Undrinkable "milk" + seafood waste = national treasure?

The Zhejiang Provincial Museum houses several ancient Chinese lacquer and mother-of-pearl handicrafts. Among them, the Yuan Dynasty black lacquer and mother-of-pearl round box with a courtyard figure pattern is the earliest one.

Black lacquer box with mother-of-pearl figures from the Yuan Dynasty, from the collection of Zhejiang Museum | Sanlie/Wikimedia Commons

The two most important words in “lacquer and mother-of-pearl handicrafts” are “lacquer” and “mother-of-pearl”.

Qing Kangxi black lacquer inlaid mother-of-pearl ladies screen (partial), from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art | Wikimedia Commons

Japanese Edo period "Rinpa" Umemaki-e mother-of-pearl incense holder, from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art | Wikimedia Commons

The "milk" that cannot be drunk

The lacquer mentioned here is not the modern chemical product "paint", but a kind of natural coating derived from plants of the Anacardiaceae family. Among the plants that produce lacquer, the most important one is Toxicodendron vernicifluum, in addition, there are T. succedaneum and Melanorrhoea usitate, which are also in the genus Toxicodendron.

Rhus | Wikimedia Commons

Cutting lacquer | Wikimedia Commons

These plants are rich in latex, which can be collected and filtered to obtain raw lacquer. More than half of the components of the lacquer tree raw lacquer are lacquer phenol, an organic substance that is like oil, and 25% to 30% are water. The water is dispersed in the lacquer phenol to form an "oil-in-water" emulsion. The main components of the latex of other lacquer-producing plants are slightly different from those of lacquer trees, such as lacquer phenol and Burmese lacquer phenol. However, there is no difference in their application. After stirring, sun exposure, heating and other processes, most of the water evaporates, and then after toning and other processes, they all become "refined lacquer."

Painting a woodpile | Scott Brown / Wikimedia Commons

The color of freshly harvested raw lacquer is similar to milky white milk. After being exposed to air, it will turn into milk tea color, caramel color, and dark chocolate color. The word "black" that we often say is the final color of raw lacquer used by ancient people to describe black. Although I describe the color of raw lacquer to be very appetizing, it is not edible at all. Because lacquer phenol is both toxic and highly allergenic. Those workers involved in the collection and processing of raw lacquer basically suffer from allergies.

Amazing "freshness-keeping" effect

However, there is another ingredient in raw lacquer. Although the content is not high, it can turn raw lacquer from a harmful juice into a harmless paint with a wide range of uses. The name of this ingredient is "lacquerase". Whether it is raw lacquer or refined lacquer, the lacquer phenol substances in it will undergo oxidation reaction under the catalysis of lacquerase to form a dry paint film. This reaction process requires a large amount of oxygen to participate. Only in high-humidity air can the inside of the paint film be exposed to enough oxygen. Therefore, the condensation of paint requires a high-humidity environment, and dry flowing air is not conducive to its film formation. This is also the most obvious difference between it and many modern chemical coatings.

Southern Song Dynasty black-faced lacquer box with camellia pattern | Wikimedia Commons

The condensed paint film is non-toxic and harmless to the human body, has a smooth and hard texture, is extremely waterproof, and has a very good bonding effect. Otherwise, why is there an idiom called "like glue and paint"? In addition to these practical advantages, the dried paint can present a variety of beautiful visual effects after grinding and polishing.

Yuan Dynasty lacquer plate with red lacquerware and a picture of a lady playing with a baby | Wikimedia Commons

Therefore, as early as the ancient times, people were fascinated by the beauty and practicality of lacquerware. Lacquerware products dating back 8,000 to 9,000 years have been unearthed in Zhejiang, my country and Hokkaido, Japan.

Mid-Ming Dynasty lacquer box with red lacquer and lychee pattern | Wikimedia Commons

Not just any shell.

Like many other handicrafts, lacquerware is also decorated by skilled craftsmen with various decorations, such as gems and shells.

Qing Kangxi black lacquer inlaid mother-of-pearl ladies screen, twelve panels, from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art | Wikimedia Commons

Shell is another keyword today.

Abalone shell | Zell / Wikimedia Commons

As early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, lacquerware decorated with shells appeared in my country, and these decorations were collectively called "mother-of-pearl". They can be roughly divided into two categories: one is clam bubbles, which are round decorations made of ground shells and are generally thicker; the other is clam slices, which are relatively thin shell slices. Compared with the two, clam slices are of course more delicate and beautiful. Therefore, clam slices gradually became the mainstream of mother-of-pearl, so that in later generations, whenever mother-of-pearl is mentioned, everyone defaults to shell slices.

Abalone shell nacre | Pixabay

The reason why the shell flakes are more beautiful than the clam bubbles is that the shells are polished to reveal the "pearl layer". The so-called pearl layer is the structure of the inner layer of the shell of mollusk. Its main components are calcium carbonate crystals and proteins. Due to the regular molecular arrangement, it presents a unique glossy texture.

Luminous Turtle | Wikimedia Commons

Although most shells have beautiful pearl layers, the difficulty of processing them in lacquerware varies from shell to shell. Commonly used shells for inlay include abalone, luminous turban shells, mother-of-pearl, and pearl oysters. Especially abalone and luminous turban shells, the shell pieces they grind not only have good luster but also rich colors, so they are often used in the mother-of-pearl craftsmanship of later generations.

National treasure craftsmanship that has been exported and sold domestically

In ancient times when there were no electric machines, grinding thick shells into thin slices was a very time-consuming and laborious task. In addition, lacquerware itself was not easy to make. Therefore, mother-of-pearl lacquerware was destined to be a luxury item from the moment it was born. Whether it was popular or not was closely related to social trends.

Qing Dynasty wine jug with figures, gold lacquer and inlaid mother-of-pearl, from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art | Wikimedia Commons

After the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the mother-of-pearl inlay craft gradually fell into obscurity, but began to revive during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and reached a peak during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, when many exquisite techniques emerged. Various exquisite mother-of-pearl inlaid lacquerwares were not only popular in China, but were also brought to neighboring Japan by monks and Tang envoys.

Late Ming Dynasty black lacquer inlaid mother-of-pearl and diamond-shaped plate with courtyard figures, inlaid with mother-of-pearl and gold and silver foil | Wikimedia Commons

In Japan at that time, mother-of-pearl inlaid lacquerware was also enthusiastically sought after by the princes and nobles, who sent people to China many times to purchase goods including lacquerware. Many fine products are regarded as national treasures and are still collected in the Shosoin Repository in Nara. At the 2019 Shosoin Repository exhibition, the "leading" exhibit was the Tang Dynasty mother-of-pearl inlaid red sandalwood pipa.

Mother-of-pearl and red sandalwood pipa (replica) | Desert Porcupine

Japan not only has lacquerware, but also produces shells. After being impacted by the culture of the Tang Dynasty, it would certainly want to imitate. After hundreds of years of research, the Japanese mother-of-pearl lacquerware craftsmanship has become indistinguishable from that of China, so much so that in the Song Dynasty, it was exported to China in the opposite direction. In the Northern Song Dynasty's "Bo Zhai Bian", it was even written that "the mother-of-pearl lacquerware originally came from Japan", mistaking the technology that was exported and then sold domestically for import.

16th century, Japanese export of flower and bird shrines with mother-of-pearl inlay, from the collection of Kyushu National Museum | Wikimedia Commons

Japan, Edo period, Sekiya Maki-e mother-of-pearl basin, from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art | Wikimedia Commons

However, Fang Shao, the author of "Bo Zhai Bian", was a scholar after all, and he probably didn't know much about the craftsmen and techniques of the lower classes of society. In fact, even though China's mother-of-pearl inlaid lacquerware has gone through several dynasties, it has never been discontinued, and there have been technological innovations.

Ming Dynasty black lacquer inlaid mother-of-pearl eight-sided plate with scholar figure, from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art | Picry

Before the Five Dynasties, mother-of-pearl used thick mother-of-pearl, with a thickness of 0.5 to 2 mm, low transparency and whitish color. After the Southern Song Dynasty, thin mother-of-pearl gradually became the mainstream, with a thickness of less than 0.5 mm, and the raw material was mostly abalone shell, with bright colors, which could be used to create colorful patterns on lacquerware.

Ming Dynasty lacquer inlaid with mother-of-pearl lion pattern base, from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art | Wikimedia Commons

Among the lacquer-inlaid mother-of-pearl cultural relics collected by the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, the black lacquer-inlaid courtyard figure round box from the Yuan Dynasty is a typical thick mother-of-pearl product, while the red sandalwood inlaid thin mother-of-pearl round table from the Qing Dynasty is a typical thin mother-of-pearl product. They bring two different visual impacts to people, which are difficult to perfectly describe in words. If you want to understand, you might as well go to the museum to see the real thing and experience the ancient people's ultimate pursuit of beauty.

This article comes from the Species Calendar, welcome to forward