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Reply to “Taoism (Daoism) and ‘Chinese Purple’: a note on some historical issues”
Journal of Archaeological Science 35 (2008) 2077e2078 http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jas
Reply to ‘‘Taoism (Daoism) and ‘Chinese Purple’: a note on some historical issues’’ First, I would like to thank Dr. Cullen for his detailed comments. As pointed out by Dr Cullen, we made several errors while handling historical materials in our recent article. Especially, I regret the translation of ‘‘ ’’ (‘Taoist monk’ in our paper), which has created a lot of confusion. I fully agree that ‘‘ ’’, similar to Fang Shi (gentlemen possessing magical recipes), should be translated as ‘people who possess a particular expertise’. In our article, we studied the micro-structural morphology of Chinese Purple. We found its synthesizing techniques are very different from the Egyptian Blue but are similar to the Chinese glass with high lead and barium concentration. We concluded that Chinese Purple pigments were a by-product of Chinese glasses. Then we went a step further and argued that there was a strong connection between the Taoism and makers of Chinese glasses/Chinese Purple pigment, and the disappearance of Chinese Purple could be the result of cultural changes in the society. This last point is the more interesting part of the paper and is also the part in question here. I will take this opportunity to clarify several issues and answer some of the questions on this topic. In our paper, we described how the material jade played a crucial role in establishing the connection between the makers of Chinese Purple and Taoism/Daoism. First, jade had a special status in Taoism/Daoism. This provided a motivation for people affiliated with Taoism/Daoism to make it. Chinese glasses were the results of such a practice. We also speculate that barium mineral was picked to imitate jade. And then we used the citation from the book by Wang Chong (AD 27e100) to further strengthen this connection. Although the translation of ‘‘ ’’ was wrong, I believe the connection still exists. As was pointed out by Needham and Wang (1956), there was a close connection between Taoists, magic and alchemy. ‘‘Taoism had two origins . first.philosophers of . who followed a Tao of Nature rather than a Tao of Human Society . .’’; ‘‘The other root of Taoism was the body of ancient shamans and magicians.’’. Makers of Chinese glasses/Chinese Purple pigments, like Fang Shi, should belong to the second group. In the last part of the paper we discussed the disappearance of the Chinese Purple pigment and high lead and barium 0305-4403/$ - see front matter Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2007.12.008
Chinese glasses after Han dynasty. We found that this was also intertwined with the use of jade. As mentioned in the supporting materials about Chinese burial customs, many jade items, including the synthesized jade/glass, were found in the tombs of the Han dynasty or before. Some of them were definitely for the purpose of preserving the body and the spirit of the owners, as believed by Taoism/Daoism, such as the jade/glass mouth, nose and ear plugs. Mr. Simon Kwan has detailed descriptions of many such glass plugs in his book ‘‘Early Chinese Glass’’ (Kwan, 2001) Some of the octagonal high lead and barium concentration glass plugs (Kwan, 2001: p. 272, p. 288) are very similar in shape and dimension to the octagonal Chinese Purple bars, which have been thought to be trade items by many people. This supports our hypothesis about the close connection between Taoism/Daoism and Chinese glass/Chinese Purple. The most spectacular example about the burial custom at that time was the discovery of ‘Jin Lu Yu Yi ( )’ (Lu, 1981, 1989). The exalted and privileged dead were attired in suits of jade plaques sewn together with gold, silver or silk threads. However, such jade-rich burial custom went through a big change at the end of Han dynasty. The first emperor after Han dynasty, Emperor Wen ( ) of Wei dynasty (AD 220e265), played an important role. He issued an order banning the use of ‘‘Jin Lu Yu Yi’’ (Chen). Emperor Wen called such burial custom ‘‘foolish’’ ( ). No such jade suits were found after the Han dynasty. Although Emperor Wen cited the rampage of tomb raiders as one reason (Chen), it is more than likely that such an order was a reflection of certain social changes, i.e. the dominance of Confucianism and the decline of the influence of Taoism/Daoism during that time. For example, Emperor Wen cited frequently from Confucius ( ) in his orders and gave effusive praise to Confucius. He also ordered the rebuilding of Confucius’ old temple at Lu and sent solders to guard it (Chen). Such a change would certainly affect the production of Chinese Purple/Chinese glasses. Nevertheless, I also think this is still an open question that needs further investigation. I acknowledge that ‘‘the popularity and sociopolitical importance of Taoism in the following centuries ensured that it was given special patronage by several emperors of the Tang dynasty (AD 618e906)’’. But it is difficult to reinvent
2078
Z.Liu / Journal of Archaeological Science 35 (2008) 2077e2078
a technology once it is lost. In particular, the early Chinese Fang Shi were known for their secrecy. I also appreciate Dr. Cullen’s comment on the use of Taoism: ‘‘‘Taoism’ has been used much more widely than that, and some of the ways in which it has been used are so ill-defined as to be more confusing than useful.’’ I realize that I might have made such mistakes. It is legitimate to question whether our use of ‘Taoism’ is ill-defined. But it is beyond my knowledge and the scope of this response to address this issue. I believe that culture and religion had a very strong influence on the synthesis techniques of man-made materials in the early ages of human history. Without the modern scientific knowledge, culture and religion played important roles in determining what to make and what raw materials to use, at least initially. Therefore cultural changes in early human society can be reflected in the changes in the making and use of such materials. This is the main motivation for me to go a step further to discuss the intertwinement between the scientific development and cultural changes in early Chinese society. Such an approach may provide us another angle to study our history. The microstructure of such man-made material is stable and it contains useful information of synthesis techniques and their makers, which is similar to DNA in biology. With the help of advanced characterization techniques, such as synchrotron radiation based techniques, we can decipher this hidden information from small amounts of samples. To achieve this, a close collaboration between researchers from different disciplines is needed. For the completeness of the reference, I acknowledge a review paper on Chinese Purple written by Dr. Berke (2007), which was published after the submission of our manuscript. References Needham, Joseph, Wang, Ling, 1956. Science and Civilization in China: History of Scientific Thought. vol. 2. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 33. Kwan, Simon, 2001. Early Chinese Glass (in Chinese). Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, pp. 250e288, p. 272, p. 288. Lu, Zhaoyin, 1981. A Preliminary Study on Jade Burial suits of the Han Dynasty. Kao Gu (archaeology, in Chinese), vol. 1, p. 51. Lu, Zhaoyin, 1989. Furthermore on Jade Burial suits of Former and Later Han Dynasty. Kao Gu, vol. 10, p. 60. Chen, Shou, San Guo Zhi $ Wei Shu $ Wen Di Ji ( ). This book is the historical text
on the period of Three Kingdoms covering from 189 to 280, which was composed by Chen Shou. On the burial custom: ‘‘
’’ On Confucius:
Due to the translation difficulty, this reference was not included in the original paper. Berke, H., 2007. The invention of blue and purple pigments in ancient times. Chem. Soc. Rev. 36, 15e30.
Zhi Liu Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, One Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA, USA E-mail address: [email protected] 10 December 2007
Reply to ‘‘Taoism (Daoism) and ‘Chinese Purple’: a note on some historical issues’’ First, I would like to thank Dr. Cullen for his detailed comments. As pointed out by Dr Cullen, we made several errors while handling historical materials in our recent article. Especially, I regret the translation of ‘‘ ’’ (‘Taoist monk’ in our paper), which has created a lot of confusion. I fully agree that ‘‘ ’’, similar to Fang Shi (gentlemen possessing magical recipes), should be translated as ‘people who possess a particular expertise’. In our article, we studied the micro-structural morphology of Chinese Purple. We found its synthesizing techniques are very different from the Egyptian Blue but are similar to the Chinese glass with high lead and barium concentration. We concluded that Chinese Purple pigments were a by-product of Chinese glasses. Then we went a step further and argued that there was a strong connection between the Taoism and makers of Chinese glasses/Chinese Purple pigment, and the disappearance of Chinese Purple could be the result of cultural changes in the society. This last point is the more interesting part of the paper and is also the part in question here. I will take this opportunity to clarify several issues and answer some of the questions on this topic. In our paper, we described how the material jade played a crucial role in establishing the connection between the makers of Chinese Purple and Taoism/Daoism. First, jade had a special status in Taoism/Daoism. This provided a motivation for people affiliated with Taoism/Daoism to make it. Chinese glasses were the results of such a practice. We also speculate that barium mineral was picked to imitate jade. And then we used the citation from the book by Wang Chong (AD 27e100) to further strengthen this connection. Although the translation of ‘‘ ’’ was wrong, I believe the connection still exists. As was pointed out by Needham and Wang (1956), there was a close connection between Taoists, magic and alchemy. ‘‘Taoism had two origins . first.philosophers of . who followed a Tao of Nature rather than a Tao of Human Society . .’’; ‘‘The other root of Taoism was the body of ancient shamans and magicians.’’. Makers of Chinese glasses/Chinese Purple pigments, like Fang Shi, should belong to the second group. In the last part of the paper we discussed the disappearance of the Chinese Purple pigment and high lead and barium 0305-4403/$ - see front matter Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2007.12.008
Chinese glasses after Han dynasty. We found that this was also intertwined with the use of jade. As mentioned in the supporting materials about Chinese burial customs, many jade items, including the synthesized jade/glass, were found in the tombs of the Han dynasty or before. Some of them were definitely for the purpose of preserving the body and the spirit of the owners, as believed by Taoism/Daoism, such as the jade/glass mouth, nose and ear plugs. Mr. Simon Kwan has detailed descriptions of many such glass plugs in his book ‘‘Early Chinese Glass’’ (Kwan, 2001) Some of the octagonal high lead and barium concentration glass plugs (Kwan, 2001: p. 272, p. 288) are very similar in shape and dimension to the octagonal Chinese Purple bars, which have been thought to be trade items by many people. This supports our hypothesis about the close connection between Taoism/Daoism and Chinese glass/Chinese Purple. The most spectacular example about the burial custom at that time was the discovery of ‘Jin Lu Yu Yi ( )’ (Lu, 1981, 1989). The exalted and privileged dead were attired in suits of jade plaques sewn together with gold, silver or silk threads. However, such jade-rich burial custom went through a big change at the end of Han dynasty. The first emperor after Han dynasty, Emperor Wen ( ) of Wei dynasty (AD 220e265), played an important role. He issued an order banning the use of ‘‘Jin Lu Yu Yi’’ (Chen). Emperor Wen called such burial custom ‘‘foolish’’ ( ). No such jade suits were found after the Han dynasty. Although Emperor Wen cited the rampage of tomb raiders as one reason (Chen), it is more than likely that such an order was a reflection of certain social changes, i.e. the dominance of Confucianism and the decline of the influence of Taoism/Daoism during that time. For example, Emperor Wen cited frequently from Confucius ( ) in his orders and gave effusive praise to Confucius. He also ordered the rebuilding of Confucius’ old temple at Lu and sent solders to guard it (Chen). Such a change would certainly affect the production of Chinese Purple/Chinese glasses. Nevertheless, I also think this is still an open question that needs further investigation. I acknowledge that ‘‘the popularity and sociopolitical importance of Taoism in the following centuries ensured that it was given special patronage by several emperors of the Tang dynasty (AD 618e906)’’. But it is difficult to reinvent
2078
Z.Liu / Journal of Archaeological Science 35 (2008) 2077e2078
a technology once it is lost. In particular, the early Chinese Fang Shi were known for their secrecy. I also appreciate Dr. Cullen’s comment on the use of Taoism: ‘‘‘Taoism’ has been used much more widely than that, and some of the ways in which it has been used are so ill-defined as to be more confusing than useful.’’ I realize that I might have made such mistakes. It is legitimate to question whether our use of ‘Taoism’ is ill-defined. But it is beyond my knowledge and the scope of this response to address this issue. I believe that culture and religion had a very strong influence on the synthesis techniques of man-made materials in the early ages of human history. Without the modern scientific knowledge, culture and religion played important roles in determining what to make and what raw materials to use, at least initially. Therefore cultural changes in early human society can be reflected in the changes in the making and use of such materials. This is the main motivation for me to go a step further to discuss the intertwinement between the scientific development and cultural changes in early Chinese society. Such an approach may provide us another angle to study our history. The microstructure of such man-made material is stable and it contains useful information of synthesis techniques and their makers, which is similar to DNA in biology. With the help of advanced characterization techniques, such as synchrotron radiation based techniques, we can decipher this hidden information from small amounts of samples. To achieve this, a close collaboration between researchers from different disciplines is needed. For the completeness of the reference, I acknowledge a review paper on Chinese Purple written by Dr. Berke (2007), which was published after the submission of our manuscript. References Needham, Joseph, Wang, Ling, 1956. Science and Civilization in China: History of Scientific Thought. vol. 2. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 33. Kwan, Simon, 2001. Early Chinese Glass (in Chinese). Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, pp. 250e288, p. 272, p. 288. Lu, Zhaoyin, 1981. A Preliminary Study on Jade Burial suits of the Han Dynasty. Kao Gu (archaeology, in Chinese), vol. 1, p. 51. Lu, Zhaoyin, 1989. Furthermore on Jade Burial suits of Former and Later Han Dynasty. Kao Gu, vol. 10, p. 60. Chen, Shou, San Guo Zhi $ Wei Shu $ Wen Di Ji ( ). This book is the historical text
on the period of Three Kingdoms covering from 189 to 280, which was composed by Chen Shou. On the burial custom: ‘‘
’’ On Confucius:
Due to the translation difficulty, this reference was not included in the original paper. Berke, H., 2007. The invention of blue and purple pigments in ancient times. Chem. Soc. Rev. 36, 15e30.
Zhi Liu Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, One Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA, USA E-mail address: [email protected] 10 December 2007