What does plum bottle mean?
The plum vase is a famous traditional porcelain of the Han nationality. It is a vase with a small mouth, short neck, round shoulders
, thin bottom and round feet. The small mouth can only be used to insert plum branches. Got its name. Because of the slender body of the bottle, it was called "Jingping" in the Song Dynasty. It was used as a vessel for holding wine. It has a tall and pretty shape. After the Ming Dynasty, it was called a plum bottle.
Plum vase first appeared in the Tang Dynasty. It was more popular in the Song and Liao Dynasties, and many new varieties appeared. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, porcelain kilns were fired all over the country. The blue and white plum vase from Jingdezhen in the Yuan Dynasty was the most exquisite. Its superb firing skills and immortal artistic value embodies the wisdom and art of the ancient Han working people.
Main uses
(1) Wine storage
As for the use of plum bottles, we can know from literature records, handed down objects and ancient paintings. When it came into being, it was originally a practical vessel, mostly used to hold wine or other liquid substances. Its function continued until the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. The use of plum bottles as drinking utensils is reflected in the inscriptions on many plum bottles. For example, the Shanghai Museum has two Cizhou kiln plum vases from the Song Dynasty with black flowers on a white ground. One has the words "Qinggu Fine Wine" written on its belly, and the other has "Drunken Country Wine Sea" written on its belly.
In addition, there are other inscriptions that reflect the basic functions of the plum vase from the side. For example, the Guilin Museum has a pottery plum vase unearthed from a local kiln in a Ming Dynasty tomb, with the four characters "forever and everlasting" carved on its shoulders. "Heaven and Earth" itself has the meaning of praying for blessings, and it also implies the harmonious meaning of "Heaven stores and earth wine", which shows its dual functions of praying for blessings and storing wine.
(2) Display and Appreciation
With the development of society, plum vases gradually have the function of display and decoration, and even plum vases are often buried as underworld objects. The vassal kings of Guilin in the Ming Dynasty The large number of plum vases unearthed in the mausoleum area are evidence of this. These plum vases have become a symbol of the upper-class rulers' hierarchical status and a symbol of "feng shui" meaning.
After the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the ornamental display function of plum vase became more and more obvious. Most plum vases in the Qing Dynasty were handed down from generation to generation, which may be related to the fact that plum vases were mainly used for display and decoration at this time.