Notes on Craft, History & Identification
Background on the crafts we supply — how they were made, what they were for, and how to tell one thing from another.
Articles
The City
- Luoyang: Capital to Thirteen DynastiesMost cities measure their history in centuries. Luoyang measures it in dynasties.
- Where the Word "China" Was First WrittenChina calls itself 中国 — Zhongguo, "the central country." Those two characters were written down for the first…
- Five Capitals on One RiverMost historic cities have one old quarter. Luoyang has five capitals.
- Luoyang on the Silk Road and the Grand CanalLuoyang sat on two of the great routes of the pre-modern world. One ran by land, one by water, and they met…
- Longmen Grottoes: A Cliff Carved for Four Hundred YearsTwo hills face each other south of Luoyang with a river running between them, and both hills are carved. The…
The Craft Lines
- Tang Sancai: The Three-Colour GlazeTang sancai — "Tang three-colour" — is the best-known ceramic of the Tang dynasty, and the name is also the…
- Replica Bronze of LuoyangBronze casting is the older of Luoyang's two great crafts, and the one with the longer memory. It begins with…
- Peony Porcelain of LuoyangThis is the youngest craft on this site. It began in 2009.
- Luoyang Palace LanternsA Luoyang palace lantern is built to fold. Most of what is particular about it follows from that.
- Chengni Inkstone: The Stone That Isn't StoneChina has four classical inkstones. Three of them are stone — the Duan, the She and the Taohe, each cut from…
- Drums Made in LuoyangGlaze, surface, the line of a carved edge — everything else on this site is judged by eye. A drum is judged…
- Sancai Glaze PaintingEverything else on this site is an object — a figure, a vessel, a lantern, an inkstone — with a shape of its…
- Marbled SancaiDecoration usually comes last. A piece is shaped, fired, and then something is done to it — brushed on,…
How It Is Made
- Reading a Piece of SancaiA piece of sancai tells you how it was made before you know anything else about it. The colours have run into…
- Telling Lost-Wax from Mould CastingBoth methods produce a hollow bronze, and from the outside the two can look much alike. The difference…
- Why Bronze Turns GreenThe bronze vessels that come out of the ground are green. That colour is not what the metal started as, and…
Background
- The Tang Dynasty: A Short GuideThe Tang dynasty ran from 618 to 907. Chinese sources give the span in exactly those terms — 唐代盛世, the Tang…
- The Tang Horse马者，国之武备，天去其备，国将危亡 — the horse is the nation's armour; heaven takes its armour away, and the state will…
- Bronze Vessels of Ancient ChinaThe three dynasties with which Chinese history begins — Xia, Shang and Zhou — are all Bronze Age. Large-scale…
The Craft Today
- The Intangible Heritage System in LuoyangThe word "intangible" is doing real work here. A bronze vessel, a lantern, a drum — those are objects. What…
- How a Craft Is Passed DownWhen the State Council's general office set out a plan for the revival of traditional crafts in 2017, it…
- Keeping a Craft Alive TodayChinese heritage policy runs on a working principle of sixteen characters, and one of the sixteen is use.…