ㅇItems exhibited: 75 items, including a Qingbai porcelain pillow from the
   Sinan seabed Relics Site


A themed exhibition entitled “Jingdezhen Qingbai Porcelain: The Beauty of Pure White Blooming
in Blue,” will be held in the Sinan Seabed Relics Room in the Asian Arts Gallery of the National
Museum of Korea under the direction of Choi, Kwang-shik. This exhibition, on display from Tuesday,
October 16th to Sunday, September 28th, 2008, will showcase 75 items, including a Qingbai
porcelain pillow recovered from the Sinan seabed.

Qingbai porcelain, also known as shady-blue porcelain, was one of the most favored types of
pottery in China during the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Its distinctive pattern of blue shadows against
a white background was meant to imitate the hue and texture of Qingbai jade and, its refined
aura marks it as a crowning achievement of Asian art.

Qingbai porcelain was first produced at the Jingdezhen kiln in Jiangxi Province at the height
of the Northern Song Dynasty. During the war between the Song and Liao Dynasties, a number
of northern potters fled south and, settled in Jingdezhen. By combining the merits of southern celadon
and northern porcelain they created the world-renowned Qingbai porcelain.

Qingbai porcelain was highly appreciated in China during the Song and Yuan periods. The purity
and elegance of the porcelain produced at the Jingdezhen kiln well-suited the Yuan fondness
for the color white. It attracted the interest of the court, establishing a pattern of imperial
patronage which would extend well into the Qing Dynasty.

Qingbai porcelain was highly appreciated in China during the Song and Yuan dynasty. Eventually
its fame spread abroad and large quantities also began to be exported, including the cache
discovered on the Sinan seabed.

This exhibition highlights several key aspects of Jingdezhen Qingbai porcelain, all of which
are displayed in the completely renovated Sinan Seabed Relics Exhibition Room. The exhibition
space is divided into distinct sections which discuss the use of food vessels, the spatial
decoration of ceramics, decoration techniques, the origin of the vessels’ names, and the refined
sense of aesthetic appreciation associated with ceramics.

The section dedicated to aesthetic appreciation, in particular, deals with several dramatic scenes
conveyed through ceramics. Among these, there is a dish with a poem which the great
Tang poet, Du Fu, composed about the transience of life intersecting nature as he passed by
the grotto at Mt. Maiji. The surface of the dish is lovingly decorated in accordance with the
poem, including images of a parrot pecking at a golden peach and sleeping musk deer. Museum guests
may also appreciate a thin dish designed like a red leaf detailing the love story between a court
lady and a gentleman of the Tang Dynasty. The exhibition also features a Qingbai porcelain pillow
decorated to reference a poem by the great Southern Song female poet, Li Qingzhao, in which,
laying her head on her jade pillow behind a silk curtain, she laments the loneliness of life in the
inner chambers and longs for her husband’s return.



  
Elegant Female Figure
Qingbai porcelain with iron-brown spot design
Yuan Dynasty
H: 12.8 cm

This figure of a woman seated in a dignified manner with a boldly twisted and raised hairstyle and
hands which grasp her raised left leg is a masterpiece which reveals the essence of Jingdezhen
Qingbai porcelain. A lamb kneels under her right foot and a gourd-shaped bottle is situated to
the right of the chair. The woman’s lively facial expression and elegant gesture are highly
animated. The details of Yuan Dynasty fashion are apparent in her hairstyle and dress. The shawl
resting on her shoulder displays a pattern of quiet ripples, and spotted design effects employing
the iron-brown painting technique are clearly demonstrated in this graceful piece.

      

 
Floral Dish
Qingbai porcelain with a parrot and deer design and poem
Yuan Dynasty
H: 1.2 cm

On this dish, a parrot pecking at a peach and a crouching, sleeping musk deer appear in a
symmetrical arrangement in the upper and lower segments, along with the third and fourth lines
of Du Fu’s (杜甫) poem, “A Mountain Temple<山寺>.”
This poem was written by the Tang poet Du Fu (712-770 CE) upon viewing the grotto at Mt.
Maiji(麥績山) in the city of Tianshui(天水市), Gansu Province(甘肅省),famous for it’s peculiar,
honeycomb-like structure. Since its creation during the fourth and fifth centuries, generations
of poets and calligraphers havevisited and written poems expressing their admiration for this
reknowned site of the Silk Road.



  
Dish
Qingbai porcelain painted with an underglaze copper-red double-leaf design and poem
Yuan Dynasty
H: 1.4cm, D: 18.4 cm

This Qingbai porcelain dish is embossed with two leaflet shapes on which the flowers and leaves
are decorated with red and green accents. Additionally, the first and second lines of a poem are
inscribed vertically in red on this decoration. The poem alludes to an incident during the reign
of the Tang emperor Xi(僖宗). According to the tale, a scholar named Youyu(祐于) was walking on
a street near the imperial palace which was covered with fallen leaves, when he discovers a leaf on
which a poem had been written. Composed by a court lady named Lady Han(韓氏), it expressed her
yearning for a life outside the confines of the palace. Youyu treasured the leaf, longing for her, and
eventually they met and consummated their love.



 
Pillow
Qingbai porcelain in the shape of a woman lying under a lotus leaf
End of Southern Song – early Yuan Dynasties
H: 12.8 cm

This pillow, in the shape of a woman reclining on one arm, is reminiscent of the jade pillow mentioned
in Li Qingzhao(李淸照)’s poem, “To the Tune of Intoxicated under the Shadow of Flowers
(醉花陰).” Li Qingzhao (1084-ca.1156 CE) was the wife of Zhao Mingcheng(趙明城), a master of
epigraphy, who collected and organized calligraphic masterpieces and stone monuments throughout
her life with him. “To the Tune of Intoxicated under the Shadow of Flowers” is the poem she
composed about the loneliness of life in the inner chambers and her longing for Zhao during their
prolonged separations.
 


 
Cup
Qingbai porcelain in the shape of a peach
Yuan Dynasty
H: 3.1cm, D: 7.5 cm

Cup Stand
Qingbai porcelain in the shape of a lotus leaf
Yuan Dynasty
H: 1.5cm, D: 15.8 cm  

This cup, shaped to resemble half of a peach, has a stem-like handle which stretches from the
peach’s base, while the two foliates spread to either side of the rim. The dish which supports
it resembles flower petals, and the vein of a lotus leaf is softly represented at the base. Three
triangular pillars protrude from the center of the dish in order to support the small cup. The color
and glaze of this Qingbai porcelain cup and stand are soft, yet masterful.