History of Chinese Invention - The Invention of Lacquer |
Lacquer is a fast-drying, hard, high-gloss surface coating. These varnishes are made by dissolving a cellulose derivative and other modifying materials in a solvent and adding pigment if desired. The Chinese discovered thousands of years ago that the sap of a sumac variety tree, Rhus verniciflua, had unusual qualities. It can be applied in successive layers to wooden, bamboo, and metal objects, such as dishes and boxes, and each layer can be hardened by exposure to moisture. The resulting surface is hard and impermeable and can be polished, colored, or delicately carved to reveal the successive layers beneath.
Archaeological finds have confirmed the use of sophisticated lacquer objects in China dating back to 772 BC and the Warring States period (481-221 BC). In 1976 archaeologists recovered some samples of red lacquer around Anyang near Yinxu in Henan province, the last Shang dynasty capital city. Excavations uncovered a burial pit near the main royal cemetery. The tomb has been dated to around BC 1200 and identified, from ritual bronze inscriptions, to be that of Lady Fu Hao, one of the wives of the Shang King Wu Ding. Her relatively small tomb is one of the best-preserved Shang Dynasty royal tombs and the only one not to have been looted before excavation. Inside the pit a wooden chamber contained a lacquered wooden coffin that has since completely rotted away.Other excavations of royal tombs showed that the chambers contained painted lacquer coffins, sometimes inlaid with ivory and turquoise.
The image on the right shows a Chinese lacquered coffin from the ancient State of Chu, dated to the 4th century BC.
This coffin is actually the innermost of three nested coffins.
The sides and top are decorated with seventy-two interlaced serpentine dragons and mythical birds.
(From the Hubei Provincial Museum, image provided under terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
published by the Free Software Foundation).
The National Palace Museum of Taipei
dates some lacquerware in its collection to over 3,000 years old. A wood-based red lacquer bowl dated 6,000 - 7,000 years ago is displayed in the Provincial Museum of Zhejiang.
This technique of lacquering, adopted in Korea and then Japan by the 6th century AD, provides one of the most highly valued commodities of the orient. In later years, an notably duirng the Ming Dynasty (early in the 17th century) many exquisite objects, such as lacquerware boxes, became treasured trade objects.
Return to History of Chinese Invention and DiscoveryThe Genius of China
3,000 Years of Science, Discovery and Invention
written by Robert K.G. Temple and published by Simon and Schuster, 1986
Currently out-of-printNeedham, Joseph
Science and Civilisation in China
17 vols. published of 25 projected.
Cambridge
Cambridge University Press, 1954-1995.
[For the titles of the single volumes see the home page of
Science and Civilisation in China, The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
University of London
http://www.soas.ac.uk/needham/SCC
See also the website of the Needham Research Institute.
http://www2.soas.ac.uk/needham/NRI
Document from The British Museum, The tomb of Lady Fu Hao
http://www.ancientchina.co.uk/staff/resources/background/bg7/bg7pdf.pdf
Buckley Ebrey, Patricia. "Shang Tomb of Fu Hao"
A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization. University of Washington
http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/archae/2fuhmain.htm
Retrieved August 4, 2007
Shang civilization, Web pages
http://www.jrank.org/history/pages/5999/Shang-Civilization.html
Retrieved February 10, 2009
Zhejiang Provencial Museum, Web pages
http://www.zhejiangmuseum.com/collect.do?status=detail&cid=34
Retrieved February 22, 2010