Camel with a light load
This is a sancai ceramic camel produced around late Tang dynasty. It dates back to first half of eight century. It was made of earthenware with three-color lead glaze. It has glazed brown hairs and white body. The green color decorated the big-nose human mask and cushions on its back. Although there are clear separations of colors, we can see some running colors on the face and under the exotic mask. The camel has its head raised up and mouth opened as if the camel was giving voices. This sancai camel is kept in Idemitsu bijutsukan in Tokyo now.

Sancai
The most obvious character of this sancai camel is its colorful glazes. The yellow, brown and green colors combined together give us a vivid camel figure. Tang sancai was a very popular kind of ceramic in Tang dynasty. It made from white clay or yellowish losessic clay. Although Sancai means three-colored, the actual Tang sancai objects have more than three colors, such as blue or black. People always give Tang sancai a high value because multi-colored lead-glazed objects were not usual in Chinese tradition before Tang dynasty. Although about 1400 years ago in the Northern and Southern dynasty, the kind of handmade glazed wares were already created, it was not until Tang dynasty, the production and technology of colorful glazed wares reached their peaks. From the contemporary ceramic history point of view, the tang sancai is a milestone because sancai was the first time that more than three colors appeared on the ceramics.

Tang sancai is viewed as a technique innovation and creation. The production process is quite complex. The tang sancai is low-melting glaze pottery produced by adding different metallic oxide in the glaze to present different colors. First of all, two clays are used in the production of Tang sancai. Producers have to be very picky on the proportions of yellowish loessic clay and white clay. After the clays being shaped, they are put into fire for the first time under 1000 to 1100 degrees. Then the original rough models will be glazed after cooling down. The glazed models will be fired under slightly lower temperature about 850 to 950 degrees again. However, there is still one more important step to finish the sancai production. The glazed and fired ceramics have to be caved and polished again to present the details. For example, producers had to add more details on the sancai camel to make sure the appearance of the hair of the camel or the slightly groove between the camel hoof.

In addition, the sancai technique also combined the methods from Chinese traditional painting. The sancai camel object was carefully carved with fleshy figure and clear transformation of different color patterns. It showed us a figure of moving camel with each hair detail expressed. The muscles and bones can also be seen obviously. Also, all three different colors were used on the exotic mask embodied a three-dimensional effect.

Figure and style
The figure of the sancai object is a camel. This sancai ceramic camel depicted a two-humped camel which also called bactrain camel. This kind of camel was popular in Mongolia, Turkestan and northern Persia. The camel has its opened mouth and a head is raised and thrown back. The camel takes a forward position. It has a big-nose mask on the side of cushion and also a bottle next to the mask. According to the book “Tang and Liao ceramic”, these characters of the sancai camel can be identified as a centre Asia representation of merchants’ camel.

The appearance of sancai camel started a time period when the county export and diplomatic situation came to the highest point in the history. That kind of social situation, in one hand, affected the culture and financial system from other countries such as Sogdians, Korea and Japan, but on the other hand, helped Tang artists absorbed the culture from these countries. The closet relationship between Tang court and Sogdians was the reason of production of sancai camel. So, the foreign-looking figures for example, the sancai camel, may stand for Sogdians’ camel.

Camel is a quite popular element is Tang sancai because during Tang dynasty, thousands of grooms or merchants from central Asians travelled the Silk Road by the help from camels. As Professor Schafer said: “Camels came as presents to the throne, as a tribute, as commodities, and as war booty .…camels were enumerated among things of the greatest worth, like gold, silver, virgins, and slaves and they appeared in omen lore and poetry as beneficent and noble animals.” In the Tang dynasty, camels, especially the white camels, had special assignments. They were called: “Emissaries of the Bright Camels ". It means they were responsible for state business and exchange national information among Tang court to other countries. So the camel figures represent the medium to bring goods and wealth to people, and this idea was extended and related to the perpetuation idea of same kind of living after death by people in Tang dynasty.

Ritual meaning of Tang sancai

There is an argument whether the Tang sancai was only used as ritual ceramics or could possibility used in daily life. Compared to the confusion of utensil-shaped tang sancai wares, the sancai camel can be clearly identified as a ritual ceramics.
There are two possible reasons that the sancai camel was used as ritual objects. First of all, as we discussed before, when considering the sancai camel as a ritual object, it represents the continuance of functions of bring wealth or goods to the people after death, as the living camel bring the news and products to the people in Tang dynasty. The sancai camel played the same role as real camel. Also, in the Tang Hui Yao in AD 700, the Tang court was quite interested in collecting precious and goods from other countries. Tang emperor was attracted by these exotic objects which showed his power and wealth. With the growth of exports and imports in Tang dynasty, the exotic object such as camels means the royal power and hierarchy for people in Tang court. Sancai camel was not only imitate the real camel as medium to bring good fortunes and wealth to dead people, but also, as a exotic object, illustrated the meaning of high status of the tomb’s owner. That is the reason why most tang sancai camels were found only in the tombs belonged to imperial tang families or high-ranking members in the court.

The second reason relates to the colors on the sancai camel. Scholars believe that the beautiful colors on sancai camel allow imitation of metal work. According to Rawson, the tradition of ceramic copies the metal works started much earlier than the production of Tang sancai. Rawson suggests that “Silver vessels seem to have been a new fashion, introduced in the late seventh and early eighth century as a result of a taste for luxuries from the west. A new range of vessel shapes, worked in a material hitherto little exploited in China, seems to have allowed craftsmen to range widely in their choice of ornament.” There are different combinations of colors can be showed on Tang sancai and this character allows the imitation of metal objects more realistic. Because the metal and jade were expensive in ancient China, using Tang sancai as replacement was a highly possible solution.

Comparison and Conlustion Picture 2

The sancai camel I discussed produced at the first half of the 8 century, a period when the technique of sancai production became mature and sophistic. And the sancai camel in the left picture was produced during the early Tang period. The differences of these two sancai camels are obvious. Compared with the earlier camel, the later camel has more details on its hair and more decorations between its bumps. The earlier sancai camel stands still while the later sancai camel shows a pace forward. It is an imitation of the movement that the camel traveled through the desert. The color is much fluent and flexible on the earlier camel than the later camel. Another interesting fact is the later sancai camel is now stored in the Art museum in Tokyo while the earlier sancai camel is collected by British museum in London.

Tang sancai represented the high technique and advanced skills in Tang dynasty. When we study Tang sancai, we should treat them carefully. They are not only because of the colors but also the deep meaning behind them. They are the evidence of Chinese ritual traditions and international trade.

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Reference
1. Chinatraveldepot, “Tang sancai” China guide:Tang sancai (accessed 28 Feb 2014)

2. Rose Kerr and Nigel Wood, Kerr ed., ‘Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part XII: Ceramic Technology’; Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 5 (Cambridge University Press, 2004)

3. Craig Clunas, 'Not one hair different…: Wen Zhengming on imaging the dead in Ming funerary portraiture'; Presence: the inherence of the prototype within images and other object, Rupert Shepherd and Robert Maniura ed. (Hants, Ashgate, 2006)

4. William Watson, Tand and Liao Ceramics (Great Britain: Thames and Hudson Ltd, London, 1984), pp. 193-195

5. Jane Gaston Mahler, The Westerners Among the Figurines of the T’ang Dynasty of China
(Instituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, Roma, 1959)

6/7. Edward H.Schafer, The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T’ang Exotics (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1985)

8. Tang Huiyao 唐會要 (Zhonghua shuju 中華書局, Beijing 北京, 1990)

9. Jessica Rawson, The Ornament on Chinese Silver of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-906), British
Museum Occasional Paper No. 40, Department of Oriental Antiquities, 1982.

Photos
Picture 1
Camel with a light load. Idemitsu Bijutsukan Tokyo.
Picture 2
Camel with a light load. British Museum, London