The Culture Concept Circle » Silk Road

First Stirrings of the China Trade Precious Cargoes of Cathay

Carolyn McDowall — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 21:56:10 +0000

Ladies disporting themselves in and around Chinese Pavilions - Detail from a Lacquer Screen, courtesy Martyn Cook Antiques

The International trade routes with Asia stretch back into antiquity when there is archaeological evidence of cross cultural influences from Cathay (China) with its Asian neighbours, as well as those separated by great distances, such as the Roman, Persian and Greek empires. From the first century trade moved regularly overland between the Chinese capital and the Mediterranean a distance of 7000 kilometres. Roman ships laden with trade goods, gold bullion and coins set out from Red Sea ports each year. The trade with Asia was continued well into the 2nd century, a fact documented in Chinese Han dynasty records. There is also evidence of trade activities through sea voyages from China to many Eastern ports on the Atlantic Ocean rim. Goods came along the Seidenstrassen, or Silk Road (the name coined by Baron Ferdinand Von Richthofen in the nineteenth century) for ancient routes that linked Asia and the west.

During the Middle Ages in western Europe these contacts were, by and large, reduced to a mere trickle, as cities and towns defended themselves against continual threats of invasion by emigrating and marauding peoples. The first stirring of what we now describe as the nineteenth century China Trade began when Europe was still emerging from the medieval period. Marco Polo’s controversial ‘Description of the World’, written in 1298 described a vast exotic land filled with amenable, happy people who seemingly whiled away the hours pleasantly disporting in pavilions set in ethereal landscapes.

The world that Venetian adventurer Marco Polo (1254-1324) first described to western Christendom was almost wholly unknown and he said himself that ‘no other man, Christian or Saracen, Mongol or Pagan, has explored so much of the world as Messer Marco, son of Messer Niccolo Polo, great and noble citizen of the city of Venice. ‘Let us travel into Cathay, so.. you may learn something of it grandeurs’ he wrote , inspiring the notion China was a land unlike any other.

After seventeen years of living at the court of the Great Khan Kubilai where they enjoyed many privileges, Marco, his father and Uncle Matteo finally returned to Venice ‘I believe it was God’s will we should come back so that men might know the things that are in the world’. Polo’s much disputed account of the wealth of Cathay (China), the might of the Mongol empire and exotic customs of India and Africa ensured his book was a bestseller. Its impact on contemporary Europe was tremendous, although contemporarily it became known as Il Milione the Million Lies. Marco Polo earned the nickname Marco Milione as few believed the stories were true. However on his deathbed he was reputed to have confused the issue by saying ‘I did not tell yet half of what I saw’.

The popularity of Marco Polo’s Travels were, by the mid fourteenth century surpassed by self-styled noble author ‘Sir’ John Mandeville’s Travels. Mandeville enhanced the view of a people who were different, but in no way inferior. Although their source is much disputed they did provide further insight into a culture that by now many found fascinating, profound and perhaps just a little peculiar. Initially Europeans could not differentiate between Chinese, Indian, Japanese South East Asian, or Middle Eastern peoples. That meant the European eastern vision was extremely vast and, did not really reflect the geographic or cultural reality.

Ceramic traditions since ancient times have undergone many cross fertilizations by their exposure to various cultures. In 1368 the famed poets and painters of the Chinese T’ang and Sung dynasties had already passed into the hallowed halls of antiquity. And, it was also considered by the Chinese themselves that the supreme periods of their major arts had passed.

By the fifteenth century select pieces of porcelain made for the Imperial Court and the more exacting home markets of China were arriving in Europe to be displayed in homes of its successful merchants and noble families. These wares were both respected and revered for their boldness of colouring and modernity of design. They were magically translucent, resonant when struck, impervious to liquids and considered to be refined, aesthetically pleasing with great beauty of form. To put it into a European context Emperor Wan Li, the last ruler of the Ming Dynasty was sitting on the Throne of Heaven between 1573 and 1620 when Elizabeth 1st in England was contending with Mary Queen of Scots and other issues.

The earliest accurate records we have of pieces of Chinese porcelain in the west are those listed in Queen Elizabeth 1′s will. From this we can deduce that they were highly prized. Burghley House was the home of Elizabeth 1′s advisers the Cecil’s who became one of the most powerful families during the reign of the Tudor’s in England. Like others they enshrined each precious object with the addition of gilded mounts a traditional practice of western Christianity for centuries. The gilded mounts attached to Chinese porcelains in great English country house collections today reveal the mounts offered a measure of protection against their fragility and highlighted the esteem in which they were held.

The trade to Europe prior to 1600 was sporadic and the Portuguese established themselves at a succession of key points including Goa on the Indian Coast before 1511 and Malacca, which they seized in that year. It was the main junction for the Indies spice trade and the limit reached by the Chinese junks, which came south to exchange cargoes of porcelain and silk. In 1557 they were allowed to settle in Macao and from then onward pieces came to the west with seamen.

Port of Macao in the nineteenth century

Kraak is a Dutch word thought to be a corruption of the name for Portuguese Carracks, whose goods were dubbed kraak ware when they arrived. One of the most notable “Catarina’ was taken by the Dutch off the coast of Malaya. There was much rejoicing in Amsterdam when her cargo of about 100,000 pieces was sold on the docks as the Dutch were seeking to wrestle the trade opportunities away from the Portuguese.

A flexible and entrepreneurial business class developed in China during its Ming Period (1368-1644) and there is a very real idea the western world economic system grew out of its fascination with the east as she sought to fulfill her craving for luxury goods such as silks, spices, teas, porcelain, furniture, painting and silver.

Seventeenth century Dutch artists incorporated Chinese porcelains in their genre of ‘still life’ painting confronting us with a moral choice. They reflected the Calvinistic approach at the time for that of translating choices into terms of good and evil. Painters used the dishes to reflect the fragility and transitory nature of humankind, as well as the vanity of the collector who have been seen as vainglorious. Fruit in paintings symbolised fertility, luxury and enjoyment of sensory pleasures and Artists also depicted decorative objects to reflect their aesthetic values.

Detail Still Life by Jan Davidsz de Heem

They only existed to the extent that they could be experienced by their translucency to light, which dispelled darkness; this idea had theological links to a belief in Jesus the Christ as the light, and therefore hope of the world. This spiritual perspective was a great force in seventeenth century Holland underpinning the art of many painters of the period.

The years surrounding the fall of the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644) and founding of the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911) were uncertain and foreign trade suffered. The Chinese Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722) was himself an accomplished poet and calligrapher, as well as a vigorous reformer, patron of classical studies and the decorative arts. He ordered the reconstruction of ceramic kilns at Jingdezhen that had been partly destroyed during a transitional period between dynasties.

During the reign of Kangxi painting in cobalt blue reached new heights of artistic and technical achievement and the colour and techniques attached to rendering painted decoration under the glaze were refined. The volume of porcelain imported to Europe increased and by the second half of the seventeenth century trade with Cathay had become far more important to Europeans than to China’s rulers, who prided themselves on their nation’s self-sufficiency.

Blanc de Chine (white porcelain) wares made near Dehua in Fujian province were first exported to England in huge quantities. However by 1715 their popularity was waning because of the invention of European porcelain by Johann Friedrich Boettger at Meissen in 1710. In less than five years Boettger’s moulded white wares, inspired by oriental blanc-de-chine, became available. The beautiful prunus blossom and grape vines so admired on Chinese wares were grafted onto shapes preferred in Europe, giving the pieces a distinct flavour of the orient.

Meissen Blanc de Chine

Tea had arrived in Europe in the first ten years of the seventeenth century but only a tiny stratum of society enjoyed it at first, because its cost was extremely prohibitive. The acquisition of ‘china’ to drink tea from became a craze among the very wealthy fashionable. This included beautiful blue and white wares, colourfully enameled wares and simple blanc de chine tea wares all of which were imported at great cost.

The English aristocracy began a daily ritual for the taking of tea. Two varieties dominated the early trade Bohea, which was a black tea and the other a green tea made from the steamed and dried leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant a shrub native to the mountainous regions of Asia. While Black tea is also made from this plant unlike green tea, which is made from dried and fermented leaves. Following the beheading of his father Charles 1 England’s heir apparent and prince in waiting was in exile at the French and Dutch courts. His restoration to the throne of England in 1660 was a great impetus for change. A new class of people emerged, one whose wealth was based on business and trade rather than inherited land as it had been since William the Conqueror in 1066.

1660 was also the year English diarist Samuel Pepys recorded the pleasures associated with the taking of ‘this China drinke’. Catharine of Braganza the new King Charles II’s prospective bride arrived at Portsmouth on 13th May 1662 on route to her new home. She asked first for a ‘cup of tea’, thus ensuring its popularity.

There is a ‘ large four square teapot’ in the so-called ‘Devonshire Schedule’ at Chatsworth, one of England’s most famous country houses. It appears among a list of items bequeathed by Elizabeth, the Countess of Devonshire to her daughter Anne, who became the 5th Earl of Burghley’s wife. Presumably the teapot went with her to Burghley House and its silver gilt mounts date from c1650.

Plying the China trade by sea was an exceedingly risky venture for all concerned. Taxes, tributes, bribes and deceptions were rife. Storms, pirates, disease and rival traders were also a constant threat during the often two-year round trip voyage to and from Europe. Ship’s officers and crews sailing out of England actively engaged in this exclusive and lucrative private trade, which was either commissioned, or bought for speculative purchase.

Demand eventually outstripped all other trade as porcelain became the largest, most desirable precious cargo from Cathay. Packed into tubs and wooden boxes it was cushioned with rice or other marketable goods such as pepper, sago and tea, all of which were used in the bottom of ships for ballast. It would take until the turn of the eighteenth century for Chinese officials to realize the monetary potential of Europe’s interest in their wares and art forms and begin to take advantage of it.

Carolyn McDowall, Revised March 2011 © The Culture Concept Circle.

Giuseppe Castiglione – At the Court of the Chinese Emperors

Carolyn McDowall — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 21:40:27 +0000

It was during the Yuan dynasty (c1260-1368) that knowledge of ancient Cathay (China) first filtered through to the west. Mongolian leader Kublai Khan gained the title Great Khan, by defeating his brothers and embracing Chinese culture.

In 1260 Kublai Khan (1215-1294) set about rebuilding the city of Peking as his winter capital, governing along Chinese lines and employing foreigners who traveled the Silk Road. It was often called the Pax Mongolica, because a single power dominated its length, which was a safe highway at this time. Along this route in 1260 the Venetian travellers, the Polo brothers travelled until they first reached the court of Emperor Kublai Khan. On his behalf they sent back a message of friendship and goodwill to the Pope at Rome, as well as a request for one hundred learned priests and oil from the lamp burning over the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. Marco, Nicolo Polo’s 20 year old son, traveling with his father and his brother Matteo, delivered this rare gift to the great Khan. This historic meeting took place at Kublai Khan’s summer palace situated some 200 miles from Peking.

Marco described it as ‘sumptuous pavilions set with a wall surrounding sixteen miles of land in which are fountains, rivers and lawns’. His description later inspired eighteenth century English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem about the palace entitled Xanadu, which over the centuries became a metaphor in Europe for exotic opulence.

Giuseppe Castiglione arrived in China in 1715 where he was to pass his life at the Court of three of its Emperors K’ang’hsi, Yung-cheng and Ch’ien-lung. The arrival of any ship was a great event with much celebration, including a holy Mass to give thanks. When they embarked the Jesuits knew that they would be considered subjects of the Emperor of China and would never again be able to return to Europe.

Castiglione became during his lifetime an artist of high accomplishment. In the course of his long stay at Peking (he died there in 1766), he managed to achieve a remarkable synthesis between the traditions and techniques of European painting and those of Chinese painting.

In China Castiglione became famous as a portraitist and genre painter. His paintings of animals, flowers and landscapes earned him an unprecedented honour – first painter at the Court of the Quing Dynasty (1644 to 1712) and that of Emperor Ka’inghsi

Emperor Ka’inghsi by Castiglione

Giuseppe Castiglione (1688 – 1766) was born at Milan in Italy. Of his family and birth there is very little recorded. At the age of nineteen he entered the society of Jesus at Genoa to commence his novitiate. His talent as a painter was quickly recognized, as well as works entrusted to him. He painted two pictures illustrating the life of St. Ignatius and they were listed in a guide of Genoa in 1780. He joined an order of Jesuits, who had been sending missionaries to China for some time so that they could spread the Christian faith. He asked permission to be among them.

Completing his novitiate at Portugal where he is said to have painted portraits of young princes and murals for the Chapel of the College of Coimbra, Castiglione departed with some of his fellow brothers for Goa on 11 April 1714 to be part of an adventurous sea voyage. The route followed the shore line of Africa where some encounters were terrifying, including colliding during the night with an enormous whale. It spurted great jets of water into the passenger’s faces while the Jesuit monks tried to calm and reassure everyone they weren’t being cast into the ‘fiery furnaces of Babylon’. There were many calm moments when the trip resembled a cruise, but when the winds blew up the passengers had to join forces with the crew to avoid shipwreck and death. Vivid first hand accounts survive of the dramatic nature of these voyages and the courage of the men who battled storm and tempest and of the swollen legs and gums shredded in ribbons brought about by scurvy which ravaged the ship’s company.

The Emperor Ka’inghsi (Kangxi – 1661 – 1722) protected the foreign monks because he admired their skills in various fields, including the sciences. Persecutions brought about through superstition meant that the presence of the ‘foreign devils’ ensured that they were blamed for all cataclysmic events such as earthquakes that hit the city of Peking during their period of residency.

Castiglione was presented to the Emperor Kang-hsi in November 1715. A contemporary description survives.

‘In November 1715, I was summoned into the presence of the Emperor to act as interpreter to two Europeans, a painter and a chemist, who had just arrived. While we were awaiting his Majesty’s pleasure in one of the anterooms, a eunuch addressed my companions in Chinese, and was angry because they returned no answer. I immediately told him the cause of their silence, upon which he said, that we Europeans were all so alike that it was scarcely possible to distinguish one from another. I had often heard the same remark from other persons, our resemblance being generally attributed to the long beards we all wore. The Chinese do not shave; but their beards are so thin that the hairs might be counted; the few they have, however, they value even to ridicule…’

At Court etiquette regarding presentation was very strict and custom dictated that gifts must be given. The Emperor was 61 when Castiglione arrived. A great lover of the arts and sciences he reputedly displayed sincere esteem for the Jesuits and appreciated the services they rendered to him. He called them ‘The Men of the West’ but while he admired their many talents he was deeply reserved about their religious beliefs. He wrote ‘Is it possible that you are always concerned about a world you have not yet entered and count for almost nothing the one in which you are now living? Believe me, everything in its own time’. K’ang-hsi appreciated not only poetry and painting, but also music and the Jesuits introduced him to certain European instruments.

What the Jesuits achieved and accomplished in China is striking in both its scope and diversity. When the Emperor Ka’inghsi died on the 30th December 1722 the Jesuits believed they had lost a benevolent master and protector. It would have been difficult for them taking part in the funeral knowing it was to their mind, a pagan rite, but nevertheless they joined in the lamentations of officials and servants.

They were patient men of science who wrote books on the subjects of mathematics, physics, geography, history, music, perspective to name a few, as well as numerous books on religion. These included translations of Chinese classics, which they sent to Europe. Their pioneering works on subjects such as anatomy were viewed with complete suspicion in China where the Emperor K’ang-hsi considered a Treatise on Anatomy written by Father Parennin in 1698 as too ‘strange’ to be acknowledged officially.

In Europe at this time, and right throughout the eighteenth century, established facts were being questioned, whether they were history, astronomy or religion. By way of contrast in China their culture was still dominated by a nostalgic and devoted veneration of the past. This meant that instead of viewing an expansion of knowledge, as introduced by foreigners as a stimulant that would bring about a fresh outlook, Chinese literati who were forever wary, superstitious and fearful of earlier wars which had brought about the fall of the Ming dynasty and placed a foreign dynasty on their throne, were entirely suspicious.

While the Jesuits were in China they were conscious of the hostility of the Chinese. They sought to expand knowledge of their faith, but not to impose their own culture on one, they believed, was not only not ready to receive it, but also would have been contrary to the evangelical spirit of their mission.

Of all the Jesuits in China Castiglione had exceptional talents that won him favour, especially with the last Emperor whose court he was part of Ch’ien-lung. The major part of all his works went to enrich the collections of the Imperial Palaces. The story of the survival of the majority of his works, which are to be found in the National Palace Museum of Taiwan, built to house the collections saved from the destruction of the Forbidden city, is extraordinary in itself, but for another day.

The daily routine of the Jesuits included presenting themselves every morning at the Palace where the guards informed the eunuchs of their arrival. After a long wait they passed through several gates until they reached the courtyard where they had to paint until five in the evening.

The eunuchs did not miss opportunities to spy on them or give them a hard time as they were jealous of the attention they received from the Emperor who sometimes also made tyrannical demands. He was however, enchanted by the enamels they produced and insisted that Castiglione and other monks teach the beauty of European enamels to Chinese artists, the knowledge of they quickly absorbed and the skill of they quickly acquired. Emperor Yung-chen (1722 – 1736) was the fourth son of K’ang-hsi and during his reign the persecution of the Christians continued.

The Portuguese mission where Castiglione was living particularly had a difficult time. The were all put under house arrest so Castiglione made the best of it and decorated St. Joseph’s Church built with donations from Europe. Said to be among the finest in Peking, it was later destroyed. He was employed during all these years in the palace daily decorating enamels or painting in oils and watercolour.

Emperor Ch’ien-lung painted by Castiglione

Emperor Ch’ien-lung (1711-1799) was the fourth emperor of the Manchu dynasty; a man of letters, a calligrapher, poet he was devoted to art and architecture; his name was associated with works of literary importance and he had thirty six thousand volumes from imperial and private collections copied and assembled in a vast encyclopedia.

He corresponded with Louis XV and was a collector of French clocks. Under Qianlong pottery production became completely industrialized. His reign was characterized by courtly splendor, prodigious accomplishments in literary compilations, and vigorous expansion of the Chinese frontiers to the west and the south.

The buildings of the precinct included the so called Palace of Delights and Harmony which the French Jesuits declared ‘would bear comparison with the Chateau of Versailles and Saint Cloud’. Built of marble and majolica with motifs deriving from antiquity, the structure was symmetrical flanked by pavilions to house the musicians that were linked to the main building by a glazed gallery. The Emperor could sit on his throne contemplating the wonderful water work display provided by Father Benoist where bronze sheep and wild geese spat out jets of water. In the second precinct there was a maze with a central kiosk all built of marble where on the day of the Feast of Lanterns, the 15th day of the eight month, the Emperor organized a lantern race for the young girls of the palace.

In the centre of this Garden of Lanterns and Yellow Flowers rose the Palace of the Calm Sea, so called because of a vast reservoir placed on the terrace to feed the fountains and all water displays. This building seemed inspired by the Trianon at Versailles and an extraordinary water clock decorated the foot of the monumental staircase. At midday the water spurted from 12 animals, a rat, bull, tiger, hare, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, cock, dog and a wild boar. Castiglione also built other less important pavilions one called the House for Gathering the Waters which concealed the hydraulic machinery.

The Emperor set the scene himself, attracting Italian and French painters for the court and the European style palace known as the Yuan Ming-Yuan. The only known representations of what this Palace and its gardens was like are copies of the original drawings made by the Jesuit missionaries. They had brought with them to China engravings of European palaces, which fascinated the Emperor.

He instructed Castiglione, who was his favourite painter, to draw up plans and choose his collaborators. Here is Castiglione now taking on a role that many European artists before him had done, for that of architect. To assist the missionaries sent away to Europe for works on architecture that included three versions (Latin, French and Italian) of Marcus Pollio Vitruvius famous first century Roman treatise De Architectura.

Castiglione’s designs for the Yuen-Ming Yuen, which means Garden of Perfect Clarity, a name applied to the totality of the buildings and gardens, were presented to the Emperor for consideration. They were of a fascinating kind of exuberant Baroque palace set in the midst of a multitude of jets of water, cascades and fountains. These were worked by hydraulics designed by Jesuit Father Michel Benoist. He was assisted by two other Jesuits and for the heavy labour made use of Chinese craftsmen he had trained.

Their work began in 1747 and would go forward until 1759 and although their movements were at first highly regulated, as time and experience went forward, they were given the freedom to come and go as they pleased in the vast precincts. They had a house half way between Peking and the Yuan Ming Yuan and traveled the distance through beautiful gardens on mules in all weathers if hot, raining, windy the Emperor would accept no excuse for the pace of work to be slowed.

The Belvedere had monumental stairs built in marble similar to the one at Fontainbleau. This became a mosque for the beautiful Hsiang Fei, who came from Aksu in Turkestan. A widow brought by force, she held all at bay with a dagger including the emperor who conceived a passionate lover for this young Moslem woman. He asked Castiglione to build her a pavilion and “The View of the Distant Lake”, which included multiple mirrors and paintings of sites at Asku, her homeland, endeavoring to give her comfort. These pictures created an allusion of perspective and a system of runners meant they could be interchanged. However all he achieved was to make her more homesick.

One day when Ch’ien-lung was absent the Dowager Empress decided to bring matters to a head and asked the young princess her intention ‘ to die’ she answered and the Empress had her taken to a room where she hung herself from the beams of the ceiling. The Emperor’s grief was so immense he ordered a funeral like that of a concubine of the first rank.

Castiglione became pre-eminent among a group of European missionary-court painters who combined the propagation of the Christian faith (in the face of daunting difficulties) with professional dedication to the artistic commissions of the Emperors. K’ang-hsi is today considered the greatest of the Manchu rulers of China. He seemingly held the Jesuits in high esteem and they felt a real admiration for him. He had a lively mind with an acute memory for detail as well as a reputation for reliable judgment.Castiglione was not allowed to include internal staircases in any of his buildings because Ch’ine-lung did not want to ‘live in the air’ like Europeans.

Louis XV sent Gobelins tapestries in 1767 with full length portraits of the beauties of the French Court. He also sent mirrors which the Emperor had cut up and used as window panes. Pilasters of white marble contrasted with walls of brick scrimmed with red plaster. The roofs were covered with tiles of yellow, blue or green respecting Chinese tradition. For its time the Yuen-Ming Yuen was a state of the art creation, nothing seen like it before in China. It was packed with remarkable treasures, which were later carted off when this extraordinary group of buildings were pillaged, ravaged and destroyed by the British and French during the 1860’s and the opium wars. There is hardly anything left today except a few stone fragments embellished with relief carving, to bear witness to the magnificence of the work of Castiglione or his brother Jesuits in the Palace complex.

In the three courts that Giuseppe Castiglione graced in China they had only partly opened their doors to the west. At the beginning of the eighteenth century they were on an equal footing with the west, having an extraordinarily advanced civilization. However by the end of the eighteenth century the Chinese were now a hundred years behind western civilization, which was advancing rapidly. If they had embraced new knowledge and new ideas they would have quickly mastered them. However instead they became more timid, more prudent and more conservative which in the end endangered not only their national sovereignty but also Chinese culture itself. This led to all the calamities that brought about the end of the dynasty system in China and the people’s revolution of 1949.

In China growing old brings with it great honour. It is a time when recognition of services rendered is acknowledged, especially on your birthday. Castiglione would have surely enjoyed the festivities attached to celebrating momentous milestones in his life each decade after he had turned 50. The fantastic summer palaces of the Emperors of China finally went up in flames and the delirious soldiers tore down the glorious tapestries threaded with silver to put out the blaze. Those jades, bronzes and porcelains that were not pillaged and miraculously survived are now displayed in the Victoria and Albert Museum at London and at the Palace of Fontainebleau at Paris.

The Jesuit Priest Giuseppe Castiglione at the Court of the Chinese Emperors had excelled at painting both horses and flowers. While many may not embrace his style, he did have great success and influence on the creativity attached to Chinese painting during his lifetime. When he died the Emperor, who was sincerely attached to the old missionary wrote the epitaph that is engraved on his tombstone. It was discovered by a missionary early in the twentieth century, who reported the inscription was flanked by two dragons and engraved with the two characters that indicated it had been erected by order of the Emperor.

At the Beginnings of Art – Precious Cargoes from Cathay

Carolyn McDowall — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 22:00:05 +0000

Far up river in Szechuan, waters rise as spring winds roar. How can I dare to meet her now, to brave the dangerous gorge. The grass grows green in the valley below ?where silk worms silently spin. Her hands work threads that never end, dawn to dusk when the cuckoo sings*

Italian adventurer, Marco Polo, perpetuated the western predilection for exotic goods in the European mind from early in the thirteenth century. He related fascinating stories about visiting a far off luxurious land called Cathay. It was seemingly filled with precious gems, spices and gorgeous silks and lived in by an amenable people who whiled away their hours posing pleasantly in perfect pavilions set in ethereal landscapes.

It is perhaps extraordinary to us today that just one man’s personal view of the East, played such a vital, and in many ways, unique role in the development of international foreign trade and political relations. But it did.

Marco Polo said words to the effect ‘let us now travel into Cathay, so that you may learn something of its grandeurs and treasures’ inspiring the notion at the turn of the fourteenth century that China was a land, unlike any other. This was an idea that found fertile ground in the imagination of western people.

Initially Europeans could not differentiate between Chinese, Indian, Japanese, South East Asian or Middle Eastern peoples so their vision was very vast, did not reflect the geographic reality and, most of the time their imagination simply ran on overtime.

Baron Ferdinand Von Richthofen, an accomplished Austrian geologist involved in extensive research on the geology of China during the 19th century, was the man who coined the term The Silk Road to describe the network of ancient trade routes that stretched from as far away as Japan and China diversifying as they passed through India to meet at Constantinople and then merge into a melting pot of various trading ports around the Mediterranean.

Travelling 7000 kilometers Chinese merchants moved a trickle of Chinese export wares regularly and their arrival in Europe provided an opportunity to establish a continuing dialogue between peoples of different cultures.

We know that as early as five centuries before Christ there were reports of peacocks and parrots from the east in Greece and that the Romans discovered silk during the course of a battle in 53 BC with the Parthians. The unfurling of gleaming silk banners by their enemies made a lasting impression and within seven years silk canopies were in use at Julius Caesar’s triumphal entry into Rome.

During the reign of Emperor Augustus it became the passionate predilection of Roman patricians wives to wear silk scandalizing the more conservative members of the senate, such as Seneca reputedly said “I see garments in which there is nothing to cover either the wearer’s body or her shame”.

Farmers in north central China developed a highly specialized activity the production of silk, or Sericulture. Thinker, political figure and educator Confucius in one of his ancient texts tells us that it had emerged around 2700 BC although today’s archaeologists in China have found fragments dating much earlier than that.

Silk filaments are extremely durable, have a tensile strength greater than steel and when unraveled from the cocoon are about a kilometer long. However each stage of its labour intensive production demands great skill and co-ordination as it is carefully removed from the silk worm’s cocoon, because if the chrysalis emerges during harvesting the continuous filament is severed.

Once harvested it was wound carefully onto a skein that was carded to form floss for padding winter cloths or, otherwise spun to form threads for manufacture of what we would call raw silk.

Silk was so valuable and precious in ancient China you could pay your state taxes with this important commodity and production was strictly controlled to ensure it maintained its prestige and retain its quality during production. Fine silk clothes and furnishings were worn and used on special occasions in life and to honour those in death.

The evolution of Chinese ceramics began by crafting hand-moulded earthenware vessels from mineral-rich clay, containing kaolinite (Al 2[Si 2O5][OH] 4), silica and feldspar elements that occurred naturally in soil and sedimentary rock.

The crystal structure of the minerals allowed them to adapt easily and readily. They could change and by shaping, moulding and modeling the clay it was possible to create every shape imaginable. Those that would not decay or fall apart during the firing process in the kiln only emphasized that success.

As in Europe using the dates of Kings or Ruling Houses or in China’s case, Dynasties and Emperors were used to assign dates to ceramic wares and their development. This in reality doesn’t work except as a general guideline, since at all stages during their stylistic, and technical development, there was a good deal of overlapping.

..This is an excerpt from Day 10, Part 1 of Civilised: At The Beginnings of Art - Precious Cargoes of Cathay the first part of our online course The Evolution of Art, Design and Style

*Li Po (701-762)

If you would like to read more, or view this part and part two as a video presentation you can purchase it below. For more information on our online course, please click here

Video: Day 10 Precious Cargoes from Cathay

Day 10 of our video course. Delivered in 2 parts for easy viewing, this includes two M4V video files that can be downloaded, and viewed as many times as you like.

Podcast: Day 10 Precious Cargoes from Cathay

Day 10 of our course. Delivered in 2 parts for easy listening, this includes two MP3 audio files that can be downloaded, and listened to as many times as you like.

eBook: Day 10 Precious Cargoes from Cathay

Day 10 of our course. Delivered as an eBook in 3 formats: ePub, mobi and PDF, this eBook can be read on most eBook readers.

Read the product FAQ

Read the Terms & Conditions