外国人眼中的“中国白”| 1935年一位西方学者的瓷都见闻（七）

（翻译：德化窑遗产文化研究院 孙延燕）

编者按：瓷器的工业化最早从中国开始，因此，对于早期的西方人来说，瓷器就是他们向往的诗和远方。

然而，当时真正来过中国的西方人并不多。1935年5月，西方学者萨顿（Willard James Sutton）到德化瓷厂参观，英国作家唐纳利撰写的《中国白—福建德化瓷》（《Blanc de Chine -Porcelain of Tehua in Fukien》）一书记录了他当时的见闻。

千年不断的窑火成就了德化这样一座特殊的城市，古老的匣钵及陶瓷碎片静静地述说时代的更迭。瓷都的时间似乎过得很快，发展日新月异；瓷都的时间似乎又过得很慢，古老的烧窑和陶瓷制作方式如今在此仍依稀可见，韵味隽永。

There is, of course, no reason why a single-chamber kiln would not be abandoned, and another built in the vicinity, just as multi-chamber ones were, and more frequently as this would tend to become cluttered up faster. The point is of importance since the existence of Sung blanc de Chine dies hard in some quarters, and if a kiln were to be found containing fragments of ‘ying-ching’ type ware together with standard blanc de Chine，the dating of one or the other of these wares would be seriously open to question.

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当然，没有理由不抛弃单室窑，在附近建造另一个新窑，只因为多室窑更容易被堆积。这一点很重要，因为宋代白瓷在一些地方的存在生命力旺盛，如果在一个窑里同时发现含有“影青”瓷和标准的白瓷碎片，这些瓷器中的一件或另一件的年代就会受到严重质疑。然而这种情况并没有发生，宋伯胤声称本书所涉及的德化白瓷只能追溯到明代，而民国四十五年调查的作者只提供了一件真正明以前的白瓷。这种类型在第44页有讨论。因此，根据迄今公布的证据，德化全盛时期的窑很可能是单室窑，而不是今天的多室窑。

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The kilns in 1938 were turning out principally cheap domestic ware, teacups,teapots,spoons,and the traditional figures with Kuan-yin predominating. The older types of ware, Sutton tells us, were being reproduced in varying degrees of quality. He gives us no examples, but generally it can be said that the reproductions of the antique at the kilns, both of figures and domestic ware, are not exact, and can be distinguished from their prototypes for this reason. During World War II the kilns fell on hard times, according to a missionary in those parts, the Rev.I.K.M.Latto,1 being reduced to producing busts of military leaders; then the export trade stopped and the high cost of living reduced the demand for ornamental figures. No example of the busts referred to seems to have reached the West. Sung Pai-yin tells us, however, that in 1942 an estimated 800,000 tons of kaolin were mined from some 24 locations in the vicinity of Tehua.

1938年的窑主要生产廉价的家用器皿、茶杯、茶壶、汤匙，以及以观音为主的传统瓷雕。萨顿告诉我们，老式的器皿在不同程度上被复制。他没有给我们举例，但一般而言，古董的复制品，无论是人物雕塑还是家用用品，都是不准确的，因此可以与其原作区分。二战期间，据当地的一名传教士Rev.I.K.M.Latto说，德化窑陷入了困境，被降低为制作军事领袖半身像; 出口贸易停止，高昂的生活成本减少了对装饰性雕像的需求。西方世界似乎还没有出现过这样的瓷器。然而，宋伯胤告诉我们，1942年，在德化附近的24个地区，估计开采了80万吨高岭土。

The last visitor from the West who has recorded what he found was Desmond Neill, shortly after World War II when he was a Chinese cadet in the Singapore Civil Service. By then the glory had departed indeed. He writes"a few kilns were still in use but the quality of the output had lost its former creaminess and lustre. This was because the type of clay which imparted that special creamy colour, had long been exhausted....Gone was the old decorative taste and intuitive skill of the early porcelain craftsmen and artists. No longer were cups and bowls being fashioned with every gradation of colour and shape, with a real imaginative touch...a carp gaping away at a clump of reeds, a toad crawling up a bamboo, or a water lily blossoming in its full yearning beauty. This deterioration of quality of everyday utility articles was attributable to the mass-production demands of modern life with its preference for quantity to quality; a tendency equally discernible elsewhere."

最后一位来自西方的访客是德斯蒙德·尼尔(Desmond Neill) ，二战结束后不久，他还是新加坡公务员系统的一名中国学员。

‘那时，德化窑的荣耀确实已经远去。’他写道，有几个窑炉仍在使用，但产品已经失去了以前的奶油性和光泽性。这是因为赋予这种特殊奶油色彩的粘土早已耗尽了……早期瓷器工匠和艺术家的古老装饰品味和灵感表现已经消失了。杯子和碗不再能分出不同颜色和形状，失去了真正富有想象力的质感……鲤鱼张开嘴巴望着一丛芦苇，蟾蜍爬上竹子，睡莲绽放出充满向往的美丽。日常用品质量下降，原因是现代生活的大规模生产需求，重数量轻质量; 这种趋势在其他地方也同样明显。