized,and the changes in each stage were analyzed.The development and evolution of Song and Yuan ceramics pillow can be divided into three stages as a whole:the development stage(1960s to the first half of the 11 th century),the flourishing stage(the second half of the 11 th century to the first half of the 13 th century)and the declining stage(the second half of the 13 th century to the 16 th century).The fifth chapter is about related issues.In the first section of this chapter,the forming and firing process of Song and Yuan ceramic pillows are studied.The forming process is divided into three categories: carving and inlaying,model and composite forming.The firing process mainly consists of sintering and stacking of sagger.In the second section,the functions and uses of Song and Yuan ceramics pillows are discussed,which are divided into two categories: life pillow and funeral pillow.Life pillow includes sleeping pillow,pulse pillow and wrist pillow.The two controversial functions of pulse pillow and wrist pillow are emphatically discussed and affirmed.The use time and crowd of the ceramic pillow in Song and Yuan Dynasty were also analyzed.The third section classifies and summarizes the inscriptions of Song and Yuan Dynasty ceramic pillows,and classifies them into chronological categories,name categories,poems and songs categories,famous words and aphorisms,and good words and auspicious language categories.It examines the appearance time of kiln stamps in the inscriptions of producers and operators’ names,and discusses the production mode of folk kilns embodied in the inscriptions.The fourth section traces back and explores the origin of Song and Yuan ceramic pillows.In the past,many scholars believed that China’s ceramic pillows appeared in the Sui Dynasty.However,according to the collection of archaeological materials,ceramic pillows existed in the Warring States Period,Qin and Han Dynasties at the latest.This section also analyzed the reasons why the Song and Yuan ceramic pillows turned from prosperity to decline,and even tended to disappear in the Ming Dynasty.The concluding part mainly summarizes the content and main harvest of this paper,and summarizes the existing problems and future research directions.