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July 31, 2015

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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Don’t sleep on ancient pillow exhibition

By Wu Huixin | July 31, 2015, Friday | Print Edition

For many in ancient China, getting a good night’s rest meant snuggling up with a ceramic pillow. According to historical documents, the first ceramic pillows date to the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) when porcelain was an affordable material for ordinary people. At the time, ceramic pillows were used throughout China and even spread to Japan.

However, it was during the Song Dynasty (960-1279) that ceramic pillows reached a new level of sophistication as artisans incorporated intricate shapes and patterns into their pillow designs, a development which coincided with new breakthroughs in artistic fields such as painting and calligraphy.

Some 60 ceramic pillows made during the Tang and Song dynasties, and after, are on display at the Zhejiang Museum’s Gushan Pavilion through September 6. These items were collected by the Hangzhou-based group Qing Ya Ji Gu, a group dedicated to the collection of antique porcelain artifacts.

With the pillows arranged by their date of production, it’s easy to see how their designs changed over the centuries.

Pillows made during the Tang, for example, are marked by their small size and the simple glazing which typified ceramics crafts of that time.

Unlike present-day pillows which are designed to cradle the entire head, Tang Dynasty ceramic pillows were meant primarily to support the neck. Additionally, they were often used to prop up the wrists of the sick while a doctor took their pulse.

Many of these objects are monochromatic, reflecting a preference among the Tang literati for simply adorned porcelain goods. Without complicated patterns or color schemes to mask flaws, many of these lightly decorated pillows are considered the most finely crafted.

Many of the later pillows on display though are much more ornate, and could even be seen as sculptural works in their own right. One olive-green glazed pillow, for example, is shaped like a cloud and features multi-colored clays arranged in a pattern on its surface. After the clay pieces were joined together, the pillow was polished and glazed.

Craftsmen during the Tang also used needles to engrave sophisticated images onto their pillows. One white glazed pillow made at the Gongxian Kiln, for instance, features a needle-engraved floral pattern.

A collection of pillows made during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (AD 907-979) reflects a trend toward larger and more elaborate pillow designs.

It was also during this time that several noted kilns — including the Ding kilns in modern-day Hebei Province and the Jingdezhen kilns in today’s Jiangxi Province — started to produce pillows.

By the Song, hundreds of kilns across the country were churning out ceramic pillows in a multitude of shapes and colors. One Song pillow on display, for instance, is decorated with carved peonies and shaped like a silver ingot, the currency of ancient China.

It was also during this dynasty that ceramic pillows took on a new cultural significance. They were given as dowry items and accompanied the dead as burial goods. It was also believed that pillows bearing the images of immortal figures or mythical creatures had the power to ward off evil. Figure drawings on pillows were also common of the time, with many of these images reflecting contemporary aspirations and aesthetics tastes.

And with the Song Dynasty also giving rise to a renaissance in the calligraphic arts, pillows of the time frequently bore poems or auspicious characters written in a variety of artistically rendered scripts.

A selection of pillows made during the Jin (1115-1234) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties are also on view. One stand-out piece from this era is a pillow shaped like a tiger. It’s arched back flattens out to support the neck.

Date: Through September 6 (closed on Mondays)

Address: 26 Gushan Rd

Admission: Free

Hangzhou


 

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