The Introduction of North China’s Ceramic Culture to 15th Century Joseon and the Influence on Buncheong Ware

This paper is a study on Korean Buncheong ware in relation to the ceramic culture of North China. The focus on drawing connections between the ceramic industries of Korea and North China expands on views presented in previous scholarship. Research thus far has traditionally ascribed the origin of Buncheong forms and decoration techniques to the influences of inlaid celadon from the late Goryeo Dynasty and the Cizhou ware of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. The ceramic culture of North China was quickly transmitted to Korea due to the naturalization of the Jurchen people, who took part in founding the early Joseon Dynasty. Another factor was the migration and settlement of immigrants from North China, which began from the late Goryeo Dynasty and continued into the Joseon Dynasty or the fifteenth century. Therefore, the influence of North China is evident in various aspects of Buncheong ware from the early fifteenth century as observed in the forms of inlaid examples produced during this period. In the latter half of the fifteenth century, increased cultural exchange between the two regions and the growing number of migrants from North China were two important factors in the development of Buncheong in Korea. This is particularly true for examples featuring underglaze iron-brown (cheolhwa), sgraffito (bakji), slip-brushed (gwiyal), and slip-coated (deombeong) decorations fired in kilns populating the region of Chungcheong-do and parts of Jeolla-do. Traces of ‘Bunjang (粉粧)’ ceramics, which served as the transition from celadon to White Porcelain, is detected not only in the fifteenth century Buncheong ware of Joseon, but also in the porcelain of North China produced in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties. Though South China also experienced a quick transition from celadon to White Porcelain, the inclusion of ‘Bunjang’ ceramics is unique to North China. In conclusion, early Joseon Buncheong originated and developed from the inlaid celadon of late Goryeo–a progression that occurred under the ceramic culture of North China, whose influences prompted innovations in form and technique vital to the development of Buncheong ware.

Was Saint Bishop Nicholai a Fascist? A Review of His Addresses from March 1935 to April 1941

The author addresses the issue of Nicholai Velimirovich’s attitude towards fascism, responding to the criticism of Bishop Nicholai as a sympathizer of Adolph Hitler’s policy and the interpretation of Velimirovich’s thoughts that enabled such constructions. In the present article, special attention is paid to the public addresses of Nicholai Velimirovich during the period of the rise of the Nazi state, i.e. from 1935 to 1941. The main topic of this article is to deconstruct the great myth of Bishop Nicholai’s critics, which reads: Saint Bishop Nicholai is a fascist because he received a decoration from Hitler in 1934, and in 1935 he gave a lecture at Kolarac called “Nationalism of Saint Sava” where he praised Hitler as few people did during the life of the Reich leader, comparing him with Saint Sava, “whereby Hitler turned out to be bigger than Saint Sava.” This accusation comes from the critics of Bishop Nicholai from Peščanik, whose pamphlets are adopted and passed on by a part of the Serbian intelligentsia in which there are historians, linguists, political scientists, and even theologians. However, such constructions are possible only if we ignore the legacy of Bishop Nicholai and his thought. For instance, it is interesting that in the same year, namely in 1926, Hitler and Velimirovich published two completely opposite works — Hitler the second part of his Mein Kampf in which he revealed his racial theory to the world, and Nicholai a short article entitled “The Problem of Races,” in which he explained that the problem of race can not solve anthropologists, nor historians and psychologists, but only Christianity, urging Serbian youth not to make a value difference between races, but to consider whether a black earthen pot with honey or a white porcelain pot with vinegar is better. In his later works, there are much more references to the issues of racism, nationalism, chauvinism, etc., where he clearly holds moderated and balanced Christian worldview.

On ceramic Dao Guan Hu (Bottom-filled Ewer)

The so-called Dao Guan Hu (bottom-filled ewer), also referred to as Dao Liu Hu (reverse-flow ewer), and Dao Zhu Hu (reverse-filled ewer), is a type of pouring vessel designed with Stevin’s Law, a formula in physics which employs a communicating tube to balance out the equilibrium of the liquid levels via a vacuum lock. The structure has a small hole at the bottom of a ewer, a jar, or a trompe-l'œil figure connected to a hollow tube inside the vessel. The liquid will not leak out when turning the vessel upright after it is filled. The current evidence attests that China started producing such wares in the ninth century during the late Tang dynasty. The production continued throughout the Song, Liao, Jin, Ming, and Qing dynasties, and the products were traded to Europe as export ceramics in the seventeenth century. They were also found on the Korean peninsula as Goryeo celadon in the twelfth century and in addition as Buncheong ware during the Joseon dynasty in the fifteenth century. The blue and white teapots with overglaze decoration retrieved from a shipwreck assemblage near Hội An in Vietnam also testify the production of this type of vessels with the same structure in Vietnam in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. In the early eighteenth century, the Meissen porcelain manufactory in Germany copied peach-shaped white porcelain pots with overglaze polychrome enamels from imported Chinese bottom-filled prototypes. Dutch potters also decorated imported white porcelain Dao Guan Hu from China with overglaze polychrome enamels.