Page 486 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

at Dunhuang (Gansu province), a key point on the The gilding is applied in two concentric narrow
Silk Road, depict bodhisattvas holding transparent bands that circumscribe the central and main fields
bowls. 1 In Buddhist reliquary deposits, it is not of decoration; a third wavy band or ribbon undu-
uncommon for the innermost container, in which lates in the space between them. One other dish
the relic grains were actually held, to be a tiny glass has both gilding and engraving, while the remain-
phial. The tomb of the young princess Li Jingxun ing four blue dishes are engraved but not gilt; all
(see cat. 157) contained a transparent green glass six, however, use similar incising techniques and in
bottle, 16.3 centimeters high, and several other small some cases the same motifs; the central motif of
glass vessels. Such depictions and finds clearly indi- eight principal petals on this piece, for example,
7
cate the rarity and high esteem in which glass was reappears on another of the engraved dishes, but
held, despite — or perhaps because of—the very on a larger scale so that it fills almost the whole of
small quantities actually produced in China. the available space within the plain rim. Several of
Some vessels were imported from the west by the dishes feature a five-leaflet motif; all of them
sea. The first reference in Chinese sources to Is- use close-set hatching lines, straight or undulating
lamic glass dates to 775 CE, when Lu Sigong, the (as here, within the small roundels inside and out-
commissioner of Lingnan, having put down a rebel- side the gilded undulating band), with contrasting
lion in Canton, sent a glass dish, 9 cun (inches) in areas of plain blue reserve. The same hatching
diameter, to Emperor Daizong. The emperor's de- techniques and, less frequently, gilding appear on
light turned to rage when it was later discovered vessel fragments found in Samarra, in Nishapur, and
8
that Lu had given a slightly larger glass dish, i chi in al-Fustat, Egypt. RW
(10 cun, or inches) in diameter, to a disgraced
official, and the emperor was with difficulty 1 Moore 1998, fig. 19.6, following a survey by An Jiayao,
restrained from having Lu executed. 2 illustrates her line drawings of a number of examples from
Tang caves at
mural paintings in Cave 217 and other
the
Under such circumstances, the group of glass Dunhuang.
vessels from the Famen Monastery deposit is truly 2 Ma Wenkuan 1994, 233 - 234, citing the Xin Tang shu (New
Tang history). Moore 1998, 80, gives further details from
remarkable in view of the number of vessels found, the Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive mirror to aid govern-
their decoration, and their excellent state of preser- ment), with the date as 778.
3
vation. Retrieved from the innermost chamber, on 3 Most of them were in the southwest corner of the cham-
ber, close to the tea-mill and the two tea-baskets.
4-6 May 1987, they comprise some twenty vessels, 4 A fragment of a narrow-necked blue bottle (FD 5: 33), and
nineteen of them intact (not all have yet been fully a fragment of a pale yellow straight-sided cup (FD 5: 37)
4
described ). Two of vessels — a plain, yellow-green have been analyzed, see An 1993, 262. The analysis shows
them to be common sodium glass with relatively high
teacup (height 4.9 centimeters, diam. 13 centime- levels of magnesium oxide and oxide of potassium, similar
ters) and stand (height 3.7 centimeters, diam. 14 to sherds from Nishapur analyzed by Brill and Fenn 1993.
5 See Kroger 1998.
centimeters) — are of Chinese manufacture; the
6 Excavated in 1987 (FD 5:012). The dishes are not individu-
remainder are imported Mesopotamian Islamic ally reported, but see generally Shaanxi 19883,1-26, and,
glass, possibly made in Nishapur and brought to for additional illustration, An 1990,127, fig. 6.
7 FD 5:008. See An 1990,126, fig. 4.
the Chinese court by one of the many foreign trib-
8 Some of these fragments are illustrated in Brill and Fenn
ute missions during the Tang dynasty. One dish is 1993, 259-260, figs. 1-8.
luster-painted in yellow and dark brown. 5
6
The dish in this exhibition is one of six en-
graved and four plain blue dishes in a stack of ten
dishes nested together, which doubtless helped to
keep them intact. Convex at the center (a function
of its attachment to the pontil during the blowing),
the dish is decorated with gilding and engraving.

485FAMEN MONASTERY AT FUFENC